The unexpected modern interior in this landmarked building, designed with dedication to sustainability and preservation, was Hanlin Design's approach to office interiors in the context of small town America. The 2,800 square foot office design reflects the Foundation’s dedication to sustainability. The offices were renovated with a commitment to historic preservation, green materials, and support of local and young talent.

Photography by Frank Oudeman

The unique directive from this philanthropic Foundation’s President was to design a project where the majority of the furniture and fixtures are designed by women and people of color. Hanlin Design searched extensively to find high quality and appropriate office furnishings designed by women and minorities and found extraordinary results, but it was difficult to source certain pieces in the marketplace (particularly designed by women of color) and we decided this was an opportunity to commission custom designs from local talent.The Foundation facilities consist of a series of connected brownstones that share a uniquely beautiful and lush outdoor courtyard.The President’s 2,500 sq. ft. suite was designed around the idea of extending the courtyard greenery into the interior.

Photography by Frank Oudeman

Borrowing from the language of arches and arched niches common to the traditional brownstone, the language of the architecture becomes a play on the arch motif in both scale and application.  The arches provide soft thresholds and moments of punctuation to the design.  Nestled between the two main arches, the kitchen consciously occupies the center of the home, and its waterfall statuary marble island is the centerpiece for gathering. 

Where possible, original details to the house were kept in place, but  many of the original details were already missing when the home was acquired.  Careful consideration was given as to how and where to reconstruct the narrative of these details.  The chimney was reconstructed and a salvaged, arched Georgian mantelpiece was installed.  The mantel is meant to evoke the sense that it was original to the house and echoes the arches found elsewhere.  The moulding details throughout are designed with the proportions of the original mouldings but with a simplified profile that lends an abstract sensibility to the design.

This play between abstraction and ornamental detail was fundamental to the design.  The culmination of this approach is the skylit room on the third floor.  By implementing the traditional details of pressed tin ceilings and textured wallpapers the room becomes alive with shadow and light.

The outdoor space was designed to be a serene environment.  The limestone used throughout brightens this shady space and allows for a consistent materiality from the parlor balcony down to the backyard.   The stucco walls tie the perimeter of the yard back to the architecture of the house and provide a backdrop canvas to view the minimalist plantings.

Photography (photos by Joshua McHugh)
Team:  Hanlin Design; MuNYC; ANZ Engineering; Jay Butler, Engineer, Tamer Restoration, Marika Huins Landscape design

The Langham Mansion is a residential building on Central Park West and was famously home to Mia Farrow and Woody Allen.  Interestingly, Hannah's apartment, in Hannah and Her Sisters, was actually filmed in Mia Farrow's apartment at The Langham.

The clients were downsizing after 35 years from a 10-room apartment on the 9th floor to a 6-room ground floor apartment.  The move required a lot of editing of furniture and art, as well as an update of their aesthetic in terms of some new furniture and reupholstery.  New light fixtures replaced the historical fixtures, but the intact architectural detailing was very much celebrated.  Oak shutters were installed to both capture views of the park and to block traffic sight lines on Central Park West.  The clients were able to marry their heirloom treasures (such as a Biedermeier table and antique glassware) with new designs such as Vonnegut Kraft's modern daybed or an Italian fiberglass pendant over the dining table.  Vintage pieces were also added that best complemented some of their existing furniture.  Some of these included the Milo Baughman dining chairs, a Lion in Frost side table, and Arthur Umanoff bar stools.

 Photography by   Bruce Buck

This apartment design is a collaboration between Hanlin and her husband Chris Cooper.  Having met in graduate school, Cooper and Hanlin have long shared a complementary design philosophy.  Much of what inspired this home design was culled from a formative trip they took together to Japan in 2010.  The opportunity to practice some of these ideas came when they decided it was time to expand their 1300 square foot apartment into more efficient living space for their family of four.   Like a Japanese Tansu chest, the apartment gained significant space by eliminating furniture and replacing it with highly efficient storage solutions throughout.   Serenity in palette, with a sense of expanding space was a goal to open up this small apartment.  Formerly a schoolhouse classroom , the apartment's natural advantage is high ceilings and huge windows.  Cooper and Hanlin's collections of furniture and art is eclectic, from pottery collected in France each summer to botanical prints by Karl Blossfeldt, a Cini Boeri sofa and an expanding Swedish refrectory table.  As with all of Hanlin's projects, the furnishings and art have an organic quality with defined geometries and modern lines.

Photography by  Eduard Hueber

Embarking on a second pottery studio for our clients at Bklyn Clay, this studio takes advantage of tall ceilings and windows at a ground level storefront location in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Hanlin Design set out to create an atmosphere where creativity could flourish. At Bklyn Clay there is a juxtaposition of awkward messy things with good design, order, light, and airiness. This order out of chaos makes for an inclusive, open, creative environment where this community of ceramic artists blossoms. Bklyn Clay’s 5,000 square foot studio supports a community of both professional and amateur ceramic artists. While the studios are purposefully utilitarian, ancillary public areas such as the cafe and bathrooms are playful explorations of ceramic tile and graphics.

