For Sloft+ members only
When an apartment on the fifth floor of West 11th Street was listed for sale in 2021, Kay Lee and Jonathan Chong were captivated by its charm. The former property of an artist couple who had lived there since the 1960s, it had slid into a state of dilapidation – a quality that Kay and Jonathan nonetheless found irresistibly appealing.
“We just loved the mystery of it all!” states Kay. “We wanted it to stay just as it was!”
“But from the first week, the pipes started to leak into the apartment below” continues Jonathan shifting the focus to more practical concerns. The couple then sought the services of NYC architecture and design studio BoND. Their search, carried out through local magazines, aimed to find a practice with expertise in handling compact but beautifully considered spaces.
“There was a bit of a strange hierarchy of spaces, says BoND co-founder Daniel. Everything looked like it had been plastered over so many times!”
A delicate balancing act between historic preservation and contemporary, efficient design thus commenced. The north-facing skylight – almost seven meters up – underwent restoration, as did the roof-clad woodwork. The walls and exposed-brick chimney breast were adorned with a tactile mineral wall paint from Ressource, infusing the living space with abundant natural light. Original timber floors and moldings were meticulously restored. In one corner sits a Parliament floor lamp by Le Corbusier, while a plinth crafted from offcuts of the Violetta marble worktop graces the other. Vintage lounge chairs were reupholstered in Kvadrat fabric and a geometrically shaped sofa from Floyd adds to the allure of the space.
“The kitchen was from some bygone era,” comments Daniel, inspiring a design that skilfully integrated painted exposed brick with a Reform Copenhagen kitchen, featuring a Violetta marble worktop and shelves.
The true triumph here is the “Bed in a Box” installation, a collaborative piece designed in partnership with Lesser Miracle, an agency also based in NYC.
The design subsequently won the award for the best small residential project from NYCx Design in 2023.
