From fashion to floor plans: In a trend that’s likely to get any style-loving home buyer looking twice, some of the newest luxury residential buildings in New York happen to have renowned designers behind them who previously cut their teeth creating stores for some of the world’s chicest fashion houses.
Take 109 East 79th Street, for example, a 20-story building on the Upper East Side that has nods to Art Deco, midcentury, and Bauhaus design. With 32 units ranging from two to five bedrooms, it’s one of a handful of residential buildings designed by Steven Harris, who designed the Dolce & Gabbana stores in St. Bart’s and on the Via Condotti in Rome and parts of the Barneys stores in New York and Beverly Hills. Sales are expected to launch this fall, and prices will likely start at $5.35 million.
AD100 frequenter Steven Harris is the mastermind behind the new East 79th Street complex.
In speaking about this commercial work, Harris says that he was striving to create stores with an intimate feel that emulated being in a home. “We wanted the opposite of a conventional retail store,” he says. “Many of these elements have translated into my work at 109 East 79th.”
Harris wanted apartments that felt like houses and flowed effortlessly from one room to another. They have fewer but larger rooms compared with other new buildings in New York, he says, and oversized but not floor-to-ceiling windows. “They’re grand and personal at the same time and ideal for two people or 40 in the same way that the retail spaces I did are,” he says.
17 Jane Street is another example of a building whose designer has a background in bringing fashion stores to fruition. Architect Sir David Chipperfield created a modern aesthetic that includes cream tones, light woods, and elements of marble. In addition to work that includes residential, cultural, and civic projects around the world, Chipperfield designed Valentino’s store on Fifth Avenue in 2014. His condo project in New York has seven residences including two townhouses with private backyards and a large duplex penthouse.
The culinary lounge at One Manhattan Square designed by Mayer David Studio, also the creative force behind Oscar de la Renta’s boutiques.
