The New York architecture scene boasts beautiful views overlooking the world-famous cityscape, but homes there are generally known to make you feel cramped and uncomfortable. Here’s how we achieve zen in an otherwise typical Manhattan apartment.
Our lead architect, Sussan Lari, shares her unique approach to a memorable home design project in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
The team transformed an otherwise ordinary apartment there into a statement, eye-popping home to never forget!
Jon:
Today we are interviewing Sussan Lari, President of Sussan Lari Architect. As a full service firm, Sussan Lari Architect aims to design and help build functional, comfortable, and beautifully designed spaces for modern living. Sussan Lari Architect prides themselves on maintaining a mindful collaboration with all of their clients, while also accomplishing their goals within budget and on schedule. So with no further introduction, Sussan, I will begin sharing some photographs of a beautiful project that you’ve designed in your city living collection called Upper West Side Apartment. So I’ll get my screen shared here and if you would be so kindness to give us a walkthrough of this project, that would be unbelievable.
Sussan:
Good morning, Jon.
Okay. This project is in Manhattan, as the name says, Upper Westside apartment is a three bedroom apartment in an apartment building, pretty upscale quality building. We got involved in this project toward the very end of 2017. And although the apartment was more or less brand new, but it was a very bare kind of boring, not character type of apartment which is very, very common. This is not unusual. It’s very, very common. Majority of the apartment building, the entire investment spent on the lobby and the hallways and possibly the common area these days more and more. But the apartment itself are just bare minimum whatever they could offer. So the apartment the client has to be actually a very dear friend of mine. And so I had and a lot of authority on this project. She trusted me fully and that is in one way a very good thing because then my hands are open and in another way, not very good thing because then with the full authority comes a lot of responsibility.
And so I had to be very, very careful. Not that, not make a mistake, but client would say, You choose. You choose. So when I choose everything, if she doesn’t like it, then <laugh> in trouble. But fortunately the project went relatively smooth. So a three bedroom apartment, you walk into the apartment with a very small entry hallway and immediately you enter into this space. As you see, this view is exactly from the entry hallway of the apartment into the space. So it was an open space, a good size, a relatively square size to accept to contain all the common areas, sitting area, dining area, and the kitchen which is on the left side. But then as you would walk into the apartment, typically New York City apartments, the ceilings are concrete so you cannot poke through the ceiling. So recess down lights are out. So that particular feature of apartment building would prevent us from having quality lighting.
So what they do, they put a ceiling mounted light in the middle of the room, one or two, and that is the poorest quality of life Light. Light needs to be coming from different sources, Light needs to be a recess down light, maybe a pendant or chandelier for giving character is necessary to have wall sconces is necessary to have table lamp, floor lamp. And as the light come from different sources, it provide possibility to adjust the lighting for different mood and a different kind of feeling of the space during the winter when we have less light coming in. So we would need more light and in the summer we would need less light. But one other feature of this project was that again, a drawback of New York City apartments, lack of storage, lack of cabinetry, lack of spaces for people to put their stuff in.
And as you typically go apartment to apartment room by room in New York City apartments, you open a closet door and it feels like things are falling out of it. It’s kind of very difficult to find your stuff. And that kind of creates a feeling of cluttered space and I really dislike that. So another very important feature in my work be beside lighting in New York City apartment is how to provide additional storage space for people to be able, number one, to display their artwork or their stuff, and two, to have to store things properly so they have a better quality of life. Quite often people say, What is a quality of life? Define it to me. A quality of life is not necessarily a luxurious finishes of the apartment that is just visual and it’s just irrelevant in my opinion, quality of life when in the morning when you wanna get ready where your clothes are, you don’t need to look for it. If you want to play a game where your game board is, you have room to store your stuff, your kitchen stuff, it’s like that is luxury to me.
So we had two basic mission on this project. One is how to produce higher quality light. And number two, how do we create storage space in the form of built cabinetry that also add to the aesthetic language of the apartment. So best location for it in, again, New York City apartment is all along the window because typically the actual air conditioning unit, which is the heating cooling system, is a unit under the windows. And so typically they cover that. So window has a depth and that is always best area where we could put cabinetry along the way. So the entire wall between the two windows and each side of the window at the very end of this image are building cabinetry. So this building cabinetry creates depth. So the windows are further set back in. It provide us a counter below the window to put objects. So you could see the Buddha sitting.
