A dance to the music of time

Aric Chen -- Interior Design, 9/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

"I never sit down and say, 'it's going to look like this,'" Paul Siskin explains of his work. "My favorite spaces aren't so 'decorated.' I prefer them to evolve." And that's certainly true for Siskin Valls's two-room office—750 square feet in an elegant midtown apartment building.

In Siskin's own office, a ceiling mural taken from a detail of an Italian Renaissance painting dates from the era when his late partner, Perucho Valls, called this space home. So does an English 19th-century keystone: Fitted with a spout, this fragment forms part of a sink in the foyer.

To these relics, Siskin has added more modern finishes and objects. Beneath the ceiling mural, cork walls and metallicized vinyl floor tile act as a foil for a Tulip table by Eero Saarinen and a mid-century floor lamp in silk and wire. And then there are the more eclectic items, such as the antique laboratory glass.

"I hate it when you look at a room, and it's very '70's or very '80's," says the designer, who tends to make choices based on intuition rather than style, character rather than provenance. Working this way, he explains, might be more time-consuming. But to Siskin, it appears, time is not so much a measure as a quality.

Clockwise from left: The head designer in midtown. Siskin's office's ceiling mural, taken from a detail of an Italian Renaissance painting. An English 19th-century keystone fitted with a spout to form a sink in the entryway. Antique laboratory glass in the outer office of the four-person firm. The outer office's Poul Kjaerholm aluminum candelabra and antique test-tube stand, flanking a replica of an English 19th-century clock. An Isamu Noguchi light shade on a custom armature in the outer office.

FLOOR LAMP (HEAD DESIGNERS OFFICE): THROUGH DAVID DUNCAN ANTIQUES. FLOOR TILE: ARONSONS FLOORING. CANDELABRA (OUTER OFFICE): THROUGH ANTIK. CUSTOM ARMATURE: FRAN TAUBMAN METALWORKS; THROUGH MOMA STORE (SHADE). GENERAL CONTRACTOR: FONG CONSTRUCTION.