A fine vintage

High above Manhattan, a sophisticated 1920s penthouse gets a sensitive makeover by Markham Roberts

- DAVID FOXLEY

“It has such a Cole Porter feeling—this kind of old-fashioned glamour,” says the owner of a Manhattan penthouse that she and her husband now call home after 25 years in London. “It has elegance, but it doesn’t have bling.” Tempering that balance between sophistication and restraint was a priority for the couple, and it led them into the like-minded hands of AD100 designer Markham Roberts.

“It reminds me of a different New York than now,” concurs Roberts of the duplex, which spans the 16th and 17th floors of a 1920s Rosario Candela building and offers cinematic skyline and river views. “A lot of these apartments have been entirely stripped or redone, but this one still had all of its character.”

That bygone quality is on full display from the moment one enters the residence. Passing through the private elevator vestibule—its domed ceiling painted with a botanical motif reminiscent of one that the homeowners and Roberts separately admired at Athens’s Benaki Museum—the double-height entrance hall recalls Jazz Age grandeur. Wrapped in a custom blue-silk wall covering, with Japanese-inspired designs by Roberts painted by Roberto Mora, the windowed space is flooded with daylight and, after sunset, the sparkle of city lights. The team went to great lengths to retain whatever was left of the dwelling’s patina, adding even more in certain areas. “We joked that we were going to put on sandpaper roller skates and skate around it because we all like beat-up things,” the designer notes of the foyer’s original, polished-marble floor. “It was not our cup of tea.”