Art and Nature Take Center Stage in This Aspen Residence

CCY Architects does not typically design a long entry sequence for houses in Aspen, Colorado, which gets over 12 feet of snow a year. But for a mountainside residence overlooking the Roaring Fork Vall­ey, the firm built a 90-foot path between the parking area and the front door. By local standards, “That’s a long, long walk,” says CCY principal Alex Klumb. But the clients, an art-collecting couple, sought to highlight a recent acquisition: a reflective PVD-coated stainless-steel head by the Swiss artist Not Vital. CCY placed the sculpture at the end of an allée of aspens leading to the entrance. “It frames nature, draws you to the door, and slows everybody down before releasing to an incredible view,” Klumb explains. It also establishes the home’s focus on art and the outdoors.

Besides the Not Vital sculpture, the clients hadn’t earmarked specific pieces for the house, so they worked with Kleinberg to see which fit best: a Calder over a guest-room bed, a James Rosenquist at the top of the stairs. In the dining room, a David Hockney drawing echoes the moun­tains outside the window. It hangs above three square oak tables that can be joined or separated depending on the size of the group—the sort of practical touch that makes the home livable. The paintings and views may be spectacular, Kleinberg says, “but the interiors have to hold their own.” The result is as layered as a work of art.

A Mountainside Vacation Home Designed by CCY Architects

through galerie carole decombe: mirror (entry)

apparatus studio: con­sole

11 ravens: custom billiards table (rec room)

adam otlewski: side table

soane britain: chairs (dining room)

minotti: pendant fixtures

focus fireplaces: fireplace (guest sitting room)

perennials fabrics: sectional fabric

through 1stdibs: lamp, coffee table, chair

cassina: armchair

romo fabrics: armchair fabric

scott group studio: rugs (guest sitting room, living room)

colorado pool designs: custom pool, spa (terrace)

zachary a. design: tables

knoll: sofas, lounges, chaises

a.r.s.antiqua: custom wood cocktail tables (living room)

fernando mastrangelo studio: custom square side tables

blanche jelly: round side table

through valerie goodman gallery: custom floor lamp

cowtan & tout; edelman leather: sectional fabrics

glant textiles: lounge chair fabric

wud furniture: nightstand (bedroom)

bourgeois boheme: custom sconce

dune: custom bed

nobilis paris: headboard fabric

through twentieth gallery: bench (hall)

Roll & Hill: pendant fixture (study)

warp & weft: custom rug

nada debs: side table

charles h. beckley: daybed cushions

mark alexander fabrics: cushion fabric

Design Within Reach: chairs

token: barstools (rec room)

arabel fabrics: sectional fabric

adam otlewski: side tables

arrigoni woods: wood flooring

ergon engineered stone: tile flooring

grabill windows and doors: windows, doors

lift studio: land­scape architect

ls group: lighting design

kl&a engineers: structural engineer

woody creek engineering: civil engineer

anthony lawrence-belfair: custom furniture work­shop

structural associates: general contractor

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Draws on Architectural Harmony for the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the United Nations

Established only 50 years ago, the United Arab Emirates has, within the last two decades, emerged as a rock of geopolitical stability and a cultural magnet in the Middle East. Almost as an instrument of state policy, architecture has played a role in the UAE’s development and national image. Icons such as Jean Nouvel’s Louvre Abu Dhabi, Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill’s Burj Khalifa in Dubai—at 162 stories, the tallest building in the world—symbolize the dynamism of the country.

Along with its growing presence on the international cultural map, the UAE, which is about to serve again on the United Nation’s Security Council, has also emerged as a rising diplomatic force in New York. In 2014, having outgrown two floors in an office building near the UN, and needing greater presence in the city’s diplomatic milieu, the Permanent Mission of the United Arab Emirates to the UN held an invited competition to design a flagship home. The New York office of SOM won the competition for an infill building on a through-block site between Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza and East 46th Street.

Besides the need for privacy and security, and a program of executive suites, offices, and lecture and reception rooms, the brief called for an aspirational design requiring architectural diplomacy: elegance without ostentation and an ethos of dignity, calm, grace, and gravity. Later, the client asked that the concept also evoke New York’s art deco landmarks as well as the Middle East’s ubiquitous palm tree, a symbol of peace and desert culture.

Diplomats now enter the mission underneath a bronze canopy cantilevered from a facade composed of long, thin, Indiana limestone mullions that climb to the top of the 10-story, 75,000-square-foot building. Recalling the tapered spines of palm leaves, the gently undulating CNC-milled mullions rise from a stone frieze at the base, itself milled with a row of stylized fronds. Using rock from quarries that supplied Rockefeller Center and the Empire State Building, the understated facade introduces visitors into the decorum of a building centered around the simple pleasures of the square, the cube, and symmetry.

