Tribeca Citizen | Loft Peeping: Outdoorsy Thirtysomething Software Entrepreneur

Loft Peeping: Outdoorsy Thirtysomething Software Entrepreneur

October 9, 2013 • Real Estate

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The September (I think) issue of Interior Design includes a Tribeca penthouse designed by Steve E. Blatz for “an outdoorsy thirtysomething software entrepreneur.” The interior is big (5,000 square feet), except compared to the outdoor space (7,000 square feet). “We actually reduced the space inside to maximize the outdoors,” said Blatz.

••• The outdoor space includes a lawn, wildflower meadow, hot tub, indoor-outdoor kitchen, a “tree-lined private terrace” off the master bedroom, a “glassed-in central courtyard,” and an “ipe deck folded into peaks and bleachers envisioned as lounging space for parties—indeed, it came in handy when 50 friends were privy to a private John Legend concert bought at an auction to benefit City Harvest.” The word privy always makes me giggle.
••• To get there, you ascend a “spiral staircase concealed inside a 16-foot-tall cocoon of laser-cut mirror-polished stainless steel fabricated in Italy. The perforated metal casts dappled light and shadows inside to mimic what it’s like standing beneath a canopy of tree branches—an effect underscored by the living area’s rug, its spot pattern developed with the same algorithm used for the cocoon.” After dark, LEDs turn the cocoon various colors.
••• The (indoor) screening room includes “a U-shape banquette covered in silk-mohair, ottomans covered in leather, and wall-to-wall hand-knotted silk carpet.”
••• The renovation took four years.

As you might imagine, it’s worth a look! Click on the images below (by Eric Laignel) to enlarge; visit Interior Design’s slideshow to read the detailed captions. (And there appear to be even more photos on Blatz’s website.) The text is by Monica Khemsurov.