Two Units Become One Inside the Rockefeller Apartments

The Rockefeller Apartments occupy a singular position in American architectural history as one of the earliest International Style residential buildings in New York, originally designed in 1936 by Wallace Harrison and J. André Fouilheux and commissioned by the Rockefeller family to house tenants displaced by the construction of Rockefeller Center. This project demanded an interior language capable of conversing with the building’s modernist pedigree without slipping into nostalgia or period mimicry, a balance Nicholas Potts Studio and Studio Armando Aguirre achieved through extensive archival research and a willingness to let the architecture itself dictate the terms of intervention.

A hallway with marble flooring, cork-patterned walls, a black decorative metal door, and four framed photos arranged in a square on the wall.

A hallway with marble flooring, tan textured walls, wall mirrors, a console table with flowers and a lamp, and modern light fixtures on the ceiling.

The 2,800-square-foot residence combines two former units into a single, grandly scaled apartment, restoring a sense of spatial clarity that decades of subdivision had eroded. The plan reorganizes around a pill-shaped entrance gallery, recalling the curvilinear logic embedded in the building’s signature radiused projecting bays.

A wooden console table with a sculptural black lamp, small vase of red flowers, and books stands against a beige wall in a modern room with wooden and black grid accents.

A wooden cabinet with shelves holding books, a table lamp, a vase with flowers, and framed art on a beige wall.

These bays, which give the Rockefeller Apartments their distinctive street presence, now anchor generously proportioned formal living and dining rooms, reestablishing a pre-war rhythm of procession and gathering. Two bedrooms, three baths, and a flexible office and guest area complete the program, with planning decisions guided not only by original drawings but also by reference to William Lescaze’s model unit and Nelson Rockefeller’s own 1930s interiors.

A living room with two striped armchairs, a side table, bookshelves, framed art, a circular windowed door, and a coffee table with flowers and books.

A spacious living room with a large beige sectional sofa, wooden chairs, ottomans, coffee tables, framed wall art, and large windows letting in natural light.

Heavy figured Khaya mahogany runs through the apartment as a continuous horizontal datum, becoming banquette seating in one room, cabinetry in another, and a lighted art plinth elsewhere. The repetition gives the rooms a quiet rhythm, pulling disparate spaces into a single composition. Mirror-polished Portoro marble introduces moments of reflective depth and visual surprise, its dramatic gold veining against deep black lending accents that feel simultaneously luxurious and architectural. Cork-lined gallery walls reference the original foyer hatching while introducing acoustic warmth and a tactile counterpoint to the apartment’s harder surfaces.

Modern living room with wooden shelves displaying framed art, books, and decorative objects; a wooden dining table and chairs with yellow cushions are in the foreground.

A curved orange sofa with beige cushions sits by a large window in a modern room, with a round coffee table holding a vase of white flowers in front.

Throughout, bespoke interventions sit alongside vintage and vintage-inspired furnishings drawn from Bauhaus, International Style, and Art Deco traditions, allowing the apartment to feel historically informed without becoming overly referential.

A modern galley kitchen with wooden cabinets, stainless steel countertops, and a view into a living room with neutral furnishings and a vase of purple flowers on the counter.

A mid-century modern living room with a wooden sideboard, sculptural lamp, abstract artwork, round coffee table with flowers, and an orange curved sofa by a window with sheer curtains.

Bathrooms continue this dialogue between restoration and reinterpretation. Original fixtures were preserved where possible, including a rare historic toilet sourced in New York City, then paired with handcrafted Heath Ceramics tile and bespoke fittings that quietly bridge past and present.

A living room corner with a white lamp, a tall vase of white calla lilies, two wall art pieces, and a small sculpture on a wooden table.

A modern living room with a blue sofa, yellow and white pillows, a wooden coffee table with a vase of flowers, built-in shelves, and a large dark painting on the wall.

Elsewhere, custom ebonized oak screens, a dining banquette, an office daybed and desk, and a lighted living room shelf fabricated specifically for the architecture reinforce the project’s commitment to continuity between furniture and shell.

A modern bedroom with a double bed, wooden furniture, a window with blinds and dark curtains, yellow flowers in a vase, and a large framed artwork above the bed.

A neatly made bed in a modern bedroom with a desk, chair, lamp, standing paper floor light, vase of yellow flowers, and a framed artwork on the wall.

The owner’s collection, which includes works by Robert Mangold, Candida Höfer, Ellsworth Kelly, Louise Lawler, Ed Ruscha, and Thomas Demand, shaped color and material decisions throughout the project, creating subtle dialogues between art and architecture. The collaboration between Nicholas Potts Studio and Studio Armando Aguirre ultimately demonstrates the value of treating architectural shell and interior contents as a single design problem, producing a residence in which container and contents speak the same coherent language.

To learn more about the creatives involved, visit npsarch.com and armandoaguirre.com.

Photography by Adrian Gaut, styling by Colin King.