- 14 minutes ago
AD joins Ben Riskin and architect Andrew Magnes to see how they transformed a 340-square-foot apartment in Tudor City, NYC. This cleverly renovated studio uses custom millwork, multifunctional furniture, and smart storage solutions to maximise every inch. From a transforming Murphy bed to a compact kitchen inspired by houseboats and tiny homes, these details turn this micro apartment into a flexible live-work space.
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00:03I bought the apartment in 2018. I had a really great realtor, and he had suggested taking a
00:08look in Tudor City because the apartments are affordable. There's not a lot of demand for
00:13these apartments, in part because they're small. I paid $310. That's about average, I think, in the
00:18building. Tudor City was one of the first planned residential skyscrapers in the world, and it's
00:23also one of the first planned middle-class communities. They marketed them very much
00:28towards young women who are moving to the city to work on Madison Avenue or, like, young
00:32professionals who are coming to the city. It's three blocks long. It goes from the 41st to 43rd.
00:38It was designed as, like, a sustainable kind of community, and so it had its own parks, its own
00:43post office, its own shops, and I think that was part of the appeal. My name is Andrew Magnus. I'm
00:48an
00:49architect, and I helped Ben with his apartment. I'm Ben Riskin. I live here, and welcome to my
00:55340-square-foot apartment in New York City.
01:06When I moved in, I knew that I would want to renovate the apartment. I knew it was going to
01:10be stressful.
01:11I knew that, in part, I would probably be here for some of it, and having an architect, I felt
01:16like I could have, like, a real
01:17conversation with about my life and the way I was living in the space was really important.
01:23So, how did you become friends? Like, what was...
01:26Oh, wow. That's a dangerous question in circles. We met through just gay New York.
01:32Andy and I had been friends, and I knew you as an architect.
01:36I've done all sizes of apartments in New York City. This might be the smallest.
01:40It is a game of squeezing out as much as you can from every inch. My philosophy is really function
01:49first,
01:50making sure that my clients are going to get what they need out of the space.
01:56One of the ways that I think we approached this that made us a really good team, and I think
02:01also just kind
02:01of came out of friendship, was, like, how are you using the space? When you cook, what are you cooking?
02:06Not just cooking, but sleeping, and entertaining, and working, and we went through each thing,
02:12and kind of really tried to figure out precisely what you needed for that activity.
02:17We had a budget of around $40,000 for the renovation, and it came in right about that.
02:22It was priced wonderfully low, perhaps to our contractor's detriment.
02:28We initially planned for the renovation to take six weeks. I think it ended up taking about six months.
02:33It's like, with a renovation, you kind of have time, price, and quality, and you can only have two of
02:39the three.
02:40Partially because Ben is a friend, it was really important to kind of get this right.
02:44I think we nailed it. I agree.
02:47You're still friends.
02:49I still are, right. Our dogs don't get along.
02:51I use relentless.
02:59This is my kitchen. Initially, when I bought the apartment, the kitchen was pushed up against the
03:03wall, and it was really small. It was about half the size. We really were trying to figure out how
03:08to fit a lot of kitchen into what is still a very small space. I have a friend who owns
03:12a houseboat,
03:13and he designed his own houseboat. I was out there one day in the summer, and I just started, like,
03:17opening his kitchen cabinets and looking at things, and so the kitchen is very much inspired by the
03:22houseboat, but also tiny homes and Winnebago's and things that have a lot of stuff in a really small
03:29space. One of the examples is we built this cupboard, and we knew the cupboard would be there, but then
03:34I
03:34saw in my friend's houseboat that he had a dish rack that drained directly into his sink, and so that's
03:39what we did here. There's actually metal grates that run along about two-thirds of this. I just put a
03:45regular
03:45store-bought dish rack in there, and then I'm able to, like, wash my dishes, put them in here,
03:50and they just drain directly into the sink, and it means that I don't have to use counter space.
03:53There's only so many places that sell kitchenware for small kitchens, like Muji and Yamazaki Home,
03:59places that are designing for Winnebago's and houseboats. This, for example, is my cookware,
04:05and it's designed by a company that makes induction cookware for sailboats and boats with galleys.
04:11There's four pots, one pan, and then what's nice is you can actually take all of this.
04:18You attach a handle to it, and it works as a pot, and you can, like, just use it as
04:24a pot,
04:24or then you can take the handle off, and it can go in the oven. When I found it, it
04:29was like a big
04:29lifesaver, but then I was even more excited because they make them in bright colors, so I was able to
04:33get, like, a blue one, and it's perfect. It's induction, and it all collapses, and it allows
04:40me to have, like, a really robust amount of cookware. There's a lot of storage underneath here.
