Park Avenue Duplex

Park Avenue Duplex

Located in a building designed by Rosario Candela in 1929, this 4,000 square foot apartment has been updated to accommodate a young family while maintaining the spirit of Candela’s original scheme. As originally designed, the first floor of the duplex consisted of separate and distinct rooms that opened off the foyer and stair hall. To create a dialogue between the various rooms, an enfilade was established between the formerly closed-off living room and dining room with double doors centered on the dining room fireplace. Mirrored doors mask a connection to the family room beyond. In the family room (formerly the dining room), glass pocket doors open onto the eat-in kitchen, making these much-used rooms work in tandem. In the living room, the floor-to-ceiling windows were restored to their full glory; their lower portions below the exterior balustrade had been boarded up over time. The original wrought iron rail on Candela’s signature curved stair was also restored while a new bull’s eye window in the second-floor stair hall brings light into the center of the apartment and into the service stair behind.  Upstairs, a new oval-shaped vestibule leads into a reconfigured master suite. Highlights of the design also include the lacquered wood paneled dining room with curved walls and a gilded ellipse set into the ceiling as well as the vaulted ceiling in the narrow, jewel-box powder room. Throughout, the rooms and openings are tailored to achieve verticality and through-floor connections that did not exist in the traditional plan.  

Architect In Charge: Peter Pennoyer

Associates: Piu Ng, Mark Herring, Nicholas Schroeder

Interior Design: R. Nathaniel Brooks

Photography: Eric Piasecki


Peter Pennoyer Architects