East Village Apartment
New York, NY
In Manhattan’s East Village, Lang Architecture has completed a harmonious 1,650-square-foot apartment inside a quietly dignified Art Deco building. The project was a full gut-renovation, joining two neighboring units into a singular residence for a young family of four. The transformation involved all the essentials — new windows, mechanical systems, and structure — but its real achievement is tonal: a space that balances Deco heritage with the clarity of modern living. The brief was for a “forever home,” one that nodded to the past without feeling bound by it. Lang’s solution was a transitional vocabulary: cabinetry that is articulated but not heavy-handed, open rooms designed for fluid family life, and historic motifs distilled into spare, contemporary gestures.
Unlike Midtown’s theatrical Deco landmarks, the East Village version is quieter — brickwork with gentle geometry, vertical window groupings, modest reliefs. The apartment mirrors that restraint. Deco here doesn’t glitter; it whispers. The plan orbits around a formal entry that unfolds into the Great Room, where kitchen, dining, and living converge. Two bedroom suites anchor either end, while a glass-doored den adds a note of flexibility — part study, part playroom, part retreat. Throughout, details carry both function and intimacy: a custom shelf, designed by Lang and built by a relative of the client, frames an Espasso sofa; a vintage pendant hovers above the dining table; kitchen and bath millwork is rendered at the level of fine furniture. Materiality holds the narrative together — limewashed walls, slabs of Calacatta Panozzo marble, brass-trimmed leather drawers, coved ceilings and rounded jambs that soften the geometry. The palette is subdued but warm, punctuated by deliberate contrasts. The result is a home that feels of its place and moment — Deco in spirit, contemporary in use, and designed, above all, to endure.
Press The Local Project // East Village Apartment
Press AN Interior // Round the Corner with Lang Architecture
Drew Lang, Principal
Zac Zeller and Jordi Biosca, Project Architects
Emma Raible and Fernanda Ximenez, Interior Designers
Plane Remodeling Co., Contractor
Photography // Bjorn Wallander, Jordi Biosca
