Kitchen & Bath 2026
Solk Architecture Reconfigures an Apartment’s Kitchen Within Manhattan's Landmark San Remo Building
New York City
Architects & Firms
When it comes to Manhattan living, it doesn’t get much better than the San Remo. The twin-towered apartment building on the Upper West Side, designed by famed architect Emery Roth, opened in 1930 to wide acclaim. While the landmark structure and others of its era excel in offering spacious floor plans and soaring ceiling heights, their kitchens were often designed as cordoned-off service areas. Contemporary attitudes toward home cooking and live-in help have rendered such spaces dowdy and prime targets for renovation. At the San Remo, a rehab led by Brooklyn-based Solk Architecture successfully transforms one such poorly configured space into an inviting and practical suite.
A custom-designed stainless-steel island is the kitchen’s centerpiece. Photo © Devon Banks Photography, click to enlarge.
The clients, two empty nesters, had renovated their three-bedroom unit before they moved in, over 20 years ago. That project kept the location of the kitchen—shunted aside next to the service entrance—intact. Several steps away, a laundry room, pantry, and a bathroom without a sink (all formerly a maid’s quarters) blocked out daylight from northwest-facing corner windows. An informal eating place, with a dining table doubling as an island, was sandwiched between. Leah Solk, the sole practitioner of her namesake firm, was approached by the homeowners in October 2024 to reprogram that 450-square-foot layout.
The laundry room and pantry are next to the service entrance. Photo © Devon Banks Photography
All three spaces within the suite were gutted, including the wall separating the onetime maid’s quarters from the dinette. In a game of musical chairs, the laundry and pantry were pushed against the service entrance, and a cozy eat-in area was inserted in its former window-flanked spot. An expanded kitchen now assumes pride of place in the middle.
“The beauty of these apartments is how well-proportioned they are,” explains Solk. “The changes here are not about showiness, but embracing what was originally intended and tweaking it for how we live today.”
For the clients, who enjoy cooking and hosting, it was necessary for the renewed space to be composed of durable materials, with bright colors and playful ornamentation. Terrazzo slabs, cast with two colors of aggregate and three vivid hues of matrix, are used as patterned flooring. The kitchen backsplash and the walls of the eat-in nook are covered by vertically oriented 6-by-12-inch yellow tiles. High-touch surfaces, such as the panel fronts of the fridge and freezer, are hewn of furniture-grade plywood fronted by plastic laminate, and the banquette table is topped by custom-cut solid surfacing. Rift-cut white oak millwork is used for cabinetry that is out of the culinary firing line.
Benches designed by Arne Hovmand-Olsen form a banquette. Photo © Devon Banks Photography
The centerpiece of the renewed kitchen is a 6½-by-3-foot stainless-steel island, custom designed by Solk. Its nearly full-depth drawers face the stove and sink, and its opposite face accommodates 9-inch-deep cabinets with integrated pulls.
Though a functional space, the laundry room has a charm of its own. It features a red tile backsplash and plywood cabinets painted white to match the kitchen’s laminate. In a tongue-in-cheek gesture, the room includes him-and-her litter box cutouts for the homeowners’ two cats.
Prior to the project’s completion in August 2025, the clients commissioned Solk to design a bookstore in upstate New York, as well as office and studio spaces in Manhattan. For Solk, the recipe for that success is simple. “Renovations in New York City are expensive, and it’s important to collaborate closely with the client to ensure those investments go to something that serves their needs and brings them happiness.”
Credits
Architect:
Solk Architecture — Leah Solk, principal
Mechanical Engineer:
Charles G. Michel Engineering
Expediter:
EC Building Consultants
General Contractor:
Sync Construction
Client:
Withheld
Size:
450 square feet
Cost:
Withheld
Completion Date:
August 2025
Sources
Glazing:
Bendheim
Paints and Stains:
Benjamin Moore
Plastic Laminate:
Wilsonart
Solid Surfacing:
Lapitec; Corian (tabletop)
Terrazzo:
Concrete Collaborative
Tile:
Heath Ceramics
Lighting:
Kuzco (ceiling); Eileen Gray, Oluce (sconce); Apure (downlights)
Plumbing:
Kohler, Julien (sinks); Graff (faucets)
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