My friend is very much into yoga, and that’s her Buddha, sitting Buddha. And then also the drapery. Very clean, very modern language of Roman shades, which is hidden behind that. And then what you may not see that soffit that is above the window and the soit that on the right side of the room is all lighting. So recess down lights could be just not higher than about five, six inches. So of maybe eight to 10 inches, you could create a high quality lighting at the edge. And that’s where typically we need lighting in the center of the room, fine, maybe a chandelier. But if we let the walls in an apartment, we provide enough quality lighting in the room. And then as you Okay, the flooring was an existing wood floor is it was a prefinished wood floor, but we needed to actually refinish it. And what we were successful in doing that. And so the majority of the construction for this job was the electrical work to provide higher quality lighting and cabinetry work. And the rest basically furniture finishing.
So you may wanna go to the next image if you want <affirmative>. Ok. So this is the same area and the entry hall is on the right. We are not seeing it, but as you turn around, it’s the hallway, it’s a corridor leading to tree bedrooms and there are two bathrooms on the right side. So intentionally we kept the hallway open, we did not create a separate door in order to create a kind of feeling of this room is leading to another room. It’s a good feel, especially it provide the feeling of spaciousness. And my client had a lot of artwork and also, but this is by the way, this apartment is a pie, is not her place for full-time living. So she has three sons and many grandchildren. So they all use this apartment extensively. The very last door leads to her master bedroom. And then on the left side, there are two other rooms that I will explain it to you later about that.
So basically that’s the seating Buddha. And then the open shelving was fantastic because she has a lot of objects quite often, very beautiful and many books. So that’s a way of accessorizing. We have typically issue with finishing an apartment or even a house is not enough to furnish at the end of furniture. The walls are empty, the space is empty. So accessorizing, it’s a very, very important part of completing, It’s like women earrings or jewelry or rings or accessorizing is it’s almost necessary. Otherwise the place is empty, it doesn’t feel finished. So she had so much objects and that was wonderful because as you could see, the place is filled with object. And then what we decided to do, we designated each corner of the main public area to one of the son’s family. So you see the image on the top is on the right side, that’s one of the sun <laugh>. And then the images of him and his family are there. And then each corner that’s designated. And we picked one wall for my friends her family of her parents, picture of the parents all gone of course, and her sisters. So
Jon:
Mm-hmm, just a note on this that really stands out is the way that you have described scribed, the accessorizing of the space and actually putting thought into that rather than having things sporadically placed, there’s that idea of mindful design and mindful layout. And I think if you look at the symmetry and you look at the way that things are even laid out in terms of the, as you said, where you have these dedicated areas that even as you live in a space, it affects your quality of life. Because as you go through your home, even if your family is not, for example, they’re with you you have these almost mementos to them that bring them to mind and it’s done thoughtfully rather than having barren spaces. And as you said when you have a barren space or a space very, it’s just bare. There’s nothing there that actually pulls you in and attracts you to the space. It affects the quality of life. And these things I wanna point out do not happen by accident. All of these elements that we see in front of us are not by accident, they are intentional and they are done for a specific purpose.
Sussan:
Absolutely. They may add something here. There is a difference between, again, I explaining what’s a quality of life or it’s like we could explain about if we have this kind of difference between a gourmet food and just a diner type of food, <affirmative>, we understand that we could relate to that because we know if you go to a quality restaurant and you don’t even need to go to a quality restaurant, if you are in Italy, you could go to the smallest restaurant and you get highest quality food hopefully. But then that is understandable to people.
A quality car is understandable to people, they buy it, they know clothing. I’m not sure much in America, but it’s hope that changing. But when it comes to quality of life, what defines equality of our spaces in architecture in our home, What is being defined as a quality space is the quality of the space is when we put our thought in, when we think about it, when is there’s a difference between thinking to create something meaningful and beautiful and not thinking at all. So that’s why I am so much emphasizing on the issue of aesthetic. And it’s hard to separate aesthetic from mindfulness because if the aesthetic is a forced aesthetic, which is the fashion, then the homeowner cannot relate to.
