The Village Uncommon

Designer John Beckmann of Axis Mundi transformed a Greenwich Village townhouse into a treasure-filled home that's chic, unique and très today

Written by Fred A. Bernstein • Photographed by Annie Schlechter
Produced By Linda O'Keeffe

The look of contentment on John Beckmann's face could mean he's enjoying the embrace of the 1919 club chair from Poltrona Frau -- or the satisfaction of knowing that he did a job just right. The bronze-and-glass room divider, which he designed, is the result of months of thought about how best to apportion the parlor floor of his client's four-story 1846 Greek Revival townhouse in Greenwich Village.

The 2,550-square-foot house, which is 19 feet wide outside, had a typical Victorian floor plan, with a wall separating the foyer from the living room. Beckmann's client was hoping for a flowing, loft-like space, but the designer didn't want the front door to open right into the living area. So he began exploring ways to create the right amount of separation; over time he considered a panel of sandblasted glass and a wooden latticework screen. Then, during a trip to Urban Archaeology, the TriBeCa emporium of reclaimed architectural elements, he saw a cache of bubble-textured glass designed by Gio Ponti for Alitalia's Fifth Avenue ticket office in the 1950s. Beckmann decided to use the glass, along with panes of antiqued mercury mirror, to form a divider that is at once a shaper of space and a dazzling object in that space.

It was a signature move for Beckmann, who describes his work as "minimalist, but with added glamour" and who sees crisp white rooms as a starting point, not ends in themselves. "I like to insert a little bling-bling into every project," he says, "because that's the stuff people remember."

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