Tour an Ethereal Tribeca Loft that’s a Lesson in Heat Minimalism

When interior designers Anishka Clarke and Niya Bascom of the Brooklyn-based Ishka Designs first got their hands on the penthouse apartment of a buzzy Tribeca factory building conversion, it needed a lot of work. The fireplace had to be shifted to balance out the living room. Ceilings and hallways had to be totally reconfigured. But if you stepped into the airy, modern home today, you wouldn’t notice any of that.

“Now you walk in, and it feels right,” Clarke says of the project, which was made in conjunction with contractor Pompa Development & Construction. “That’s how we like to work. We try not to be excessive with anything. It should just feel how it ought to feel.”

That light touch is what appealed to the clients, a young couple who work in the entertainment industry (he is a Korean American filmmaker, and she is a Japanese musician). The pair, who tapped Ishka in 2016 to create a home base for them in New York, needed a place where they could work, entertain, and, as it so happened, hunker down for a global pandemic. Trusting Ishka’s subdued, craftsmanship-forward style, they gave the designers, more or less, carte blanche.

As for Clarke and Bascom—who are partners in life and work—they started designing spaces together in 2006. The duo had already connected over their complimentary design aesthetic and Jamaican-Guyanese heritage. (Clarke was born and raised in Jamaica; Bascom was born in England but grew up in Brooklyn.) “This shared cultural background shapes the way we see and think about design and art,” Clarke says. “Timelessness, sustainability, natural elements, craftsmanship—all of these things stem from our Caribbean upbringing.”

It’s a visual language and approach they bring to each of their projects in subtle ways—always problem solving, always making something beautiful with what they have. “We both came out of very staunch work-oriented environments with limited resources,” Bascom says. “But what do they say? You take lemons and you make lemonade? Beyoncé talks about it. I think that’s the deal.”

You might say that this project, then, is one big, refreshing pitcher of lemonade. Here, blue chip design classics—a pair of Pierre Jeanneret’s cult-favorite Chandigarh chairs, Jean Prouvé sconces, and a svelte barcart by Vladimir Kagan—mix in with one-off commissions from local artists. A custom Lindsey Adelman chandelier from Roll & Hill hangs above a one-of-a-kind concrete-and-brass dining table by Eric Slayton and a bespoke headboard in the guest bedroom is like a poster child for Brooklyn craft. That last piece was designed by Ishka, carved from rosewood by Bellboy New York and covered in a collaged textile, and hand-painted by Maki Yamamoto—all based in the same New York borough.

Although the project was an exciting opportunity for Ishka to experiment, Clarke emphasizes that “the clients were the inspiration for the space. They’re the reason we chose what we chose.” She and Bascom were quick to problem solve for the homeowners, carving out spaces that meshed well with their personalities and careers. “They came from different ends of the spectrum,” Clarke says, “and you can really see their personality differences in the offices.” She needed bright, airy spaces where she could be loud (she’s a singer, after all); he wanted black-out shades and total silence for writing and editing film. Ishka had to sound-proof the whole home.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the homeowners come together around a love of entertainment. In the living room, which the fireplace left feeling a tad bit lopsided, Ishka balanced things out with a custom, three-piece modular media console for their record player and vinyl collection. After Clarke and Bascom installed a pull down projector screen for movie viewing, they delivered special cushions that extend the sofa over the cocktail table in order to simulate that watching-a-movie-in-bed experience. Is there anything more pandemic perfect than that?

Actually, after hardly leaving the house for nearly a year, the clients had plenty of time to evaluate and reevaluate the space. They gave rave reviews. As Bascom retells it: “They fell in love with the house all over again.”