[calm electronic music]

In New York, overcrowding has always been an issue

in whatever form it takes.

The apartments have been small.

This building is a pre-war building from the 1930s.

Pre-war, people were buying smaller spaces,

but at the same time, being pre-war, spaces was cut up

in a way which wasn't optimized.

So I think we successfully hit

that balance where it's comfortable.

There are moments where slightly confined spaces can be fun.

Good design really is aware that there are expansion

and contraction of spaces.

A sense of compression, I mean,

Frank Lloyd Wright talked a lot about that as in

if it's done right, it's a wonderful experience

as humans occupying and moving through space

and experiencing it.

You only have so much to kind of work with spatially

and then there's a challenge to like unlock

that real potential that I think is a great opportunity

for an architect to revel in in New York. [giggles]

I'm Robert Garneau.

I'm the architect for this renovation.

I am Tracy Underwood.

I'm the shareholder in this building.

Welcome to my 400 square foot apartment in New York.

[mystical bell music]

I came to New York in September of 2021 on a specific trip

to look for an apartment.

This one came on the market right as I was here,

and when I came into the space I kind of had

that feeling like I had to live here.

So thus began the journey of learning like what it's like

to be a shareholder in a pre-war building, which is a co-op,

which is very complex and wonderful,

because you have a lot of interface

with the building management,

and the first person mentioned was Robert.

He lived in this building and had this incredible apartment

that he renovated, and I was sort of immediately struck with

how beautiful and clean his designs are.

Both the apartments that I lived in and renovated previous

to this one are small apartments.

We introduce oftentimes components that are moving.

So the transformer has a sliding wall that divides

and opens up the space.

The pivot apartment has a central wall

that pivots and creates a bedroom.

I think the way that really translates

to this particular apartment that we use a lot is cabinetry,

concealing and revealing your belongings

and structuring space, decluttering, hiding,

and minimal living some ways,

but also with a richness of materiality.

Both Robert and I kind of saw that it was just sort

of a raw space that hadn't really been touched

or renovated in any way for quite some time.

You walked in the bedroom space, which was not enclosed

and had sort of a glass brick wall that was a partition.

That was really the only kind of barrier.

We worked together and really analyzing the space carefully

and then figuring out how to grab space

that wasn't being used very well.

But the beauty of space in this proportions

of this apartment is it's small, but it's intimate.

It's a relationship to us as human beings,

which feels comfortable, because it's also true

that there's a discomfort at some point

when the space is so large that it's just alienating,

and you don't relate to it and acoustically

and thermally just feels off.

The way it's laid out I think makes it feel more spacious.

I love it and I feel really comfortable here.

[bright contemporary music]

This is the bathroom.

We were able to capture more space for this room,

which I was really excited about.

We rearranged everything.

The way this was laid out before was it had sort

of a narrow hallway and then closets on other side.

Robert pitched this design, which I loved, which was kind

of tucking the shower on this side

and then creating a nook for the toilet on this side.

I wanted a feeling like you would be outside.

So I wanted it to feel almost tropical in here,

which I think ended up being represented

with things like the terracotta in particular,

which is something that vibes much more

outside than I think inside.

We landed on the floor tile relatively quickly.

There was a very clear intent that there's an earthen feel

that feels great on your feet, a very natural feel.

We also completely expose the slab to get the maximum height

because there are ducts and piping

and other things happening above this.

Lighting is extremely important in any space,

but certainly in small spaces.

They really help to draw the eye where you kind of want.

It can trick you and psychologically kind of comfort you

to think that the spaces are bigger.

We really do respond emotionally to lighting,

the color of light, but also the brightness

of it in a location.

So in this particular room, we hid some lights

underneath the sink, which is not a common place.

I think it really helps to create the levitation feeling

of the stone block, if you will,

and more importantly, on the end of this space, right,

it's this T-shaped floor plan, we have these light slits

that illuminates the end walls and creates this texture.

So this texture that's glistening

but is also very real three dimensional quality

that the light helps to bring out, the shadow play,

that kind of texture of the tile itself comes to life,

and then the other element of light

that we do have in the rest of the apartment is

in the niches.

So we have this little niche in the shower.

There's another one that's behind the door,

which helps to eliminate those portholes.

Those also help to create that illusion

of an extension of space.

There's some cool hidden elements in here as well.

Just like if you push this cabinet, it pops out,

which is kind of fun.

That kind of sense of discovery in play,

especially in small spaces.

I think it's an important detail.

[calm electronic music]

So we're going into kitchen now,

which is an extension of the living and dining space,

also has some cool transitional elements.

We captured a little more space in this room

from the hallway, but not a lot.

We gave as much as we could to the bathroom.

It's kind of playing off these notions

of the silver and the gold and the mixed metal

and the metal of the windows.

That's a full gas top oven and dishwasher,

which I kind of can't believe I have all those things.

There's nothing here.

This is the back of the shower,

and this is this amazing pantry,

and then it has, yeah, more,

Lots of storage. lots of storage.

So much storage I don't have anything in it,

which is classic, and then a paneled refrigerator,

and then it also has this kind of cool transition area that,

when tucked away as a wall, and then when you open it,

it reveals a hidden space.

[Robert] You reveal it when you need it

or when you're using it,

and you want to draw attention to it,

and functionally when you need additional space.

