Design can be said to be all about relationships. And for a Manhattan pied-à-terre, in a Richard Meier building with sweeping views of the Hudson River, those relationships were top of mind as Workshop/APD set out to design a functional, adaptable, sophisticated yet completely livable part-time home for a couple who often welcomes their kids and grandkids to the space.
“It was a sense of conversation,” says Matt Berman, co-founder and principal at Workshop/APD, of designing within a structure created by the architectural legend. “When you’re designing homes, you’re always thinking about the relationship between things. There’s the relationship between the home and its site and the relationship between the rooms. What are the adjacencies? How do the rooms flow from one to the next? What is the connective tissue? Then, you scale it down to the next level and the relationship of the furniture to the room, the pillows to the sofa, and so on. You get more and more granular.”
The architect notes that for this apartment home, that is featured in the firm’s new tome Workshop/APD Homes: Architecture, Interiors, and the Spaces Between, it wasn’t so much about Workshop/APD in conversation with Richard Meier, but rather “the conversation Meier was having with the West side, with the water, with the Hudson River, with the views, with New Jersey. When you step into the apartment,” Berman says, “you realize that he is very deferential to the views. So, really, you’re having a conversation with nature, with the vastness of the view.”
In designing the interior, Berman notes they played often with foreground and background because the backdrop offered so much and created such interesting opportunities. “For us, we’re not there to dominate, we’re there to be sensitive to the expansive views and to satisfy the needs of our client,” he explains, adding, “We’re here to balance. We’re always looking for that balance.”
That approach can be experienced in the material choices and forms throughout the home where shape and texture won out over color. “We’ve always thought of materiality as a thread that connects spaces,” Berman says, adding the firm’s palette tends to be simple and edited down. “Instead, we’ll use materials and thread them through a home. A wood on a floor makes its way onto a coffee table or into a piece of furniture; it makes its way into a wall panel or a ceiling detail. That wood will thread its way through the space so there’s a flow rather than an abrupt shift.”
The team also played with the idea of reflection in multiple ways. Polished stone and high-gloss lacquer in the kitchen amplify the brightness of the space and bounce reflections throughout, as do strategically placed mirrors, like the sculptural installation in one of the seating areas. Berman explains the idea behind this piece was to heighten the amazing view by “turning it in on itself. You never really see the full picture of yourself or anything specific. You’re getting broken pieces. It’s a quick moment of interruption,” he says, noting such moments in design take an observer from an unconscious state to a conscious one. “You’re kind of playing with somebody,” he says. “Almost like point/counterpoint. It’s this moment of recognizing you are where you are and, hopefully, it makes you appreciate it all the more.”
It’s that conversation between simplicity and surprise, and from space to space, that allows the open-plan home to reveal itself slowly and offer discovery around each bend.
“When you think about moving through a home or a space,” Berman describes, “there’s a sort of filmic quality, a cinematic sequential sense to it. You come in, you build, you shift. We were thinking of that in this space. You build that suspense bit by bit.”
Photography by Donna Dotan.
Like what you see? Get it first with a subscription to aspire design and home magazine.