Skyhouse is the penthouse that David Hotson has restructured in one of the oldest buildings in New York and overlooking Frank Gehry's Beekman Tower.
A steel tube slide goes through the four floors on which the apartment develops. Never used before as a home, it has been renovated by creating a quadruple height living room, an glazed attic window and interior balconies.
The penthouse project involved a complete re-visitation of the interiors and of all the significant relations between this space and the “vertical” urban landscape around it.
The (young and athletic!) residents can safely begin their descent from the top of the house – an attic surrounded by a window – using the polished stainless steel chute which, after being wrapped around a column and a window, makes a 'short break' before descending to the next level or to access the rooms on this floor. At the end of the 'descent', the stainless steel surface opens like a fan creating a distorting mirror at the edge of the living room. The youngest, or least athletic guests, can always opt for a classic (and always helpful!) “multi-faceted” stairwell.
“This is a complex interior with a series of scenic elements” explained Hotson. “The interior staircase climbs from the centre of the house up four floors, while the slide provides a quick 'return trip' down.”
The interior design was in collaboration with Ghislaine Viñas who used saturated and glowing colours, off-scale floral patterns, ironic lighting equipment and clever pop culture references that create a surprising and playful interior that plays down the austere architecture of the building.
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