Today in Manhattan penthouse porn: this shining, sterile, 20,000-square-foot duplex gutted and rebuilt by architect Eran Chen and paraded by Arch Digest. If, in perusing AD's photos, you're getting the impression that the place, as white and slick as a beluga whale, boasts about as much hominess as a high-brow art gallery, well, you'd be about right. Per the magazine, Chen "focused on the connection between the spectacle of the urban landscape and the gallery-like quality of the space," punctuating the gleaming, sharp-edged interiors with art by Ai Weiwei (a hill of porcelain sunflower seeds), a reflecting pool (above) "fed by a 32-foot waterfall," a full-scale rice paper teahouse "assembled on-site by Japanese craftsmen," and an Italian light fixture "like a twinkling tornado" that consumes the ample airspace in the living room.
The urbane art does not end at the sculpture garden entrance hall. The library boasts a Picasso, while the master bedroom houses a Marc Chagall painting. In the living room (?) an Angora-goatskin rug softens the polished aesthetic, while the red lacquer cabinetry in the kitchen adds a distinct pop of color. The windows are understandably huge, considering the view: "How both the city and the art were going to be seen and experienced was very important to the rationale of how the home was going to function," he told AD.
· An Asian-Inflected New York Penthouse [Architectural Digest]
· All The Printed Page [The Printed Page]
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