Deborah Berke & Partners Architects (DBPA) currently provides interior design for the Laureate, an Upper West Side New York City apartment house currently under construction. The design of the new building’s 76 homes mixes the comfort of traditional elements with a fresh sensibility that acknowledges how modern families live today. The graciousness of the apartments, rooted in the neighborhood’s heritage of pre-war buildings, blends seamlessly with serene and modern elements.
Remaining faithful to the surrounding architecture in material and scale, the intimate 20-story Laureate takes the essence of New York’s greatest pre-war apartments and improves upon it. With the finest partnerships in construction, engineering, architecture and design, it has been designed from the outside in and the inside out, a design that mines every inch of space to its fullest potential.
The overall approach to conceiving the Laureate represents the DBPA approach: a healthy, happy mix of modern with traditional elements.
“The traditional elements give people comfort, assurance and sense of recognition for their environment,” Berke said, “while the modern elements respond to the fact that we are in the 21st
Century, and living at home is much different
than it was a hundred years ago. The Laureate is exactly that. It represents the best New York City apartments in terms of structuring a lifestyle, but it’s been updated to accommodate a freshness and an acknowledgement of contemporary life.”
with Deborah Berke
The Upper West Side is one of New York’s most iconic neighborhoods, with a tradition of grand apartment buildings that feature great layouts, oversized bathrooms and beautiful detailing. Berke used the very foundation of the area as an inspiration for the apartment’s interiors. One of the most important elements within the apartments, according to Berke, is the entry hall, which exudes a sense of arrival.
“You don’t come in and spill into the living room,” she said. “You actually come into a space that has a distinct floor pattern, an overhead light fixture, a gracious place to greet your friends. It’s a spaciousness upon arrival that leads to a spacious feeling for the whole apartment. From the entry, you experience a series of spaces, one flowing into the next. The rooms are really gracious, carefully laid out to be furnished and light-filled.”
DBPA also custom-designed oversized solid core residence and interior door hardware, bathroom fittings and plumbing fixtures, and kitchens that feature oversized Viking & Sub-Zero appliances. Many kitchens are eat-in and oversized with butcher block and storage islands.
The bottom line, according to Berke: These extraordinary spaces that comprise the building’s resident-only amenities are an experience meant to feel like an extension of the private home.