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The apartment's pièce de résistance is the master bath, sheathed in three different marbles—rusty Breschia de Vendome, green Cippolino Verde, and gray Carrara—all from Ionian Marble, Inc. (2470 49th St., Astoria; 718-274-1997). (Photo: George Holz)
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Designer Vivienne Tam has lived in her lower Fifth Avenue penthouse since 1990 but, like most New Yorkers, wasn’t ready for a renovation that was more than skin-deep. “It is so expensive when you move in, I didn’t have the money to decorate or renovate,” she says. Born in China, raised in Hong Kong, and Catholic-school-educated, Tam moved to New York in 1983 to launch a fashion business, one that melded her Eastern and Western sensibilities. Since 1994, she has been producing her signature line of Asian-inspired clothing, sold at her Soho flagship store, as well as at boutiques and department stores throughout the U.S.
Last summer, Tam finally decided to give her apartment a makeover. Aided by designers Scott Crolla and Lionel Bourcelot of Ether, Tam took her 1,500 square feet down to the bones. Every concrete column was stripped and left exposed; the popcorn ceiling was peeled away; the tacky eighties parquet discarded and replaced with walnut planks. Walls disappeared between kitchen and living room, and a small guest bedroom turned into a meditation studio. She even expanded her living room’s spectacular view by removing a nonstructural column.
The light is so beautiful and the ceiling is high and the location is great, so why move to a new place?” she asks. “Just renew it so you get a fresh feeling.”
Her goal was to give the apartment a feeling of solidity despite its dubious postwar pedigree. “To get a solid, grounded feeling in a new building is hard—everything is so thin,” she says. The solution was a medley of textures and finishes applied to the walls—a smooth, striated plaster coating makes many of the walls look like stone; a panel on another shimmers like mother-of-pearl. “When the light hits there, it is silvery, which is very Chinese,” Tam says. “Also, with the lacquer red color by the entrance, I am keeping a Chinese feeling.” Chinese, yes, but convincingly blended with minimalist art and modern furniture, Tam’s apartment has the same leavening effect on the traditional as her designs do on Asian garb, making each element seem lighter, brighter, and more defined.
To see photos of Vivienne Tam's apartment, buy the April 28, 2003 issue of New York Magazine.
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