4 cetra ruddy
John Cetra and Nancy Ruddy IN PRACTICE SINCE: 1987 HOME BASE: Park Slope, Brooklyn
BREAKOUT
BUILDING: One Madison, that glassy, sexy series of boxes hovering above Madison Square Park, as well as TriBeCa’s warehouse-to-condo conversion, 443 Greenwich, and the former Art Deco Verizon building, now Walker Tower, whose penthouse sold for $50.9 million, setting a downtown sales record. (It’s currently on the market again for $70 million.) The couple was inducted into The Design Hall of Fame on Dec. 2. “It’s very unusual to give an award to a couple, but that speaks to how intertwined our work is,” says Cetra.
DESIGN ETHOS: “Our goal is that we want someone to open the front door and fall in love and see things that were developed with care and craft,” says Ruddy. Use of fine materials is key.
SWEET SPOT: Adaptive reuse and new construction. “We are very serious about the use of beautiful materials and having the time to develop buildings that are differentiated,” says Ruddy. To get to that, the couple engages in a lot of research on the historic contexts, pricing comps and neighborhoods. “Our work is really grounded in understanding the issues.”
BALANCING ACT: “When we were young, we’d get into bed and we’d talk about work,” says Ruddy. “And one night John turned to me and said, ‘ Nancy, the office is closed!’ Now I’m much better. We love museum-hopping, bicycleriding. We ski. We have a 22-year-old daughter, Andrea. We have a full life.”
NEXT UP: The boutique condominium at 15 Hubert, with prices from $3.17 million to $6.22 million ( 15hubert.com), and 498 West End Ave., which just launched sales on November 12 with prices ranging from $3.13 million to $9.47 million ( 498wea.com).