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"View Slideshow\n\nThere was no script, no pilot, basically just a sketch of an idea: a television comedy about a New York family man with a disability. But the lead role was to be played by Michael J. Fox, and the story lines would be loosely based on his experiences living with Parkinson\u2019s disease for the past two decades. (The actor\u2019s eponymous foundation has raised more than $300 million for Parkinson\u2019s research.) Multiple networks wanted the show. NBC, which committed to producing 22 episodes, won the bidding war, and Fox\u2019s return to a starring prime-time role is slated for next fall.\n\nThe series undoubtedly will feature his character in scenes at home. Chances are, however, the set won\u2019t look much like the Manhattan apartment Fox shares with his wife, actor Tracy Pollan, and their four children in an august Upper East Side building. That apartment is their sanctuary. Private. For family and friends. And, until recently, not exactly camera-ready.\n\nIn the more than 15 years since it was decorated by Marc Charbonnet in a traditional style (AD, October 1997), the Fox-Pollan residence had gradually become a monument to entropy. \u201COur tastes changed, but we held off redecorating\u2014it seemed like a big undertaking,\u201D Pollan explains. \u201CSomething would rip, and I\u2019d say, \u2018Just wait.\u2019 The paint would peel. I\u2019d say, \u2018Just wait.\u2019\u201D\n\nFox is more succinct. \u201CThis place has raised four kids,\u201D he says. \u201CWe beat the hell out of it.\u201D\n\nFor the reclamation project Fox and Pollan turned to Mariette Himes Gomez and her daughter, Brooke, the team behind the Manhattan interior design firm Gomez Associates. Fox says he and Pollan knew precisely what they wanted: \u201Ca younger-style apartment than we had when we were younger.\u201D\n\nThat meant jettisoning the vividly hued antique carpets, the plump, tufted seating, and the richly patterned curtains. \u201CMichael and Tracy are very aesthetic people,\u201D Mariette says, \u201Cbut for them family comes first.\u201D So the updated living room is a stage set for informal gatherings, with people, not objects, front and center. It\u2019s a whisper of a space, with clean lines, neutral colors, and sleek modern furnishings. The earth-tone Arne Bang stoneware vessels on the mantel are significant but unassuming. Lacquered tables quietly gleam. The major events are top-notch artworks by Louise Bourgeois and Richard Pousette-Dart, the latter a predominately white dappled canvas. \u201CI did get to indulge my obsessions in subtle ways,\u201D Brooke says. \u201CWe accented the pillows on the chenille sofas with antique trim. And the shades on the smoked-Murano-glass lamps were custom made.\u201D\n\nView Slideshow1 / 16Tracy Pollan and Michael J. Fox in the living room of their New York City apartment, which was refreshed by designers Brooke Gomez and Mariette Himes Gomez.\n\nFox may be Hollywood A-list, thanks to his roles on Family Ties and Spin City and as the hero in the Back to the Future films, but all the photographs displayed in a long hallway are of family. The only evidence that Fox or Pollan work in show business\u2014they met on the set of Family Ties\u2014has been banished to his office, which is in the same building several floors away. That space is home to Fox\u2019s five Emmys and four Golden Globes. \u201CI\u2019m not shy about the awards,\u201D he says. \u201CBut they\u2019re to intimidate, not to impress.\u201D\n\nThroughout the apartment graceful touches are balanced with practicality. In the dining room, with its treetop views of Central Park, the decorators installed a circa-1940 Venetian-glass chandelier, a gray-tone photo diptych by Uta Barth, and a wall-mounted George Nakashima console. But a visitor couldn\u2019t help also noticing protective pads atop the dining table. It\u2019s where the kids do their homework.\n\nIn the breakfast room, which is where the family often takes its meals, the previous banquette upholstery had been held together by tape. To re-cover it, the Gomezes found a pale Lee Jofa fabric that was luscious in the extreme. At first Pollan balked, but only briefly, rationalizing, \u201COur kids are so careful.\u201D Now they are urged to be mindful during meals\u2014and aren\u2019t always silent about it. As one daughter protested, \u201CYou think you did an upgrade?\u201D\n\nClosets are often in short supply in Manhattan apartments, and it\u2019s no different here, including in the master bedroom. While the common solution is to annex more space for storage, Pollan makes do with a decidedly modest walk-in closet. \u201CIt\u2019s enough for me,\u201D she says. Shoes are not her priority. \u201CIn a fire,\u201D she remarks, \u201CI\u2019d save the art and the pottery.\u201D Among the bedroom\u2019s muted accent pieces are an Axel Salto stoneware vase, an elegant Art Nouveau bench, and a painting by Judith Belzer (the wife of Pollan\u2019s brother, writer Michael Pollan). The bathrooms, left largely as they were, retain a charming prewar feel. \u201CWe like old New York apartments,\u201D Fox says. \u201CWe never wanted a SoHo loft.\u201D\n\nFor all its refinements, the home exudes continuity and familiarity\u2014it\u2019s a place where people actually live. Children wander through. And dogs, too. A very contented Fox refers to the apartment as \u201Cthe location of my inner peace.\u201D\n\nYes, but what would Alex P. Keaton, the smart-aleck conservative son on Family Ties, say? The question produces a wicked grin. And a wry response from the actor who made that character an icon: \u201CAlex would call this apartment economical. But not cheap.\u201D\n\nClick here to view the slide show of Michael J. Fox and Tracy Pollan&amp;#39;s New York home.\n\nRELATED: See all of Architectural Digest\u2019s celebrity homes."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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