Calm, Cool, Collected

Designer Julie Hillman transforms her workspace in a Manhattan brownstone into a creative crucible

- SARAH MEDFORD

From the rear window of Julie Hillman's Manhattan office, the contours of her handsome town house home are nearly visible through a curtain of leaves. Living around the corner has its benefits, she admits-one reason the AD100 designer recently chose to renovate, not move, when the lease came due on her workspace in a timeworn Upper East Side brownstone. But there were other reasons too. She wanted an excellent sample room. She wanted her 10-person team to love coming in every day. And it was high time that their surroundings aligned more closely with the polished interiors they were making. For Hillman, crafting worldly settings for seen-it-all clients is a métier she inhabits totally, in mind and body; she wanted her colleagues to have the same chance.