Located in a J.E.R. Carpenter-designed building on Fifth Avenue from 1926, this apartment was renovated by Modernist Paul Rudolph in the 1960s, stripping its prewar details and breaking up Carpenter’s gracious floor plan into a labyrinthine suite of rooms with thin curved walls and odd hallways.

To reinvent this apartment, PPA organized the floor plan and improved circulation by opening the entry hall and tying the kitchen and back rooms to the bedroom wing. By adding entries to the dining room and study and laying the floor with a circle-and-square pattern of black Portolo and Calacatta gold marble, PPA added a sense of ceremony, making the formal spaces central to the plan. In the expansive park-facing front living room, PPA used moldings, entablatures and a pair of square fluted columns to delineate two separate yet open sitting areas, each centered on a fireplace.

PPA strove to restore the interior’s architectural character, recreating the ambiance of a Carpenter apartment with a slightly more modern and glamorous twist. The owners gravitated toward circular forms, a penchant PPA reflected in the plan and in details. Working with Venfield Interiors, PPA brought sumptuous finishes to many of the rooms. Special details included hardware PPA designed to emulate models by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann.