Taking cues from boat and furniture design, we transformed this 1,200 sq.ft. penthouse overlooking Gramercy Park into a quietly luxurious and rigorously efficient two-bedroom, two-bath pied-a-terre for our clients that takes advantage of every bit of available space and daylight to create the feel and function of a much larger apartment.  

The project is organized around a forty-foot long ribbed oak wall that leads one from the entry hall to the loft-like living/dining room and kitchen with its wide-open views over the park and skyline.  The wall provides a warm textural backdrop to the space and hides doors to a pantry and media rack, storage cabinet, and the master suite.  Functioning as bespoke furniture, the ribbing and door handles are designed to allow the doors to interlock with the wall with glove-like precision when fully opened.  Windows are framed in statuary marble that reflects light and provides additional subtle texture and warmth.  Hidden cabinets throughout provide a range of storage, including for TVs on motorized lifts and skis.  A narrow reveal at the top of the walls hides the heating and air conditioning and incorporates an invisible picture rail.

Team: Ate Atema, Principal; Carl Mahaney, Project Manager

Consultant 01: ABS Engineering, MEP Engineer

Consultant 02: Mary Young/Ashe + Leandro, Interior Designer

Consultant 03: Bulthaup, Kitchen

Consultant 04: Soundsight Technologies, A/V

General Contractor: Hudson Green Craft

Photography: Fran Parente

We transformed a dark, warren-like 1-bedroom apartment in Greenwich Village into a dynamic, bright 2-bedroom, 2-bath triplex through a series of rigorous design studies followed by successfully guiding the project through a complex co-op board and city approvals process. This unlocked a huge amount of latent value, and has created an inspiring backdrop for our client’s lives.

The space is organized by the staircase that wraps the main floor’s “floating bathroom” to connect the three levels.  This main floor is the public floor with entry hall, kitchen, living and dining rooms.  The husband is a passionate cook, so we outfitted the kitchen with a walk-in pantry, induction cooktop, direct vent hood, and opened it to the double height dining and living room that serves as the social center of the home.  A glass-railed mezzanine with office and reading area looks over these public spaces which open directly onto the new exterior balcony we added via French doors.  Downstairs are two bedrooms that each open to a private outdoor terrace along a generous bathroom and laundry and storage closets.

Team: Ate Atema, Principal; Carl Mahaney, Project Manager

Consultant 01: ABS Engineering, MEP Engineer

Consultant 02: Murray Engineering, Structural Engineer

Consultant 03: JAM Consultants, Expediting and Code Consulting

General Contractor: NR Wood

Photography: Fran Parente

Our San Francisco-based clients bought this Landmarked 1840’s townhouse to allow them to spend more time in New York, and asked us to transform it into a comfortable home for them and their extended family, as well as to serve as a base for hosting events as part of their philanthropic work. 

Taking advantage of the courtyard that separated this former coachmen’s house and carriage house, we reorganized the rooms to pinwheel around it.  As part of this, we rebuilt the “Horsewalk” that connects the two as a greenhouse-like extension of the courtyard with a radiant-heated limestone floor that flows outside via a sixteen-foot wide thermally-broken triple-fold steel and glass door system.  As our clients are bird watchers, we saved a bird-friendly hawthorne tree as the focus of the courtyard, which all the rooms surrounding it look onto. On comfortable days, the entire horsewalk and kitchen can be opened to the courtyard to create a very large, uninterrupted indoor-outdoor space.

Aesthetically, we looked at the house as a historic frame into which we inserted contemporary elements.  The master and guest bedroom suites on the second floor have eleven-foot ceilings and use full-height custom steel and glass walls to create the division between sleeping and bath areas while maintaining a clear sense of the bigger overall space.  The Bulthaup kitchen, inserted into a room with herringbone oak floors and crown mouldings, faces south over the courtyard via a continuation of the steel-and-glass wall system used in the Horsewalk.  HVAC supplies and returns throughout are hidden above the crown mouldings to preserve the feel of the historic frame.

Subtle details add to the character of the house. Unlacquered brass, aged outdoors near the beach to develop a deep patina, is used for plumbing fixtures, and reappears as end caps on stair railings, rear plates on drawer pulls, and thresholds between limestone and white oak floors.  Custom bedside tables hide electrical outlets and USB chargers.  A cascade of glowing spheres on our custom Flos pendant light fixture in the staircase is echoed in the smaller spheres of Michael Anistassides fixtures in the guest bedroom and master bathroom.

Team: Ate Atema, principal; Eugene Tan, senior designer

Consultant 01: MEP Engineer: ABS Engineering

Consultant 02: Structural Engineer: Murray Engineering

General Contractor: Hudson Green Craft

Our Longview House project is a complete transformation of a 1975 ranch house on a 5.9-acre site in Dutchess County into a modern, light-filled, high-performance, and net-zero-ready three-bedroom home.

Longview is located eight minutes from a MetroNorth station connecting directly to Grand Central, twenty minutes from the towns of Millbrook, Millerton, and Sharon, and less than two hours from midtown Manhattan. The land has several mature specimen trees, a small pond connected to a seasonal stream, a dry stone wall and tree line at the bottom of the north lawn along the road, and is bordered by fields to the south and west.

For our transformation, we started by stripping the house to its wood frame skeleton, upgrading the structure, and enclosing it with mineral wool batt insulation, vapor-permeable Zip sheathing, and rigid foamboard insulation. Over this we installed an outer layer of simple pine cladding and a Galvalume metal roof on a rain-screen system that provides a 3/4” gap to ensure constant air flow and drying of the house’s envelope to enhance its long-term energy and moisture management performance and durability.

This is balanced on the inside with an energy-recovery ventilation system that both removes stale air and excess humidity, and filters incoming air, a huge plus for people with allergies that also keeps the house cleaner. All windows are triple-glazed tilt-and-turn units that maximize daylight and provide insulation levels similar to an insulated 2x4 wall, so that on a 10-degree winter day the inside of the glass will still be warm to the touch. Together with the carefully detailed and highly-insulated roof, walls, and foundation, we were able to substantially reduce the size of the house’s heat pumps and thus it’s energy load and heating and cooling costs. And since all appliances and HVAC systems are high-efficiency electric, this integrated design will allow for Longview to be a net-zero house with the addition of a small photovoltaic panel array on the south-facing roof that can connect to the mechanical room electrical panels via the conduit we’ve pre-installed.

We reconfigured the interior layout to orient the public rooms to the south and create a separate zone for three comfortable bedrooms, including a primary suite with sweeping views north across a valley to the ridgeline beyond. A 20’ wall of triple-glazed lift-and-slide doors in the cathedral-ceilinged living/dining/kitchen space floods the space with light and looks out across a deep deck to the south lawn with views to a row of mature trees and the fields and hills beyond. The other two bedrooms include niches for desks, seating, or storage and also have great views. The entry area includes double coat closets, a pantry and separate broom closet, a large laundry closet, and a powder room.

The lower level is an 800sf finished and daylit space with a powder room and wine closet, connecting to a 400sf storage and mechanical room.

This Greenwich Village apartment was designed for a family with young children.  A limited material palette with subtle detailing and an open plan was used to knit together the three floors.  Natural light was extended from the building facade into the habitable spaces of this narrow and deep unit by using interior glazing and transoms.  The unique combination results in a home with a warm but elegant feeling.

Team: Ate Atema, Principal; Carl Mahaney, Project Manager

Consultant 01: ABS Engineering, MEP Engineer

Consultant 02: JAM Consultants, Expediting and Code Consulting

General Contractor: Essential Design + Build

Photography: Fran Parente

Description coming soon.

Team: Ate Atema, Principal; Carl Mahaney, Project Manager

Consultant 01: Robert Rionda, Interior Designer

General Contractor: Rusk Renovations

Photography: Fran Parente

Just west of Central Park, this apartment was opened up to create the sense of a much larger space.  With all rooms connected to Central Park and views of midtown to the south, privacy screens and sliding panels are used to close off areas as needed.   Abundant storage and shelving are carefully woven into each living space for maximum flexibility while minimizing visual clutter. A restrained material palette with refined detailing and a clean ceiling plan maintains a clean but warm look. 

