When Matty Maggiacomo and Evan Feeley began hunting for their forever home, a prewar apartment on New York’s Upper West Side wasn’t high on their wish list. Though Evan was charmed by the neighborhood’s quiet streets and slower pace, Matty had lived through a renovation before and wasn’t eager to repeat the experience. But the panoramas from one Central Park West property proved so spectacular that the couple couldn’t help but sign on the line. There was just one problem: the interiors were nothing to look at.
“When we first walked in, I was questioning why the apartment had not sold,” says Matty, a tread and strength instructor for Peloton. “It’s above the tree line facing east over the park and Reservoir—but it was very plain. We had to make it look like a true Central Park apartment.”
The couple enlisted designer sisters Joan and Jayne Michaels, architect Ann Krsul and general contractor Charles Ramdass to reimagine the space, transforming it from a warren of tight, bland rooms into a stately yet practical home worthy of its iconic address and views. That meant maximizing sight lines throughout the home and reallocating square footage to give the formerly narrow living room more graceful proportions and make way for a showstopping dine-in kitchen. “Matty should be a TV chef,” Joan shares. “Cooking is such a big part of his personality and it’s how he releases stress.”
Home Details
Architecture
Ann Krsul, Ann Krsul Architect
Interior Design
Joan and Jayne Michaels, 2Michaels Design
Home Builder
Charles Ramdass, Cornerstone Construction & Remodeling, LLC
The living room is entertaining-ready with its Jacques Adnet coffee table and bar featuring mesh panels and Japanese water gilding by artist Matthew Mohr. An Interiors by George & Martha accent chair wrapped in Dedar fabric views artworks by Steve Miller (left) and Georgia Hupfel (right).
“There’s a balance of contrasts between masculine and feminine, industrial and soft,” says owner Evan Feeley of the kitchen’s chic mix. See: Rose Uniacke chairs and an Etel Carmona table juxtaposed with a black steel chandelier from Blackman Cruz.
Japanese water gilding shimmers within a niche, offsetting walls painted Farrow & Ball’s Drop Cloth. A banquette covered in a Holly Hunt fabric adds a color pop. The artworks are attributed to Frank Stella.
To conceal an immovable gas pipeline, architect Ann Krsul wrapped it in the same Calacatta Viola marble from BAS Stone used for the countertops and backsplash. Sleek stools from Fair allow for casual dining at the island.
Krsul borrowed square footage from a bedroom to create a luxurious primary bath featuring a wet room and soaking tub. Dramatically veined Arabescato Corchia marble from BAS Stone defines the floating vanity fit with Newport Brass taps.
Awash in Benjamin Moore’s Dark Mustard, the guest bedroom is a posh retreat. A 1920s German painting purchased at Schmidt Kunstauktionen Dresden hangs above a bed dressed in Sferra linens. A shag rug from ABC Carpet & Home lends a vintage vibe.
The primary bedroom mix includes Benjamin Moore’s Iron Mountain on the walls, a reading light by Apparatus and a Vincent Van Duysen woven-leather bed from Molteni&C. The rug is Judy Ross Textiles and the midcentury dresser is Harvey Probber. The art above the bed is Georgia Hupfel.
In these freshly redefined rooms and elsewhere, the team honored the building’s Deco-era roots, from sanding and refinishing the original hardwood flooring to implementing classic design details like hidden panel doors and elegant crown molding and wainscoting. (“I said, ‘I want so much molding that it looks like a cupcake!’ ” Evan laughs.)
To marry a historic sentiment with the owners’ youthful exuberance, the designers looked to the balance of old and new on display in chic Parisian apartments for inspiration. French flavor abounds in details like the sculptural European lighting fixtures the designers had rewired to suit the American electrical grid, and in the petite unlacquered brass doorknobs and hardware applied throughout. Another European homage: dramatic, richly veined marble selections, from the plum-toned Calacatta Viola that emblazons the kitchen countertops and backsplash to the gold-streaked Arabescato Corchia cladding the primary bathroom.
“They’re two really exciting, interesting guys who wanted something that had wow factor to it,” says Krsul of the unexpected mix. “Making the home have some dynamism and vitality to it is something that we were all intent on.” Take the living room, where the team blended Evan’s preference for monochromatic palettes and minimalism (see: the angular black-and-white fireplace surround) with swanky touches to satisfy Matty’s penchant for glamour (see: silvery tweed sofa upholstery fabric as an homage to Chanel). “The living room was a puzzle,” continues Joan, noting the space’s competing interests, from accommodating the couple’s pit bull, Nana, to hosting elegant gatherings for family and friends. “There had to be sophistication, but it also had to be durable and spill-friendly,” she says. Continues Jayne of the sleek, sartorial inspiration, “We were thinking of Halston, so we went for a loungy, sophisticated feel to everything. There’s a bit of dazzle.”
Dazzle is dually delivered in the luscious paint colors that enliven the residence, from the peacock-blue woodwork at the living room’s built-in bar to the warm amber walls in the guest room and the smoky chocolate hue that cocoons the moody primary suite. “It’s a very masculine bedroom, which is a nice contrast to the rest of the apartment,” notes Jayne.
The resulting balance makes for a quintessentially New York abode that Matty says feels like “a love letter to my romance with this city.” Evan, a strategic science translator and investor communicator who works from home, adds, “My friends joke that I sit up here in my tower all day, and I confirm it. We have purposefully made this a place where we just don’t want to be anywhere else.”
To conceal an immovable gas pipeline, architect Ann Krsul wrapped it in the same Calacatta Viola marble from BAS Stone used for the countertops and backsplash. Sleek stools from Fair allow for casual dining at the island.