A Beaux Arts Apartment in NYC Is Transformed Into a History-Referencing Pied-à-Terre

The nearly yearlong abatement process also allowed the “extremely health-minded” family to envision an entirely new space, sprawling at 4,000 square feet, with a focus on wellness and a restoration of the architectural details they’d originally been sold on. (As Brown points out, “Every single wall came down in the apartment in the end.”) The designer collaborated with environmental biologists and electricians as well as other pros hired to advise on sustainable, health-grade products.

From a design perspective, the edict was a layered home respectful of the building’s storied roots. Sourcing visits spanned the globe from Paris’s treasure-filled flea markets to Stockholm’s Bukowskis auction house. The wife, says Brown, “didn’t want to feel like the apartment was born yesterday. She wanted it to feel like she was enjoying the architectural elements of an old apartment, whether it be in New York or Paris.” Consider the original 18-to-20-inch base moldings in the living room, an element the client had first fallen in love with but that were all but wiped out. “We tried to be as authentic as possible, all while affording us the license to interpret something different, like the moldings [appearing to be] pouring onto the wall,” says Brown of her technique, “a more modern interpretation of all the formal moldings that had been there.”

Brown’s considered approach—referencing the apartment’s architectural forebears while starting, quite literally, from the ground up—took hold and drove the process. “It was both a science project as well as this historical replication model,” reflects the designer, citing the many current interpretations on the very details that had to be sacrificed. “As we built back the apartment,” she affirms, “we built back better.”