“We’ll just repair it up a very little bit.” That’s what Ashley Stark Kenner assumed when she and partner Nick, founder and CEO of Just Salad, acquired a city property on New York’s Upper East Side to make room for their increasing loved ones. The landmarked 19th-century constructing had a great deal likely for it—generous dimensions, a deep yard, and, a rarity among the town properties, tons of light. But at their first meeting with New York–based Lichten Architects, talk rapidly shifted to “gut renovation.”
“The façade was the only detail that stayed,” Kenner states now, three decades later on. “For a though, we didn’t have a roof. We did not have a flooring. We dug out the basement, we extra a leading ground, we extra terraces. If I showed you the prior to and right after, you’d be like, ‘What?’”
As the senior vice president of style and design and innovative director at the 8-many years-aged textile titan Stark, she knew particularly what she wanted. And with a absolutely cleanse slate, she didn’t have to compromise. “I had a vision, and I caught with it,” suggests Kenner, calling her aesthetic “laid-back, natural and organic, beachy, a minimal bit French.”
Doing work closely with Kenner, architects Andrew Friedman and Kevin Lichten developed a floor strategy that functioned for relatives daily life and, as Friedman points out, “felt loftlike and modern day but still like a conventional town dwelling.” That sensibility prolonged to the decor, spearheaded by New York agency Aman & Meeks (with a significant hand from Kenner herself). —Hannah Martin
When two born-and-bred West Coasters relocated to New York, their aim was to carry the sunny ambiance of a everyday living lived shut to the Pacific together with them. To stave off homesickness and keep true to their roots, they turned to New York–based designer Youthful Huh to inject breezy California vibes into a single of the most unlikely of spots: a large-increase towering in excess of one particular of Manhattan’s most prized locales—Central Park. “Since the clients ended up relocating, they requested that I continue to keep the layout extremely light-weight, vibrant, and airy,” Huh states of the pair, who moved in get to accommodate the husband’s task in finance.” The close result? A handsome Park Avenue pad that flawlessly blends California spirit with a dose of New York drama.
