Kitchen & Bath Business - November/December 2017 - 64

Small Spaces

Manhattan Miracle
Design team creates luxury
apartments in a tight squeeze
A FORMER 227,000-SQ.-FT. HOTEL IN THE HEART OF Midtown Manhattan
was converted into a multi-condo residential building. The 109 one- and
two-bedroom units were designed to be compact, as people are looking to
decrease their carbon footprint and live in smaller spaces.
"This has become a trend because of the rising cost of real estate," said
Nancy J. Ruddy, CetraRuddy's founding principal and the project designer.
"The challenge for us was how to provide everything the homeowners
needed with much less square footage."

OUTSMARTING SIZE

The building's 22 different kitchen floor plans range from 75 to 110 square
feet and were designed around the idea that kitchens need to be smaller and
are now more integrated into the main living space. Because less linear feet of
storage can be allocated to a small residence, Ruddy and her team developed
an innovative storage solution and built in some extra depth.
"We added a 12-in. hidden cavity along the wall to store appliances
when not in use," she explained. "Since the kitchens are open to the living
rooms, when the back-painted glass doors are closed over the storage area,
this can double as a lovely piece of millwork that looks like a bar when its
doors are closed."
The team also furred out some of the freestanding columns in the kitchens to create 4-in.-deep floor-to-ceiling pantries to store such items as
glasses, spices and cereal boxes.
Some condos feature an island that doubles as a serving, prep and dining area, and some feature only the dining table and no island. According
to Ruddy, there was no resistance from the homeowners because in either
situation, they enjoy a mini eat-in kitchen with beautiful surroundings.
In the bathrooms, the design team incorporated a long shelf with small
drawers underneath the sinks that are deep enough for storage,as well as a niche
in between for towels.The windowsill was extended to hold candles or pictures.

SOURCES
DESIGNER: Nancy J.
Ruddy, CetraRuddy;
PHOTOGRAPHER:

Evan Joseph,
www.evanjoseph.com

TOP LEFT The design team created a hidden storage system
in the kitchens that incorporates wood and white backpainted glass with a bronze,
satin-mirrored backsplash.
TOP RIGHT In this unit, the

microwave drawers are placed
under the more often-used
appliances, including double
ovens, warming drawers and
a coffee station, to form a full
appliance wall.

BELOW RIGHT The residences
are filled with light materials,
such as back-painted, mirrored glass, to provide a sense
of brightness and expansiveness in constrained spaces.

"We also extended the medicine cabinets
along the whole length of the room so the long,
mirrored surface makes the room feel larger,"
explained Ruddy.
The one area that was given a little more
room in the baths was the shower, and the twobedroom units feature a shower area as well as a
freestanding bathtub for children.
"If a bathroom in one of the units was not large
enough for a freestanding tub and a shower, we
chose to provide one large luxurious shower -
sometimes with a slab marble seat because people
use showers more than tubs," said Ruddy.
SOLUTIONS TO CHALLENGES

It was difficult for the installers and tradespeople
to work in the smaller units at the same time, so the
design team specified modular components that
could be brought through the condos in pieces.
"The only long elements were the countertops
so we could incorporate material with as few
seams as possible,"explained Ruddy."Everything
was built off site so we could get around the other
workers, which really helped."
And although the project was a gut renovation
of the former hotel, the team was constrained
by structural elements like relatively low ceiling
heights and thick concrete walls.
"We had to work around those elements to
combine the hotel rooms into small apartments,"
said the designer. "The idea was to find places in
walls we could break through so that the resulting
apartments felt cohesive, and we used every nook
and cranny we could find."
The team successfully achieved the goal of creating compact apartments with all the amenities of larger units, including luxurious finishes,
custom-designed kitchens and bathroom vanities
and crafted details.


BY CHELSIE BUTLER

Kitchen & Bath Business / NOV.-DEC. 2017 / KBBONLINE.COM / The official publication of KBIS (KBIS.com)

http://www.evanjoseph.com http://www.KBBONLINE.COM http://www.KBIS.com

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