Just beyond the reception and security desks in the entry vestibule—its floor and walls surfaced in geometrically patterned Portuguese limestone—visitors step into a surprise: a two-story burst of space with a cliff of stairs that zigzag upward like a switchback version of ancient Greek propylaea. Recalling the courtyard of a traditional Emirati building, this welcoming central hall with a recessed 40-foot ceiling finished in hand-gilded metal leaf, transposes traditional Arab attitudes of hospitality to Midtown East. The simple, axially organized prism has a pharaonic architectural authority, confirmed by floors and walls uniformly clad in dark, sedimented, meticulously slip-matched St. Pierre limestone. The geometry is pure, but the room feels solid, encased, and immersive. The SOM team, led by design partner Chris Cooper, materializes abstraction: There is a there here.

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A tall box of dark stone nested within a larger, taller box of white Italian marble, the entry hall is the heart of the building, a core that initiates the interior’s sense of ceremonial progression. Functionally, it leads to event spaces on the second floor, but thematically it establishes a precedent for the reductive palette of rich, beautifully crafted stone and wood, mainly walnut, on the floors above, and for the symmetries and geometric simplicity throughout. On higher floors, secure elevator landings open onto reception courts—either carpeted or floored in wood-inlaid stone—surrounded by offices, meeting rooms, and work areas. “The planning is very consistent from bottom to top,” Cooper explains. “The stone heightens the sense of formality, and the formality lends itself to a sense of procession through the building.”

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Using no decoration or architectonic articulation of details, Cooper and his colleagues keep planes clean, edges crisp, and volumes pure. Finishes are matte rather than polished. The simplicity foregrounds the natural patterns in the veins of the marbles and grains of the wood, but it also sets the stage for design at the next scale, furnishings that bring the human hand into the project.

Cooper worked with a range of collaborators to integrate the decorative arts into a total, environmentally immersive scheme. Lebanese designer Nada Debs created contemporary sofas, armchairs, and tables for the entry hall and offices on the upper executive floors, the furniture’s edges subtly inflected with inlaid mother-of-pearl patterns. Rugs handwoven with natural fibers and dyes by Afghan craftswomen feature traditional complex motifs in nuanced colors; each one is unique, made to complement its dedicated space. The furnishings bring traditional cultural references into the interiors, rooting the building in the Middle East without lapsing into craft nostalgia. The rugs provide terrain for islands of furniture placed in traditional majlis seating arrangements, which emphasize the equality of the interlocutors.

The overall result is harmony in a low-key visual register: The tone never lapses. Each element, whether a wall of limestone or a marble table, plays a scripted part in a visual ensemble. With the precision of a Swiss watch, the parts fit seamlessly, creating apparent simplicity out of complexity. SOM has designed an architectural model of diplomatic agreement.

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skidmore, owings & merrill: tj gottesdiener; emily mottolese; charles harris; shubhra singhal; nathaniel broughton; oana bunea-velea; xian chi; norbert schlotter; ece calguner erzan; sepideh khazaei; jackie moran; angela caviezel; lauren kosson; fiona mccarthy; sarah hatch; cynthia mirbach

pentagram: graphics consultant

sbld studio: lighting consultant

desimone consulting engineers: structural engineer

cosentini associates: mep

philip habib & associates: civil engineer

four daughters architectural millwork: woodwork

lasa marmo: stonework

plaza construction: general contractor.

polycor: stair, walls, floor (entry hall)

nada debs: custom sofas, custom lounge chairs, custom tables (entry hall, executive office)

fbmi: custom rug (entry hall, offices)

solancis: wall tile, floor tile (vestibule)

viabizzuno: pendant fixtures (multipurpose room)

carl hansen & søn: chairs (multipurpose room), sofas, lounge chairs (ambassador’s office)

michael anastassiades: floor lamp (executive office), pendant fixture (meeting room)

studio e: ceiling finish (pre-function)

BassamFellows: sofa, tables (delegates’ lounge)

molteni&c: arm­chairs

marc phillips: custom rug

flos: lamps (delegates’ lounge, reception area, ambassador’s office)

campo­longhi: feature walls (delegates’ lounge, meeting room, ambassador’s office)

cassina: sofas, table (reception area)

halcon: custom table (meeting room), custom desk (ambassador’s office)

knoll: side chairs (meeting room, ambassador’s office)

pollock: curtain fabric (meeting room, ambassador’s office)

B&B Italia: tables (ambas­sador’s office)

aswa acoustic: plaster ceilings

lv wood: oak flooring

gamma: curtain wall

indiana limestone company: facade stone

empire furniture: furniture supplier