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"View Slideshow\n\nJamie Drake has guests over at least a couple nights a week, though he doesn't have a proper dining table in his new 3,000-square-foot Manhattan apartment. \"That's not how I entertain,\" says the ebullient interior designer, who lives in a much-ballyhooed tower by architect Annabelle Selldorf that boasts a car elevator, allowing residents to park in their own private attached garages. \"I had a formal dining room in my old place, and I hosted three sit-down dinners in ten years. I would much prefer to leave space empty for a dance floor and an extra bar.\"\n\nDrake is a bon vivant who wanted his residence to not only reflect his urbane sensibility but also function a bit like a chic cocktail lounge. \"People come here for drinks before or after dinner and to hang out,\" says the designer, whose clients include New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. \"I like to have a good time. I have an open-door policy. I'm not really a fancy guy.\"\n\nHe was living in a color-saturated loft in the city's Flatiron District when he started shopping for a new home. \"The apartment appeared in so many magazines, I got tired of looking at it!\" Drake says with a laugh. \"When I read about this building in 2007, I rushed to the sales office. I was more excited about the 16-foot ceilings and the vast space for entertaining than the garage.\"\n\nAlthough the building, on the far western edge of the Chelsea neighborhood, was merely a set of renderings at the time, Drake signed on to purchase a two-bedroom corner unit with a loggia and unobstructed views of the Hudson River. He says he had confidence in the project because of the reputations of both the developers and Selldorf, best known for designing crisply elegant art museums and galleries. \"I was trepidatious about living so far west,\" admits the designer, whose office is on the Upper East Side, where many of his clients reside. \"But I decided that I'd like living in the heart of the gallery district\u2014and I do.\"\n\nDrake brought in almost entirely new furnishings, having sold most of the pieces from his loft at a Doyle New York auction in 2009. \"I wanted a fresh start. I kept only a few things that had sentimental value,\" he says, among them a 1960s Hand chair by Pedro Friedeberg.\n\nWhile Drake embraced most of Selldorf's choices\u2014especially the Wausau windows that miraculously mute street noise\u2014there was one conspicuous element he found challenging: a large column in the center of the living area. Instead of trying to minimize it, Drake built it up, enveloping it within a six-and-a-half-foot-square cabinet, an exquisite piece of craftsmanship featuring ebonized wood, charcoal-gray lacquer, stainless-steel-and-brass-mesh door fronts, and patinated-steel corners that are a nod to the building's exterior. The structure effectively divides the space in two: One side, furnished with a 13-foot-long sofa and a cocooning Milo Baughman lounge chair, is meant for watching the television encased in the unit; on the opposite side, the cabinet houses a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, and an L-shaped sofa provides seating for cocktails and conversation.\n\nAn even bolder gesture is the open kitchen's two-tiered island, comprising a gold-leafed cabinet that runs parallel to the appliance wall and a 17-foot-long white Corian counter that overlaps it at a dynamic angle (and has an inlaid-gold-leaf pattern across its surface). The striking white and gold pop against the ebonized-teak floors and the dark-gray-lacquer cabinetry that conceals the Wolf range and Sub-Zero refrigerator.\n\nThe gold-leafing was carried out by the Alpha Workshops, a nonprofit that provides decorative arts training to people with HIV/AIDS. \"Their tagline is \u2018Creating beauty, changing lives,'\" says Drake, who has been Alpha's chairman since 2006. Because the Corian counter is surrounded by stools at one end, the kitchen has an eat-in option\u2014though Drake is quick to note that he is not a cook. \"What I really wanted,\" he says, \"was for the kitchen to be a very glamorous wet bar.\"\n\nThe Playboy After Dark theme continues in the master bedroom, with its gray-lacquer walls that seem out of character for a decorator who has been called the King of Color. Drake explains he took his cues from the once-gritty streetscape of the gentrified neighborhood: \"It's the palette of concrete, tar, and soot\u2014interpreting what's dirty in a glamorous way. Plus, I like sleeping in a dark room. I love the sexiness of it.\"\n\nTo perk up all the gray, the designer upholstered the bed in vibrant coral crocodile-patterned hair-on hide, devised coordinating coral-lacquer nightstands, and added a custom-colored abstract rug. There's also a mirrored ceiling above the bed that's discreetly recessed into a coffer. \"It's pretty 1970s, but subtle,\" he says.\n\nDrake tweaked the master bath by ebonizing the vanity's drawer fronts and finishing the upper portion of the walls in peachy-pink Venetian plaster. \"I wasn't going to rip out beautiful Boffi faucets and a zillion-dollar granite tub,\" he says. \"I can be an admirer of other people's designs, especially the spectacularly talented Annabelle Selldorf's.\"\n\nWhen it came to the building's signature en-suite garages, Selldorf kept things minimal, so Drake added his own embellishments to the double-height space. He Sheetrocked two of the concrete walls, installed an aluminum-slatted ceiling at a rakish 45-degree angle, and hung a sculptural chandelier designed by Ted Abramczyk for Ralph Pucci. After moving in, Drake realized that if he parked his car elsewhere when he had big parties, the garage could serve as a lounge space for more guests. \"I had 250 people at my Christmas party this year,\" he says, clearly delighted. \"This apartment suits my entertaining style perfectly.\"\n\nClick here to view the slide show of the designer's party-ready Chelsea apartment.\n\nClick here to see an exclusive video interview with Drake.\n\nView Slideshow"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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