Portfolio: The Bespoke San Remo Residence

At the venerable San Remo on New York’s Central Park West, Interior Designer Erica Millar and architect Russell Riccardi collaborated with Osbee to transform a decidedly dark and dated  pre-war into a light, contemporary 6,000 square-foot smart home.

For this gut renovation, the homeowners – a young couple with three young children – wanted to respect the bones of the landmark building while opening up the layout of the residence to create a comfortable, casual home filled with custom finishes and details, while allowing space for their considerable art collection.

To add modern flair to a traditional countertop surface, Osbee worked closely with the designer, millworker, and stone fabricator to engineer a back-lit countertop and backsplash that brings out the natural beauty of the onyx and imparts a beautiful warm glow in the Butler’s Pantry. 

In the Dining Room, and throughout the residence, a thoughtful, easy-to-control lighting plan was essential, not only to create the right ambiance for entertaining, but to also highlight the homeowners’ art collection.

Multi-function keypads throughout the home give the family one-touch control of lights and shades. The low-profile keypad design and custom-engraved buttons were specified by Osbee to provide intuitive function and control of the systems and complement the hand-painted finishes used extensively in the residence.

A television on a low-profile mount sits comfortably in a custom-engineered recess designed for aesthetics and proper ventilation for the electronics. The walls and the recess are covered with hand-painted wallpaper by Studio E. The keypad features presets for lights and shades in the room and surrounding areas.

In the Study, wall-mounted keypads control local lighting and shades, while a small tabletop touchscreen – running The Osbee Home app that is custom-programmed specifically for this home – sits discreetly on the bookshelf and offers control of every smart-home technology in the residence, from music and video streaming to climate control and security.

Dedicated touchscreens and iPads on tabletop charging docks running The Osbee Home app are placed strategically throughout the residence making control of every technology system effortless and convenient. Handheld remotes also provide access to the systems of the home and are even more portable for couch-side and bedside control.

In the Media Room, versatility abounds for any viewing event or gathering. For regular TV and streaming video, a large television floats over acoustical panels that hide a robust 11.2 Dolby Atmos surround-sound system. For movie screenings, a 120-inch projection screen and a cinema-caliber digital projector drop down from pockets in the ceiling, giving family and friends a movie-theatre experience right at home on Central Park West.

Every room in the home was thoughtfully designed and engineered for convenient family life. Whether it’s a casual evening to kick back after a long workday or a gathering of friends to catch up before proceeding to the dining room, the iPad resting on a tabletop dock gives the family control of lights, entertainment, shades and climate right from the couch in the Living Room.

Working with the millworker, Osbee designed and engineered a custom cabinet with a hidden TV lift that is as beautiful as the surrounding modern art collection in the rooms.

In the Dressing Room off of the Primary Suite, the designer and Osbee transformed ordinary glass closet doors into works of art with an added technological twist. The finish by acclaimed Eglomisé artist Miriam Ellner was applied to doors engineered by Osbee to include special LED edge lighting that lights up the entire panel without traditional back-lighting, heightening the luminous ethereal glow of the finish.

Osbee worked with the cabinet maker to integrate the interior closet lighting with the rest of the lighting throughout the residence.

Motorized drapery tracks, integrated lighting, and an almost-invisible flush-mount power receptacle below the window seat show how technology can be present in a home without intruding in the quiet elegance of the Primary Bedroom.

In the Primary Bath and elsewhere in the home, Osbee specified and installed flush-mount power receptacles that can be painted, veneered, or otherwise matched to virtually any finish, making them almost disappear into the walls or baseboards.