UPPER EAST SIDE APARTMENT

This grand apartment overlooking the East River is the home of a recently retired couple with a large number of children and an ever increasing number of grandchildren. In addition, they have been collectors of Asian art and antiques for many years and their collection continues to grow. They had only recently finished building a spaceous home overlooking the water in New Jersey when they decided they also wanted a place in Manhattan. When they found this apartment, in a truly premier building on the East River in midtown, it had not been lived in for several years and was totally run down.

Undeterred, they happily made their way through the dingy rooms, imagining walls torn out and spaces opened up. In the end, we kept most of the decorative elements, doors, trimmed openings, cornices, and baseboards, but changed the flow of the apartment and made a large open Kitchen/Family Room out of the originally separate Kitchen, Pantry and Maids Bedroom. In the case of cornices, we either augmented the existing with additional layers and lighting, or built them from scratch. All the cabinets are new, as are all the baths, the wide-board oak floors, the windows, and just about every other element in the apartment.