When Omar Maden decided to buy a pied-a-terre in Washington, DC, he immediately called fellow Cuban Nestor Santa-Cruz, an interior designer with whom he’d previously collaborated on two other projects. Santa-Cruz had designed his office in Arlington, VA, in 1991 – Maden is chief executive officer of Maden Technologies, and more recently his main residence – Maden lives at The Ritz-Carlton Coconut Grove in Miami, FL. Maden wanted the same modern/art deco/mid-century comfortable mix Santa-Cruz had created for him in Florida, except instead of a 3,200-square-foot condominium with terraces overlooking Biscayne Bay, this is a 1,000-square-foot space in the West End. Naturally, he wanted it pronto.
Fast forward six weeks and Santa-Cruz, a partner at SKB Architecture and Design, was installing Maden’s large canvas, Snake in the Grass by Joseph Stabilito, for the second time, having originally hung it in Maden’s office. “This is the piece we knew we had to find a location for; there was one wall and that’s it,” Santa-Cruz says, undeterred by its 60” x 72” size. “Billy Baldwin used to say, ‘It is always better to be overscale than underscale.’ This is a very simple, non-architectural space. This painting, which is dear to Omar, becomes almost like a mural.”
Tailored to Fit
Santa-Cruz and Maden selected the furnishings and modified the shell of the condo before Maden moved in. Since he often spends weekends in Miami, Santa-Cruz met him on lunch breaks to select furnishings, buying many models off the floor. Maden’s decisiveness expedited the process.
Structural adjustments included changing the floors from oak to bamboo. “I like it, it’s sturdier and gives a different tonality to the home than oak,” Maden says. They also updated the owner’s bathroom. “We took out the standard tub and created almost a boutique hotel shower,” Santa-Cruz says. By closing the powder room entrance from the dining room and simply leaving access from a hall, they gained more wall space for furniture and art. And they closed a window that connects the kitchen and dining area with an opaque panel. “I don’t like guests looking into the kitchen or vice versa,” Maden says.
Friends and Great Food
Maden, renowned among friends for the delicious spicy Cuban cuisine he prepares, says the dining room table is his favorite piece of furniture in the apartment. Since the dining area is narrow, Santa-Cruz suggested a long narrow table by Jean Prouv‚, reproduced for Vitra. “It’s very tˆte-…-tˆte,” Santa-Cruz says.
“I enjoy that table when I’m entertaining. I get to sit around and talk to my friends and chat and catch up. I like to see my friends and cook for them,” Maden says.
The dining area flows into the living room, which also reflects clever small space solutions. For example, Santa-Cruz found an elegant 1940s-style silver leaf screen from Julian Chichester in London that he placed in a corner to conceal the door to the air conditioning unit. Otherwise, that door would be the first thing visitors would see when they entered the apartment and looked straight ahead. A pair of 1950s American slipper chairs, which Santa-Cruz had reupholstered, fit perfectly in the living room. “They have the right scale, no arms, and they’re easy to move around in a small living room,” he says.
In Maden’s bedroom, right, Santa-Cruz created the illusion of a window where there’s really just a wall. He hung burgundy velvet draperies behind the desk to balance a window on the other end of the wall and the bedroom feels like it has three windows instead of two. He also painted the room a warm mocha brown. “I’m fascinated by the use of dark brown in a room, whether it’s a bedroom, dining room, powder room, or vestibule. It creates a cocoon feeling and when you’re not able to do wood paneling, it creates the effect of a mahogany box,” Santa-Cruz says. “This helps rooms that have no architectural detailing.” While the bedroom may not have much architectural interest, it does have choice pieces of art.
“This is not a house full of art. There are four or five carefully edited pieces, which can be rotated and Omar does,” Santa-Cruz says. For instance, Maden bought an original watercolor by an unknown artist in 1975 when he was stationed in Korea in the service. “That piece is more than 200 years old,” he says. “I buy art and then I keep it forever. I don’t even trade.”
