The Abridged Version (continued)
Photo: Peter Murdock
Within the newly raw space, the Texas-born Povero added hardwood floors, walnut paneling and cabinetry, and a fireplace of brushed Absolute Black granite set into a white surround. To those surfaces he added a mix of such masculine furnishings and accessories as dark leather club chairs and vintage photographs (taken by Schneider's great-grandfather) and souvenirs of far-flung travels. The idea, Povero says, was to create a private men's club—with a membership of two.
Jeffery Povero may have the only apartment in America with books arranged in Dewey decimal order. It was an obvious choice for the architect, who spent thousands of hours designing libraries during his tenure at Robert A.M. Stern. Making the modestly scaled apartment feel spacious required other feats of organization. In the living room, the fireplace was offcenter, and there was no way Povero could move it. So he lined up a custom-designed sofa and leather chairs with the center of the fireplace. In that way, he says, he "made the room feel ordered."
Then, to make the room feel bigger, Povero mirrored the window recesses, a time-tested way of multiplying light and views. But Povero didn't stop there; he obscured the edges of the mirrors with drapery, creating confusion about where the real views end and the reflected views begin. In the bedroom, Povero again used mirrors to add vistas (the reflection in the segmented mirror over his bed is "very Vermeer," he observes). Low-to-the-ground cabinets provide lots of storage. And the dark walls (Benjamin Moore's Iron Mountain) seem almost to dematerialize against white window recesses.
Getting two colors to meet in a straight line was tricky for the painters, reports Povero, who based the effect on the work of Philadelphia architects Howe and Lescaze. In their famous PSFS building (1932), heavy columns are dematerialized by "knife edge" intersections of contrasting colors. In his bedroom, Povero takes the trompe l'oeil further, using the thick white lines of his bookshelves to make the wall plane even less imposing.
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