East End Ave. Residence — A Quietly Tailored Yorkville Apartment
East End Ave. Residence reworks a 19th-floor apartment in New York, NY, United States with a measured hand from The Turett Collaborative. The renovation turns a post-war high-rise shell into a personal home that navigates low ceilings, long views, and an inherited structure with quiet precision. Existing pieces and new interventions meet in a clear sequence of rooms that favors art, daylight, and an easy daily rhythm for longtime clients.
From high above Yorkville, the apartment opens to wide river and skyline views while ceilings sit low and compressed over daily life. Light tracks across oak boards and quiet walls, drawing attention away from the constraints of the post-war shell and toward a long interior horizon that ties one room to the next.
This is an apartment renovation on the 19th floor of a post-war high-rise, reshaped in 2025 by The Turett Collaborative for longtime clients. The project is a full gut remodel that concentrates on lighting, circulation, and extended interior views as the backbone of the plan. Every move, from the greenhouse-turned-office to a new sliding glass partition, reinforces a clear route through the home and a sense of connection between its primary rooms.
Framing Long Interior Views
Walls pull back and align to keep sightlines open from one end of the apartment to the other. Movement through the home becomes a continuous visual run, with art, shelving, and doorways arranged to prevent abrupt stops or cluttered corners. A sliding glass partition in the living area preserves this sense of depth, keeping views and shared light intact even when the room needs acoustic separation for conversation, reading, or work. That single plane of glass turns a potential barrier into part of the visual route, quiet but decisive.
Managing Low Ceilings With Light
Ceilings hover closer than in many contemporary towers, so the team relies on shallow fixtures and uplighting rather than bulky hardware. Existing dropped beam coves become places to conceal uplights, pushing brightness onto the ceiling and easing the sense of compression along primary circulation paths. Compact track lighting comes in only where task light is essential, preserving headroom while keeping the ceiling plane clean and legible. Wall-focused illumination supports the clients’ art collection, creating a soft wash that doubles as wayfinding along the main route through the apartment.
Reworking The Greenhouse Office
An existing greenhouse sits outside the building envelope, more like an exterior enclosure than a typical interior room. The renovation turns this marginal volume into a functional home office, balancing thermal performance and acoustic control with the finish level expected inside the apartment. Glazing, finishes, and detailing acknowledge its exposure to the elements while delivering the comfort required for focused work during long stretches of the day. The office stays linked to the main living areas through light and view, acting as a quiet outpost rather than an isolated annex.
Aligning Interiors And Circulation
Interior decisions track closely with the circulation diagram, so movement and daily routines guide how rooms are furnished and finished. Existing pieces and heirlooms are reconsidered alongside new selections, with custom millwork and shelving structuring walls that carry art and collected objects. A calm, restrained palette lets richly figured oak floors anchor the apartment, giving each room a steady base underfoot while long views and repeated materials tie the sequence together. Trust between clients and architects shows in these calibrated moves, where personal sensibilities and technical constraints meet in a clear, navigable home.
As day fades, uplights in the coves and targeted wall washers take over, drawing the eye along familiar routes rather than up to the low ceiling plane. The apartment reads as a continuous loop of rooms and views, from greenhouse office to living area and back toward more private quarters. In that loop, the renovation finds its purpose: an everyday path through a high-rise home, tuned to light, art, and the habits of the people who live there.
Photography courtesy of The Turett Collaborative
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