Inside One Family’s Chic Brutalist-Style Tribeca Triplex
For New York–based interior designer Jae Joo of Jae Joo Designs, two first-time homeowners who had never worked with a decorator before proved to be a perfect professional pairing. The resulting project she did for them was “the most fun and dynamic New York City town house I’ve worked on,” as she puts it.
Joo owes that fact partly to the singular space, though the new-build with 500-plus square feet of private outdoor space had sat empty for two years before her clients found it and recognized its potential. The couple correctly believed the rare find with Brutalist leanings could, in the right hands, become an elegantly minimalist yet cozily tactile family home.
“When I saw the place, I was trying to figure out what others had missed, because I was immediately drawn to the concrete and it not being cookie-cutter,” says one client, who reached out to Joo both because he was attracted to the calmness of her portfolio and the designer’s experience with voluminous spaces. “It felt like she knew how to work on this scale that was well beyond our grasp.” For her part, Joo says, “I hadn’t seen anything like it. I fell in love with them and the space. It was an easy yes.”
At 3,800 square feet, with 3 bedrooms and 4.5 baths, the Tribeca triplex stuns from the first steps inside thanks to a sculptural staircase in a living space with gargantuan concrete columns and 22-and-a-half-foot ceilings. Those features posed multiple challenges, not least of which was “hugely dramatic installs,” says Joo. “We had to have a scissor lift inside the house to hang the BDDW chandelier and [put up] scaffolding every single time we installed anything. And it was totally worth it.”
With two children, the clients’ goals revolved around family friendliness while maintaining simplicity, tranquility, and a neutral color palette. Joo had quite a bit of freedom, though with one mandate: No leather or animal products, in alignment with their vegetarian beliefs. After thinking deeply on how to purposely furnish the home, she ultimately chose to emphasize texture by mixing materials with patina and softness and adding intrigue via attractive forms. A sense of fun was imbued thanks to the “surreal-ness” felt through fluid elements such as a fluted plaster fireplace and a “melting” free-form revolving door that leads to the play- and piano room, as the designer describes it. Joo also acted as a conduit to the art world, one client says, helping them select pieces to add splashes of color, such as a vivid Rebecca Morris painting from Bortolami Gallery.
Architecturally, the client wished to capture the spirit of Le Corbusier and Jeanneret, who designed the Indian city of Chandigarh where he spent time as a child. Meanwhile the wife, who claims to have “no design vision, no artistic vision,” was an advocate for livability and function. The combination made for an exciting hands-on collaboration between all parties—evidenced by a lively group chat thread. Even the couple’s daughters had input. The wife recalls immediately balking at the BDDW ping pong dining table. “I had visions of frat houses and said, ‘No way, I don’t want that in my home.’ But we saw it and it was so beautiful.” The table was approved and is now used often, especially when they entertain.
The renovation and design project was staged over four years—as Joo says, “not a short time to work with someone”—and ultimately included a striking blue marble–clad renovation to the primary bathroom and complete kitchen overhaul inspired by contemporary Belgian architecture. Joo brought in architect Michael House and Composite on the construction management for these, and Dimastry to landscape the prized terraces, adding now thriving ivy and trees to what was a concrete jungle.
As Joo got to know and understand the family, their trust in her grew exponentially. She recalls, “They were so open that I could say my wildest idea and they wouldn’t think that I was crazy.” For the clients, the designer’s instincts infused character, depth, and just the right amount of whimsy into the first abode they’ve owned. “I didn’t think you could have a home that could be artistic looking and be a warm, cozy family space at the same time,” says the wife. “Jae managed to strike that balance of practicality and beauty.”
1/11“It’s so architectural, but it’s the most comfortable thing we’ve ever owned. It was so well worth the money spent,” the client of Edra’s On the Rocks sofa purchased from DDC that complements the sculptural staircase. Under a fabric light by Ruemmler, beside a Timothy Oulton coffee table, it’s their spouse’s favorite piece in the house too—endlessly inviting, adaptable, and cuddly for both humans and cats.
