Joshua Bell Loft

Joshua Bell’s penthouse sits atop a 1910 industrial building. 4,000 square-feet of open loft-like space express a physical reinterpretation of the musical instrument that the artist has come to master. Bell requested that the architect that his 1713 Gibson Stradivarius inspire the creative process. The work is sculptural and lyrical. The top two floors of the building were gutted and restructured. The open interior is dominated by the glass and oxidized steel staircase leading to a mezzanine balcony above the living area. Outside, the terrace evokes a pagan outdoor spa with a hot tub and shower open to the sky, a trellised pergola, a fireplace and a copper-clad chimney. Natural light rains down through the two-floored interior via the high atrium. The evocation of the violin is seen throughout. The grilled patterns in the cabinet doors resemble abstracted f-holes, and the apartment’s two dominating woods—reclaimed bubinga for the floors and reclaimed wenge for the millwork—approximate Bell’s violin’s aged maple, ebony and spruce. The wenge window seating doubles in the living room as storage for Bell’s sheet-music collection and serves in the kitchen as a banquette for the wenge-topped table the architect designed. Connecting the living area and the dining area is a limestone and patinated steel fireplace boasting a mantel that cantilevers out on one end to double as a bar. Ideal for hosting guests, this residential masterpiece transforms into an intimate concert hall. A velvet curtain can be used to divide the library from the living area, functioning as a proscenium for Bell’s bimonthly salons. For the master bedroom, the architect carved out a window to frame in its entirety the client’s beloved Flatiron Building.