In 1999, the sleek Richard Meier towers went up on Perry Street, gleaming along the West Side Highway like two glassy fangs. The starchitect’s first project in the city, the buildings seemed incongruous among the worn-in brick façades surrounding them.
Now, a decade later, there are so many glassy towers that the city looks like it’s wearing sequins — but 176 and 173 Perry St. still exude a rarified type of fabulousness. Jean-Georges Vongerichten has a swank restaurant on 176 Perry’s first floor (it’s secluded by trees and white curtains so you can’t really snoop), and celebs like Hugh Grant and Calvin Klein live in the buildings. Nicole Kidman did too, before she sold her floor in 2012.
While strolling down Hudson River Park, you can’t help but gaze up, wondering, “Do the residents look at me looking at them?” For two owners, the prolific interior designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg, who live together on the second floor of 176 Perry, the answer is “yes.”
“Sometimes we see people looking up from architectural tours. They point and we wave,” says Yabu.
“And we see Hugh Jackman’s stalker,” jokes Pushelberg. The couple is sitting in their grand, airy living room that overlooks the Hudson. The apartment is elevated enough to offer an expansive vista of the river, while still being close to the Citi Bikers, joggers and cars hurtling by on the West Side Highway.
Over the 30 years of their partnership in business (and life), Yabu and Pushelberg have designed award-winning hotels and retail spaces all over the world, including the St. Regis Bal Harbour, the Smyth hotel lobby in TriBeCa and, most recently, luxury retailer Lane Crawford’s new 150,000-square-foot Shanghai flagship — as well Clement, the restaurant at The Peninsula hotel in New York.
After a long climb to the top of their field, the condo — which the couple moved into in 2006 — feels like a gift to themselves. “We always wanted to live in New York,” says Pushelberg who, like Yabu, also hails from Toronto. “It just took us 25 years to get here.”
One first enters the Yabu-Pushelberg apartment via a central elevator that opens to a hallway lined in wood veneer — laurel tree sourced from a fallen log in India. An LED-and-resin computer art piece of blurry pedestrians flickers to the right, and a large black Anish Kapoor plate hangs on the opposite wall. The effect is moody and mysterious. “You get into the building and your irises need a chance to adjust. The hallway lets you gradually open your eyes,” Yabu explains.
He points out how the lighting above and below the long wooden panels is smooth and seamless. “We worked really hard so that it wouldn’t look scalloped. I don’t like indiscriminate lighting.”
Dominated by natural light, the three-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot apartment is done in a muted color scheme of blues, creams and natural wood. The strongest color comes from the Yves Klein 1963 “Table Bleue,” which, placed in front of the huge, custom-built central couch, offers a shock of indigo pigment under Plexiglass. Thought-provoking decor is sprinkled throughout the home, including a row of gender-confused busts by the Gao Brothers that look like cartoons of Chinese business leaders transitioning to female. Mounted on a wall, a deer head covered in artificial crystal glass beads looks out over a long dining table on which are displayed four reflective metallic blobs that resemble puddles of mercury. “They are abstractions of Chinese characters,” says Yabu, “I think it says ‘I Love Shanghai.’ ”
On the other side of the apartment is a TV room that looks like a padded cell for media addicts: wine-colored, wall-to-wall cushioning perfect for a marathon of “Game of Thrones.” “We love it so much we have it in our home in Amagansett, too,” says Pushelberg, who also owns residences with Yabu in Toronto and Miami Beach.
There isn’t much difference between their professional work and their home. The couple live as they design: Minimally, but with a sense of humor; relaxed, but never dull. “I need clarity and focus,” says Yabu, standing in his pristine kitchen. Lining the shelves behind him are vintage ceramic pots set against massive glass windows.
The kitchen probably doesn’t get much use. The two commute back and forth from Toronto every week, where the firm maintains its headquarters. The designers met as students at Ryerson University, in Toronto, in 1972 — and formed their company (and coupledom) nearly 10 years later. “It just sort of happened that way. I remember thinking, ‘How do I invoice you for your time?’ ” said Pushelberg.
When they first started out in 1980, the couple took on any assignment the could secure. But they eventurally scored their first big break: a Club Monaco store in Toronto. During this period, they also visited New York for the first time, staying at the Chelsea Hotel and visiting Studio 54 and CBGBs. “I remember running across the Bowery because it was so dangerous to just walk,” Pushelberg recalls.
Years later, in 2005, the two were in talks with Vongerichten, who suggested they come take a look at the Perry Street restaurant space, and the couple were given a tour of apartments, including this one. The commission fell through, but they were in love with the space. “It was a bit of a stretch for us,” said Yabu. “Glenn started crunching numbers and we decided, let’s do it.”
Luckily, the sale coincided with a slight dip in NYC real estate. “One night out we met a neighbor, who works at Corcoran. He can see into our apartment. He said, ‘I like your blue sofa. Oh, by the way, you have the real estate deal of the market.’ ”
When the floors were for sale, each space was offered raw to new tenants, which appealed to the designers. “We could create something from scratch, without anyone else’s footprint,” says Yabu. This allowed them to fashion smaller, functional chambers behind the giant living room area.
These include the kitchen — which has a coffee maker built into the wall — along with a stealthily placed mud room with a washer and dryer; and, nearby, a small, intimate bedroom decorated with a wall of old mirrors (“We always find a mirror and then have to rearrange,” Yabu adds). Another wall displays portraits by artist Santiago Rubino of big-eyed women, rendered with ballpoint pen on the backs of book covers. There’s even a small closet in the home serving as a shrine for Pushelberg’s beloved metallic Helmut Lang trenchcoat.
Although New York is the couple’s part-time base, the city has increasingly become a hub for their current — and future — projects. Next up are a trio of Manhattan hotels: the Park Hyatt flagship on 57th Street, the second Four Seasons on Church Street and the Times Square Edition. They are even designing a new neighbor’s apartment — the New York residence of “a West Coast-based entrepreneur and his wife,” says Pushelberg, vaguely.
Still, they have time to socialize, and host several parties and functions in the space. “This apartment is set up for entertaining,” comments Pushelberg. Indeed, one gets a sense that in this rarified luxury tower, Yabu and Pushelberg are the fun ones. Case in point: The large Anish Kapoor plate that normally greets guests in the entrance hallway was out being repaired. “It was chipped at a party recently,” said Pushelberg, betraying no anxiety, “It’s OK. It happens. It was a party.”
Author/playwright Mike Albo contributes to Glamour, Out and Elle Décor