Process

Templer Townhouse

2,400 SF
New York, NY

The project was a ren­o­va­tion of the gar­den, par­lor and base­ment lev­els of a brick town­house in the west Chelsea neigh­bor­hood of New York. The pri­mary inten­tion of the design was recon­nect the gar­den level spaces with the exte­rior while cre­at­ing more open liv­ing spaces through­out incor­po­rat­ing min­i­mal­ist details.

A sim­ple palette of gray oil-stained Euro­pean White Oak, white walls and moments of fig­ural drama pro­vided by large slabs of white Cala­catta mar­ble adorn the spaces. Muted light­ing located in slots between walls and ceil­ing pro­vide a warm ambi­ent glow at strate­gic loca­tions. More

A large new slid­ing glass wall sys­tem from Switzer­land con­nects the liv­ing room and gar­den with min­i­mal obstruc­tions. New full glass case­ment win­dows at the mas­ter bed­room and bath­room also pro­vide a clear view of the exterior.

In con­trast to the orthog­o­nal geome­tries through­out the spaces, the spi­ral stair winds organ­i­cally between two lev­els. The wood of the floor­ing con­tin­ues on the stairs rein­forc­ing the open plan in section. 

The kitchen was designed to cre­ate a visu­ally min­i­mal and spare envi­ron­ment in con­trast to typ­i­cal kitchens. Despite this, all the appli­ances for daily use are eas­ily accessed behind wood pan­els that match the wood floor­ing. The mar­ble of the coun­ter­top is used not only as work­ing sur­face but also as vol­u­met­ric veneer.