So, but if you approach it in a mindful way, and quite often what this client of mine is pretty sophisticated individual. So she already had magnificent artwork, all I had to do to go to her apartment and spent a day to accessorize your apartment. So I ask her to bring all the family pictures and just go to home good and buy a very, very simple frame. And that’s good enough. You don’t need to spend so much money on the framing and then come and let’s make this happen, which we did. We made a fun day out of it. But I will not necessarily do that for my other clients, <laugh> without charging, but for her of course. But it’s at the end, this apartment has become it desirable space for every age within that family. They all wanna go there, they all relate to it. Each of them, they see something of their own in there. And that is what I call quality of life as simple as that.
Jon:
If we take a look at this from a bit of a wider angle, <affirmative>, the thing that stands out to me is the cohesive feel of this design. And you always talk about that and I would love to hear you maybe elaborate a little bit on that as well, on the cohesive look and feel.
Sussan:
I will do that. Well, at the very early stage of the job, the project, we discuss what should be the design language. So if we are going to have many artwork, if she has many magnificent carpet Persian carpets, if she has, as we go to the bedrooms and you see it’s a lot of gorgeous fabrics. So when a client has already many accessories, so one has to be make sure that the actual background and the design language of the background is quiet, we don’t need to achieve interesting spaces with colors if we could add those colors by accessorizing the apartment. So you have to be very careful that how you introduce colors into a space. So the decision was made at the early on that we should go for a language of design where it’s monitored. So the monitor look in this entire apartment is a blue gray tone, but light enough. New York City apartments, she gets enough sun, but nevertheless is a lot of kind of, it’s not bright, it’s not typically homes that are so bright. So I lost the image, Jon.
Jon:
Yep, I did as well. Hang on one second. There you go.
Sussan:
Okay. So for example, the color of the cabinetry, quiet, calm color of moldings, quiet, calm walls are all wallpapers. But the wall wallpapers are amazing these days because there are in the mindset of many people, wallpapers are the flowery stuff that used to be 30, 40 years ago. They haven’t moved on yet. But wallpapers today is basically we have options of providing textured walls. And by providing textured walls, it gives a very nice finished look for the background of an artwork. So the wallpaper, if you go very close to it, you see that there is a linear, horizontal, linear soft line on the walls, which gives enough texture. On the left side of this image is the kitchen. So for example, the language of the kitchen is slightly different than the cabinetry on the right. It meant to be slightly different. And the stone is a very magnificent granite stone. I don’t use granite on kitchen counter anymore because granite happen to be kind of loud and stands out. And I like quiet language. And this particular granite was magnificent. We got lucky to find it. But again, on the left side is the images of her own family, which we put in a more prominent location. And then as you could see, the entire furniture are all, again a soft gray potty. Look to it.
Okay, so that’s the space. Okay, here is actually a better view of the kitchen. Kitchen is slightly the color, slightly different. We did not move the appliances around that would’ve been too involved and it was not necessary. The design was perfectly fine, but the kitchen cabinets were very, very low quality. And so it was completely replaced. And then it’s a very workable kitchen and the island, it provide area for people to sit. Every time I’m in her house, we all sit around the island. We really haven’t sit in the living room at all in the sitting area, always around that countertop. And you may realize in many houses we just gravitate toward an area when we could sit with a closed relationship in our conversation not far from each other. And that’s where we talk and eat <laugh>. So that’s the island. And there is a special feature that maybe on the next picture I’ll show you the amazing Okay, so here is a closer look at the light, the tree light. And honestly, none of these are expensive at all. These lights are from tech light. The great manufacturing of light is fun and relatively inexpensive. The entire lighting in the entire apartment are LED lighting. I don’t do anything bad LED lighting.
So that’s the look, okay, it’s hard to see. But the back splash of this kitchen behind the cooktop is a magnificent stone. The stone is a very ordinary looking stone. But what they have done with that stone, they created the grooving on the stone. These are all fascinating way that the manufacturing of stone provide us with playing on the texture of a material. And that is all kind of a vertical groove on the stone. And you could see some line white line go through it. And the color, again, the idea of monochromatic language of color, and this was achieved you in slightly different color. So it’s good to stand out, otherwise it will be a little bit too boring. But as you could see, furniture are all more or less tone on tone. The breakfast the dining table, it’s also a magnificent wood, oak wood with pattern on it. So everything is subtle and nothing stand out. But when you get close to every texture, there’s an interest in there. So you walk in and your apartment feels so good it welcome you what, why make and space so welcoming, why people like to be in the apartment. It’s just thoughtful thinking, thoughtful design, honestly all right’s, just details. My friend had the collection of beautiful pomegranate so you could see that she’s from Iran and she’s an amazing cook by the way. And then color, we brought color to the accessories like those pillows, two pillow, lumber, pillow on a very subtle simple on the love seat.
