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How cool would it be to invite a close group of friends to your Georgetown condominium overlooking the Potomac River to listen to Mandy Moore singing from her latest recording, Shannon McNally giving a private, soulful performance, or Eric Lindell and his band jamming just for you and your guests? Ed Romanoff has had these kinds of moments in the comfort of his sleek home, which was designed by Therese Gurney of Baron Gurney Interiors.
“Therese has made it so the space reflects what I do and who I am,” says Romanoff, founder and CEO of PineRock, a production and marketing firm that produces up to 100 theatrical events a year for corporations in exotic venues including Beijing, Barcelona, Monaco, Prague, Rome, and Seville. His streamlined condominium, which provides enchanting and ever-changing views of Washington, DC, is open, airy, and inviting. Collaborating with Gurney on details ranging from which walls to remove to what furnishings to have custom made, Romanoff transitioned from a former traditional single-family home in Kent to this minimalist, modern condo that rocks. With his grand piano, collection of acoustic and electric guitars, and state-of-the-art home theatre, he’s set to entertain.
Multidimensional Life
“I like to have house concerts with an artist with 40 or 50 people,” says Romanoff, 48, who has been writing songs and lyrics for years. “We’re in an unusually intimate setting. This provides a real opportunity for an artist to really connect with an audience. That’s what I love about music, and this space facilitates that,” says Romanoff, who has had artists take the stage on his coffee table on occasion. “Performing in this setting gives artists a chance to tell you what they were thinking when they wrote [a song], they’re breaking [it] down to elemental parts of music.”
Even when he doesn’t have friends over, Romanoff finds his home, which overlooks Theodore Roosevelt Island, Rosslyn, and the Kennedy Center, inspiring. “Sometimes, late at night, there will be a storm. It’s really cool to sit here and watch lightning,” he says.
“I was here in a snowstorm; it was like being in a cloud in a snow globe,” says Therese Gurney, a designer with 20 years of experience, who used neutrals and natural light and contrasted hard and soft surfaces throughout the condo. “It’s a place you come into and relax and put your feet up. Nothing is delicate. I wanted this to really reflect Ed’s lifestyle, which is multidimensional,” says Gurney, who custom designed a refectory table to stand his guitars.
“They wanted that 13-foot table with no seam; they wanted it in one piece,” says Arshag Sarkissian of Sarkissian Interiors Inc., who did the exquisite custom woodworking throughout Romanoff’s condo. Crafting the solid white oak table with its quarter sawn veneer was a challenge in itself, moving it into the space was even more so. “It wouldn’t fit on the elevator, so I had to build a platform, hire two maintenance guys, lower the elevator, put the platform on top of the elevator, and drive the elevator up very slowly. It took four-and-a-half hours to load,” Sarkissian says.
Another feat he mastered was to clad the lovely, long curved wall designed by Christy Schlesinger in the entryway with natural rift sawn white oak. “Therese requested that I not use any nails or screws,” says Sarkissian, who had to concoct glue that would live up to the 10-year warranty he provides with his work. He had three exact templates constructed and ordered oak book matched from the veneer manufacturer. “It took seven weeks just for that one wall,” Sarkissian says. He also built pocket doors on both sides of the fireplace that can be closed to completely separate the study from the living area and kitchen. His built-in shelving near the custom fireplace can hold more than 400 CDs.
Multipurpose Media Room
Romanoff’s favorite spot to relax in his home is sitting at the island in the modern Eggersmann kitchen, where he can grab a cup of espresso from the built-in Miele coffee system and spin around on the stool to enjoy the views. A close second is his media room, pictured below, which can be completely darkened by lowering the shades. Since Romanoff, a bachelor, didn’t need a second bedroom, he had it transformed into a media room/guest room.
“It is the ultimate getaway. I love movies; it’s great to be able to have a screen wide enough that you get lost in them,” he says of his 60-inch screen. Gurney designed a long banquette that’s comfortable for movie viewing and converts easily into a twin bed for overnight guests. She ingeniously designed a trundle bed that fits beneath it and that forms a king size bed when sided next to the banquette/bed. Gray flannel upholstered walls and carpets complement the space that also holds Romanoff’s “Guitar Hall of Fame,” as Gurney calls his collection, which includes a ’67 Epiphone acoustic, ’72 Fender stratocaster, Epiphone ES 335, a Fender telecaster, and a few Martin D 35s. This room is great for jamming. “The whole apartment is sound proofed to be respectful to others in the building,” Gurney says.
A Dream View
Gurney designed a white rift sawn oak wall that stands several feet from the bedroom wall and provides storage space behind it, while framing the custom leather headboard. “The bed is like an island. It’s set to see the Kennedy Center and the [Washington] Monument. Sometimes I wake up and wonder, ‘Am I still sleeping?’ ” Romanoff says. The award-winning interior designer also integrated built-in bookcases and a seating area with a sofa that features a mechanism that makes one cushion rise so Romanoff can gaze out the window at the adjacent rooftop garden designed by Jim van Sweden of Oehme, van Sweden & Associates Inc., while he’s lounging.
From one end of the condo to the other, Gurney created open yet intimate spaces. In the dining area, for instance, she custom designed a long clear glass table with a layer of iridescent crinkled silk between two layers of glass. “He needed a place to put things on; I didn’t want to impede the view. I thought it would be romantic to have a candlelit dinner here,” Gurney says. “Ed can accommodate either two people or 22 for dinner.”
After his constant foreign and domestic business travel, Romanoff says, “It’s so nice to be able to come back to a place like this. Washington is an international city, but you just feel like your shoulders come down a bit when you come home.” Romanoff also has an office in SoHo and an apartment in TriBeCa that he adores. Of the pied-á-terre that Gurney recently designed for him in New York City, he says, “It’s a baby version of this.”
