AD joins Robert Garneau of Architecture Workshop PC in Manhattan, NYC, to tour a 1920s apartment brimming with sleek designs and space-saving innovations. “We wanted to maintain its rich character, but also offer the client a cozy, more contemporary space.”
That client is television executive Tracy Underwood, a former president at ABC Signature who recently transitioned into an exclusive producing gig at 20th Television, a production company owned by Disney Television Studios. Based in Los Angeles, she purchased the apartment in 2021 as pied-à-terre for her frequent trips to New York City. At the time, she was living inside a Spanish bungalow-style home in LA’s Silver Lake community and said she wanted the interior aesthetics of the Manhattan apartment to be a departure from her life on the West Coast.
That client is television executive Tracy Underwood, a former president at ABC Signature who recently transitioned into an exclusive producing gig at 20th Television, a production company owned by Disney Television Studios. Based in Los Angeles, she purchased the apartment in 2021 as pied-à-terre for her frequent trips to New York City. At the time, she was living inside a Spanish bungalow-style home in LA’s Silver Lake community and said she wanted the interior aesthetics of the Manhattan apartment to be a departure from her life on the West Coast.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00In New York, overcrowding has always been an issue in whatever form it takes.
00:08The apartments have been small.
00:10This building is a pre-war building from the 1930s.
00:13Pre-war, people were buying smaller spaces, but at the same time, being pre-war, spaces
00:18was cut up in a way which wasn't optimized, but I think we successfully hit that balance
00:22where it's comfortable.
00:27There are moments where slightly confined spaces can be fun.
00:31Good design really is aware that there are expansion and contraction of spaces.
00:35A sense of compression, I mean, Frank Lloyd Wright talked a lot about that, and if it's
00:39done right, it's a wonderful experience as humans occupying and moving through space
00:43and experiencing it.
00:45You only have so much to kind of work with spatially, and then there's a challenge to
00:49like unlock that real potential that I think is a great opportunity for an architect to
00:54revel in New York.
00:57I'm Robert Garneau, I'm the architect for this renovation.
00:59I am Tracy Underwood, I'm the shareholder in this building.
01:02Welcome to my 400 square foot apartment in New York.
01:20I came to New York in September of 2021 on a specific trip to look for an apartment.
01:27This one came on the market right as I was here.
01:29When I came into the space, I kind of had that feeling like I had to live here.
01:34So that's began the journey of learning like what it's like to be a shareholder in a pre-war
01:40building, which is a co-op, which is very complex and wonderful because you have a lot
01:44of interface with the building management.
01:47And the first person mentioned was Robert.
01:50He lived in this building and had this incredible apartment that he renovated, and I was sort
01:55of immediately struck with how beautiful and clean his designs are.
02:01Both the apartment that I lived in and renovated previous to this one are small apartments.
02:06We introduce oftentimes components that are moving.
02:09So the transformer has a sliding wall that divides and opens up the space.
02:13The pivot apartment has a central wall that pivots and creates a bedroom.
02:17I think the way that really translates to this particular apartment that we use a lot
02:22is cabinetry, concealing and revealing your belongings and structuring space, decluttering,
02:27hiding, minimal living in some ways, but also with a richness of materiality.
02:32Both Robert and I kind of saw that it was just sort of a raw space that hadn't really
02:36been touched or renovated in any way for quite some time.
02:39You walked in the bedroom space, which was not enclosed and had sort of a glass brick
02:44wall that was a partition.
02:46It was really the only kind of barrier.
02:48We worked together and really analyzing the space carefully and then figuring out how
02:53to grab space that wasn't being used very well.
02:57The beauty of a space in this proportions of this apartment is it's small, but it's
03:02intimate.
03:03It's a relationship to us as human beings, which feels comfortable because it's also
03:07true that there's a discomfort at some point when the space is so large that it's just
03:13alienating and you don't relate to it and acoustically and thermally just feels off.
03:18The way it's laid out, I think, makes it feel more spacious.
03:22I love it and I feel really comfortable here.
03:35This is the bathroom.
03:37We were able to capture more space for this room, which I was really excited about.
03:41We rearranged everything.
03:42The way this was laid out before was it had sort of a narrow hallway and then closets
03:47on either side.