Jon:
And I love the depth. I will say that I feel like the, while the square footage of this space that we’ve been looking at here is it’s not, as you said, this is an apartment in New York City, so it’s not going to be most of the time extremely large. But you’ve created a sense of depth in space which is a phenomenal feat I think to create that sense of can stretch and you have that ability to feel comfortable.
Sussan:
How you get that depth. Jon Jon is basically, for example, you put some attention at the very end walls. So here artwork at the very end walls. And when the middle is quiet, so the eyes goes to the end and when eyes goes to the end, you see interesting walls and lighting and artwork. So when we not need to only pay attention to what is around us, but what’s the end? So that will create the feeling of vastness, the two pillow at the very end that gives depth or the artwork, the big artwork that she had. The painting blue at one end, you walk in the eyes goes to the very end and that create again depth. So that’s basically what it happens.
And not too much stuff in the middle, just quiet in the middle. These are basic details. As you could see on the very left side at the window edge I had room to create open shelf on the inside edge of the window. And if we have space, just go for it, create shelf. And she had enough stuff to put on and they look good. But quite often my clients that they don’t have accessory, they tell me, Don’t get me all this bookshelf. I dunno what to put on them. And yes, if they don’t have accessory, what they put family pictures, which is a huge no-no on kind of frame sitting. But I knew her life and her what she has so many things from her existing house moved to the apartment. And you could see the lighting is also the w sconces are kind of, it’s marriage between a traditional language of Venetian Italian, Venetian lighting and more modern because it’s clear is light is one color is not colorful and it just adds to the design language.
Jon:
And while we’re talking about lighting, you mentioned something that I want to ask about if we can maybe zoom into it a little bit more. You mentioned that you always use LED lighting and you don’t use any other lighting other than that is there some reasoning behind that that you could share?
Sussan:
Yes, I am. Well, I am very conscious of global warming and I’m very conscious on green architecture.
LED lighting, it provides the minimum amount of energy it capture, its kind of uses and then it doesn’t heat. So with a 12 watt I could produce enough lighting that it is typical 60 watt of incandescent or 70 watt of MR16. The majority of people are used to a lighting that is the coloring of light is very, very warm. So we have a different coloring language in every light that it produces. The warmer, the light, the coloring is like 2500, 2700. And the cooler, the light, the coloring goes to 3030 500 and higher. When LED came to the market amount of, they didn’t have the 2,700 coloring, so the majority of the color was 3000 or 3,500. So for the people’s eyes, the 3000 was too cold of a light like fluorescent light.
I don’t like to use fluorescent at all. Only when I did corporate world, I used fluorescent and probably today would’ve not even used that because LED is in the market, but LED is now available in 2,700. So why on earth I will do anything? Why I go back to the old days or old technology. So you embrace the more modern technology of the lighting. And even today, the only issue typically is I deem all my light I, there’s no light in and high any of my project that is not deniable. I need to be able to change the intensity of color. And then when you cannot dim LED light with incandescent light in the same switch. So I have to be very careful when I do the circuits design that I separate LED from that. So all these, for example, Wisconsins are not L led, they’re they’re just like a, and so separately switched from the recess down like that or LED.
Jon:
Wow, that’s a very important point. And I think the detail behind the design of going beyond a design that is aesthetically pleasing, that is comfortable and beautiful and all of these things that we’ve been discussing a very high quality of life. Also looking to the future and saying how will this impact the environment? How will this impact the future generations? And really actually taking into effect not only the environmental impact but as you’ve also stated, many times the materials that you choose for your projects are materials that are healthy to be around
Sussan:
Jon. There’s no other way. It’s like don’t forget I have, I’m beside, I’m being an architect. I’m also believe and I’m responsible citizen. So it’s how could I ignore the fact we have global warming? How could I ignore the fact that certain products are unhealthy and certain products are much healthier? So knowledge is incredibly important to be a responsible designer. Designer. So the necessity of us knowing and understanding what is available in the market, there is nothing that we choose in our office or specify without completely knowing the product, completely having an understanding of how this product is being made and how is it works. It’s just like there is no half a way of doing stuff. I just refuse to do it.
