Duane Street Penthouse
A full-floor residence for a family of four, arranged in the order of light — morning rooms east, evening rooms west, and a kitchen at the center of everything.
The clients asked for calm without coldness — a home that could absorb two careers, two children, and a grand piano without ever looking staged. We stripped the floor plate back to its columns and rebuilt it around light: limestone underfoot, rift-sawn white oak on the walls, unlacquered brass wherever a hand lands.
Every piece of storage is behind the paneling, so the rooms hold only what the family chooses to see. The palette never rises above a whisper — bone, oat, umber — which is precisely why the view of the Hudson, and the people in the room, carry the color.
“We built the quiet first. The family brought the noise, which is exactly the right order.”