Designed by James E.R. Carpenter in 1919 and completed in 1920, this apartment building occupies a unique L-shaped lot with frontage on Fifth Avenue and west-facing views. The high ceilings and unusually shaped floor plate sets it apart from its neighbors, offering prospective views in all directions from the two generously scaled reception rooms in the west segment of the L facing Central Park, creating the effect of a “mansion in the sky.”

Commissioned by a long-time client, his apartment is a complete reconstruction of a full floor facing Central Park. The floor plan was little changed over the last 100 years, keeping intact Carpenter’s strict, functional separation of reception, private, and service spaces. After gutting the apartment, each of the four reception spaces, gallery, library, living room, and dining room, were designed in unique architectural languages with robust ornamentation and detail. While our design aligned with the key attributes of the original plan, modifications—especially in the former service wing—make the apartment feel like it was designed from the inside out. New windows were added to solid walls offering views of the park and the skyline. The new plan transformed the utilitarian and ad hoc back of house spaces, into a guest suite. To achieve stately elegance, we lengthened the double-hung windows in the gallery and library into new bronze French doors and windows, each with a new balcony.