7th Street Apartment No. 02
New York, New York
After living in their railroad-style apartment for 10 years, the owners were ready to declutter, upgrade and optimize the interior to better accommodate cooking and entertaining. The condominium is on the garden level of a former synagogue that was erected in 1908. While preserving its classical facade, the structure was gutted and converted into a three-story apartment building in the mid-1980s. In 2007, the building was designated a New York City Landmark. The client’s cramped, two-bedroom apartment was dark with an awkward layout and small, exposed kitchen. We transformed the 1,100-square-foot unit into a commodious one bedroom that offers a sense of discovery and repose. A series of semi-hidden spaces streamline the floor plan and organize and store contents. Evoking the work of Dan Flavin, fluorescent light fixtures in wall and ceiling pockets articulate the design and heighten perception of the architecture.
At the entry, a long hall marked by a procession of evenly spaced, recessed vertical fluorescent lights injects a sense of anticipation. The cadence of the lights draws attention down the hall toward the back corner of the main living area that, when ultimately revealed, is a spacious, bright, combined living room-dining room-kitchen with clean white walls, four cornered windows and French doors opening to a small patio. The geometric balance of the room is enhanced by the thick, dark, metal frames on the single-pane windows. The kitchen’s rectilinear island is clad in glossy absolute black granite and contains the cooktop and sink; oak drawers and stool seating echo the apartment’s plank oak flooring. A series of tall, semi-gloss white cabinet doors comprise the kitchen’s back wall, camouflaging prep and storage elements. Folded open, the center panels expose ebonized wood shelving with a concealed light over a small counter. A band of fluorescent light softly shimmers along the top of the cabinets enhancing the room’s serene, ethereal character.
A passageway in the hall connects to the bedroom at the front of the apartment, with flushed doors opening to the guest bath, laundry and storage areas. In the bedroom, a floor-to-ceiling block separates the en-suite bathroom, in which artful lighting and absolute black granite on the floor, vanity and deep soaking tub impart a luxurious spa feel. Lighting includes hidden fluorescents at the bottom of the vanity’s mirror, a discrete cove light in the ceiling, and, in another homage to Flavin, vertical fluorescent lights at each end of the mirror. The open shower is easily missed, as it’s simply a corner featuring a suspended shower head with interior waterproof plaster protecting adjacent walls. All the plumbing fixtures in the kitchen and bathroom are from Messana O’Rorke’s “Building Blocks” collection retailed by AF NY.
Just as the building’s extant synagogue facade deceives passers-by, this apartment mysteriously unfurls into a simple, holistic design of airy, geometric proportion.