New York Town House

摘要

Many of us may dream of living in a beautifully composed work of art. Yet with many Midcentury Modern houses, living in a masterpiece can be a cold, unwelcoming experience—full of simple elegance, but lacking the essential warmth that makes a home most livable. With a recent project on New York City's Upper East Side, New York-based Alexander Gorlin Architects undertook the challenge of converting a stylish, yet standoffish, Modernist town house into an updated, welcoming retreat. Gorlin and his firm rebuilt the 6,000-square-foot house around the core of a 1957 Modernist residence designed by little-known architect Paul Mitarachi. Set back considerably from the street, the original two-story building had its promising components, including an expansive, elegant first-floor space with travertine marble floors and large windows. But as Gorlin notes, the original architect and client appeared to run out of money and perhaps inspiration to make the dream a reality. The other floors were small, cluttered, and allowed little sun inside. They were darkest in all the wrong places: The kitchen sat in the basement, while the upper floors had smaller windows letting in slivers of light. "You went up to the second floor, and you thought you were going to a basement," says Gorlin. "The house had an inverted feeling; the higher you got, the darker it got."