“Our strategy was to be generous in all the rooms and use materials that we left largely in their natural state, Razavi recalls. “As with our other projects, we used a limited selection of materials to emphasize other elements.” The material palette includes oak floors, plastered walls, a dramatic lining for the fireplace, and American walnut cabinets. Marble, glass, steel, bronze, and finely woven fabrics round out the list. Each of these materials offers a different experience and feeling depending on the time of day.
Razavi’s team chose a uniform treatment for the floor and walls to focus attention on details like the fittings for the doors, the design of fireplace, and the stair railings. Each material has been chosen intentionally and strategically. In the kitchen, for example, the floor is composed of a mix of oak parquet and large slabs of porphyry, a solid stone that protects high-traffic areas (in front of the cooktop, the sink, and in the entrance). The oak and porphyry meet, unite, and are highlighted with an original offset geometry.
“In all our projects, we like to mix pieces we design ourselves with furniture from other designers and architects,” Razavi explains. For each interior, the studio conceives and designs custom furniture that fits precisely to its layout. “The geometry of the space invites the tailor-made,” he continues. These creations are then offered for sale on their website and Razavi’s team are often asked to make them again. “We were very happy to design the furniture, especially the three large sofas that all play with the same idea but express it differently. We are particularly proud of the one in the center,” he adds. The rest of the apartment includes a range of furniture from midcentury modern pieces to more recent creations. “We are not locked into a style. The idea is to renew ourselves.”
The apartment’s three terraces look out over the east, west, and south sides of Manhattan. Two of the terraces are on either side of the building; the third is on the triplex’s rooftop—“over our heads,” says Razavi with a smile. A discreet staircase provides access to the roof. The architects are still working on the final phases for each each of the terraces, namely the plantings in collaboration with landscape designers from New York’s RKLA Studio. According to Razavi, “the strategy is quite simple.” The two teams came up with a plan that focused on the periphery of each terrace with plants running along the facades (there is one exception: a terrace where a tree has been planted in front of a large bay window). “It’s always nice to be near plants,” he says, adding that the presence of greenery helps make temperature extremes more tolerable while the verdant oases with their views of New York are a unique highlight of the apartment.
