February 2013
KEEPING IT PERSONAL
Getting down to details, with P&T Interiors
At Best & Company we take pride in partnering with designers like Pol G. Theis, who know that the best interiors combine beauty and personality with a serious respect for the way things function.
“Clients come to P&T because they are looking for personalized service,” says the designer. As the founder of the Manhattan-based design firm P&T Interiors, Theis makes it his mission to gap the boundaries between a client’s vision, the strengths and weaknesses of a particular space, and the realities of everyday life. “None of my designs is ever generic,” says Theis.
As one of the most respected general contracting and construction management teams in the region, Best & Company understands that the lofts, apartments, and additions we design and build are places where real life takes place. So, whether we’re custom-building a new kitchen with a banquette designed to multitask as a dining/office/homework zone or we’re crafting custom doors and mouldings in Best & Company’s local millwork shops, our goal is always to create a timeless space that will improve the lives of the people who live in it.
We know that the closer attention we pay to each and every detail, the better the big picture will be.
When we asked Pol Theis to tell us his favorite room to design, we discovered his philosophy reflects Best & Company’s perfectly. He picked…well, watch this and see for yourself.
Interior Design: P&T Interiors
Photography: Courtesy of P&T Interiors
LOFTY EXPECTATIONS
There’s a lot to love about living in a loft like the one Best & Company recently renovated in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Hip urban neighborhood. Historic roots. Huge windows. Free-flowing living spaces. And that’s just for starters.
The challenge is: How do you maintain a loft’s bright, “open” feeling while introducing the kind of dedicated work/play spaces, privacy, peace, and quiet a modern family of five needs to function at its best?
That’s the riddle Best & Company helped solve for the owners of this gut-renovated Ninth Avenue duplex.
Working with Damon Liss Design and architect Nancy Nienberg, of the Brooklyn-based design studio wUNDERground, we linked apartments on two levels of the six-story, zinc-clad addition that rises from the Porter House, a converted 1905 warehouse in Manhattan’s historic Meatpacking District.
For many young urban families, a spacious loft apartment is the modern equivalent of the suburban “dream house.” But getting from fantasy to reality means finding creative ways to preserve the industrial-era loft’s vast open spaces while introducing a sense of warmth, comfort, organization, and—where needed and wanted—peace, privacy, and quiet.
To achieve that delicate balance here, we gutted both levels to the bare bones. A graceful walnut and steel staircase with ebonized balusters—crafted in Best & Company’s own millwork shops—now connects the two levels to form a cohesive 3,600-square-foot duplex. The lower level functions as the family’s primary domain, with a large eat-in-kitchen, an adjoining playroom, and an open living/dining area. Boxed-and-trimmed steel structural columns define the open living/dining area, while pocket doors slide to reveal or conceal the kitchen from the playroom and living/dining area, as needed.
Upstairs are the family’s four bedrooms (one for each of the three young children and a master suite), along with a laundry room and a wide hall fitted with a streamlined work/play area, custom-built of walnut by Best & Company.
Inventive storage—and plenty of it—is an especially wise investment in a loft, because it helps to create that clean, open look we fantasize about, yet find hard to achieve if there is nowhere to put our "stuff." Here, the designers made every effort to make use of often-wasted areas in passageways, under the staircase, and in the tiled bathrooms—all fitted with custom cabinetry by Best & Company.
We kept the interior green—a priority of the client—by using health-conscious systems and materials, including natural marble, low-VOC paints, and recycled-denim insulation that improves the zinc-clad structure’s acoustics, saves energy, resists mold, and installs safely. Significant effort was put into improving the thermal and acoustical performance of the structure’s zinc clad exterior walls: CityProof windows were installed along the apartment’s street side. We also installed systems to improve overall air and water quality—a variety of filters for drinking water tap, showers, and humidifiers. And existing mechanicals were retrofitted with “air scrubbers.”
Overall, the pale oak-plank floors (milled in Best & Company’s workshops), a cool palette, and the strategic placement of storage and mirrors contribute to keeping the light flowing throughout this elegant but informal space.
This urban loft is a dream home built to stand up to the realities of modern life: Some decorative elements and space functions may change as the family grows over time—but the Best & Company millwork and construction will always live up the owners’ lofty expectations.
General Contractor: Best & Company NYC
Interior Design: Damon Liss
Architectural Design/Millwork Design: Nancy Nienberg, wUNDERground
Photography: Trevor Tondro