03:48Robert pitched this design, which I loved, which was kind of tucking the shower on this
03:53side and then creating a nook for the toilet on this side.
03:57I wanted a feeling like you would be outside, so I wanted it to feel almost tropical in
04:01here, which I think ended up being represented with things like the terracotta in particular,
04:07which is something that vibes much more outside than I think inside.
04:11We landed on the floor tile relatively quickly.
04:14It was a very clear intent that there's an earthen feel that feels great on your feet,
04:19a very natural feel.
04:21We also completely exposed the slab to get the maximum height because there are ducts
04:26and piping and other things happening above this.
04:28Lighting is extremely important in any space, but certainly in small spaces, they really
04:32help to draw the eye where you kind of want.
04:35It can trick you and psychologically kind of comfort you to think that the spaces are
04:40bigger.
04:41You do respond emotionally to lighting, the color of light, but also the brightness of
04:44it and the location.
04:46So in this particular room, we hid some lights underneath the sink, which is not a common
04:50place.
04:51I think it really helps to create the levitation feeling of the stone block, if you will.
04:57And more importantly, on the end of this space, right, it's this T-shaped floor plan.
05:02We have these light slits that illuminates the end walls and creates this texture.
05:07There's also this texture that's glistening, but there's also a very real three-dimensional
05:11quality that the light helps to bring out.
05:14The shadow play, that kind of texture of the tile itself comes to life.
05:18And then the other element of light that we do have in the rest of the apartment is in
05:21the niches.
05:22So we have this little niche in the shower, there's another one that's behind the door,
05:26which helps to illuminate those portholes.
05:28Those also help to create that illusion of an extension of space.
05:32There's some cool hidden elements in here as well.
05:34Like if you push this cabinet, it pops out, which is kind of fun.
05:39That kind of sense of discovery and play, especially in small spaces, I think it's an
05:43important detail.
05:55So we're going into the kitchen now, which is an extension of the living and dining space.
06:02It also has some cool transitional elements.
06:04We captured a little more space in this room from the hallway, but not a lot.
06:09We gave as much as we could to the bathroom.
06:11It's kind of playing off these notions of the silver and the gold and the mixed metal
06:14and the metal of the windows.
06:16That's a full gas top, oven, and dishwasher, which I kind of can't believe I have all those
06:21things.
06:22There's nothing here.
06:23This is the back of the shower.
06:24And this is this amazing pantry.
06:27And then it has, yeah, more, lots of storage.
06:31So much storage.
06:32I don't have anything in it, which is classic.
06:35And then a paneled refrigerator.
06:37And then it also has this kind of cool transition area that, when tucked away, is a wall.
06:46And then when you open it, it reveals a hidden space.
06:51You reveal it when you need it or when you're using it, when you want to draw attention
06:54to it.
06:55And then functionally, when you need additional space.
06:59In a space that's very small.
07:00I think it's important to have clean design.
07:03It's not fighting with some of the other architectural details of the space.
07:07It sort of draws your attention to the beams in the ceiling and the windows and the incredible
07:13metal work everywhere.
07:14But you need to have storage, and these maximize all the space.
07:18I mean, even details like these shelves, I mean, they're chunky, you know?
07:23But they're really picking up the line of this hood, which is an off-the-shelf component.
07:27And they're finishing the same kind of paint to try and, again, make things integrated
07:32and more seamless.
07:33I love that this kitchen had a window, too.
07:37To be able to have the light source coming in, to be able to open it and have extra ventilation.
07:42And it just has this beautiful view of my neighbor's garden and trees and water towers.
07:47So it feels very, kind of, quintessential New York.
07:50Yeah.
07:57We are in the living room now.
08:09The one thing we kind of knew as we were figuring out the cabinetry was that the television
08:15was going to go on this side.
08:17So that gave a little bit of a guideline for this side of the built-in.
08:23The interesting thing about this part of the cabinet is it's one of the simplest, if not
08:27the simplest, cabinet in the apartment, right?
08:30Because this whole section is just a fixed panel in the back of the closet.
08:34The TV takes up the other half and, you know, minor storage below.
08:39Nice open shelving above, mechanical zone above, a little bit of storage to the sides.
08:44To talk a little bit about this monolith that we affectionately call, in terms of the allusion
08:49to monolithic, that you engage with it and it's crafted.
