Best of Year: Apartment

Annie Block -- Interior Design, 12/1/2010 4:31:00 PM

Firm: Shelton, Mindel Associates
Location: New York

Creating a duplex penthouse from 2,500 square feet of raw space at a building by Ateliers Jean Nouvel, Interior Design Hall of Fame members Peter Shelton and Lee Mindel decided that the stunning curtain wall, with its large-scale aluminum frame, would inform their work inside. Thus, a two-story stack of interlocking volumes pulls away from the windows, leaving them in plain view. Hugging the double-height perimeter that results from this major move are living and dining areas furnished courtesy of Poul Henningsen, Poul Kjaerholm, Arne Jacobsen, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Jean Prouvé. Meanwhile, the volumes’ white-lacquered- surfaces and walnut- paneling conceal the study, guest suite, and powder room. Shelton and Mindel tucked the open kitchen beneath an overhang formed by the upstairs master suite. Because its ceiling is still more glass, the designers provided some shade and intimacy by suspending a panel of painted MDF overhead. This bright yellow rectangle also plays a more cerebral role, recalling the spatial explorations of Gerrit Rietveld and Theo Van Doesburg.

Merit Winners:


Firm: Architecture in Formation
Site: New York
Standout: The angularity of original concrete columns and new plasterboard walls, all painted a brilliant white, contrasts with the mellow mahogany floorboards of this bachelor pad.


Firm: D’Aquino Monaco
Site: New York
Standout: Eliminating prewar-style service corridors and crown moldings, a renovation made way for Italian and French 20th-century furnishings and international contemporary art.


Firm: Walzworkinc
Site: Los Angeles
Standout: Inspired by Richard Diebenkorn, whose studio was once a few blocks away, walls color-washed in milk paint transform this compact condominium into artwork in its own right.