A young family and long-time client of Bernheimer Architecture had been living on the fifth floor of a Tribeca apartment in New York. When the floor above became available, the growing family saw an opportunity to expand to accommodate its needs. After the clients acquired roof rights and the sixth floor, the architects reimagined the floorplan and, with the help of furnishing led by Colony Design’s Jean Lin, turned the new triplex into a light and welcoming home.
To accommodate the new level, Bernheimer moved the kitchen from the fifth floor to the sixth, concentrating the social areas above and leaving the fifth floor to more private spaces. Previously the sixth floor was an open loft space for an artist. The architects capitalized on the open plan, raising the roof to get more height into the space, which now holds the living and dining areas, a bathroom, and a home office that can double as a guest bedroom.
Th new layout, however, left little light in the center of the apartment. Bernheimer addressed the issue by adding a new central staircase that goes up to the roof pavilion, granting access to the new outdoor garden. This also acts as a skylight to bring in light to the denser area. The stairs, clad in wood paneling and white vertical slats, helps disperse the daylight into the rest of the home.
Neutral colors and quiet materials further create moments where the lighting can shine. Upon entry, dark oak covers the foyer walls, divided from the rest of the floor with more vertical slats. Beyond, an economic material palette provides a calm environment: the kitchen adjacent to the foyer reads as a block of wood, whitewashed brick along the window walls adds character to the home, and white clads the remaining walls.
The furnishings help bring moments of color and warmth back into the space. Lin used the architects’ material language as a starting point, incorporating non-rigid geometric patterns and textures. For the living room this means Philippe Malouin’s DS-707 in a deep green falls alongside the Walnut Crescent Lounge by Vonnegut/Kraft in orange. In the dining room, a rotund dining table from Yabu Pushelberg is surrounded by built-in lattice cabinetry whose texture corresponds to the cane dining chairs.
“The homeowners had some existing pieces that were wonderful, however, the space felt incomplete in many ways,” Lin told AN Interior. “We started with what they had, and what they loved, and then talked a lot about how they use the space, particularly in the living room areas. The overall design is a reflection of how they live as a family and their aspirations for each space.”
Another stairwell connects the sixth floor to the fifth. Bernheimer wrapped it in a reflective plaster, bringing out the slight curve in the ceiling, and creating a dramatic transitional space as pendants cast long lights down the stairs.
On this level the architects renovated three existing bedrooms and bathrooms and added a new bedroom. Again, color and material continue to stay minimal with an abundance of matte plaster. “We did something neutral, like variants of a warm gray, mainly,” said Meredith Kole, principal at Bernheimer. “The client has a connection with Agape, so a lot of the fixtures are these beautiful Agape fixtures that could also stand alone. So it made sense to keep things as this simple backdrop.”
While the space has been refreshed and modernized, the project still crucially feels like a Tribeca building. “I think a lot of that is due to keeping the brick wall and just whitewashing it, the loft feel of the sixth floor, and lifting the ceilings,” continued Kole. Added to the beams in bedroom, the industrial history of the structure is still present—but given a light, warm touch.