Jon:
I completely agree with you and I think it’s a very under appreciated and vital part of architecture.
Sussan:
I agree with you. I was at AIA convention in Chicago about a month ago, and is the institution fortunately are in the forefront of making the member to follow this green architecture? Be careful in what we specify. We specify product and if the specify the products that are good and healthy for the project, it’s a contribution to a direction of thought or thinking that is good for the society. But how many architects follow that? I don’t know. And that is, I know I will follow and I know my firm is following and I take pride on that, Jon. And if my clients understand or not, I’ve had kind of argument with a client who insisted to have MR 16 because she did not the call to look of it and she would not get convinced. So there are not that I’m going to win every time, but it’s not a battle. But it is just, I think it’s my obligation to let them know and I will insist on it at the end. They have to choose <laugh>, they have to accept what I’m suggesting.
Jon:
Well, that’s the truth of it, is that that’s why it’s so important to when you are choosing and when you are deciding who to work with, it is, it’s much more than what meets the eye. It’s much more than the surface of the design. And it is, that’s the importance, and we talk about it all the time, is the philosophy behind the design, the philosophy in terms of why did you, even going back to the island in the kitchen where you have the proximity to be able to sit and have an intimate conversation. Maybe you’re drinking tea, maybe you’re having a meal together that it’s beyond just, okay, here’s an island. It’s going beyond that and saying, well what is the use of this? If we’re going to be three feet apart from each other, why not make it more? So I guess for me this is the big one of the big takeaways is that there is so much more to architecture than as a layperson what we would see or so much more than what
Sussan:
It’s a lessons of life is the lessons of life. Because the space we create, it dictate how they live. Undo doubt it, no doubt about, So when we talked before that the importance of having the design of our home to fit our modern lifestyle, that’s what I mean. So I know how I will never claim how people should live, but I know what make a good how to design and space to promote good life. A lot of it is our head of Jon. It’s a lot of it is our attitude toward life. A lot of it is if you’re so a lifestyle, whatever. So a very important part of our work is to get to know our client because at the end we are designing for them and then in that conversation that they also get to know me more and then they open up, they allow themselves to let me know more about them. And by having that trust then I’d be able to design the space that fit their life better.
So this is an awesome room. So decision was made that, okay, we don’t need three bedroom, but we also, the common area, the public area has all the sitting dining or whatever. But if I wanna sit and watch tv, so the main public area doesn’t have tv, thank God. So here is on code combination of a Persian sitting room, a TV room, and also that David on the left was designed it’s fabricated, designed by me and fabricated to be able to have a kind of open couch. But at the same time, the mattress is the size of a twin mattress for an extra bed. And the sitting arrangement is the floor sitting arrangement. It’s delicious to sit on the floor. By the way, I don’t know, it’s like many people call it Moroccan, but also Persians have this lifestyle as well.
So you are closer to the ground. So the table is also very low and it has a different feel to it when you sit down close to the ground. And the bed is also really shallow depth and color. This is a very colorful room. And you could see the carpet could see in many kind of Persian houses that they covered the entire floor with carpet over carpet, over carpet. There is a hotel in Tulum, I think called Nomad and the common area, the lobby, you walk into the lobby and their sitting area where people sit and gather the entire floor is covered by carpet after carpet after carpet, and then all sitting arrangement on the floor and is amazingly popular space. So it’s being used also in hotels and not only in rooms. So that’s the room that’s beautiful and it’s most used than any other room. So additional detail, you could see the lighting. So brought the light down, hung from ceiling create interesting detailing and again cabinetry by the window. Same language as the living, we had all the bedrooms, same language.
Jon:
It’s very, what I will say is it’s very welcoming.
Sussan:
It’s welcoming. Yes, it is welcoming. You’re right. You
Jon:
Feel at home,
Sussan:
You feel at left.
Jon:
I’m looking at this and I feel you feel comfortable in the space. And I think there’s an additional value to having either on the floor or right above the floor. And that is that you get this perception of a larger space above you with the signaling.
