West 12th Street Residence | Gabellini Sheppard Associates

This 2,000 square-foot penthouse residence with panoramic views of lower Manhattan represents one of Gabellini’s first significant minimalist projects. An environment of functional simplicity is conceived spatially as two white volumes connected by a white marble stair. These hovering volumes are defined by a reductive palette of white French plaster walls and ceilings and honed white Sivec marble floors slabs that emphasize the luminosity of the volumes and the transcendent malleability from day to evening. In this way, light is seen as the temporal and transforming element of the spare contemplative space. Openly connecting the living room to the bedroom on the lower level, the stair, conceived as a floating ribbon, is composed of a sequence of cascading marble platforms supported on a single steel riser winding gracefully and rhythmically from one space to another. Throughout the apartment, the calm tranquility is reflected in all design elements from the bath to the display of art.