In a space that's very small,

I think it's important to have clean design

that's not fighting with some

of the other architectural details of the space.

It sort of draws your attention

to like the beams in the ceiling and the windows

and the incredible metalwork everywhere,

but you need to have storage

and these maximize all the space.

I mean, even details like these shelves.

I mean, they're chunky, you know,

but they're really picking up the line of this hood,

which is an off the shelf component,

and they're finished in the same kind of paint to try and,

again, make things integrated and more seamless effectively.

I love that this kitchen had a window, too, to be able

to have the light source coming in, to be able to open it

and have extra ventilation,

and it just has this beautiful view of my neighbor's garden

and trees and water towers.

So it feels very kind of quintessential New York.

Yeah.

[bright electronic music]

We are in the living room now.

The one thing we kind of knew

as we were figuring out the cabinetry was

that the television was gonna go on this side.

So that gave a little bit of a guideline

for this side of the built-in.

The interesting thing about this part

of the cabinet is it's this one of the simplest,

if not the simplest cabinet in the apartment, right?

Because this whole section is just the fixed panel

in the back of the closet.

The TV takes up the other half and minor storage below,

nice open shelving above, mechanical zone above

of the storage to the sides.

To talk a little bit about this monolith

that we affectionately call in terms of the illusion

to monolithic, to engage with it and it's crafted.

It anchors the room on the one hand,

you gravitate around it, but it anchors the space.

There's a lot of sort of signature metal in the space.

The radiator has these incredible old hooks

and then this great old dial,

which is sort of wood and brass.

When I got the apartment, they were rusted over

and then we stripped and took both of the radiators down

to the original steel.

In terms of restoration, that is a good example of

how we were trying to capture the historic nature

of the apartment and celebrate it,

rather than covering it up.

So I wanted to have a bar that could be exposed

and also tucked away.

So that was the inspiration for this design.

So during the day when I'm here typically working,

this space is closed and just looks like a cabinet,

and when it gets to happy hour,

it's fun to open these cabinets and turn on the light,

and it's a very inviting way to have a drink

and know that you're gonna have people over.

The light and the fact that the panel wraps

around the corner into the kitchen really helps to bring

that line back into the other space.

Doing kind of an antique or distressed mirror

to give it a little bit of an aged feeling,

and then the floating shelves with brass detail

are another nod to the brass.

We spent a fair amount of time in the slab yards

when we were looking for the marble

and found this beautiful piece.

So we were able to make a counter here

that we put the LED light in the back.

So it gives it another dimension.

You can just see that it lives

like it's been there the whole time,

but when it's tucked away,

it doesn't look like anything at all.

So we are in my bedroom, which is a very small, cozy space,

but it's great.

It feels a little bit like a perch,

'cause you have this great view out the window.

Where Tracy is now opening the door is a key element

for the project, really, 'cause that becomes the door

to the bedroom.

It unveils the second door, hides a closet,

but also helps to create a diffuse layering of light

because you've got the fluted glass

from floor to ceiling there.

The two custom doors in the apartment were inspired

by a door that I saw in Prague, actually.

We kind of started with that image

and together built around that.

The fluted glass was a thing for privacy,

and then it was Robert's idea to do the brass trim

in such a way that light casts on and off of it.

So it even looks like there's lights inside

of the porthole windows, which there isn't.

It's really the light coming back and forth.

Just knowing that the light was so beautiful in the space,

coming through the windows, capturing it as best we can.

Like we put a mirror in a very specific place across

from a window that's capturing another source of light

and almost creating another window.

And I love the fact that we've created, essentially,

a little reentry from the bedroom,

which gives you the illusion the bedroom is actually

as wide as it is to the door but also creates a buffer,

because ultimately, the space is quite small.

This monolith, it's got a lot of storage into it.

It's two feet deep and allows for a full depth closet,

shelving on this side, and then drawers around this niche.

When you're lying in the bedroom, the room, at first,

maybe feels this deep, but when you are looking

into this additional foot and a half,

really gives you an illusion

that the room is actually much bigger.

It's partially the materiality,

creating a lush focal point of material.

The light plays into it as well, which makes it glow.

[Tracy] It's a design idea,

but it's also a very smart idea,

because where would you put furniture in here?

What's really fun about built-ins like this as opposed

to a piece of furniture item that you put is that,

on the one hand, it can behave

like an architectural element, like a wall,

but adds functionality.

[bright electronic music]

In a way, that space has those moments and those layers.

When the bathroom's not in use, it sort of just disappears.

The bedroom when it's no longer in bedroom mode,

it just kind of opens up.

So when you come home, you see the window at the end,

and it's just a wonderful block

of cabinet that you're seeing there, you know?

Or if you're not really entertaining or cooking a lot,

the kitchen is more paired down, right?

Coming back to this idea, like things get just toned

down a little bit and then they get activated

when you really need them.

New York is very specifically a place where you tend

to not need as much space where you live,

because your life outside of where you live is so expansive.

There's so much going on.

I have found in my experience here that once I get home,

having something that's just like very small actually feels,

kind of, wonderful and comfortable,

because the day-to-day life experience in New York

is so intense and so big and loud,

and I say all those things with love,

but everything I looked at the smaller and more sort

of contained and cozy it was, the more comfortable I was.