Sussan:
Correct.
Jon:
And that’s a great I don’t wanna say almost an optical illusion, but it gives you that space, that feeling of you, Again, you have that comfort and that extra breathing room where most of the time if you were up much higher, you would get a sense that your ceiling is cramping down onto you in some cases.
Sussan:
I hear you. And also in eastern cultures like Japanese sit on the floor for their tea ceremony Moroccan 10 Asian, Iranian, that sitting very close to the ground, to the floor. It’s a very cool feeling.
Jon:
I fully agree with you by the way. I fully, fully agree with you. It’s a very interesting touch and it’s something that we don’t see a lot. So this is a great piece of inspiration for someone who wants to maybe even revitalize their own space and say, here’s a way that you can really adapt and bring something in from a beautiful culture and say, Hey, how do we integrate this into our life?
Sussan:
If you are open minded enough, Yes, yes,
Jon:
Exactly. That is the key. That is the end
Sussan:
Of the day’s. It is the key. But also there is typically for the main living room, we don’t do that because this is more intimate for family room. Why not <affirmative>? Especially if you’re not so much into TV watching. And we believe in sitting and gathering family, friends and talk this, promote this design, promote a closeness that it is, it’s bring down the barriers, it kind of down to earth feel of a connection.
Jon:
And I love the fact that you’ve placed the lighting lower in the room as well. So you have those two lighting areas that are, it’s not just shining down from the very top. Again, you’re creating this depth and this dimensionality inside of the space that I think we’ve all been in rooms that you go into and you go, Well, this, it’s a room, but it’s just a room. I think in many ways this is the difference between a beautifully designed space and a room,
Sussan:
A design space and a not design space. So we could add the beautiful to it because that will be our personal judgment. But <affirmative>, this room is designed. So when people ask me what’s the difference between space design and space, not design, that is a good example. It. It’s how much we could contribute to a beautiful space for the creation of beautiful space. And what a beautiful space versus ordinary space effect to the mood, to the feeling of wellbeing is huge. Okay, That’s the master bedroom. The same concept, cabinetry along the edge pendant on both sides of the bed floor covered with lots of carpet. These are all her collection of beautiful Persian kilos and a quilt of many different colorful fabric and bed. And that’s her bedroom. And a Japanese inspired wallpaper. Calm, quiet behind the bed.
Jon:
You get a feeling of zen
Sussan:
And you get a feeling of zen. For sure you do. For sure you do. You’re right.
Jon:
You’re, the thing that really stands out to me is you feel peace.
Sussan:
You feel peace.
Jon:
Almost unstoppable to stop that you feel that just overwhelming sense of peace as you look at the design, as you look at the angles and the lighting and even the way that the cabinets, if you are laying in bed, you’re not looking into a cabinet, right? That’s facing away from you. It’s beautifully, very, very, very thoughtfully and beautifully designed.
Sussan:
And also, do you see, again, the same concept of, so its for lighting, so there were no ceiling lights. So now we have light along the edge of the bed and then the two light above the window. So these are all provide really quality light. And these two lights on the two side dependent bring light further in kind of let’s say for reading or for close to you let the middle of the space rather than light on the top
Jon:
And just to clarify again, all of the lights in the home are all dimmable. So you can dim
Sussan:
Everything. Everything. Wow. Including that is necessary because how much light we need depend on the time of the day, the time of the year, the weather outside or mood, what function. There’s no such a thing as one light. My daughter lives on an apartment in Brooklyn, and you go in and you turn the light on and it’s unbearable. Unbearable. There’s so much light. And we are talking about crazy expensive apartments, Jon, crazy expensive. But then they put so much tot on the common area, on the rooftop garden, all of that. But the lighting, nobody designed it is just the electrician decides what kind of light to be and is unbearable. So what she has done, she turns all the light off, never turn any light on, and she put individual light. I told her, Why don’t you just change, just add a dimmer by adding a dier. You could change that. I haven’t been able to convince her, but whatever.
