The Westbury Hotel on Madison Avenue, in New York’s prestigious Upper East Side, once played host to the likes of Nancy Reagan and Anthony Quinn. But like so many of the storied buildings of Manhattan, the Westbury was converted – in this case to a luxury condominium. Behind the glorious Renaissance facade of the building, renowned designer Geoffrey Bradfield has created yet another unforgettable interior. The apartment, which belongs to a Russian family, is 4,000 square feet with five bedrooms. Geoffrey had his work cut out; he had to combine two apartments and deal with a number of structural challenges. “Being a large apartment carved out of pre-Second World War spaces, dealing with the existing beams and columns presented a challenge in space planning. The use of decorative mouldings, besides being a request of the client, helped unify the ceiling design,” says Geoffrey.

The simplicity of the colour scheme is a feature throughout the property. “The clients share a love of a muted palette of greys, mauves and lavenders with accents of purple,” Geoffrey explains. The foyer features a handsome Fernando Botero sculpture set against custom Venetian plaster walls and an oak floor with Fior di Bosco marble insets. The space also hosts two custom-designed benches in white gold and a pair of Forties gilt bronze sconces.

The next two rooms give a true sense of the clients’ love for mauve and purple. In the reception area, a simple, deep purple, cut-velvet sectional and two side chairs sit on a cut-pile, custom-designed carpet. The more formal drawing room features a stately iteration of the same colour scheme and a delicate tendril motif custom-designed carpet. The walls, including window treatments, wrap the room in a regal silk envelope. Two Sixties Austrian chandeliers set in nickel and light cut glass complete the sophisticated look of this room.

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Past an effortlessly elegant dining room is the kitchen, which is one of the most important spaces in the house to the wife’s mother, who lives with the family. “A large, modern, open kitchen is not common in pre-war apartments. However, we managed to carve out the space and carried the marble from the inlaid entrance hall into the kitchen for cohesion,” Geoffrey says. The state-of-the-art kitchen also features custom-designed Caesarstone counters and a semi-formal dining alcove with tufted leather walls and a Barovier chandelier from the Forties.

By Ayesha Khan

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