The 14 most covetable New York houses and apartments from our archive
From the brownstones of Brooklyn, to the glossy heights of Manhattan and on to the quaint clapboard cottages of upstate town–New York has a fabulously diverse roster of real estate gems.
Rita Konig and Deborah Needleman's collaboration on an 18th-century Dutch Colonial house in the Hudson Valley is an example of soulful, British-American aesthetic at its best. The cottage is layered and richly detailed, with a charming garden. On the other side of the New York property spectrum is Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson's Manhattan top-floor Flatiron loft, which juxtaposes sleek brass and marble structural details with a “giant pastoral painting of cows and milkmaids.”
Phenomenal art is a consistent theme throughout these New York abodes. S.I. Newhouse Jr's Manhattan apartment (from a 1970 edition of the magazine) features iconic art from Pollock to Rothko. Sean McNanney and Sinan Tuncay's warm Brooklyn pad is the perfect backdrop for their global eclectic curiosities. And a classic NYC loft features a trove of pivotal works by Black artists.
So, whether you're looking for rural or urban inspiration, loft or cottage, warehouse or townhouse, our New York canon is packed with the finest examples of projects from across the pond.
1/45A moody and maximalist house that’s loaded with purpose in upstate New York
This Greek Revival home designed by Nina Garbiras - founder of FIG NYC - is on the New York State and National Register of Historic Places. A full-width one-story porch is supported by ionic columns. The owners George Abbott and Michael Lupo bought and renovated the gem specifically to “bring friends and do adult sleepovers.”
Art: Fu Xiaotong/Chambers Fine Art2/45The entryway of the home has a 1970s rounded-edge Pace credenza hugging the hallway. A vintage Persian carpet from Upstate Rug Supply and 1980s Murano Palmette chandelier welcome guests.
3/45House of Hackney’s Hollyhocks wallpaper surrounds an annex off one of the bedrooms. The colourful print reminded Garbiras, Abbott, and Lupo of Gustav Klimt’s flower paintings at the Neue Galerie.
4/45In one bedroom, vintage 1970s tessellated travertine helmut tables from Friends of Form frame a Camerano Chocolate Velvet bed from CB2. The room is painted in Farrow and Ball’s Elephant Breath.
Read McKendree5/45A tiny Upper East Side flat marries old-school New York elegance with modern flair
Designer Lilse McKenna gives this classic New York apartment a contemporary and balanced update full of eclectic pieces and eye-catching art.
Despite being a north-facing room, the living room welcomes in ample natural light, which Lilse felt was important to maximise. The pouffe's patterned, olive green fabric is “Star Atlantico” in Grass, by Michael Smith with Jasper.
Read McKendree6/45“I always put banquettes in New York apartments,” says Lilse, “so that clients have a spot for their laptop that's not in the kitchen.” Crucially, the piece also makes additional space for dinner party guests, which the client wanted. The banquette is upholstered in Siam in Baltic Blue by Carolina Irving; the table was custom-made by RT Facts. The lamps that flank the banquette are from Vaughan.
Read McKendree7/45The mantel was a pre-existing fixture in the apartment, added by the apartment's previous owner. The artwork (a print by Stacey Beach and borrowed from Uprise Art) which hangs above it has since been replaced by a television, having been “unceremoniously told” by the installer that the cable box “could not be anywhere else”, making for “a classic New York conundrum!”, says Lilse. The club chairs come from the client's own collection.
Brian W Ferry8/45The Brooklyn apartment of designer Sean McNanney and artist Sinan Tuncay is filled with eclectic curiosities from around the world
Amid the ode to the male form are romantic objects selected for their own, non-figural qualities, including a sconce designed by Christopher Dresser. Extending the erotic lounge atmosphere are cushions covered in a variety of materials, from Mongolian silk velvet to Wiener Werkstätte lace. An embroidered silk specimen is from Sinan’s great-grandmother.
Brian W Ferry9/45New Antiquarians tend to populate their kitchens with objects from their collections, and Sean and Sinan are no exception. Here, papier-mâché bread trays decorate the front of a painted wooden dresser, where collected bowls from Uzbekistan are stored
11/45The designer David Netto brings a feeling of ease and wit to a monumental New York apartment
“What I think I enjoy most about being a designer are the relationships," says the writer and interior David Netto in the introduction to his new book. "Which is odd, because in the beginning that was the thing that bothered me so much. I hated being in a service business, having to share myself with clients who intimidated me. But I worked on that, and it turned out that people I have admired my entire life – and some I never thought I would even meet – have become clients and, in many cases, friends.”
