Ceramic Collector's Apartment
Description

The varying entertaining needs that had to be accommodated in this fairly modest 1700sf apartment with spectacular Central Park views seemed almost too diverse to fulfill.  The apartment required space for intimate dinners with six to eight guests, sit down dinners for thirty and casual pre and post meal gatherings.  It also had to be able to accommodate up to 150 people for fundraising functions.  We had to keep several other factors in mind: the clients extensive collection of ceramics required a display system, a new master bath had to include a Japanese soaking tub, and both kitchen and all closets needed to be enlarged.  

To accommodate a thirty-foot table for thirty guests, the dining area would have to borrow space from elsewhere.  To accommodate 150 people, even the living room and dining room would not suffice.  The requirements were demanding, but the solution was simple: archways between the living room, foyer and dining room were removed to create a single large open space.  To organize the disparate wall planes revealed in the removals of the archways, we built a new sculptural wall element that stands away from the existing wall.  It incorporates display niches for the ceramics collection with up-lighting as well as general illumination.  Half of the wall separating the living room from the master bedroom became a large pivoting panel.   Pivoting the panel allows for a variety of configurations and sizes depending on the size of the gathering. Overhead a thirty foot long custom copper-mesh light canopy defines the space for the banquet table below.  It also makes the enlarged space more intimate when the room returns to its typical function. The custom canopy conceals conventional adjustable overhead lighting.  Remaining ambient light is generated from concealed light niches in the new carved wall, which minimizes the need for additional surface mounted lighting.

Photographs © Paul Warchol