A few words about the architects of this home: M.N. Ahari, architected the recent renovation, interior designer Fernando Santangelo, (the genius behind one of Hollywood’s havens for the rich-and-famous, the Chateau Marmont), transformed this historic townhouse from an all-white Zen oasis into a brooding bachelor pad for his friend James Oakley, a filmmaker. Oakley, whose stepfather owns the Cleveland Browns, bought the home in 2012 for $5.8 million, but after the extensive renovation he’s now looking to sell the residence for $12.5 million.

Though its presence on Bedford Street dates back to 1836, the interior of this Greek Revival-style townhouse has come a long way from its 19th century roots. According to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, who featured the home on their 2014 house tour, the structure was originally two-and-a-half stories high, first owned by Charles Oakley (interestingly of no relation to James), a prolific developer in 1820s Greenwich Village. In the 1920s, the top floor was added as an artist’s studio, and this lounge is what James now considers “the best room in the house.”

The parlor level’s reception gallery welcomes you with a stunning mezzanine featuring Olive Elm Burl veneer walls, Venetian Terrazzo floors, and a nearly invisible glass half-wall that overlooks the 300-plus-square-foot great room on the garden floor, which draws you in with an absolutely magnificent two-story wall of glass highlighting the lush gardens and flooding the interior with an abundance of natural light. This double-height space was a 1989 addition.

The Garden Floor, with soaring 18’ ceilings is perfect for entertaining. Opulently appointed dining and living spaces offer details such as a towering soapstone fireplace, remote-controlled floor to ceiling drapery, and Bardiglio Nuvolato marble radiant-heated floors. The open chef’s kitchen features Crystal Stratus marble countertops, and professional-grade stainless steel appliances. The dining area offers a stunning, built-in Antique Mahogany Armoire converted to a custom built-in dry bar with ice machine.

The open chef’s kitchen features marble countertops and professional-grade stainless steel appliances, and the dining area offers a stunning, built-in antique mahogany armoire converted to a custom built-in dry bar with ice machine. Though both can seem a tad claustrophobic when compared to the adjacent great room, they take full advantage of the view afforded by their luxurious neighbor and provide an elegant venue for entertaining guests in style.

Speaking of entertaining, the home’s fully finished basement is outfitted with a state-of-the-art home theater and ample wine storage for the devoted wine collector. The colorful fabric walls and recessed lighting beautifully conceal the fact that you’ve entered the home’s lowest level.

When you’re ready to call it a day, the two pin-drop quiet bedrooms await on the residence’s third floor. The inviting master suite overlooks the sunlit southern gardens and offers a bath with Luce de Luna Quartzite slab marble and Barber Wilson custom hardware and the guest suite extends to an oversized spa-like bath retreat.

The Fourth floor presents a dramatic sky-lit atelier/studio with powder room and wet bar, easily convertible to a private master floor. An outdoor spiral staircase leads to the rooftop, which features a sitting area and spectacular views of the surrounding neighborhood.

There is a 29’ deep southern garden with mature cherry blossom tree, along with 2 additional outdoor retreats – each with irrigation and lighting systems in place, remote controlled awnings, and radiant heated floors in select locations.

The New York Times recently called this house the “Dark Knight.”

Oakley admits to the paper that he loves “those sort of noirish environments” and says “I hate white, I despise it.”

Outdoor Connection

The residence is transformed by a relocated mezzanine where a sunken interior court with a retractable glass roof connects to the planted green roof garden above. This gesture of subtracting volume from the interior brings the outdoors into the primary living zones. The roof, peeled back, showers the spaces with natural light. When open, ample air flow enters what was once a poorly ventilated and dark loft. By night, the court acts as an internal lantern illuminating the loft below.

Historic Dialogue

Embracing the building’s industrial past, a visual discourse between new and old is devised through insertions of modern materials along with restored or reclaimed materials from the loft. A custom steel stair repurposes timbers from the old roof joists as treads and landings. The multiple level residence is unified by a walnut fascia that serves as a conceptual datum.

Embracing the building’s industrial past, a visual discourse between new and old is devised through insertions of modern materials along with restored or reclaimed materials from the loft. A custom steel stair repurposes timbers from the old roof joists as treads and landings. The multiple level residence is unified by a walnut fascia that serves as a conceptual datum.

