01
harlemrectory
Balance of art
GRT Architects converted the rectory's office at St. Thomas' Church in Harlem into a family home and the studio of a world-renowned artist. This renovation is a milestone in GRT's ongoing dialogue with New York City's historic buildings. It represents a new scale of material and spatial innovation that has had an impact on a century-old building.
Climbing up the stairs, the first step is a living room facing the street, where two floors are combined into one, and the changes in the walls are reminiscent of the previous division. The designer designed a monumental pointed arch window for this room, which is the only public-facing symbol of this unique space. In a visually simple and technically complex extension, the designers combined the two windows into one, retaining the remnants of the cut window sills and arched lintels to attest to the history of the building, and extended this approach to the repair of brownstone, using subtle contrasting colors to distinguish the old from the new. The sense of expansiveness implied by the staircase and the sense of space experienced in the living room are balanced in different intimate spaces.
Without destroying the building's nineteenth-century character, we insulated it in all directions, hiding a large number of steel frames to reinforce the existing brick structure, while opening up its interior and exterior. We seamlessly integrate many features to enhance comfort and safety, and to create a suitable environment for our clients' personal collections of many unique artworks.
The roof of the rectory's office was raised to create a studio that could accommodate works up to 14 feet high, as well as a suite for friends and collaborators. While this level is used differently than the domestic space below, it is visually and ausceptibly connected by a shaft that leads directly to the entrance level.
02
east village apartment
Innovation
GRT Architects has completely renovated the apartments, rethinking the layout of the apartments while preserving turn-of-the-century looks. This space is neither open nor closed. The designer designed a series of new rooms based on the client's lifestyle, separated by decorative parquet floors, with sightlines, proximity and function tailored to the client's needs.
The designer moved the kitchen to the diagonal of the apartment. According to the custom of the 19th century, kitchens used to be limited to the most undesirable windows and could not communicate with other spaces. The designers reversed this situation by recreating three separate rooms, the kitchen, the living room and the dining room, each with its own mood.
Functional elements are used to create a semi-open kitchen. A suspended storage system separates the kitchen from the dining room. Designers mix simple materials with different textures and colors to create a playful and functional kitchen. The satin white countertop helps blur the lines between cooking and living spaces, complementing the adjacent walls.
The cabinets, including the custom oversized handles, are made locally from white oak. All of the hard surfaces feature two-inch mosaics, a nod to the ornate tiled ornamentation of the building's public spaces. A sculptural island is home to a full range of appliances, creating an abstract backdrop for the dining table.
Original house type
Project layout