04:45This is essentially, like, the pantry corridor. I've always really loved kitchens that, like,
04:50have food displayed. Rice and flour and oats and use these grates in a way that could kind of really
04:55make this a deliberate kitchen. It also then took a lot of that storage pressure off of the drawers,
05:01and then I have an induction burner. It plugs in, but it just drops into the counter,
05:06and that's been great. These are possibly the favorite gift I've ever received, my, like,
05:10Leather Daddy salt and pepper shakers. This was sort of the architectural feature that was really
05:16exciting to add. We created this little spice cabinet with this big pop of color in it. Spices
05:21are the kind of thing that can take up, like, a ton of room on a counter. Also the kind
05:25of thing that,
05:25like, they come in sizes of various sizes, and so I had a lot of them, and I really needed
05:31to be able to like put them somewhere that wasn't going to clutter the countertop or the drawers
05:36underneath. This is my living area. It's kind of a combination live and work and movie watching,
05:49sometimes sleeping on the couch. I'm very reluctant to put a lot of stuff on the windowsill. The windows
05:54are 100 years old, and they kind of speak for themselves. I tried to focus on things that you
05:59can kind of see through that don't take away from the window, so I found this, like, glass head at
06:04a thrift store on Cape Cod, or I've used, like, acrylic shelves to be able to give this plant a
06:09little height. Things are small, like a little binocular to be able to look out at the boats.
06:15I kind of like to make little worlds in the plants, and I'm similar to the clear. Like,
06:19anything that's mirrored in a small space will make it feel bigger, so I got, like, I found this kind
06:24of
06:24mirrored rock. This little, like, frog made out of shells. Being able to, like, put, like, rocks that
06:29pick up the light or crystals that can kind of pick up the light, it just makes it really fun.
06:33Everything is wood. It's all custom millwork. It needed to be lower to be able to have a little
06:38window seat, but then it needed to go higher to be able to accommodate the AC, which is in the
06:43wall.
06:43Basically, it just pops out, and then I can access the AC or the radiator that way. That other one
06:50also
06:51pops out. We decided on this little slope as a way to create a separate nook seating area.
06:57I have a TV here, and it kind of comes out. I really hate the way a large screen looks.
07:04It just
07:05kind of draws all of your attention to it, like a big black, like, box that sucks you in. This
07:10is
07:10sort of my work area. I reached out to a guy who makes, like, camper vans and runs a company
07:15called
07:16Venture House. When we designed the space, we designed a slot for the table, but we didn't get the
07:21table made. I couldn't afford it. A couple years later, I had this table made. It goes to two
07:26heights, so what's nice is it can be a coffee table for the couch as well. It's a work table.
07:31It's a sewing table, and then I have this area down here that I can reach that keeps all my
07:37fabrics
07:37and sewing materials. The minute it came, I remember just thinking, like, oh, this really kind of completes
07:43the transformer quality of the space. If it's at this height, then the table is like a work or dining
07:50table. If I lower it, then I move it over there, and it's a coffee table, but it does totally
07:55transform
07:56the space. When we built it, we built this, like, double shelf so that we could play with the height.
08:01This space, to me, has been a lot about trying to, like, play with fabrics and softness and bright
08:06colors. My theory was always if it was a white canvas, I could add and subtract to it all I
08:12wanted.
08:12When you do get, like, pops of color, like the orange or the yellow frame or even just the green
08:17of
08:17the plants, you really, like, actually see the object.
08:22I remember it was like a July day when I bought the couch, and it was really hot,
08:26and I rode my bike to room and board, where I promptly laid on every single couch in the store
08:31to see if I could fit and sleep on it, because I like to nap on a couch. And so
08:36I ended up with this
08:37one. Because I eliminated a lot of other freestanding furniture, there was a lot of room to get a big
08:42couch. It was really important that I had enough seating to accommodate myself and friends. The idea
08:47was less that I was going to be, like, lounging on the chaise part, and more that I would be
08:53able to
08:53use a tray and create a small table out of it. I mean, when I'm here alone or just with
08:58the dog,
08:59that's pretty much where I eat my meals. All of the art in the apartment is from friends or people
09:03that I know personally. I was in New York in my 20s, and I have a lot of friends who
09:07are artists, and I had the
09:09opportunity to be able to support their art, to be, like, surrounded by your friendships and your
09:14relationships and your time in New York. It's the kind of love I want in my home. The walls are
09:19like
09:19feature walls, and then the small things can be on shelves. We built these kind of open, what look
09:24like floating shelves, but they're not up against the wall, so that I could get a little bit of an
09:29end
09:29area to the living space, but also to be able to put some books and objets and whatnot. This is
09:36my
09:36favorite item. It's one of my favorite things I own. A crystal Nokia brick phone that I bought at
09:43the London Terrace Flea Market, RIP. I just think it's ridiculous. I don't understand the use for it,
09:49which is why I love it. Living in a small space means that you really have to prioritize what you
09:55want to see. In these sort of smaller spaces, you really need to focus on the things that are
10:00squeezing every inch out of it. It's like similarly like squeezing every emotion out of it.