Once, it was New York’s Montmartre, a colony of creatives and free spirits with all the vibrancy (and chaos) such a community implied. Now, Soho has smartened up while carefully retaining its spiritual heritage as one of the city’s hippest hangouts. Balthazar, the Prince Street boutiques, MoMA design store – this neighbourhood is hip, eclectic, and fun.

And right in the heart of the action is Lafayette Street, a truly extraordinary home. Built in 1905 and retaining many original features, this home offers acres of space and a vibe that’s exotic yet New York through and through.

She walks in beauty

Your glamorous host is a long-time resident of Soho. She works in design – something that won’t surprise you, when you set eyes on her incredible home.

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The master bedroom is both bright and cosy, with Eastern rugs, more original art, and a queen-sized bed. There’s a silver and white ensuite, and of course, our gorgeous Kiehl’s toiletries and fluffy towels. The second bedroom has its own private sitting room, with a TV and an ochre wardrobe, while the family bathroom displays glass sculptures and a divine shower.

The penthouse apartment is located at 50 Lispenard Street inside a building built back in 1866 that has been perfectly converted.

This 1900 square foot, 2 bedroom, 2.5 bath NYC loft like apartment is listed for sale by Eklund Stockholm New York for $4.55 million dollars – I think this may be considered affordable by New York standards.  Note to self: come up with $4.55 million dollars immediately before this place is snatched up.

As you step off the elevator that opens into the two bedroom, two and a half bath duplex unit, you’ll find ceilings up to 18 ft, a floating staircase, heated 8 inch plank floors, glass paneling and a gas fireplace in the skylit living room flanked by two decked terraces, one with a Jacuzzi. The Valcucine Kitchen is fitted with a Subzero refrigerator, Viking cooktop and Kuppersbusch oven, built in Miele Nespresso machine, glass counters and cabinetry and LG Washer/Dryer. Bathrooms feature imported Italian marble and glass, Hansgrohe fittings, double steam rainshowers , deep Duravit soaking Jacuzzi tubs and custom vanities. A structural glass walkway separates the master bedroom with balcony and the guest bedroom. Channel luxurious industrial chic, defined by New York City aesthetics and style.

Amazing sight, high ceilings, large windows and an exquisite selection of elements of décor adorn this place, giving to it a vibrant touch of elegance. A subtle choice of neutral colors and the smart mix of glass reflecting the outside view, elements of contemporary art and an imposing fireplace, now that’s something we call dream home! Besides the incredible precise care towards details, the central and the accurate furniture alignments, everything seems dramatically extended: from ceilings to the panoramic sight upon this magical city.

In case New York is an option, this duplex is an excellent choice for those who can afford it! We’re talking about a valuable residential space, offered for sale at 26.5 million dollars!

But this immaculate space is also the perfect backdrop for its ownerâ€s finely honed collection of Italian industrial design from the 1960s and 1970s, which includes furniture and lighting by legends like Joe Colombo, Cini Boeri, Mario Bellini, Gae Aulenti and Angelo Mangiarotti. Their particular brilliance at combining function and form while exploring the newest materials and technologies of their day resonates with Renaud-Clément, who views these pieces as sculpture as well as furnishings.

The Italians made work that could fit anywhere,

he said,

even in an old palazzo.

In this case, the palazzo is the former factory of the Eagle Electric Company, in a neighborhood that appealed to Renaud-Clément precisely because it hasnâ€t yet been gentrified, a fate that long ago befell the Manhattan ZIP codes where he used to live. When he bought the space, the kitchen was at the one end of the loft that had windows, and the bedroom was completely enclosed. With the help of Steve Blatz, a New York architect, Renaud-Clément moved the kitchen to the other end of the space and opened up the bedroom. He left the wide hallway essentially empty: “It energizes me,” he said.

And if the furnishings are deliberately spare — “I donâ€t like accumulation,” he declared — so is the art. Works by artists like Yuichi Higashionna, Not Vital, Hedi Slimane and Michael Phelan punctuate the glowing whiteness of the space.

