Charles Street

The West Village was the cradle of the New York avant-garde and the crucible of bohemia in the early 20th century, the place from which nearly every American enlightenment movement sprung. Our concept for the space was persuaded by a specific flashpoint of that artistic and intellectual energy, seeking to create an environment where life within its walls could fluidly and spontaneously become art.

Built in 1866 prior to the West Village’s creative renaissance, we also sought to honor the building’s more sober architectural detailing from its earliest days. The most important restoration work included exposing and refinishing the original white oak parquet floors, stairwells, hand railings and window jambs, replacing and matching moulding profiles in kind, preserving all fireplaces, and fortifying the failing load bearing central corridor to be structurally sound for the next centuries to come.

In the Parlor Lounge, 20th century Italian greats sit in concert with gilded lost wax cast leaves adorning a bronze mirror and an illuminated depiction of the zodiac within the millwork, all set against a rich brown lacquer backdrop. The space at once beckons the animal kingdom, the botanical world and the celestial universe in a room that gives rise to reverie and fantasy.

We commissioned many artists to put their unique touch on the home, from the plaster artisans who painstakingly sculpted an intricate scene in bas relief on the Primary Bathroom ceiling to the metalsmiths who cast a marvelous bronze mirror of vines and leaves in the Parlor Lounge to the decorative painters who etched the celestial zodiac onto several antique mirrored panels in the same room. The hand-painted murals were among the most striking additions. The Parlor Room scene by Colombian-born artist Dairo Vargas was envisioned as an abstraction of classical Renaissance and Baroque paintings, and the whimsical, pastel-toned linework mural in the Conservatory was painted by Rome-based artist Roberto Ruspoli.

The kitchen is a serene respite off the back of the Conservatory level, leading to a tranquil garden with many custom furniture pieces, including hand forged bronze dining chairs and an antique French dining table base with a custom stone tabletop.

A certain rapturous beauty lives in the cultural history of the neighborhood, and much of our design ethos from concept to completion was a concerted rebellion against the muted, restrained interiors in vogue today, summoning a time when creative dissent was the revolutionary cri de cœur of the area. This was exemplified most abundantly in the public spaces, but each bedroom takes cues from the same language and color palette.