Introduction
While the specs for a pre-war apartment in Manhattan by Pembrooke & Ives didn't flag the project as unusual, they belied its true nature. "It's definitely a maximalist approach," says studio director Rendell Fernandez, who spearheaded the architectural renovations. While the clients had come through word of mouth, "they were adamant that we not do anything that was like their friends' homes," remembers Jessica Iwaniec, the company's design director, who handled the interior design.
Fernandez understood they'd be operating well outside the firm's wheelhouse when the wife vetoed the use of downlights. "I've never had a client say that," he says. "And I've been doing this a long time." That directive came with the request that decorative fixtures be "bright enough to do surgery under." Other parameters included preserving the apartment's original creaking floor, rejecting anything stock or standard, avoiding gray and brown, and embracing the entire spectrum of blues. Apart from these mandates, "they were up for anything," says Iwaniec.
While Iwaniec scoured the globe for furniture and accessories, Fernandez manipulated the apartment's spatial limitations. He converted a bedroom into a closet for the wife's vast wardrobe. He hid air conditioning and audiovisual equipment and carved a spacious kitchen and breakfast area from intricate rooms. New millwork creates a classical backdrop against which the clients' art and singular pieces take flight. "We definitely pushed them in directions they'd not gone," says Iwaniec.
The client's art collection clued Iwaniec into their pop sensibility and appreciation for irony. That begins in the entryway, where Betil Dagdelen's custom alloy bench, Jim Zivic shelving, Iván Navarro's mirror and neon sculpture, and a Caitlin Keogh painting hung upside down are poised against glossy white walls and a herringbone floor.
In the dining room, a bold find led the design. "We identified the Frida Fjellman chandeliers and then made our way to everything else," says Iwaniec. That includes Pierre Yovanovitch dining chairs and a bright turquoise wall installation by ceramicist Peter Lane. In other cases, function was the driver, like the enormous closet and the twins' domain with a Khaled El Mays dresser and hand-painted Gracie wallcovering.
Effort doesn't displace the sly sense of humor Iwaniec managed to slip into every room. In the kitchen, a custom hand-drawn Fornasetti monkey graphic imparts levity. In the breakfast room, a quintet of 1950s Murano globes performs that job. In the living room, six overscale brass flush mount lights by Roman and Williams Guild play with colorful artworks and a polka dot glazed ceramic table. "It was important to everybody that there was nothing cookie cutter," says Iwaniec.
Tags