Kim Sargent
Feature: Au Natural
May 1, 2007
If Shakespeare had written
Henry VI today, the motive behind his mirthful, "The first thing we do, let’s kill
all the lawyers," would be crystalline clear: He’d have wanted their office
space. That is, if he were living in New York and aware of this loft in Tribeca,
formerly housing U.S. Attorney offices, now home to management consultant James
T. Root, his wife, Eva Chen, and their two toddlers.
Top: The entrance hall. Bottom: The living room has an elegant mix of
furnishings. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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For Root and Chen, criminal intent was fortunately unnecessary;
fast action, however, was. Manhattan’s real-estate market was running full
gallop, and Chen was nearing the home stretch of her second pregnancy. "I called
Sabrina, and she was here in 15 minutes," says Chen, referring to interior
designer Sabrina Balsky, who, with husband and business partner Peter S. Mason,
designed Chen and Root’s previous loft. What Balsky found on that initial visit
was a 3,600-square-foot white box with 34 windows facing four exposures, a
code-ready tabula rasa awaiting not just an aesthetic imprint but a physical
footprint as well.
A mere decorator might have balked, but not Balsky, who studied interior
design and fine art at Canada’s York University and Mount Royal College before
establishing her namesake company in Toronto in 1981 and opening offices in New York in 1999 and Florida in 2006. For she and Mason, who
holds a degree in interior architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design
and joined the company in 2003, the project’s scope was ideal. "With our skills,
there’s no disconnect between architecture and design," says Balsky, noting that
most of their projects include complete build-outs, and that many of their
clients seek the firm’s opinion prior to purchasing a new property.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
The dining room painting is by Yusuf Arakkal. (Click image to enlarge)
In this case, the client’s requirements were conceptual as well
as concrete. Chen and Root wanted a kitchen and an office that could be closed
off from the rest of the apartment, and a floor plan that would feel less like a
loft and more like a traditional home. Balsky and Mason deemed all doable, and
proceeded to divide the space into two wings—a master suite and home office in
one, and the discrete kitchen, conjoined living and dining rooms, and children’s
and guest rooms in the other. The elegant, not-so-simple solution has proved
exceedingly easy to live with. "It’s very much our wing and the rest of the
house," says Chen. "We can go directly into the office in the middle of the
night or early in the morning without disturbing the kids or guests."; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
The hallway leading to the master bedroom is
softened by a sheepskin rug, a favorite of the couple’s children. The 16th-century buddha is from China’s Yunan province. (Click image to enlarge)
That degree of consideration, hardly happenstance, is carefully calibrated.
"We think of how our clients live their lives, and create spaces through
interior architecture that supports bespoke lifestyles," says Mason. The list of
ponderables ranges from the quotidian to the grand occasion. "A wonderful
advantage of the office’s location is it has become the repository for handbags,
keys, wallets, all of which are out of the bedroom," says Chen, the office
smoothing the transition from the outside world to the private realm, and
leaving rooms such as the bedroom free to perform their intended functions, Blackberry- and briefcase-free—and with better Feng
Shui.
Top: A painting by Rekha Rodwittya hangs in the
master bedroom. Bottom: The master bathroom is outfitted in rosewood and
marble. (Click images to enlarge); function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
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Flow and functionality are likewise found in the public rooms.
"When James and Eva entertain, it’s with staff," says Mason, explaining the need
for a closed kitchen to confine cooking smells and prep areas. But the couple
prefers the parties themselves to be more casual and contemporary than Park
Avenue petrified. Hence the combined dining and living rooms, the two areas
articulated (but not obstructed) by the rooms’ architecture: The dining room’s
ceiling is flush with the flat, or lowest point, of the living room’s coffers.
"Whenever possible I prefer to build in architecture," says Balsky, pointing to
the coffered ceilings also in the bedroom and sitting room and the substantial,
five-inch window frames in the office.
It is the loft’s interiors, however, that most clearly illustrate the couple’s love of exotic materials and the design team’s love of working with them in ways that emphasize authenticity and artistry. "We don’t like fake materials," declares Balsky, stating a company credo. "No melamine, no laminate, no false anything if we can help it. And we make every effort to protect a material’s natural characteristics." Unstained, richly veined African tigerwood and rosewood are found throughout the loft, from the customized radiator surrounds with their nickel-plated grills, to custom cabinetry in the kitchen, master suite and office—a tour de force of tigerwood walls, bookshelves, cabinets and desks.
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