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"View Slideshow\n\nThere are slaves of New York, and then there are the captives of The Sherry-Netherland: people who have lived for decades in the famed, iconic Fifth Avenue tower topped by an ornate Gothic-style minaret. Their idea of switching neighborhoods is to move to a different floor, often for a better, more Epicurean view of Central Park, the Plaza opposite and the towers of Central Park West. Like antiques that move up the food chain to London, Paris or New York, never to leave again, people just don&amp;#39;t seem to budge from the Sherry. No other address captures so elegantly the New Yorkness of New York.\n\nThen again, maybe it&amp;#39;s the Cipriani room service.\n\nFor years, a prominent Los Angeles philanthropist and his wife have had a pied-\u00E0-terre in the building, which is part hotel and part co-op, and they recently moved into their third apartment\u2014to a different neighborhood in the sky. This time they are on a lower floor of the tower: still overlooking the park&amp;#39;s green canopy but not so high up that they lose intimate contact with the trees. Their apartment is large enough to surround the elevator core, giving them views throughout and circumnavigational sunlight\u2014rare in New York&amp;#39;s asparagus patch.\n\nThe existing layout, original to the 1927 building, did not make the most of the apartment&amp;#39;s raw materials\u2014the light, the view and the mystique of the corner of 59th and Fifth. As in most such New York buildings of a certain age, the rooms were traditionally decorated and a tad parsimonious, both discreet and discrete, an orderly suite of well-behaved, introverted boxes that looked in rather than out. &amp;quot;In the last apartment,&amp;quot; says the wife, &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#39;t like being in one little room where the TV was, scrunched in a den that was eight feet square. We needed a friendlier apartment where we could use all of it.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;My wife and I wanted it to be a loft-like apartment,&amp;quot; says the philanthropist, whose California-based foundations contribute to the arts, education and medical research. &amp;quot;Not quite a SoHo or NoHo loft, but something that admitted a lot of light.&amp;quot; The clients also wanted to transform the prewar apartment into a gallery-like environment for their collection of postwar art, one of the foremost in the world. The designer they chose, Los Angeles-based Rose Tarlow, favored sleek, unadorned surfaces that would be ready to receive works of art as the couple made suitable selections.\n\nTo bring the light, view and mystique inside, Tarlow decided to merge the three rooms at the front of the apartment, along Fifth, into a long space with a colonnade of picture windows parsed at the perimeter. &amp;quot;My clients knew tearing down all the walls would mean a lot of construction, but you&amp;#39;d be able to see the whole sweep of the park and up and down Fifth Avenue,&amp;quot; says Tarlow. Working with New York architect Richard Meier, who made a rare appearance in an apartment commission, she positioned the master bedroom and guest room along the flanks of the apartment. The south end of the main room is served by a small, elegant kitchen that opens to the dining area.\n\nHaving made the bold architectural move, Tarlow proceeded diplomatically in the smaller decisions, in order not to compete with the light and view she had cultivated. She wrapped the apartment in a palette of soft monochromatic colors, which supported the notion of one big, continuous space uninterrupted by breaks and contrasts, and she took into account all the paintings\u2014then on loan to a museum\u2014that would eventually be installed. &amp;quot;To tie all the rooms together, I designed a bookcase around the perimeter. It became a focal point. I chose the pale bleached woods, as I wanted the apartment to be light and fresh. The woods tie the spaces together.&amp;quot; She used linen-and-wool rugs, which she designed, to define three different areas within the expanse and was careful to give the groupings equal visual weight. &amp;quot;At the far end I placed solid, heavy pieces to balance the dining table on the near end. With a small apartment, you have to make it all one unit. It&amp;#39;s all about balance.&amp;quot; Meier adds, &amp;quot;The materials used create a brighter space, capitalizing on the sunlight.&amp;quot;\n\nWith the deferential shell established, Tarlow turned to her clients&amp;#39; furniture. &amp;quot;They&amp;#39;re collectors, and I took the notion of the collection into the furniture, into collectible pieces,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;The chairs are by Jeanneret. Two of the lamps are Alvar Aalto originals, and the oval table is by Ruhlmann. Everything has pedigree, but the pieces are all understated.&amp;quot;\n\n&amp;quot;Rose is extremely good at mixing different kinds of furniture together, and the unique character of her spaces comes from that mix,&amp;quot; says Meier.\n\n&amp;quot;You know how musicians have perfect pitch?&amp;quot; says the wife. &amp;quot;Rose has the equivalent in design. A perfect eye. The apartment is everything I hoped it would be. I walk in and I love it. It has a lightness of spirit that suits us.&amp;quot;"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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