David was thinking of Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre when architect David Hottenroth and he decided to make the double-height wall of the stairs connecting the two apartments into a bookcase, “which I call the vertical library. Didn’t get the Maison de Verre’s iconic rivets, but our stair is painted the Chareau red that so influenced Richard Rodgers—and now me.”
12/45The main event downstairs is a handsome paneled billiardsroom—another feature one would normally find only in a countryhouse, but normal is not what we’re after here. The fixture over the pooltable is from Urban Archaeology, as are the Pierre Chareau sconces. One of the great mantels I will ever buy went into this room. From amid-eighteenth-century Italian palace, it is fitted with a black steelslip to keep things edgy. A print of Robert Motherwell’sElegy to theSpanish Republic rests on the mantel.
13/45Upstairs in the original penthouse a view from the kitchen through the dining room to the living room where a Miro tapestry hangs on the wall, the red Louis XIII fauteuil chair. The colour starts in the Miró tapestry, jumps to the velvet on the chair, and ends up in the kitchen as the shades on the pendant light from Urban Electric Co.
Simon Upton15/45Stephen Sills' New York apartment launched a career and inspired that of countless others
Stephen Sills' tiny, elegant New York apartment has been the canvas on which his singular style has been allowed to flourish. The palette is nearly all white: surfaces have been bleached, limed and whitewashed. A Richard Serra work on paper hangs over a Jean-Michel Fran shagreen daybed form the 1930s.
©simon upton16/45A Ruhlmann alabaster pendant and a Marco Kench painting from 2012 over a custom daybed in Sills’ bedroom.
Paul Massey18/45Rita Konig has subtly enhanced the airy interiors of this Manhattan house
Finding a compromise between the minimalist tastes of its owner and her love of tactile fabrics and pattern, Rita Konig – winner of our Interior Designer of the Year award, sponsored by Farrow & Ball – has subtly enhanced the airy interiors of this Manhattan house. Accessed through sliding pocket doors, the dining room has a Philippe Hurel table combined with chairs from Howe. The neutral palette of the walls, painted beams and Luke Irwin rug places the focus on the arched French windows, which open out onto the garden. Rita created a seating area by the chimneypiece with a compact sofa.
Paul Massey19/45Rita's love for 'clutter' influences this wall filled with framed prints and photographs. The more minimalist taste of the clients is catered to with the neutral, toned-down colour scheme of the picture collection.
Paul Massey20/45A chest of drawers from Long Island antique dealer Jonathan Burden is used as a drinks table. The slim lamp has a shade from Lucy Cope.
William Grigsby21/45From the archive: S. I. Newhouse Jr's Manhattan apartment (1970)
In an archive story from 1970, we look back at Condé Nast owner S. I. Newhouse Jr's Manhattan apartment and its jawdropping art collection, from Rothkos over the bed to Pollocks in the living room.
In the sitting room Barnett Newman's The Word hangs over the fireplace, an Alexander Liberman painting is mounted on the ceiling and a David Smith sculpture sits behind the sofa.
William Grigsby22/45The green shafts of a Caro sculpture cut across an enormous Morris Louis in the living room. Above sofa a Kenneth Noland piece hangs over the black and white Jackson Pollock.
Tim Lenz24/45A West Village home inspired by family heirlooms and natural textures
For a young couple in Manhattan’s West Village, the return to a vibrant, freshly decorated home after their honeymoon was the ultimate beginning to a bright new chapter in life. The two-bedroom, pre-war apartment overlooking a leafy park was left in the accomplished hands of New York interior designer Augusta Hoffman for a full interior makeover. Botanical, floral and organic, the space was transformed into a pocket of nouveau Bohemia – a different path for Augusta, whose work typically identifies with more minimalistic, neutral design. Awash with rich earth tones and natural textures, the space became filled with intricate vignettes and homages to the clients’ family history, something Augusta embraced wholeheartedly. “It was really fun for me to get out of that realm and play with some different design techniques,” she explains.
In the sitting room, the sofa cushions are custom made, covered in Christopher Farr Cloth’s ‘Loom Weave’ in Natural shade.
Tim Lenz25/45In the small bedroom, the walls, ceiling and millwork are painted in Benjamin Moore’s ‘Louisburg Green’. The pair of sconces are from Hudson Valley Lighting topped with a Fermoie lampshade in Green Marden. A Lehigh Sleeper Sofa from Kravet is covered in a performance Kravet Smart fabric and lined with a bullion fringe in écru – a detail that matches the dining table. The leather Ottoman from One Kings Lane rests on a Rana rug by Lulu and Georgia.
