Donghia

Angelo Donghia’s original 5th Avenue sofa—designed in the 1970s for Ralph Lauren’s New York apartment—“reinvented seat construction,” says designer Jacques Saint Dizier. “An overscale cloud of a seat almost floats on the minimal base.”

Sofa by Shelton Mindel

The sofa depends on the appropriateness to a time and space. What may be ideal for one space may not work for another. The best sofa would be one that appears to be seamless in the space it occupies.

Framed in leather, the sofa pictured was custom-designed by Shelton Mindel.

Sheer Kitchen

“It’s an example of thinking outside the box,” designer Penny Drue Baird says of the modular kitchen developed by Drag Design for the Italian company Sheer. The split-sphere base includes a cook-top, a sink and an extendable steel dining table.

White Interiors

In East Hampton, New York, architect and designer Russell Groves gave a modern beach house “a fresh outlook.” Groves designed the sofa, armchairs and the travertine-topped low table in the double-height living room, which he opened up with new fenestration and neutral hues.

Interior designer Jennifer Post maximized drama in a minimalist Tribeca penthouse by using strong contrasts, rich materials and abundant natural light. The family room—“the evening hub and entertainment area,” says Post—leads out to a walled private terrace. As with the other public rooms, comments the wife, “I was very adamant that we not have draperies because of the openness and the clean lines.”

Fashion designer Ralph Lauren and his wife, Ricky, bought a Jamaican villa on Round Hill, near Montego Bay, some 20 years ago. “It’s a place where you really love where you are,” he says. Marble floors were installed in the living room.



A Tribeca penthouse’s dramatic spaces and stylish, streamlined look evolved out of a couple’s collaboration with design firm Sills Huniford and architect Robert Kahn. Bead-board cabinetry adds “warmth and texture” to the kitchen, which is “clean and sleek,” observes James Huniford. The bleached table, originally a glossy black, was formerly the wife’s writing desk. “We reused beautiful or loved things the couple already owned.”



Light and elemental purity distinguish an apartment designed by architects Michael Gabellini and Kimberly Sheppard that virtually floats above the panoramic New York City skyline. The kitchen appliances and millwork contribute to the clarity and harmony of the apartment as a whole, in which light, form and material coexist within a minimal envelope,” says Gabellini.