Kindred Spirits

Ask Dean Maltz what makes the perfect project, and he has three answers: a great site, a great budget, and, most important, a great client.

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 3/1/2011 6:13:00 PM

Ask Dean Maltz what makes the perfect project, and he has three answers: a great site, a great budget, and, most important, a great client. "During the economic downturn, those types of clients were few and far between. The projects that made us feel best about what we do were residential, working for appreciative owners to design spaces for family and entertaining," he says. And he calls the couple who hired Dean Maltz Architect to gut-renovate their New York duplex "perhaps the two best clients of my career-working with them was an honor." He found it particularly gratifying to discover­ a shared interest in exploring interesting new materials.

It was panels of honeycomb acrylic that allowed him to overcome a key drawback of the 2,000-square-foot space: the upstairs master bathroom's windowless internal placement, needed to give the bedroom maximum natural light. Obstacles, of course, are merely innovations waiting to happen. To enclose the bathroom without making it feel boxed in, he built an entire wall from the translucent panels, patterned to resemble jeweled­ droplets. Sunshine passes through discreetly to supplement the bathroom's incandescent­ and halogen fixtures. Seen from the den, right outside, the bathroom becomes a freestanding architectural element, while occupants' silhouettes blend in with the play of light and shadow.