New York, USA
Problem – It isn’t often that an architect gets a chance to rethink a space designed some 18 years ago. The challenge was to open up a pre-war Architectural enclosure that could withstand a modernist insertion and accommodate a comprehensive contemporary art collection.
The Art of Making It by SheltonMindel, received an 2025 American Architecture Honourable Mention from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
Solution – The reservoir and Fifth Avenue exposures are articulated with an alternating system of double and single fenestrations to mitigate the original staccato rhythm of the repetitive windows. Special commission works are scaled to the space itself. For example, the John Armledder art piece expands the entire South facing wall and harmoniously converses with the framed views and other artworks by iconic and emerging artists.
A series of bedrooms line the gallery, with articulated millwork on one side and artwork on the other. The entry to each of the bedrooms is framed in a Josef Albers-like manipulation of color and Bridget Riley-inspired rugs. The mutation of the primary colors in the three spaces creates a sympathetic response to the palette of the art that surrounds it. A blue, pink-red, and yellow-gold, all versions of the primaries, create a consistent hue and portals of color that embrace the uniquely characteristic more intimate private spaces. The gallery sequence of the private spaces culminates in the primary bedroom, whose palette is inspired by the Manhattan sunset.
Many of the furnishings in the contiguous living/dining/media space designed by SheltonMindel take a purposeful back seat to iconic furnishings and art.
The space for heating and ventilation previously housed in the kitchen was replaced with an Edward Hopper-like booth that draws inspiration from his paintings.
The result of these gestures is a space that elevates living and building to an art form that relays familiar narratives, creating comfort for the eyes and the soul. What a joy it is to make art in the celebration of Architecture, Interiors, and the film, ‘The Art of Making It’.
Architects: SheltonMindel
Client: Private
Photographers: Michael Moran
