The original lobby of this 1954 co-op apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side was decorated in an ornate Louis IV style dominated by an over-scaled crystal chandelier. BFA removed its dated decor in favor of a rich but minimal design.

The walls and ceiling of the 600 sf space are paneled in English chestnut veneer laid up in a graphic diamond pattern, and the floor is honed black granite with a custom carpet inset. BFA designed new entrance doors with bronze grilles, for which Monty hand-sculpted a beech tree leaf—modeled on one found across the street in Central Park—that was then cast in multiples and affixed to the grid. The furniture was custom fabricated of bronze and leather.

1992 AIA New York Chapter Interior Design Citation