Tim Lenz26/45A leather wet bar in the living room. The cabinet knobs are by Waterworks and the interior doors, walls and shelving are painted in Benjamin Moore’s ‘Brick Red’ in a high gloss finish. The backsplash is a Philip Jeffries braided wallpaper. The tablecloth is custom, in Peter Dunham ‘Udaipur Red’ fabric. The accompanying dining chairs are vintage Art Deco in walnut, sourced from 1stDibs and reupholstered in Fermoie ‘Rabanna’ fabric.
Miguel Flores-Vianna27/45Rita Konig's design for Deborah Needleman's upstate New York cottage
“My husband and I bought this modest 18th-century Dutch Colonial house in the Hudson Valley in 1995, so that I could make a garden. The house is a higgledy-piggledy one, having begun its life in the late 1700s as a one-room inn on the old Albany Post Road that ran from New York City to Albany. There were rooms tacked on to it in the 1920s and some later ye olde style modernizations in the 1950s and ’60s. The house had been owned by Dallas Pratt, an heir to the Standard Oil fortune and cofounder of the American Museum in Britain, a decorative arts collection, in Bath, England.
It was by far the most modest of his many houses, and perhaps his favourite, although he visited most years only in October, when the weather cooled and the leaves turned. By the time we arrived, the house was an odd mix of some good Early American–period details along with bathrooms outfitted with plastic shower stalls atop shag carpet, sinks built into the bedrooms and enclosed behind paneled doors that looked like a cross between a confessional and a telephone booth, and an attached garage that had been transformed into a dead ringer for the set from The Brady Bunch.” - Deborah Needleman
Miguel Flores-Vianna28/45A vintage silk suzani draped over the large center ottoman/table brings vibrant pattern to the summer sitting room.
© The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, photograph Dawn Blackman30/45This NYC loft features a trove of pivotal work by black artists
A muted portrait by Los Angeles–based painter Henry Taylor holds central billing in the downtown Manhattan home of art patrons Bernard Lumpkin and Carmine Boccuzzi. It depicts a young Black man, wearing a plain white T-shirt and a backward-turned baseball cap, who sits behind a teal dinette, gazing toward the viewer.
A cake, missing a slice, rests atop the kitchen table beneath a glass bell jar, suggesting a scene of celebration, a happy occasion. On the back of the canvas, a brief inscription reminds of the painting’s subject, Taylor’s “sweeter than chocolate nephew William Rorex Jr.”—an ode to family and the comfort of the domestic space—while a reared-up horse rendered in the background, a recurring motif across the artist’s oeuvre, appears aligned as a hopeful image of freedom.
Where some collectors might be intimidated at the prospect of installing a large sculptural piece, like the ghostly structure composed of various muumuus by Yale-trained Kevin Beasley that floats above a Milo Baughman sectional, art patron Bernard Lumpkin relishes the challenge. “Artists push themselves, curators push themselves, writers push themselves by taking on things that seem too big, too difficult, too dangerous. I think collectors and patrons, you can also push yourself,” he says. “If it makes me feel uncomfortable, that’s always a good sign.”
© The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, photograph Dawn Blackman31/45A portrait named for its painter Henry Taylor’s nephew, The Sweet William Rorex Jr. (2010), presides over a guitar pick–shaped table by Brazilian architect Arthur Casas in the central open-concept living-dining area in Lumpkin and Boccuzzi’s Tribeca loft. “I had just a strong connection with this,” Lumpkin says. “It’s the one that bought me.”
Gaelle Le Boulicaut33/45Artist Ghiora Aharoni's Manhattan apartment pays homage to its tenement past
In his Manhattan apartment, artist Ghiora Aharoni has created a harmonious balance of art and design that pays subtle homage to the history of the building.
In the dining and second seating area a large-scale Richard Serra work looms dramatically over the end of this space. “It is meant to mimic a big window,” says Ghiora. “When I have a video call, people say, “It’s very dark outside in New York.” But I say, “Actually, it’s Serra.” A William Kentridge sculpture from Marian Goodman Gallery and a sculpture by Ghiora flank this. To the left is the kitchen, with Danish bar stools from the Fifties.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut34/45“The ‘Souper Dress’ is fascinating,” says Ghiora. “In the early Sixties, Campbell’s Soup was trying to bank on Andy Warhol’s success and attention to their product. You would send them two soup-can labels and a dollar and they’d send you back a dress.” He found this mint condition example at an auction in Los Angeles and had it framed.
Gaelle Le Boulicaut35/45The bedroom is large enough to just fit Ghiora’s bed. “It is the size of the original bedroom – literally the size of a mattress,” he says. It does not feel confining, however. "I have a huge window in here, so it’s like a beautiful cocoon." An artwork by El Anatsui hangs above the bed, with built-in storage under it.
