Just outside the city, VLDG — helmed by Vennie Lau and Paul A. Vega — is handling the interiors of its first residential gig: the forthcoming 204-unit One Park in Cliffside Park, NJ (from $500,000). Wire-brushed wood floors in the apartments and terrazzo flooring in the lobby take their cues from the surrounding landscape, which faces Manhattan, across the Hudson River.
“These materials selected are as classically timeless as the Palisades rock formation One Park is perched upon, gazing over the rhythms of the most exciting city in the world,” says Lau, who was previously a senior designer at Studio GAIA.
Architect Gil Even-Tsur spent nine years working for Richard Meier before launching his own Brooklyn-based Gil Even-Tsur Architecture Workshop. He was recently tapped to design both the interiors and exteriors of 200 Water in Dumbo — a 15-residence conversion of a former factory (from $3.39 million) that was completed in May. The building boasts new oversize windows, which flood the mod, open-layout interiors with sunlight.
Sister-owned design outfit Katch I.D. Interiors (led by Steph Katch, formerly of Pembrooke & Ives, and Pamela Katch, previously of Mediaworks) just completed its first new-development project: the interiors of 318 W. 47th St., a five-unit condominium conversion (from $4.99 million), where sales launched last year.
The building once served as a theatrical-lighting wholesaler, and the sisters repurposed many of its materials, using original wooden beams to construct staircases in two of the dwellings and a brick wall to enclose the rear garden of the maisonette unit. Kitchens and bathrooms feature Arabescato Cervaiole marble and London Grey limestone touches in a modern gray palette.
“As our first foray into residential developments, we were excited,” Steph tells Alexa. “Our intention was to create tranquil, balanced and layered interiors as the perfect antidote to the hustle and high energy of Times Square, just around the corner.”
And these rising-star projects are already succeeding in Gotham’s competitive sales market. The 30 units inside Hell’s Kitchen’s Sorting House — the first full residential commission for Architecture Outfit founder Thaddeus Briner — debuted for sale in 2015 and are now all in contract, expected to close this summer. (Briner previously worked at Rogers Marvel Architects before launching his own firm and designing the Turnstyle retail and food court at the Columbus Circle subway station, which opened last year.)