Team: Ate Atema, Principal; Carl Mahaney, Project Manager

Consultant 01: ABS Engineering, MEP Engineer

Consultant 02: JAM Consultants, Expediting and Code Consulting 

General Contractor: Edgewood Carpentry

Photography: Fran Parente

Located within a few blocks of East Hampton's village center and the train station, this existing 4-bedroom 3- bath cottage was gut renovated, re-clad, and a pool was added to maximize the potential of the property while maintaining it historic charm and connection to the surrounding neighborhood.   The open-plan layout provides ample entertaining space, flowing from the kitchen to the dining area and living room with built in bookcase and media center. A wall of French doors opens onto a cedar deck overlooking the bluestone trimmed Gunite pool and shingled pool house with roll up glass-paneled door creating a seamless indoor outdoor entertaining environment. The first floor master bedroom boasts a fireplace and en-suite bath, with two additional guest rooms on the first floor; one of which would be ideal for a corner windowed home office. The second floor is self contained with separate bedroom, bath and large den/playroom; perfect for children or guests. This home has been conceived and executed to provide the maximum enjoyment of Hamptons living with minimum effort with an energy-efficient design, smart layout and exceptionally convenient location.

Team: Ate Atema, Principal; Angie Co, project manager

General Contractor: Dan Loos

Photography: Sotheby's International Realty

Photography: Susan De Vries

In collaboration with Amy Lau Design

Photography: Hulys Kolabas

Description coming soon.

We designed this 6,800 square foot family retreat in northwest Connecticut as a “100-year house” by using high-quality materials and details that will allow the house to age elegantly while requiring a minimum of energy to keep it comfortable in all seasons.   It blends a traditional Shaker-inspired form, durable materials, and common-sense approaches to passive heating and cooling with very modern construction techniques and technologies to achieve these goals, and was awarded a LEED-Silver rating.

The walls and roof of the house are made of structural insulated panels (SIPS,) providing uniformly high insulation throughout without the possibility of moisture getting inside walls.  A custom stainless-steel awning for the living room’s sliding door wall is designed to let winter sun deep into the house while shading it during the summer.  Heating and cooling are provided by a geothermal system, and a heat recovery ventilation system provides controlled fresh air ventilation only where needed.  Materials and finishes were selected to optimize indoor air quality and minimize environmental impact, including sustainably harvested wood for floors and interior trim, water-based finishes and paints, and non-formaldehyde panel materials.

Team: Ate Atema, principal; Angie Co, project manager; Kasia Ehrhardt

Photography: Michael Moran

We organized this one-bedroom Chelsea loft around a forty-two foot long bamboo-clad wall that contains storage, electrical and audio-visual control panels, and a series of pivot doors revealing the bedroom behind.

A focus of this project was its material palette, particularly capturing a sense of substance and gravity within the materials themselves. Large slabs of stone are used extensively: honed Crow’s Foot granite on most of the kitchen’s counters, Absolute Black granite on the kitchen floor, and honed statuary white marble for the bathroom floor and tub area. The Kitchen’s sink area is a unitized, seamless stainless steel fabrication. The bamboo wall is made using 3/4” tongue-and-groove flooring material laid vertically over an MDF core substrate. The wall that divides the kitchen from the bathroom and becomes the bathroom’s rear wall is clad in long thin green-grey Luxor stone tile, detailed with deep niches and thick wall ends to reinforce its substantiality.

The kitchen is open to the main space, while the bathroom is hinted at behind a full-height translucent glass wall, allowing daylight in and glowing at night. Cabinetry is custom fabricated, with a high-gloss polyester paint finish, while large-radiused edges and corners increase their sense of mass.

Team Ate Atema, principal; Nina Gotlieb, project manager

General Contractor: Concept General Contracting

Photography: MIchael Moran