This 1,500sf duplex renovation in Noho, NY was designed as a first home to showcase a young couple’s casual lifestyle and expanding family. The program called for a family residence with an open, flowing interior on two levels. With thoughtful planning, the existing one-bedroom, 2-bath duplex was converted into a 3-bed, 2-1/2 bath apartment with a large den/family room. The end result has greatly enhanced the real-estate value of this duplex without any compromise to the design nor the space.
The kitchen, dining, and lounge spaces flow seamlessly into the private areas. At the upper-level rear, the guest powder room and compactmaster bed/bathroom suite are separated by a series of 11-foot high, sliding, and fully retractable, glass, and steel-framed door panels. These featured full-height elements create a spatial elongation, while forming an illusionary vista to an ostensibly larger space beyond. The folded glass and metal privacy screen at the entry cleverly shields the apartment from full frontal view at street level.
The biggest single challenge was in the design and fabrication of the staircase. The stair was required to be both code and child safety compliant. The staircase’s unique features include the co-planar clear-tempered glass-rails and the child-proof open slots under the welded bent steel angles. Supported by a sizable post concealed in the wall behind the stair, stair attachments are made with moment connections. All metalwork on this job, including the stairs and door panels were site fabricated forging a unique hand-crafted industrial product, difficult to shop replicate.
On the lower level, the use of pocketed sliding doors met an imperative client requirement. It allowed the children’sbed/playroomto be a flexible space - subdivided for sleep and open for play. Additional sliding glazed doors at the two entries to the bed/playroom from the den/family room, facilitate deep penetration of natural indirect daylighting from the bedroom windows into the family area.
The lighting scheme was designed to enhance the spatial qualities with an innovative solution found at the transition between ceiling heights. On the upper-level, lowered lit-cove edges are ghosted behind 11-foot glazed panels, as seen above the entry to both the powder room and master bathrooms. Backlit dropped ceilingsat the long rear wall of the master bathroom, and the lower level family areafurther heighten the space while giving the interiors a warm glow.
The interior is unified by treating the red oak wood flooring on both levels and the floating stair treads with a fumed rubio-monocoat finish throughout – this lends warmth to a graphically neutral and steel interior.
Simplicity in design and uniqueness in resolution are key to this alteration.
Material Used :
1. Refrigerator/Freezer - Subzero
2. Gas Range - Fisher & Paykel
3. Ventless Range Hood - Fisher & Paykel
4. 18" Dishwasher - Miele
5. Microwave Drawer - Sharp
6. Single lever mixer with pull-out spray - Vigo
7. Single undermount stainless steel sink - Vigo
8. Counters - Caesar Stone
9. Porcelain Tile - NemoTile
10. Wall Hung Water Closet - Toto
11. Wall Hung Sink - Duravit
12. Vanity - Caesar Stone
13. Porcelain Tile - Nemo
14. Rectangular Undermount Sink - Wetstyle
15. Single Hole Faucet - Grohe
16. Shower Trim - Grohe
17. Glazed Sliding Doors and Panels - Custom Fabricated
18. Wood Flooring: Oak with Rubio Monocoat - Custom Fabricated
19. Radiators with Thermostatic Controls - Runtal Wall Panel
20. Light Fixtures: 4" square LED fixtures - Philips