10:10So this is my bedroom. I sleep on the floor. Oh no, I have this Murphy bed. It comes down,
10:17you pull that out, and now I got a bed. I had it designed and built by a cabinet shop
10:26on the upper
10:27side called Little Wolf cabinetry. It was pretty simple. I gave them a really sense of like,
10:31I really want it to be kind of clean lines and square. I knew I wanted there to be some
10:36cabinets
10:36on one side and some shelving on the other. Honestly, a lot of the off the rack stuff was
10:40more expensive than getting it custom built. I also was able to get some extra storage up top,
10:45which is great. I use the shelving. I use the cabinets. Putting the bed away, similar to putting
10:50the table away, it transforms the space. When this goes up, it doesn't feel like this is a bedroom.
10:56It feels like this is a multi-use area.
11:04My office is in a closet. I wasn't using it a ton. And then during quarantine, I started my own
11:10business. And so I started working from home and I really needed a place that like could be a
11:15dedicated office. I took the door off and then the same people who made the bed created this standing
11:20desk with these cabinets and additional shelving all the way up. So this has become my office.
11:25I also really like offices. Like I'd like a place where I could put a bunch of pictures and small
11:30things and have like more of like fun clutter. It's the most cluttered space in the apartment,
11:36but because it's sunk in, it feels really contained. I ended up going to one of those lighting stores
11:41in Chinatown and I bought an adhesive LED light. I basically just adhered to the back of each pole.
11:48Yamazaki home makes this sort of electronics hiding thing and it's just like the pop pops off and it's
11:54just filled with like, you know, cords and a modem. I think with the white, it just blends in enough
11:59that it doesn't feel like it's taking up space. About a year and a half ago, I adopted a dog
12:03and she
12:05needed her own like private area. I wanted to give her like a small space that was hers. And so
12:10I decided
12:10to use the area under the office to create a little space where I could put like food and water
12:15bowls.
12:23This is my foyer. I bike everywhere. And so I needed a way to keep the bike in my apartment,
12:29but not be constantly in the way. So I decided that like the foyer area was like kind of the
12:37best area
12:37to keep it. When I decided to convert one of the closets into a standing desk, I took the door
12:43off
12:43myself, which I didn't realize is like steel and wood. And so I immediately like nearly fell back.
12:50It's very, very heavy. I didn't want to get rid of it. And there's not really anywhere you can store
12:55a
12:55door. And so I leaned it up against here. Over time, I thought like, well, why don't I just put
13:01hangers on it or coat hooks on it? I think it's like kind of funny and quirky and I can
13:05like hang
13:06my umbrella off of the door knob and stuff. So this is the bathroom. It's right off the foyer. I
13:12did not
13:12have enough money to renovate it, but also the flooring and the tub are all original. And so I didn't
13:17really want to change that. They're awesome. I gave it a nice coat of paint and tried to make it
13:22a little
13:22bit cuter, but bathrooms are expensive to renovate.
13:30Sometimes it's just about how a renovation changes someone's life rather than how fancy it is. And I
13:38think I get a lot of satisfaction out of that. So some of my favorite projects are smaller projects
13:44because it really has an impact on someone's life. And Ben was just kind of beaming.
13:50Yeah, that's how I felt walking in. I mean, I've lived in New York for 20 years. Like I'm not
13:55going
13:55anywhere, but it felt like walking in and being like, this is my tree. This is my roots in New
14:00York.
14:01Like I live in this space. It was like the first time I'd ever had an apartment that was designed
14:05exactly for how I wanted to use it. I mean, every second of New York living can be stressful from
14:11the
14:11minute you walk out the door into the minute you walk back in the door. It's like a huge breath
14:16out
14:16every time I walk in here. Even now it feels like home and it feels open and refreshing to be
14:23here.
14:27You
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