Imagine starting all over in paradise. A wall of windows provides a dazzling view of the Potomac sweeping from The Washington Monument to Key Bridge. Inside this spectacular penthouse, an extraordinary contemporary art collection featuring works by Picasso, Matisse, Stella, Rauschenberg, Motherwell, and Frankenthaler ensure that the internal views are equally captivating.
The homeowners downsized from a grand 6,500-square-foot, antique-filled 19th century Queen Anne landmark house with a three-story turret at the corner of 32nd and R streets in Georgetown. They moved into a sleek 3,800-square-foot, minimally-furnished 21st century condo seven blocks away. An urge to simplify their lives and start fresh led the owners to their exciting and open new surroundings.
They felt it was time to do something else. So, they sold everything with the exception of five antiques and a few chairs and started all over again. They didn’t, of course, sell their art, a collection the husband had started as a teenager at the encouragement of his grandparents, who were great 20th century art collectors. The couple consulted Cheryl Numark of the Numark Gallery to augment their collection.
‘Life Moving Art’
The unique view the penthouse provides was a compelling factor in the change of residences, too. The couple liked the idea of being in an urban setting with a vista encompassing the Washington Monument, The Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Memorial, the Potomac, and the Rosslyn skyline. Life beyond the 66’ of industrial/loft-style windows on two sides of the living and dining areas energizes them. The action never stops. Life is on the move from before the Georgetown scull crews row by on the shimmering river at dawn until long after the dinner boats glide by at dusk.
The owners like the fact that they’re never really alone in this apartment. There’s always motion outside whether it’s the water, the cars, or the lights across the river. There’s always a transition occurring and they love the way the light changes. “Seeing Key Bridge reflected in the Potomac is like moving art,” one says. Draperies were eschewed in favor of motorized shades in the living and dining areas.
From Raw to Refined
The couple turned to Dana Tydings, president and owner of Tydings Design Inc. She’d designed their former home and led the transition to their new aerie. Part of the appeal of this particular penthouse, in addition to the mesmerizing uninterrupted view of the Potomac, was the chance to modify the floor plans before the 3303 Water Street Condominium was built by Eastbanc Inc. The owners enjoyed being able to transform the raw space into a refined environment to suit their lifestyles and those of their daughters.
For instance, they specified the finishes for the four-bedroom, two-story space from the stainless steel counters and limed gray wood veneer cabinets in the streamlined Eggersmann kitchen to the custom Poliform closet in the owners’ bedroom.
One Huge Living Space
Working from the blueprints, Tydings and the owners redesigned what were originally three riverfront rooms – a bedroom, living room, and dining room – and instead dramatically opened the space into one 1,200 square foot living and dining area.
In order to create an expansive wall for their art, the couple reconfigured a choppy space behind the new living room that was originally designed to be a bathroom, closet, laundry room, and powder room. They moved the powder room back a few feet, relocated the laundry room closer to the bedrooms, and put a hidden door in the art wall that now leads to a workstation, a space for audio visual equipment and wine storage, and a cedar-lined walk-in closet.
Handsome dark espresso brown floors that were dyed, stained, and sealed contrast beautifully with creamy white walls throughout most of the penthouse. This neutral shell provides the perfect background for the exceptional art collection of primarily signed and numbered limited edition prints.
A large wall in the living room, for instance, holds works of art on paper by Helen Frankenthaler, Adolf Gottlieb, Joseph Beuys, Jean Dubuffet, and Nancy Stevenson Graves, pictured below. Works by Abraham Rattner, David Rowe, and Sonia Delaunay grace a nearby wall in the dining room. A portrait of Dora Maar, an early lithograph by Picasso, stops a visitor in her tracks in the hallway. Signed and numbered prints by Frank Stella, Robert Indiana, and Robert Rauschenberg greet the family and their guests in the foyer as they come and go.
Reclining Nude, an original pen and ink by Henri Matisse, holds a place of honor in the living room. Interspersed throughout the apartment, several small pastels by Jane Meyerhoff de Rochemont, the owner’s aunt, are particularly cherished.
Sunrise Sunset
Working with Annette Rachlin, owner of Furniture from Scandinavia, the cosmopolitan couple has accented their penthouse with iconic Danish modern furniture that looks like sculpture. A white leather day bed by the late furniture designer Poul Kjaerholm, for instance, is a favorite new piece. “To me, it’s every bit as exquisite as any art on the wall. It’s informal, it’s fluid, you can move it around,” one owner says.
The dining area with its two walls of windows and elegant round dining table for eight provides one of the most romantic settings in which to break bread in Washington. Sitting there as the sun sets and dusk envelops this penthouse is magical as Key Bridge casts long graceful shadows onto the glassy Potomac and The Kennedy Center lights up majestically. The splendid scene looks like a painting. Imagine.
