How art adviser Astrid Hill ended up in her home on New York’s Upper East Side was, as she puts it, “a fun story.”
It is a tale that begins with a search on the real estate site StreetEasy during the holidays—“a time when no one else was looking,” she says—where she happened upon the listing for an apartment that had been occupied by its former owner for 96 years. “He hadn’t done a single renovation the entire time,” she adds. “I jumped on it.”
Enter Frank de Biasi, a longtime New York interior designer now based in Tangier, Morocco, who has projects all over the world. The two have known each other for years, and the fit was perfect. When de Biasi first saw the residence, he remembers thinking it was jaw-dropping. “You don’t really see that in New York, in the original condition. Nothing had been touched. There was no AC!”
De Biasi headed a two-year renovation of the light-flooded, fifth-floor apartment, overseeing extensive architectural changes that included a new layout tailored for Hill, her husband, and infant son. The residence also serves as a base for her firm, Monticule Art Advisory, with areas that can be used for receiving clients and viewing art.
Those include the elegant dining room, which doubles as an office for Hill. At one end, de Biasi created storage for her business-related files, tucked behind sliding doors, and a desk hidden behind a wall. A large dining table, where Hill often sits to work, resides beneath a spectacular Nathalie Ziegler chandelier, while works by Donald Baechler, Lisa Kereszi, and Ruby Sky Stiler are arrayed throughout the room, the latter two set against light mint green walls. “I think it’s important to have rooms that have double functions,” says de Biasi. “Some days you have to work, and you’re not sure if you’re hosting a lunch or a dinner.”
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Read full article at galeriemagazine.com.
