When a husband and wife found their forever home on New York City’s Upper West Side, they knew they needed to update the interiors, but they also wanted to be respectful of the property’s pre-war character. The apartment is in the Belnord, the landmark 1906 building depicted as the fictional ‘Arconia’ in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. The property was converted from rentals into condominiums in the 2010s with a renovation overseen by Robert AM Stern Architects (RAMSA).
The couple live there with their three sons, two of whom are in college and away for much of the year; the youngest is in middle school. In renovating the apartment, there were also two dogs to consider, as well as a burgeoning art collection in need of wall space.
They had already enlisted Frederick Tang Architecture to design their previous residence, a loft-like space on 110th street, as well as an office and retail space for the husband’s fashion company. But those projects had a more contemporary feel that the couple felt themselves moving away from — the wife wanted something more traditional and wondered if Tang was still the right person for the job. ‘I remember when they approached us,’ says Tang. ‘They were like, wait. This is totally different from the last time. Are you up for something more trad?’
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Tang’s proposal for the project reassured the couple that his remained the best firm to create a residence that could meet their needs and reflect their evolving tastes. ‘If you’re a person who leans towards modern and contemporary design, it doesn't mean you can’t live in a space that feels more traditional while bringing in elements that are reflective of what your natural instincts are,’ says the husband.
Tang’s practice is defined by synergies — between the past and present, between disparate materials, and most importantly between obvious and more obscure solutions. ‘I loved the idea of figuring out how to make these rooms work in the short term and in the long term,’ says Tang. It helps that he’s known the family for eight years and considers them ‘the most organised people I’ve ever met. When we did their first home it was all about where the toy trains go,’ he says.
The natural starting point, then, was storage. Most of the changes to the floor plan were done to accommodate the need for more closet space throughout the 3,000-square-foot home, in self-evident areas like the entry hallway, but also in less expected rooms, like the den, which functions as a fourth bedroom for the eldest son when he’s home from school.
Tang tucked a sofa bed from Maiden Home into a recessed nook between custom millwork that conceals multiple closets and drawers. ‘One side of it is for the home — we can hang overflow from our closets in there — and then the other side is all his,’ says the husband.
Another key consideration was entertaining. A custom sofa by Egg Collective anchors the airy open-plan living room, cleverly demarcated by an area rug as well as elliptical plaster molding on the ceiling that nods to the room’s inspiration, the neo-classical hotel room from the penultimate scene of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
In the adjacent dining area, Tang installed a mirrored bar with open glass shelving. The streamlined kitchen features a large central island opposite a built-in banquette, for easy socialising. The youngest son’s room is even modeled after a 1970s conversation pit, with a custom-built bed platform and flooring in a Patterson & Flynn carpet.
‘Fundamentally what’s most important to us is that it’s a space that everybody can live in and not feel like they need to tiptoe around,’ says the husband. ‘It can’t be a museum.’
