Apartment at 778 Park Avenue

Following on the completion of a house in East Quogue designed by our firm and decorated by S.R. Gambrel, our client asked the same team to work on a very different opportunity: the gut renovation of her apartment in one of the best Rosario Candela buildings on Park Avenue. Where the weekend house in East Quogue offers the charm of a Shingle-style summer cottage, our client wanted this Manhattan apartment to present a streamlined and urbane aesthetic—traditional but with a twist.

The apartment—previously owned by philanthropist Celeste Bartos and her architect husband Armand Phillip Bartos, and one floor above the former Brooke Astor apartment, famously decorated by Albert Hadley—was reconfigured to recapture the elegant logic of the original Candela plan, updated to reflect the contemporary lifestyle of our client.

RAMSA was responsible for the interior architecture, including the floor plans, interior elevations, base and crown moldings, casings, doors, and floor patterns, working in close collaboration with our client and with Steven Gambrel, who was responsible for the interior design, including color schemes, fabrics, furniture, and light fixtures.

PROJECT PARTNER: GARY L. BREWER

Interior Design: S.R. Gambrel, Inc.

Photography: Peter Aaron / OTTO