Photography by Frank Oudeman

A pottery studio in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, provided an opportunity to explore a new design program.

Bklyn Clay is a modern ceramics studio for potters, artists, production clay workers and hobbyists.  It is also the home to the first community gas kiln in Brooklyn.  Implementing a consistent natural palette and the client’s desire to create a spacious, airy and light interior guided the design.  The pragmatics of equipment, sequence, work stations, and circulation dictated the layout of the studio.  Tables inspired by industrial trestle work stations were fabricated and lighting was installed to evoke the spirit of a considered utilitarian work space.  The design encourages communal creativity while also providing a warm, uncluttered atmosphere that allows artists to focus on their individual work.

Photography by Eric Petschek

Prior to the design of this house Hanlin had worked with her clients to establish a collection of mid-century Scandinavian furniture.  Sourced from a variety of auction houses and galleries, this collection of furniture provided inspiration for this home design overlooking the Hudson Valley.  The architectural design and interior design intervention by Cook+Fox Architects opened the existing house to breathtaking views of the Hudson Valley and bathed its rooms in light.  Hanlin's furnishings and soft finishes were selected to complement the airy interior spaces designed by Cook+Fox.   For Hanlin, it was important to establish a furnishing strategy that would ground the delicate Scandinavian furniture collection within these large rooms to accommodate both intimate and large groups of visitors.   Modern pieces such as B + B Italia sofas were chosen to relate in scale and palette to the Scandinavian furnishings while providing enough mass to anchor each room.  Several commissioned pieces from Mira Nakashima's studio were also designed to serve as centerpieces for a number of rooms.   With a combination of geo-thermal and solar energy, this home is truly off the grid and its interiors are designed with an eye towards harmonizing with its beautiful natural surroundings.

 Photography Rob Cleary @ CookFox

The gallery principally showcases French design from the 1950s through the 1970s.  Owner Suzanne Demisch began the project by presenting Hanlin with a cream colored weathered mug that had a beautiful patina at the first meeting.  Located in Chelsea's gallery district, the raw warehouse space needed to bridge the neutrality and elegance of a white box gallery space with something that more closely resembled a domestically scaled environment.  Philosophically, the client felt it to be important that the furniture be viewed on the floor rather than on pedestals.  This criteria evolved into the idea of the super scaled floor grid that would naturally allow for the showcasing of clusters of furniture.  Pragmatically, the space also needed a front and back of house.  Hanlin took this as an opportunity to design a folding wall that would simultaneously serve to highlight prize pieces while allowing access to the back of house area.

Photography by Sophie Munro

This apartment reflects an interest in the merger of Japanese and American design.  The client initiated the project by describing the sensibility inherent in a Japanese screen painting.  This idea, combined with the variety of greens in Central Park below, established the palette for the project.  The mid-century designs of Harvey Probber and George Nakashima were paired with a new dining table designed by Vladimir Kagan as well as the work of merging designers including Pratt graduate Lisa Kim  and local wood workers Zach Hadlock and Robert Martin.  The architecture firm ARO were the project architects who developed the CNC routed screens found throughout the apartment.  As in traditional Japanese architecture, spaces flow and are divided by the opening and closing of these screens.  Furniture placement was carefully considered to optimize this flow, to punctuate moments of rest, and to open up a variety of views throughout.

Photography by Paul Warchol

Inspired by Bedouin tent structures, this Sukkah at Congregation Beth Elohim in Park Slope, Brooklyn, pays tribute to refugees.  The plywood curtain draws in visitors between its folds and the sheer curtains are combined with light to transform the Sukkah into a welcoming beacon at night.  The all-green interior is an homage to the foliage that adorns a traditional Sukkah structure. The content of the exhibit is a series of slideshows that share the plight of individual refugees and tells the story of Sukkot.  Colleagues who volunteered their time and talent to this project include Matthew Schreiber for his light installation, Stitch for their curtain fabrication, and Amanda Chung for her graphic design.

Photography by Eric Petschek

Designed for PS29, a public elementary school in Brooklyn, the Oliver Twist set was devised around an idea of prepositions. The set was to allow the actors to move aboard, about, above, across, around, behind, below, beside, between and through in as many ways as possible.  An abstraction of Big Ben  anchors the set with a backdrop of London Bridge and London townhouses in the foreground.  A small stage and small budget meant that the set design had to work in as many ways as possible to allow for a wide array of activities and settings to take place.  The reductive gray palette worked with the costume designs by Dutch designer  Helena Michailidis to ultimately abstract the gritty, oppressive conditions found in Dicken's London.

Photography by Sarma Ozols