Thanks to a limited palette (in both color and materials) and an embrace of open space, the work of San Francisco’s Min Design in this Tribeca penthouse – formerly a bookbindery dating from 1882 – is both compellingly substantive, and somehow wonderfully dematerialized. While outfitted with significant pieces, such as an island of a coffee table, the home’s pervasive whiteness generates a sense of weightless suspension. It’s the volumes here, more than the masses, that define its character.
“The idea,” shares founder and principal E.B. Min, “was to create a visually quiet space that could provide both a backdrop to the owners’ objects, art and furniture, and that – utilizing durable, unfussy materials – acts as a foil to the heavy existing timber posts and beams. Recesses, wall columns and soffits were engaged or hidden within cabinetry to provide a visually elegant space. Open shelving in Douglas fir provides contrast and much-needed texture and scale in the living area.” Min’s attention to scale is evident, too, in the primary bedroom, where she deployed an enormous rolling panel to hide the television when not in use, a white, wall-like plane incorporated into an expansive bookcase.
Min’s most pronounced intervention was her reimagining of the apartment’s staircase. Originally constructed with open risers and glass railings, it has been reworked with folded steel plates, transforming what was a banal element into an incisively rendered, prismatic shape. Tucked underneath is a children’s hideout, outfitted with cushions, pillows and storage for toys and books. “We worked very closely with our client, who has a sophisticated understanding of architecture and design and has done multiple renovation projects,” relates Min. “She had a strong and clear understanding of her functional requirements, as well as aesthetics.”
The homeowner – who selected all the furnishings and lighting – embraces an aesthetic shaped by an appreciation for the modern and contemporary. In the living room, a vast Paolo Zani Dots rug stretches across the floor. Two Living Divani Rodwood sofas face each other over a hefty BDDW oak coffee table. Up above hangs a BDDW pulley lamp, its five pendants swinging like a constellation of trumpets. Another example of how the home’s furnishings defer to the space around them is the barely-there Slim table in the black-and-white dining room, a creation of Dutch designer Bertjan Pot.
Although the unit strikes a minimalist note, it is not utterly austere. There’s warmth in the Douglas fir bookcases and color in the books and decorative objects gathered on those shelves. And while the sitting area in the primary bedroom is a study in black and white, the variety of the pieces arrayed – including an elliptical Yucca Stuff Lacava Table and a Patricia Urquiola Klara chair, designed for Moroso – make for a lively ensemble.
Min exercised a relatively light touch in addressing the home, but a sure one. Spun from understated gestures rather than dramatic moments, her design exudes a satisfying sense of rigor, a command of simplicity that truly shines.
Photography by Brooke Holm.
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