36/45Gabriel Hendifar and Jeremy Anderson of lighting design studio Apparatus transform their New York City loft into a dazzling showcase of the couple’s signature aesthetic
Located on the top floor of an erstwhile industrial building in the Flatiron District, the loft speaks volumes about the Apparatus brand and the passions of its protagonists. Filled with prototypes, custom pieces, peculiar objets de vertu, and compelling architectural details, the residence strikes a delicate balance between the raw and the cooked. “We wanted to experiment with living in a semiformal way in a space that resists formality. Basically, we tried to make it feel less like a loft,” Anderson says of the couple’s design approach.
François Dischinger37/45In a decorative coup de théâtre, Hendifar and Anderson adhered a 15-foot-long, unframed, 1930s Danish canvas to the meandering divider. “We loved the idea of this giant pastoral painting of cows and milkmaids juxtaposed with all the sleek brass and marble. Plus, I really got off on designing the hardware that holds it in place,” Hendifar explains.
The apartment’s second defining feature is a series of custom oak shutters punched with symmetrical apertures. The repeating circle motif nods to Jean Prouvé’s ribbed-aluminum porthole panels, but the scale of the pattern and the inset rings of hand-finished brass keep the design squarely within Apparatus territory. “The first thing we did when we got this place was take down the roller shades on the giant, nine-foot-tall windows. The shutters immediately unified and elevated the architecture,” says Anderson.
François Dischinger38/45Throughout the home, the designers paired Apparatus lighting and furniture with sympathetic vintage pieces both pedigreed and unattributed.
The living room, a tour de force of eccentric chic, exemplifies the duo’s sensibility. Midcentury sofas by Milo Baughman are covered in a black faux-bois moiré fabric that provides a dramatic counterpoint to the warm red-toned wood shutters. The room is anchored by an imposing Hendifar-designed cabinet constructed of brass mesh, wood, and eel skin, set atop turned legs of solid brass. Flanking the cabinet are two folk-art liquor cupboards in the shape of human figures, acquired from a hunting lodge in Maine. Hendifar bumped up the surrealism of the ensemble by adding a custom marble-topped cocktail table in the shape of a three-toed foot.
Lucas Allen39/45A tiny house in Greenwich Village with an uncannily spacious interior
When two architects bought one of the smallest houses in New York, they transformed the interior, creating a bijou interior with a sense of spaciousness that belies its exterior appearance.
Made up of two adjacent brick buildings, the charming house is situated in Greenwich Village. The single door on the left is for everyday use, while the double doors on the right are used for more formal occasions.
Lucas Allen40/45"I knew that it needed a lot of work. It had the right bones, but it needed a complete gut renovation," says Anne. "Everything had to be stripped out, including the heating system, the plumbing and the electrics. I reacted in the same way that I approach every other project: I rolled up my sleeves and got to it." They redid the house in halves, residing in one as the other underwent construction, and vice versa.
In the kitchen, the fire surround is lined with Delft tiles.
Lucas Allen41/45High ceilings in the sitting room made it possible to have a two-storey window and mezzanine gallery installed; the chandelier in the centre is on a pulley system so that the candles can be lit easily.
Lucas Allen42/45The main bedroom features a four-poster bed with coordinating floral quilt, upholstered trunk and canopy.
BROOKE HOLM43/45Restaurateur Keith McNally's rented New York apartment
“Like many immigrants, my desire to live in New York came from films. The strange thing about seeing the city for the very first time was that it seemed more like the films than the films themselves. Places rarely live up to expectations, but New York did. It especially lived up to its nickname: the city that never sleeps. It was 1975 and the subways ran all night, bars served until 4 am, taxis were available 24/7 and diners never closed. Not that I needed to have a coffee and an egg sandwich at 3 am, but knowing I could, helped me to sleep better. It still does. That’s why I couldn’t live in any other city.”
Here Keith McNally enjoys a secluded corner of his SoHo roof garden, from which he enjoys views of the Empire State Building.
BROOKE HOLM44/45Paintings are displayed on every available wall – Keith has been collecting for over 40 years and has more than 200 artworks, mostly from the 20th century. Another vibrant diamond-motif Indian dhurrie rug picks up on the colours of the sofas and their vintage Beacon blankets. ‘Selecting the perfect rugs, then finding exactly the right spots for them in my home is like a matchmaking process,’ he explains. Keith found the contemporary cypress-wood veneer lampshades on 1stDibs and has several of them in two different sizes throughout the apartment
BROOKE HOLM45/45In the main bedroom, the Arhaus rattan bed, crafted in Indonesia, and a rattan chest of drawers create a 1960s feel, their pale tones set off by the reds and blues of Indian rugs and an upholstered bench.
