Dutch designer Piet Boon has renovated a former office building in New York to create luxury apartments that borrow aesthetics from interiors in his home country (+ slideshow).
The Park Avenue building, named Huys, contains 58 apartments – from 55-square-metre one-beds to 325-square-metre four-beds.
Piet Boon and his team spent four years overhauling the structure to transform it from office to residential use. "It was in a very bad state, luckily we could demolish the whole facade," Boon told Dezeen.
Small windows on the front of the building were replaced with much larger sections of glazing within dark steel frames, allowing more light into the spaces.
"The lucky part was that we were able to cut out all the window frames, because there were very small windows very high up because desks were up against the walls," said Boon. "We were allowed to make floor-to-ceiling window frames and that gave the building such a beautiful facade and made the apartments feel very large."
With high ceilings and doors, the apartments are largely open plan and feature built-in storage cupboards and units.
"I designed all the different layouts as if they were be my own apartment," Boon explained. "It's really important for me that apartments have a lot of storage."
The design team kept the interiors very simple, with a strict palette of neutral tones used on the plastered walls and ceilings, and white oak planks on the floors. "This is really Dutch design, with clean lines and lots of symmetry," Boon said.
Sandstone-coloured materials used for surfaces in the kitchens and bathrooms are the same throughout the building.
A sculptural bronze chandelier in the lobby was created by Dutch artist Frederick Molenschot, who also designed the building number at the street entrance, and floor and apartment numbers inside.
Aim lamps by the Bouroullec brothers hang with tangles of wires above the reception desk and over dining areas in the apartments. The building also includes a gym, storage for bicycles, a cinema room and a children's play area.
A rooftop terrace was designed by Dutch landscape architect Piet Oudolf, who used the same plants as he did for the High Line park.
"Everyone has said that it is really Dutch, but I think it's still a New York building," said Boon.
New residents of the building, owned by Dutch developer Kroonenberg Groep, will be moving in at the end of the month.
Photography is by Paul Barbera.