TERRACE DUPLEX
UPPER WEST SIDE, NEW YORK CITY
TERRACE DUPLEX - NEW YORK | RESIDENTIAL
UPPER WEST SIDE - MANHATTAN, NY
1,820 SF + 750 SF TERRACE | Interior DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
It is safe to say that New Yorkers have a love/hate relationship with the archetype of the New York City walk-up apartment. Many of these pre-war constructions hang onto to period detail, higher ceilings and sit in beautiful masonry shells—all things that can make the hike up stairs worthwhile. The quieter streets of the Upper West Side have their own collection of these historic buildings and given that the majority of the neighborhoods tend to be protected by the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission, they most likely aren’t going anywhere any time soon.
This particular unit sat at the top of a 4-story building which meant that it had the most stairs to climb, but it also meant that it could harvest the space on the roof for a garden terrace given its existing penthouse bedroom suite. The result came a to be a duplex filled with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and a south-facing terrace all in a tight package.
A lot of this project was leveraging the existing conditions that would be impossible to replicate while adding utility and comfort where we could. The bedrooms on the lower floor remained in place but the single NYC bathroom was expanded into a jack-and-jill that gave privacy when needed and access to a more gracious powder room. While the kitchen remained in place, the image of the kitchen was pulled out into the living and dining space in the form of a seated dry bar with storage above. The resulting footprint left a more usable kitchen experience next to an ample living and dining space.
Both the kitchen and the bathrooms were an opportunity for custom millwork solutions to maximize coveted space and render a streamlined interpretation of a more traditional face frame cabinetry.
As is common for us, we shepherd the millwork process through the design phase and provide a complete set of millwork drawings for pricing and construction. Our goal is always to work hand-in-hand with contractors and fabricators to ensure that the material that arrives on site for installation is everything that was designed and agreed upon by the client.
The roofscape became a project within a project. With the preamble of working with the building at large to replace the roof itself and coordinate waterproofing details, we could then step into creating a secluded haven for the clients to enjoy throughout the year. Given that the project was in an LPC district, all of the coordination for design and its approval went through their purview and our long standing working relationship with their staff and process paved the way for approval.
While the view to the south is stunning it also brings some direct sunlight that can be intense in the summer so a method of shading was a necessity. We worked to design a system for privacy screens and railings that was incorporated into a series of trellis-like beams supporting a retractable shade system that allowed occupants to toggle coverage to their liking depending on the weather. With space for planting and custom millwork storage, the new space should last for decades to come.
