After a fire broke out in an adjacent unit, this 2-bedroom apartment on West 72nd Street sustained significant water damage as the fire department extinguished the blaze. While there was no fire damage in our client’s apartment, the moisture soon began to cause mold, forcing our clients to temporarily move out while the damage was repaired. During this period, our clients decided to undertake a significant renovation of the apartment itself.
In addition to replacing the damaged floors and walls, our clients wanted to expand and reconfigure both the master bathroom and the kitchen, replace the finishes, add lighting, and install a more substantial heating/cooling system. They also sought to transform the look and feel of the apartment into a more open and contemporary living space. Most importantly, our client, who is a cancer survivor, wanted the apartment to accommodate her special needs without sacrificing the quality of design.
We began by identifying our client’s special needs so we could seamlessly integrate them into the design. Once they were established, we began developing several schemes to enlarge and reconfigure the master bathroom and kitchen that could accommodate these requirements while avoiding a “wet over dry” condition that was prohibited by the building’s rules. For both the bathroom and kitchen, we reconfigured the layout, locating all “wet” fixtures/appliances within the original room’s footprint, but then expanded beyond these boundaries with “dry” millwork achieving the desired enlargement in an acceptable manner. We then sought to tie these elements together with slightly dropped ceilings that could also allow new lighting to be installed without cutting into the concrete slab above.
The project reconfigured the apartment by expanding the master bathroom, relocating the entry to the master bedroom, and enlarging the kitchen. The ceilings were strategically dropped to differentiate the open areas and to accommodate new LED lighting. The master bathroom features custom millwork, a new enlarged shower, new fixtures, and marble tile, while the enlarged kitchen—fabricated by Leicht—includes motorized cabinet doors, concealed storage units and new Gaggenau appliances. The completed apartment possesses a striking design as a result of this reconfiguration, meeting the client’s goals of accommodating her needs within a unique contemporary environment without sacrificing the luxury of high quality design.