Sometime soon Renaud-Clément, ever the editor, will auction off some of the pieces from his design collection, which currently totals about 450 things. But among those Italian classics he refuses to part with are two Ferraris from the 1970s and a 1967 Maserati Ghibli, which its owner calls “a mythical car.” They are an extension of Renaud-Clémentâ€s passion for Italian design, but, like the chairs and lights in his loft, theyâ€re not meant to be museum pieces: he drives them around New York and takes them to Europe every summer. Extravagant, perhaps, but can you imagine someone who lives like this driving around Europe in a rental?

The loft features a great mix of modern furnishing and raw brick walls, the wood-beam ceilings has beautiful sky lights built in. This top floor apartment is connected to a rooftop, where owners cultivate their garden and love to grow vegetables.

The main challenge of the design was to create flow between the two obviously separate East and West halves of the apartment, which were a result of combining the two buildings in the past. To open up the space between, a new wide arched opening was added in the demising brick wall, seamlessly integrated by proportionally mimicking style of the existing arches. A synonymous window was installed on the east wall to create maximum light exposure in the new “great room”. Care was taken to preserve the loftâ€s history as a warehouse, and later an artistâ€s studio by keeping and accentuating its inherent openness, large steel skylights, material textures and exposed structure. To accentuate the mass and presence of the exposed brick wall, the new stair was cantilevered off of this inherently structural element. The wall was extended up to the top of the stair bulkhead, clad with re-used brick recovered after demolishing part of the wall for the new arch. New skylight above stair now brings in more light, inviting to enjoy the new outdoor roof terrace and garden. The Kitchen and family Breakfast room were positioned in the most brightly lit part of the apartment with two large existing skylights, which flood the space with natural southeast light.

It was important to separate public from private, however instead of hallways and closed doors, large sliding “partitions” allow for uninterrupted flow throughout the day, with option to screen off the childrenâ€s†play area and family bedrooms. With 3 children and 2 dogs, it was critical to plan for ample storage throughout the apartment, custom built-in benches, credenzas and bookcases work well to keep clutter hidden while seamlessly integrating with surrounding finishes. In the childrenâ€s playroom a new lofted platform with ladders, trap doors and writable walls was designed for playing and storage, while child-friendly low ceiling spaces where they can explore, read and study under an existing skylight.

All of the new materials were selected to accentuate the authentic quality of the space enhancing with warm, rich natural finishes such as oiled old-growth walnut floors and cabinets, cold rolled steel stair and doors, earth tone tiles and bamboo counters. While the finishes feel high end, all of the tactile surfaces are child and pet friendly, durable and will develop in character as they age.

And when you walk into the huge volume of the main living area, there’s no question that he’s done just that. It’s a space worthy of a Chelsea gallery: one great white wall stretches 65 feet from the front of the building to the back and 35 feet up to a skylight.

A quasi-mezzanine‚ containing a dining area and a kitchen‚ overlooks the living room. Here, too, the art takes center stage: a Joel Otterson sculpture/shower stands in the middle of the master bedroom. But then again, the entire upstairs structure‚ mezzanine and all‚ is like one enormous sculpture, its rooms jutting out into the main space‚ huge rectangle, turned at a 30-degree angle, in a reference to the nearby Flatiron Building.

Ehrlich’s quirky design and choice of location reflected his rejection of the prevailing urban landscape and enabled him to reconcile the worlds of architecture, art and design, which back then mixed‚ in social terms at least‚ about as well as oil paint and water.

It was a more rigid caste system, says Ehrlich, who is a co-founder of Artes Magnus, a company that issues limited-edition objects like Cindy Sherman‚ Madame de Pompadour-inspired china.

You had artists getting involved in loft living and alternative spaces he remembered. On the other hand, if you were in the more professional, conventional trajectory, you lived somewhere like the Upper East Side. I had close friends from both camps, and I didn’t want to make a statement that I was with either, so I chose a part of the city that was very anonymous. There was no Flatiron district then‚ this was no-man’s-land.

But has always bought what he likes. For him, art is more like a record of where you’ve been and what you’ve thought.

I’m not into the hero worshiping and the craziness that goes on, I’m collecting my experiences.