Soon after deciding to sell their Manhattan home of 30 years—where they amassed an enviable collection of art, books, and vintage furnishings—the owners of this expansive Upper West Side residence came to another important decision: not to sell it.
“They ultimately decided there was just too much history and too many memories in the space to leave,” AD100 Hall of Fame designer Alexa Hampton says of a prewar apartment that stretches more than 3,000 square feet. The owners, key players in the Manhattan art scene, purchased the home just as their careers were blossoming, Hampton explains. “So they wanted to stay, but they also wanted to reenvision the place to reflect their personalities in this stage of their lives and careers.”
The task of reinventing the residence fell to Hampton’s practice and Ferguson & Shamamian Architects, two firms noted for creating timeless interiors grounded in warm, modern elegance. The 15-month collaboration yielded a layered interior with a downtown 1970s vibe tucked inside the envelope of a more traditional uptown apartment. The renovation included beefing up the architectural details to create stronger definitions within the space and a more cohesive scheme.
That meant expanding the entry with new molding profiles to infuse the residence with a stronger sense of character. And adding a new plaster cornice and classical overdoor details to the foyer and entry into the library to make it more of a focal point of the space. The designers also installed a new kitchen with custom cabinetry and a papered ceiling and added mosaic tile work to the Moroccan-inspired bathroom. “We wanted to create better moments within the space and hide the less interesting aspects of the home,” recalls architect Jonathan Hogg, a senior associate at Ferguson & Shamamian who led the project for the firm. Hogg, who worked alongside studio colleague Andrew Oyen, adds, “The clients wanted to push us to go beyond any fixed ideas of where things belonged and instead create a much more inviting space.”
