The view arrived first. Nearly 180 degrees of Manhattan across the Hudson from Hoboken, ceilings well above the usual, glass along the whole east wall.
That was the problem to solve. A room built around a view can become a lookout rather than a place to live, and the bigger the glass, the colder the volume reads. The brief was warmth without giving up an inch of skyline.
The first move was to give the living room a back. Sixteen feet of Nero Marquina marble and dark oak now run the inside wall, holding the television and, more to the point, holding the room. With something that solid behind you, the window stops being the only thing in the space.
The second was to break the seating into groups. One long arrangement would have read as a hotel lobby. Instead, several low Minotti pieces sit in conversation with each other, kept low so nothing competes with the water. Texture went onto the remaining walls for the same reason: it absorbs light where glass throws it back.
Dining for ten sits at the window with a reading corner beside it, under a Siemon and Salazar crystal chandelier that turns the table into a room of its own after dark. Behind it, a SieMatic kitchen in wood, stone and polished metal does its work quietly.
A smaller den off the main room runs the same idea at a quieter volume, with its own window, this one framing the Empire State Building.
Modern crown molding and Jonathan Browning brass and crystal carry the same language down the hallways, and the powder room, Sugar White marble floor to ceiling with mirrored walls, is the one place the apartment is allowed to show off.
Guests still look out first. Then they sit.
See the full project: Hoboken Penthouse.