08:52It anchors the room on the one hand, you gravitate around it, but it anchors the space.
08:57There's a lot of sort of signature metal in the space.
09:00The radiator has these incredible old hooks and then this great old dial, which is sort
09:05of wood and brass.
09:06When I got the apartment, they were rusted over and then we stripped and took both of
09:11the radiators down to the original steel.
09:13In terms of restoration, it's a good example of how we were trying to capture the historic
09:17nature of the apartment and celebrate it rather than covering it up.
09:21So I wanted to have a bar that could be exposed and also tucked away.
09:26So that was the inspiration for this design.
09:31So during the day when I'm here, typically working, this space is closed and just looks
09:37like a cabinet and when it gets to happy hour, it's fun to open these cabinets and turn on
09:42the light and it's a very inviting way to have a drink and know that you're going to
09:47have people over.
09:49The light and the fact that the panel wraps around the corner into the kitchen really
09:53helps to bring that line back into the other space.
09:56Doing kind of an antique distressed mirror to give it a little bit of an aged feeling
10:02and then the floating shelves with brass detail are another nod to the brass.
10:07We spent a fair amount of time in the slab yards when we were looking for the marble
10:12and found this beautiful piece.
10:15So we were able to make a counter here that we put the LED light in the back so it gives
10:19it another dimension.
10:21You can just see that it lives like it's been there the whole time but when it's tucked
10:24away it doesn't look like anything at all.
10:38So we are in my bedroom which is a very small, cozy space but it's great.
10:43It feels a little bit like a perch because you have this great view out the window.
10:48Where Tracy is now opening the door is a key element for the project really because that
10:54becomes the door to the bedroom.
10:56It unveils the second door, hides a closet but also helps to create a diffuse layering
11:02of light because you've got the fluted glass from floor to ceiling there.
11:05The two custom doors in the apartment were inspired by a door that I saw in Prague actually.
11:13We kind of started with that image and together built around that.
11:18The fluted glass was a thing for privacy and then it was Robert's idea to do the brass
11:24trim in such a way that light casts on and off of it so it even looks like there's lights
11:29inside of the porthole windows which there isn't.
11:32It's really the light coming back and forth.
11:34Just knowing that the light was so beautiful in the space coming through the windows, capturing
11:38it as best we can.
11:39We put a mirror in a very specific place across from a window, that's capturing another source
11:44of light and almost creating another window.
11:46And I love the fact that we've created essentially a little re-entry from the bedroom which gives
11:50you the illusion the bedroom is actually as wide as it is to the door but also creates
11:54a buffer because ultimately the space is quite small.
11:58This monolith, it's got a lot of storage into it.
12:01It's two feet deep and allows for a full depth closet, shelving on this side and then
12:09drawers around this niche.
12:11When you're lying in the bedroom, the room at first maybe feels this deep but when you
12:16are looking into this, this additional foot and a half really gives you an illusion that
12:20the room is actually much bigger.
12:22It's partially the materiality creating a lush focal point of material.
12:26The light plays into it as well which makes it glow.
12:29It's a design idea but it's also a very smart idea because where would you put furniture
12:32in here?
12:33What's really fun about built-ins like this as opposed to a piece of furniture item that
12:37you put is that on the one hand, it can behave like an architectural element like a wall
12:42but adds functionality.
12:44In a way, that space has those moments and those layers.
12:59When the bathroom is not in use, it sort of just disappears.
13:01The bedroom, when it's no longer in bedroom mode, it just kind of opens up so when you
13:05come home, you see the window at the end and it's just a wonderful block of cabinet that
13:09you're seeing there, you know, or if you're not really entertaining or cooking a lot,
13:13the kitchen is more pared down, right?
13:16Coming back to this idea like things get just toned down a little bit and then they get
13:19activated when you really need them.
13:22New York is very specifically a place where you tend to not need as much space where you
13:28live because your life outside of where you live is so expansive.
13:33There's so much going on.
13:34I have found in my experience here that once I get home, having something that's just like
13:38very small actually feels kind of wonderful and comfortable because the day-to-day life
13:44experience in New York is so intense and so big and loud.
13:50And I say all those things with love, but everything I looked at, the smaller and more
13:53sort of contained and cozy it was, the more comfortable I was.