Duplex Apartment – Brooklyn Heights

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – NYC

Duplex Apartment

This brownstone duplex – Glenn Gissler’s own — in the heart of historic Brooklyn Heights, represents a fine distillation of the designer’s development over the past three decades. The tailored, masculine sensibility of these rooms is expressed through unabashedly dark colors–camel, chocolate brown, and  green-black–which create a subdued yet rich background for Glenn’s collection of art, furniture and objects, grouped in tableaux which he regularly rearranges.

As a collector of Arts & Crafts and Aesthetic Movement furniture, both American and British, he free reign in this apartment to incorporate seminal examples of such design. Thus a Liberty & Co. “Thebes” stool has pride of place beside a very contemporary settee, upholstered in a chocolate and cinnamon woven stripe. Christopher Dresser ceramics, contemporary drawings and other works on paper, including distinctive “outsider art” harmonize with curtains patterned like African fabric and a rich selection of natural yet polished materials–dark green granite, exotic hardwoods, and burnished metals.

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With its imposing wall of books, the downstairs sitting area doubles as a library.

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The living room is a layered, complex arrangement of both geometric and more biomorphic forms. The custom coffee table is assertively asymmetrical, while the green-glazed ceramics, by Christopher Dresser for Linthorpe, are rounded and gourd-like. The “Thebes” stool is a Gissler signature, a favorite form he incorporates into various interiors.

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Curtains in patterned fabric by Pollack form the backdrop for a tall dark green Mexican ceramic and a sculpture by Christopher Dresser.

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A crisp classic of early 20th century design–De Stijl designer Gerrit Rietveld’s Zig-zag chair–the framed drawing that dominates the vignette is a 1958 work by American artist Sonia Gechtoff.

"While it was a big change to move to Brooklyn after nearly three decades in Greenwich Village and Soho, the duplex apartment offered space and amenities that I could never have afforded in Manhattan . . . after living in single floor apartment it was a revelation to live on two floors – the spatial definition offers a sense of privacy and luxury that it’s hard to imagine!"

– Glenn Gissler

"Your apartment is truly one of, if not the most special apartments in the neighborhood."

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Gissler designed the chandelier that hangs above a 1950s Baker dining table. A Le Corbusler work on paper to the left of the fireplace is balanced by one on the right by American abstract expressionist Seymour Lipton.

The elegant kitchen serves as the apartment’s de facto entry hall, with glossy green cabinetry, expanses of mirror glass and granite countertops.

"I wake up every day looking at a richly planted terrace that connects me to nature and creates a sense of calm. I love my apartment cherish my books and objects and treasure my art collection, but I like my apartment best when engaged with family and friends in my home. I have been acquiring items that give me pleasure for many decades – they rarely remain in the same location for too long as I am interested in the dialogue between them – like friends at a party! All of the art that I own is from the 20th century – some early and some late in the century – I love to find relationships between seemingly disparate works as I understand them more and more."

– Glenn Gissler

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French Art Deco armchair, faux shagreen coffee tables and framed art matted in white provide a pale contrast to the wall color of bitter chocolate. The yellow artwork is by the well-known American artist Donald Baechler.

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In this aerie under the eaves, exposed roof beams create a unique feeling of shelter; the room’s unusual scale resembles that of a Paris atelier.

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On the walls – the color of bitter chocolate – is an assemblage of contemporary works on paper.

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Classic garden furniture from Restoration Hardware makes of this city terrace a place to enjoy nature, as well as to entertain.

Brooklyn Heights

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS – NYC

Brooklyn Heights

The design for this ‘19th Century Living Room for the 21st Century’ in the first Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse was supported by a number of New York’s finest antique, contemporary and fine art dealers – all from 1stdibs. Within the existing formal architecture, the room was designed for a living today using a multifunctional layout including a generous seating group, a large table-desk, and a large storage cabinet. The 19th-century Khorassan carpet reinforces the history of the 1867 house, while perfectly sized for the grand space, with enough room for the original Greek-key floor inlay to be seen throughout.  The surprising shimmer of gold metallic bee silhouettes on the Farrow & Ball ‘Bumble Bee’ wallpaper covering the entire ceiling in this graciously-scaled living room in a wide townhouse built in 1867.

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A bold Larry Zox painting from 1967 hangs in sharp contrast to the original 19th-century curvacious marble fireplace surround. Extending the main seating area into the center of the room is a vintage Vladimir Kagan sofa paired with a Maxine Old center table and a vintage stool, one of a pair.

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A massive scale and of the striking English Arts & Crafts Armoire boldly holds one side of the room with its evocative form, and earthier finish a counterpoint to many of the more glossy, refined elements in the room.

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The 1959 painting by Abstract Expressionist painter Judith Godwin, entitled ‘Black Cross’, pairs beautifully with the striking Jules Leleu modernist table-desk and the pair of vintage Jacques Adnet leather-wrapped chairs. The rusted steel sculpture by Marino di Teana sits proudly on a mahogany pedestal in the window.

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The grey-blue Milano sofa from Dmitriy & Co. anchors the primary seating area of the room. A large-scale painting by artist Dan Christiansen, “Dolby”, loaned by Berry Campbell Gallery, hangs above the sofa. The magenta tie-dyed pillows add complimentary saturation of color to the sofa, while coordinating with the painting above.

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The luminous 1958 painting by Walter Darby Bannard, a strong complement to the existing 19th-century architectural details of the room, hangs above a pair of 1930’s Bjorn Thagard armchairs upholstered in a pale celadon velvet, and a set of T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings nesting tables.

Senior Designer Craig Strulovitz
Photos by Gross & Daley