A balanced, contemporary Upper West Side apartment designed by Messana O’Rorke (MO’R) is one of the several projects by the New York architecture firm featured in a new Rizzoli monograph entitled Building Blocks, and out this month. The space, conceived especially for luxury skincare and fragrance brand Malin + Goetz founders Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz, blends the practice's knack for modern minimalist architecture, New York history, and its owners' distinctive aesthetic and needs and the resulting apartment interior blends past and present, simplicity and refined decor.
The apartment is located in an existing block of flats, which MO’R meticulously redesigned. Past and present meet in a new floor in a reclaimed oak herringbone pattern, restored plaster relief moulding, and preserved original windows, creating links between this fresh take and the building's heritage. Meanwhile, modernist furniture finds alongside new, bespoke pieces, such as sleek, built-in storage, highlight the owners' contemporary identity.
Following the wellness-orientated Malin + Goetz ethos, the Upper West Side apartment's bathroom areas were a focal point for the design. In line with the brand's modern apothecary approach, these spaces were composed using clean, minimalist blocks of Carrara marble, a grey-tinted mirror, and bath fixtures and hardware of unlacquered brass. A slender floor-to-ceiling cabinet offers plenty of storage space.
‘Much like the Malin + Goetz boutiques that we’ve designed, in which a single vintage display element subtly offsets the taut architectural envelope, the furnishings and interior appointments here bridge the traditional and the modern. This is a home that finds beauty and luxury in simplicity, a place at peace with both history and the here and now,' the architects said.
Architects Brian Messana and Toby O’Rorke recently celebrated their studio's 25th anniversary, which the monograph marks by taking the reader through a journey across 25 of the practice's projects – ranging from housing to commercial and conceptual work. The book includes a foreword by architect Thomas Phifer, and immaculate photography by Stephen Kent Johnson. 'Minimalism is not the solution. It is the guise under which complexity is best hidden,' the partners write.
INFORMATION
-
All hail the arrival of true autonomy? On Tesla’s proposed Robotaxi and techno-insecurityTesla’s new marketing push predicts a future of robot cabs, automated buses and autonomous home androids. We already want to get off
-
Discothèque perfumes evoke the scent of Tokyo in the year 2000As Discothèque gets ready to launch its first perfume collection, Mary Cleary catches up with the brand’s founders
-
This unassuming London house is a radical rethinking of the suburban homeStation Lodge by architect Andrei Saltykov in South West London offers a radical subversion to regional residential architecture
-
Gardens & Villas offers the unexpected through ‘deconstructed’ desert living in CaliforniaGardens & Villas, a home in La Quinta, California, brings contemporary luxury to its desert setting through a collaboration between architects Andrew McClure and Christopher McLean
-
First look inside 62 Reade Street, a clock factory turned family home62 Reade Street, a boutique New York residential project by architects ODA, unveils its first apartment interior, styled courtesy of Hovey Design
-
Paul Rudolph at The Met: ‘from Christmas lights to megastructures’‘Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph’ opens at the Met in New York, exploring the modernist master's work through a feast of an exhibition
-
Jewel Box is a Californian project of small scale and big impactJewel Box by Red Dot Studio is the reimagining of a Californian 20th-century gem through a creative addition
-
Germane Barnes exhibition explores notions of classical architecture and identityGermane Barnes exhibition 'Columnar Disorder' opens at the Art Institute of Chicago
-
Omaha’s Joslyn Art Museum's newest addition effortlessly complements the institution’s existing complexThe third addition to Joslyn Art Museum is designed by Snøhetta, which opted for voluminous common spaces and illuminating atriums
-
Morning Dove in Twentynine Palms combines earth construction and otherworldly desert viewsMorning Dove by Homestead Modern in Twentynine Palms offers a striking landscape and rammed-earth construction for idyllic desert escapes
-
Larry Booth's 'House of Light' showcases an impeccable slice of postmodernist heritageA 1980s Larry Booth-designed Chicago townhouse on a narrow plot is a striking example of his author's work, set alongside the city’s postmodernist archive
