The cooktop and oven are Miele, the counter-top is Caesarstone, and the refrigerator is Liebherr.
The home’s interior design, featured in Vogue and widely celebrated, was an unusual foray into residential surrealism by Le Corbusier and his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret.
Though the home is expansive, the team made certain to waste as little space as possible. Clever moments of storage, like this sliding shoe closet, abound.
By foregoing a fixed dining table in favor of a large American walnut wood countertop by Cuisine Elysee, the couple is able to enjoy a open space with a clear view of the back of the house and the garden terrace outside.
Berkus has gone through over 1,000 renovations in his career and has learned some key design lessons along the way. “I have such a passion for discovering and reusing vintage building materials and architectural savage,” Berkus says. “In my last home in New York, I found a set of four doorknobs with locks from Belgium in the 1940s and I had iron glass doors installed to work around them. I knew myself to know that the knobs I touched everyday would be something meaningful to me.”
Pictured, an enclosed porch in a rundown rustic cabin in Big Bear, California, updated by Lukas Machnik. Photo courtesy NBC.
Although little was done to alter the building’s original form, the firm did demolish an extension that was the site of a mechanical plant. This alteration allowed for an outdoor deck covered with timber decking by Chemisys Group.
The couple’s white Bulthaup kitchen is set within a double-height volume hung with Tom Dixon Beat lights, arranged in a custom configuration by interior designer Maria Rosa Di Ioia. Overhead, Cubit shelving artfully displays books and objects, accessible by a glass-walled footbridge added during the renovation.
The horizontal layout of the home allows for easy movement throughout the interior, while the line of the continuous roof seems to extend into the trees. Enlarging the opening of the home allowed for impressive views of the river and surrounding area.
In the master bedroom, a small, cramped closet was replaced with a wardrobe that is partially obscured by a slatted wooden screen that was built by Metalworks & Design Studio of Seattle. "The idea was you see through it, so in a sense it doesn't feel like a small space," Smith says.
Crestwood Renovation Floor Plan
The ladder from the kitchen leads to this "sleeping box," a tucked-away room perfect for visiting relatives, or as Heierle discovered during a trip to work on the project, visiting architects. When light streams through the skylight and down into the hallway below, it adds an "almost mystic element," says Heierle.
Light streams into the bedroom through walls of floor-to-ceiling glass. The windows are triple-glazed, creating a tight, eco-friendly seal.
"The most challenging part of the design was fusing the old part of the house with the new addition," says principal architect Alex Terry. The character and architectural integrity of the single-level 1950s ranch house was thoughtfully reconsidered during the addition and remodel. The home’s front porch, typical of the period, was refreshed with Ipe decking and railing.
In the upper-level bathroom, tiles painstakingly fired by DeSimio cover the walls and ceiling.
East Village Garden
East Village Garden
East Village Garden
East Village Garden
East Village Garden
East Village Garden
Museum of Modern Art, Rooftop Garden
Museum of Modern Art, Rooftop Garden
Museum of Modern Art, Rooftop Garden
Museum of Modern Art, Rooftop Garden
The museum worked closely with Jack Beyer of the New York-based firm Beyer Blinder Belle, which specializes in architectural preservation. The team worked painstakingly to preserve the natural patina that had accrued over time, including the granite staircase.
WALTER GROPIUS, Gropius House, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1938. Photo Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Le Corbusier, Villa Savoye, constructed1928-31. Photo Cemal Emden via Divisare.
Shaker Village, Pleasant Hill, Kentucky. Active 1805 - 1910. Photo: Brian Liloia.
Olivetti store by Carlo Scarpa at Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. Via Ecomanta.
Le Corbusier, apartment and studio, Paris. Photo: Olivier Martin-Gambler
Olivetti store by Carlo Scarpa at Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy. Via Ecomanta.