Lennox Hill Penthouse by OPA Architecture
Bankston’s cabinetry and door hardware enhances a tactile, cohesive design narrative throughout a fully redesigned penthouse in New York’s Upper East Side.
After a comprehensive gut renovation, this Manhattan residence pulses with vibrancy thanks to its bracing block colour schemes bound by the visual and sensory identity of Bankston’s Civilian collection.
Sky High Vision
Relocating from the tree-lined suburbs of New Jersey to the soaring stratosphere of Manhattan’s skyline, a family of five embraced Opa Architecture’s design vision for their penthouse located within a mid-century residential tower. First to go was its abundance of walls dividing the almost 170 square metre space to open its flow, plus incongruent features including floor-to-ceiling mirrors, plus parquet and decorative inlaid timber floors.
White Oak floors and doors now lay its brighter, unified foundation, enhanced by the vertical energy of custom fluted joinery elements. Colour selections reinforce the practice’s Principal, Aria Jahanshani’s confident approach, with surfaces ranging from bold primaries to gentler pastels. They include tomato red for the newly opened kitchen, cobalt blue for the walls of the boys’ shared bedroom, expressive stone in the primary ensuite with rich lavender veins, plus lilac shades in the daughter’s ensuite. Throughout, hardware remains the binary constant. “We sought a dialogue between the cabinetry and door hardware, allowing these tactile elements to act as a unifying ‘language’ for the home,” says Jahanshani of his selection of the Deco-style domes adorning Bankston’s Hemispheres Collection, designed in collaboration with the Brooklyn-based studio, Civilian.
Their collection offered a rare opportunity to move beyond conventional design motifs, allowing us to curate a selection with our client that feels distinctly avant-garde yet deeply integrated.
- Aria Jahanshani, Principal Architect, OPA Architecture
Expressive Stone
Within the kitchen, H04 Door Pulls adorn cupboard fronts and drawers (both vertically and horizontally). Their creamy Bone finish crafted from a highly durable UV resistant powder coat mirrors the slick appearance of glazed enamel. Further enhancing their materiality, two spheres adorn either end of their slim parallel bands. Offered in assorted metallic finishes plus solid American Walnut timber, Jahanshani specified Potoro Gold. This stone is characterised by a rich and intricate grain pattern set against an onyx backdrop, adding organic punctuation across the kitchen’s surfaces while enhancing the subtle burgundy flecks embedded in the kitchen Andromeda white granite countertop. The pulls also clad the glass door of a bar fridge located just off the kitchen, adding a gentrified touch.
“By pairing these refined silhouettes with integrated stone elements, we extended the project’s narrative of luxury to the most intimate level—ensuring that every interaction, from the visual to the tactile, resonates with the home’s elevated material palette.” – Aria Jahanshani
Rhythmic Repetition
Reinforcing the versatility of the Civilian collection, Jahanshani adorned the door of the boys’ shared bedroom with a pair of H03 Knob on Half Moon handles (also with Potoro Gold stone set upon a Bone finish). Comprising expressive half-circle backplates with spherical knobs, they complement the residence’s curved joinery and arched features – from doorways to ensuite mirrors. Sitting beneath one, the H08 Privacy Turn (also finished in Bone), combines decorative appeal with functionality.
