Photo by Stephen Ang
A recycled glass tile backsplash and colorful cork floors give this kitchen remodel extra vibrancy.
Photo by Stephen Ang
Handmade recycled glassware from Fire & Light
By Robyn Griggs Lawrence
VIDEO: Tour this remodeled kitchen with architect David Bergman >>
When Amy and Oscar Schachter contracted architect David Bergman to remodel 600 square feet of their 950-square-foot 1960s-era apartment in Manhattan, the couple was indifferent to green building and décor. Their wish list included lots of color; an open kitchen; and a home office connected to, but also separate from, the living space. Bergman sought to achieve this using green materials.
“We knew nothing about eco-design, but we told him as long as we liked the look and could afford it, that would be fine. We just didn’t want to pay a premium for something we weren’t looking for in the first place,” said Amy.
“Green design wasn’t on their radar,” says Bergman, who is LEED accredited (the U.S Green Building Council’s designation for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). “So at different points, I showed them several material choices and didn’t tell them whether they were eco-friendly. More often than not, they liked the green materials.”
The Schachters ended up with a colorful, comfortable home featuring cork floors; locally sourced, recycled-glass countertops; recycled-glass tile backsplashes; wheatboard (composite “wood” made of agricultural byproducts) cabinets; and natural linoleum desktops—green materials chosen primarily for their durability and aesthetic qualities.
“The green factor added an extra layer of excitement for Amy and Oscar,” Bergman says. “They love the apartment’s new layout and the colors most of all—it’s being green was just an added benefit. I like to call this ‘transparent green.’ It’s there if you’re looking for it, but this apartment doesn’t shout ‘green design.’”
Bringing Light and Enlarging a Small Space
Like most New Yorkers, Amy and Oscar needed more space when they bought the nondescript, eighth floor apartment in the Upper East Side building where they already owned two tiny units. They’d been living in a first-floor apartment while the studio down the hall served double duty as an office and guest accommodations. The studio was too small for Oscar’s law practice paperwork, and he hated waiting for visitors to vacate in the morning so he could work. The Schachters also were seeking more light, which their ground-floor apartment lacked. When they learned that an eighth-floor, two-bedroom apartment had become available, they grabbed it. They transformed the downstairs apartment into a formal dining room and guest room and sold the studio.
The couple changed the new space somewhat, turning the entire living room into an office and the tiny second bedroom into a dining area. Three years later, more changes were needed.
“Our apartment was 90 percent work space and 10 percent living space,” says Amy, an affirmative-action consultant. The couple wanted to work comfortably in a smaller part of the apartment so that their professional work became “a part of our life space, but not our life,” she explains.
“I also wanted to do more cooking,” Oscar adds. “So I wanted a place to prepare food without having to be in a separate room when we had company.” Additionally, the Schachters needed a space for entertaining, less formal than the downstairs dining room.
Proper planning was crucial. “We were determined to really think it through so we wouldn’t have to redo anything,” Amy says. “We wanted to make sure everything was ready and right before we moved ahead.”
Bergman’s solution was to gut the windowless galley kitchen and remove the enclosing walls separating it from the living and office areas—turning a boxy apartment into an open, airy space. A mobile kitchen island provides ample storage, as well as additional counter and eating space. Bergman relocated the office area next to the kitchen and positioned Oscar’s file cabinets behind a pivot sliding door made of recycled-content resin. The door pulls out from an interior pocket at the side of the refrigerator and folds over to hide his files.
Adding Color With Green Materials
Bergman and the Schachters focused on bringing character and color to a space that Bergman describes as having “8-foot ceilings with no details at all.” Randomly placed maroon cork tiles add unexpected shots of color to the floor. Brilliant blue natural linoleum dresses up the built-in desktops. And the powder-blue, recycled-content resin panels hiding the utility closet near the kitchen and the file cabinet in the office “pull the whole look together,” Amy says. “It’s an industrial element that’s very New York.”
“For us, it’s all about color,” Amy adds. Bergman, who utilized orange for the first time on this project, says bringing in color while using eco-materials was challenging. “A lot of the colors are just rather bland,” he says.
Unexpected Construction Dilemmas
As with any project, there were unexpected complications. “In the end, it came out beautifully,” says contractor Robert Politzer, president of Greenstreet Construction, “but it’s a classic story of the sometimes bloody process involved in the learning curve with green materials. This field is transforming so rapidly that with every project there’s a new material we’ve never worked with.”
Greenstreet encountered difficulties when installing the cork floor; as with any resilient surface, it transmits all the bumps in the subfloor. The original, recycled-glass tiles for the kitchen backsplash revealed imperfections and mottling; they were replaced with an alternate brand that had thin opaque backing.
Both Oscar and Politzer describe the original concrete countertop as simply “a nightmare.” Extremely porous, the concrete showed every scratch, every dent. Amy and Oscar tried to live with it, but eventually decided to replace it with IceStone. The Schachters love the sparkling green color and durability of the new material, and Oscar appreciates that it’s a product of his native Brooklyn.
Politzer is proud of the result, despite the struggles. “Construction is always a challenge, and this is construction in New York City, for God’s sake,” he says. “I’d advise other builders not to be allergic to green materials—but just to be aware of the learning curve.”
The Schachters are completely satisfied. “We’re pleased we could do all this and stay within budget,” Amy says. “David was just great at finding all the right stuff.”
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