Were we Seattle-based doctors in the market for a Tribeca co-op, it would probably never occur to us to seek out an available unit inhabited most recently by a renowned architect and interior designer. But now that we think about it, that’s probably not such a bad way to go about things. Whether Linda E. Day conducted her search in quite so calculated a fashion we cannot say with certainty, but whatever the case, she’s just picked up Danish architect Thomas Juul-Hansen‘s old place at 138 Duane Street for $2.4 million, according to city records. Town Residential’s Susan Green and Brett Miles shared the listing.
Mr. Hansen, whose wife Judy is also an architect and designer, has created interiors for restaurants including Jean Georges and Guy Savoy, as well as for a little building called One57. He’s also been contracted for private residential commissions by the likes of Damon Dash and the Hollywood honcho Paula Wagner. And Ms. Day’s new pad demonstrates just why Mr. Hansen has found himself in such high demand.
Original detail and the ever-fetishized “bones” of the sprawling two-bedroom loft have been preserved, even as Mr. Hansen’s aesthetic sensibilities have been brought tastefully to bear. Soaring ceilings combine with bleached maple floors, spa-like marble baths, clean lines and enormous windows to suggest the lair of a successful Scandinavian CEO—an effect heightened in the listing photos by cold winter skies and barren trees. Available, too—for an additional fee, of course—are rights to the rooftop space just outside the windows, where a deck would surely prove delightful during warmer months. Failing that, the listing suggests, “a beautifully landscaped visual paradise” might be created, strictly for the new owner’s viewing pleasure.
This winter may have fostered doubts in the minds of some New Yorkers as to whether they ought to adjust their thinking about their hometown’s weather, widely-considered superior to Seattle’s perpetual mists. But given Ms. Day’s considerable new investment, we’d guess she’s feeling optimistic that the sun will once again shine on Tribeca, despite frosty piles of evidence to the contrary. So perhaps she will spring for that deck after all, even if it will not have the benefit of Mr. Hansen’s design. Go ahead, girl: Treat yourself.