Jon:
This is gorgeous though. I tell you, this is really, as I look at the different images around here, it really just brings to mind the impact. Again, looking at some of the items and the elements that are not immediately thought of. When we think about design, how often are we thinking about when it is 10 30 and you’re reading a paperback book? Yeah. Do you really want extremely bright lights shining from all around you if you were in some kind of industrial setting? Yeah. And it’s like you said, I mean, does that equate to a better experience? Undoubtedly, Does that equate to better sleep? Of course. And if you’re waking up in the morning and the first thing you do, if you up before the sun and you turn your light on and you just get this bright, harsh light, how does that impact the rest of your day there? There’s even a study around this, and I know you’re probably aware of this, but study on how light impacts our emotions and even our hormones. And the ability for us to have a malleable experience of that and to think through that in advance is truly phenomenal.
Sussan:
Jon, in the corporate world every project has a lighting designer. Supposedly we assume they’re good and they know what they’re doing. But then in residential, everything in residential design is being ignored. The fact that the world or America not pay attention to the quality of residential design, it’s mind boggling. These are your homes. This is where you spend time and after pandemic far more hours at home. So how could the design of our home be irrelevant to us? And how could we assume that builders who build these apartment buildings ever so taught Leslie, be good for us? How could we won’t wake up to the fact that there’s a solution to this, there’s a better way of doing this, and how could be we be indifferent to it?
Jon:
And I think that is strangely enough, I think that is, when I think about what causes so much stress in the day to day life, part of it is undoubtedly the way that we manage ourselves individually. Obviously that plays a major role. But if we look at the environment that we set up for ourselves, is it an environment that is conducive for wellness and health and starting at the design level and reverse engineering a life that is high quality and high level experience makes such a great impact. And it’s so difficult to imagine a world that this is not, is just not being used. And to see the fact that you were able to apply this. And I’m just going to navigate back into the main picture that we were looking at here again sort of the entryway again to kind of go through this entire virtual walkthrough, if you will, of this project gives such a greater appreciation of the work that you’ve put into this.
And as you said, you have a lot of authority and a lot of additional responsibility that comes in when you’re designing a home like this a residence like this. And I think to be able to create a pocket of zen sort of a space within a city like New York City, which is, as they say, the city that never sleeps. It’s always on. And there’s always the hustle and bustle. And to be able to have an escape from that and to move directly into a space, you can take a deep breath and you can rest and unwind and recharge and connect with those that you love the most and spend time with yourself. And as you said, this particular client is into yoga and into meditation and these types of things.
Jon:
Yes, what an amazing space that she now has to do that, not only for herself but for her family, as you mentioned. What a great time. And I just want to thank you, Sussan, for walking us through this. Before we wrap up today’s walkthrough on this, is there anything that we didn’t cover today that you do want to bring to light or you want to?
Sussan:
There is only one thing quite often solution to our issues. We look for much more complicated ways to look at it. The same way that I approach wellbeing and health so much depend on what we eat, how we sleep, how do we manage our stress. And then we always go to doctor for medications or for complicated solutions. But at the end, it’s purely a simple change of our attitude and our lifestyle. It’s kind of maybe weird comparison, but the way I see it is how we could improve the quality of our life, the area or the part that we have control on. Many things in our life we do not have control on, but we have control of our space. We have control of the sanctuary we create for us. And that is not complicated to have it designed well, it can be done. Why we don’t think in that direction, because we think that it’s not easily achievable. The issue that it is not true. It can be achieved. Design matters, Jon, quality design matters.
Jon:
Whoa. Thank you so much, Sussan, for your time today. This has been enlightening. Its been you’ve, it’s, it’s been illuminating. It really has been. It’s been illuminating and it’s given me, and I’m sure everyone who’s listening to this, a greater appreciation for the target for us to strive for of what is possible. And so I hope this inspires many more, many more homes like this. If you’re listening to this or you’re watching this right now and you feel a chemistry with what Sussan is saying, you feel that this resounds with you and you feel interested in learning more, I would highly recommend going to Sussan Lari’s website, Sussan Lari.com, s u s S A N L A R i.com. And number one, peruse. Spend some time with yourself, maybe with your significant other and look through peruse through the beautiful country living and city living homes that she has in her portfolio. And then I would recommend to reach out either via phone or email and get connected with Sussan. That’s my encouragement to you if you’re listening to this right now. Anyway, Sussan, thank you again. Have an amazing afternoon.
Sussan:
My pleasure, Jon. Good talking to you.
In closing–on Manhattan home design
This was an exciting and challenging project–and the results speak for themselves!
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