This is the third project that we’ve done with these clients. The first was twenty years ago when we designed the interiors of their 1895 Carpenter Gothic house in Newton Massachusetts (Putnam Street House). Fifteen years later we designed a weekend house for them in Truro, a small town at the tip of Cape Cod (Seashore House). In 2025, with their children grown and on their own, they sold the Newton house and moved to an aerie in the South End of Boston that was built in and above a stone church.

A floor to ceiling glass wall runs along the length of fifty-foot-long living space. When they bought the apartment, it was a stark design that included a white lacquer kitchen and a long charcoal gray feature wall opposite the windows. Our goal was to create a place that was warm and modern, an urban version of their Truro house.

The anchor for the architectural aesthetics is a fluted white oak cabinet that runs the length of the living space and contains books, storage, a small bar, and a concealed TV. The kitchen has flush oak cabinets and a backsplash of handmade tiles from Bantam Tileworks in Connecticut. The countertop along the wall is concrete. The island is made of painted steel panels with a Vermont Structural Slate countertop. The glossy painted floors throughout are aubergine.

Within this envelope the furnishings are a hyper-eclectic range of objects that are unified by their impeccable craftsmanship. A large curved green boucle sofa is in the center of the space. The seating area near the entry has 1970’s leather lounge chairs surrounding a Piet Hein Eek coffee table. The Sawkille dining table has bronze inlays. A metal screen from Obsolete in Los Angeles runs along the bottom of the stair to the roof deck.

The apartment is sophisticated and urbane, providing a comfortable respite from the city streets below.