2/11In the towering 22-foot, 7-inch tall living space, BDDW’s Bloud chandelier features customized light lavender shades that Joo says “transforms it into a beautiful and subtle focal point that perfectly complements our decor.” A Pierre Jeanneret settee and chairs with MOS Design coffee table and faux-cowhide rug complete the family room’s slightly more formal sitting area. “It was a big challenge for me to figure out how to purposely fill up the room without making it look commercial or like a showroom,” admits Joo of “finding the right balance where it felt cozy but not overcrowded.”
Art: Tyler Hays Studio3/11Joo dreamed up the black, somewhat surreal revolving door to the playroom that is a highlight for the client: “It’s one of my favorite things we’ve done here,” he says. Adds Joo, “The door ended up being the most space-reserving option but also visually it adds so much. I wanted to add fluid elements in every way possible to keep it from feeling sterile, especially with the crazy tall ceilings.” The family room is far from cold in its palette of wools and velvets, which play off a newly created fluted plaster fireplace—by Kemp Studios—BDDW puzzle painting and vintage Italian sconces with opal glass.
Art: Roy Lerner. R. H. Quaytman/Gladstone Gallery.4/11“When people come over, definitely, it’s a draw—everyone wants to play,” says the wife, who initially resisted the BDDW ping pong table, with BDDW ladder chairs, but came to embrace it. Joo, however, “couldn’t think of anyone better than them to have that table because I knew they would really use it.” The multiuse dining surface sits atop a Jae Joo Designs bespoke rug, near a large painting by Roy Lerner.
Art: Claudio Parmiggiani/Bortolami Gallery, New York5/11“We love to cook, we love to eat, and I wanted a working, functional but also gourmet kitchen, which is hard to find in Manhattan,” says the wife, who loved getting to customize a brand-new one—with patinated metallic façades and Gaggenau appliances—to fit their precise preferences. Additions including a pantry, wet bar, and sparkling and filtered water dispenser are all artfully hidden away for a hyper minimal feel. An Apparatus fixture hangs above the Dekton island with Pierre Jeanneret stools from P! Galerie.
6/11As in the rest of the home, the powder room is a play on tactility with a custom sink made of bluestone, T.D. Sidell candelabra from Task Gallery, and textured walls. Says Joo, “They did this intensive layering of different plaster materials that remind me of the bluestone and concrete, tying them together.”
7/11The couple debated a primary bedroom that felt edgy, but ultimately decided they most craved a sedative retreat, delivered beautifully in part through a four-poster RH bed, draped in a Toogood and Teixidors blanket. Joo strove to keep the room “neutral, soft, and calm” by blending wool, oak, textured plaster, and onyx nightstands. Says the wife, “It really feels like an oasis in the middle of this intense, busy city.”
8/11“The marble is kind of riotous,” says the husband of the Cremo Tirreno slabs they selected from ABC Stone after an arduous hunt for the perfect marble—and enough of it. Joo says about a dozen slabs were required “to create that buttery, smooth feel” accented by Lacava faucets and lights from MDFG Gallery.
9/11“We would get lunch [with the girls] and talk about their bedrooms,” says Joo of the clients’ daughters having input in their personal spaces. Both chose touches of iridescence, here in the form of gilded Calico Wallpaper. Her reading nook includes an RH bed that sits atop a vintage Turkish rug.
10/11In the summers the family makes great use of an outdoor pizza oven, and entertains and watches movies projected on an exterior wall from a generous CB2 sectional. To transform the previously industrial, raw terrace, Joo painted the brick walls and Dimastry added ivy plus flora in Atelier Vierkant planters. “It’s really nice in this concrete jungle to have a bit of greenery,” says the husband.
11/11"Another rare find in Manhattan is outdoor space—especially because we have kids, it’s so, so nice for them to have some that’s just ours,” says the wife. The balcony off one of their daughter’s bedrooms features a bamboo daybed with a vintage blanket from Etsy, Svenskt Tenn and Etro throw pillows, and a Marni side table.
