Flamm Apartment
The owners wanted to highlight their minimalist art and their collection of rare 15th- through 18th- century medical texts.
It was a radical approach: gutting the apartment and eliminating so called “cell-like rooms” - and most of the doors - laying new white-maple floors and replacing the windows with special UV-filter glass to safeguard the art and the books. But instead of creating a loft, “where you walk in and see everything at once”, David Ling “chose a more romantic way of experiencing the space – you go around corners constantly in a voyage of discovery." “By blowing out the cellular composition and replacing it with spatial flow,” Ling “established a continuous view along the window walls”.
The perimeter is lined with waist-high cabinets in luxurious Swiss pearwood.
Unlike most bibliophiles’ libraries, this one is modern, with custom sandblasted-glass shelves supported by ebonized-black-oak panels. It is the opposite of what you might expect in the home of a man who has 4,000 books.
The architect also dropped the ceiling to create a cove for indirect and track lighting. The entrance is an all-decorator’s white gallery, displaying works by Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski. Some of the walls are actually doors that swing open to reveal closets. One wall has a slice through it, a vertical piece of glass that acts as a slot window, which offers a peek into the master bedroom and the bed and night table Ling designed, also in Swiss pear.
It was a radical approach: gutting the apartment and eliminating so called “cell-like rooms” - and most of the doors - laying new white-maple floors and replacing the windows with special UV-filter glass to safeguard the art and the books. But instead of creating a loft, “where you walk in and see everything at once”, David Ling “chose a more romantic way of experiencing the space – you go around corners constantly in a voyage of discovery." “By blowing out the cellular composition and replacing it with spatial flow,” Ling “established a continuous view along the window walls”.
The perimeter is lined with waist-high cabinets in luxurious Swiss pearwood.
Unlike most bibliophiles’ libraries, this one is modern, with custom sandblasted-glass shelves supported by ebonized-black-oak panels. It is the opposite of what you might expect in the home of a man who has 4,000 books.
The architect also dropped the ceiling to create a cove for indirect and track lighting. The entrance is an all-decorator’s white gallery, displaying works by Kenneth Noland and Jules Olitski. Some of the walls are actually doors that swing open to reveal closets. One wall has a slice through it, a vertical piece of glass that acts as a slot window, which offers a peek into the master bedroom and the bed and night table Ling designed, also in Swiss pear.
Country: United States
