Bringing the outside in is a common theme in interior design, but it’s usually in the context of a proper house, not an apartment in an upscale condominium building in New York City. But that’s how ELLE DECOR A-List designer Rodney Lawrence described his vision for the model apartment he designed in the Cortland, a new luxury development in West Chelsea.
Robert A.M. Stern was the architect of the 26-story structure, clad in over a million hand-laid bricks in a distinctive five-color blend, creating one of the few new buildings in this borderline overdeveloped neighborhood with a historic feel (the design was partially inspired by the iconic London Terrace apartment block, just a few blocks away). It’s a quietly elegant building that doesn’t scream to be noticed.
The same could be said for the interior architecture of the Cortland’s residences, by Olson Kundig, which features an open-plan kitchen, living, and dining area, marble fireplaces, cabinets finished in hand-brushed artisanal Italian metallic lacquer, and Statuario Belgia marble imported from Carrara, Italy. It was one such space that Lawrence was tasked with reimagining.
“Olson Kundig’s work is very restrained, with rigorous lines and a limited palette. I wanted to do something that would be different from the base they gave me but in the spirit of their work,” Lawrence recalls of his design strategy.
“I researched [the firm’s] projects, and there would always be minimal structures surrounded by nature—set in the middle of a beautiful field of flowers or built out of the side of a cliff or a mountain—so I wanted to put nature inside one of their structures,” the designer adds.
