PERFECTLY EVOLUTIONARY
At home, David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect, has created a surprisingly tranquil New York living space that exemplifies his design business.
At home, David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect, has created a surprisingly tranquil New York living space that exemplifies his design business
Looking out from the wraparound terrace of David Alhadeff ’s riverside apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side — in an area known as Corlears Hook, which is about as ‘lower’ and ‘east’ as you can get — a visitor could very easily get confused. The view embraces the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center and the Brooklyn skyline all at once. It would seem a geographic impossibility to even the most seasoned New Yorker, and that includes David Alhadeff, founder of The Future Perfect, a US-based platform for collectible contemporary design and bellwether for the industry. “I’d lived in the city for 22 years and before I went to this open house, I’d never been over here,” Alhadeff marvels. “My bubble was drawn in Brooklyn — I had a little circle on my map — but this property is so close, it got pulled into my listings. I remember seeing it and saying, ‘What is that view? What is that balcony?’ My husband [art director Jason Duzansky] and I were both like, ‘That’s too good to be true.’”
To their astonishment, it wasn’t. Here, Alhadeff talks about what he loves most about his 212-square-metre, “incredibly serene” living space and how it reflects the 15-year evolution of his design business and the formidable talent he has nurtured over the years (which includes Milan Design Week luminaries Marta Sala, Dimore Studio and Callico Wallpaper).
The building was built in the 1950s as a middle-income housing project for seamstress union workers. It was part of the NYC Housing Authority — it was privatised in the 1990s, and many of the original tenants still live here. Basically, this apartment had not been touched except for the kitchen since the ’50s. There was nothing really appealing about it but this incredible terrace and quality of life. It was all bad, but it was awesome. ››
‹‹ My apartment is the embodiment of The Future Perfect. It’s only with hindsight that I can say that. Without realising it, through the last 15 years I’ve collected a lot of what we’ve shown in the gallery. This project brought everything together and put it all back into this space. You can see the different eras of the people we’ve worked with — some have gone on to other parts of their career. Others, like Lindsey Adelman and Jason Miller, we’ve been working with almost from the beginning of both of our careers. Each is such a success in their own right, and we have all been together for so long — it has been an incredible journey. One of my favourite pieces is the chandelier in the dining room by Eric Roinestad. I met him through Instagram, which is really cool. He was doing a series of large-scale vessels for us, and I approached him with a custom commission to design an illuminated ceramic fixture for me. He came back with a series of concepts that were so good, I turned around and said, “We need to produce and present more of these.” I launched that lighting collection at Design Miami in 2016, and it was received with incredible interest and attention. We launched version 2 at Design Miami 2017.
I really love the handpainted bronze dandelion by Tony Matelli. I’m a huge fan of his work. In the years I’ve gathered objects and brought them together and lived with them, there are so many I find I tire of, or that fall into the backdrop. But this is a piece that aesthetically for me is always in the foreground. It’s just so whimsical and ironic and yet crafted with such a degree of perfection that it moves me every time I see it.
The colour we selected for the living room is Pigeon by Farrow & Ball; it’s painted in a high gloss. It really is the colour of a pigeon — it’s a green but it’s a blue and it’s a grey, and it morphs into those shades. It changes throughout the day, and it changes wall to wall. Most of the view is sky and water, and we feel this perfectly captures the sentiment. I feel really lucky to have this view — this is an incredibly serene apartment for living in a city as chaotic as New York.
this page, clockwise from top left: in another view of the LIVING ROOM, The Future Perfect founder David Alhadeff sits on a Divano 067 sofa covered in Walking and Falling fabric, both from Dimore Studio; Alma Allen bronze stools; Michael Anastassiades Tip of the Tongue brass table lamp. In a detail of the DEN, Transience mirror by Lex Pott and David Derksen. In a HALLWAY, Hopi Kachina dolls collected by Alhadeff and Duzansky. opposite page: in another view of the living room, vintage Sanluca chair by Achille Castiglioni for Gavina; artworks on shelves by Ryosuke Yazaki, Reinaldo Sanguino and Eric Roinestad. Details, last pages.