This month's Architectural Digest showcases the recently renovated New York penthouse of media heiress Anne Hearst and writer Jay McInerney. McInerney, a novelist and Wall Street Journal wine critic, says he's always wanted to own a penthouse in Greenwich Village—"I remember as a kid seeing movies from the '20s and '30s, when the penthouse was this new concept that encapsulated the glamour of living in New York," he told AD—so in 2007, the high society duo dropped $3.2M on a two-bedroom on East 9th Street. But the couple's dream home turned out to be structurally shot, with tall ceilings and terraces that became "siren charms," as AD writes. The place was "scantily insulated," and two rooms weren't really rooms at all, but rather glassed-in terraces that made for a "bone-chilling" environment in winter. "It was like a houseboat on the verge of sinking. The wind whistled through it," McInerney says.
So the couple recruited legendary interior designer and architect Robert Couturier, who had previously built Hearst's Hamptons house, to repair and refurbish the apartment. Fixing the leaky, drafty unit was just one part of the deal, Couturier was also tasked with combining Hearst's penchant for classical decor and antiques with the "stricter and more streamlined taste" of her husband. The result? Artsy and eclectic, but unmistakably expensive, interiors, with a blue study filled with photographs of McInerney's literary inspirations (F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Jack Kerouac) and a sitting room with velvet club chairs and window shades Couturier designed himself. Do have a look above.
· Jay McInerney and Anne Hearst's sunny Greenwich Village apartment [Architectural Digest]
· All The Printed Page posts [Curbed National]
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