There are views. And then there are views. After two decades working at the tippity top of the New York design world, Monique Gibson figured she had seen them all. But three years ago the AD100 designer walked onto the terrace of this penthouse apartment in Tribeca and her jaw dropped in amazement. “You know what it’s like when you walk into a great cathedral and you’re suddenly struck silent?” recalls Gibson. “It was like that! I just stood there, dumbfounded,” she says. “I daresay this apartment had the best view of the city I had ever seen.”
Perfectly centered on New York’s east-west axis, the duplex takes in panoramic views from the East River to the Hudson and, on clear days, sight lines north all the way to Central Park. “There’s something about being so centered that does something to the human body,” she muses. “I know it sounds crazy, but even though we were 800 feet up in the sky, I also felt grounded.”
That one-in-a-million view was, of course, what sold the owners on the apartment in the first place. “We looked at a lot of places, but nothing compared,” says the husband, a financial executive. “We couldn’t get the view out of our minds.” Still, for all of the apartment’s obvious assets—the 13-foot-high ceilings, the 6,000 square feet for their kids to romp—the couple knew the space wouldn’t feel like home until they could shape it to suit their style.
The family sits at a table by Michel Amar; vintage chairs by Pierre Chapo. Custom Banquette in a Holly Hunt performance fabric; Pierre Yovanovitch wall lamp; Artwork by Maren Kloppmann.
In the husband’s office, an artwork by Jeff Koons hangs above a custom sofa in a Rogers & Goffigon Wool. Pia Manu co*cktail table; Kaare Klint chair from Dienst + Dotter; antique Persian Rug.
“It was a very traditional white box,” explains the homeowner. “Even the layout was sort of closed-off and traditional, which is so not us. We wanted it to feel younger and more open.”
Enter Gibson, the warm and effusive redheaded Virginia native known for her roster of celebrity and rock-star clients. The couple had seen the downtown-loft renovation Gibson had masterminded for Meg Ryan in the pages of AD (November 2016) and were taken by the apartment’s unique rough-edged glamour, which featured a soulful combination of industrial vintage fixtures, Art Deco furniture, and sumptuous beige upholstery, along with a fearless abundance of glossy black finishes. “They were rooms we could see ourselves living in,” says the husband. “They had a moody downtown New York vibe, but they were also peaceful, with lots of texture and layers.”
The challenge for Gibson was to translate the feeling of artistic urbanity—more naturally suited to an old loft building with exposed brick walls and exposed pipes—to a classically inspired newly constructed high-rise. “We had to do it in a way that suited an elegant building,” she says. (They turned to Ike Kligerman Barkley to handle the renovation architecture.)
First order of business? The rooms needed to “exhale,” as Gibson puts it. In the living room, the formerly solid walls on either side of the fireplace were replaced with black steel-framed windows, exposing the staircase and imbuing more of a loftlike openness to the space. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the living room, a wall defining a separate lounge area was minimized and replaced with the same mullioned windows. That move not only expanded the room but “dramatically opened up the river-to-river views,” says Gibson.
A Vincenzo de Cotiis Light fixture hangs above an island of honed Copacabana stone in the kitchen. Vintage stools; cabinetry hardware by the Nanz co.; Waterworks sink fittings; artwork from Dienst + Dotter.
In the playroom, mushroom stools by Maison Gerard stand on a Renate Müller rug. The walls were custom painted.
While the owners expressed a hankering for concrete floors, Gibson believed the surfaces needed more refinement. A gray-and-black-speckled terrazzo for the foyer and dining room satisfied their craving for industrial edge while also adding polish and visual interest. The owners were also adamant about keeping the windows free of drapery. “But the rooms still needed warmth,” says Gibson. She brought in textured upholstery and rugs—including a delicate 18th-century European tapestry for the main bedroom—and hand-stained oak paneling to help take off the minimalist chill.
