在紐約這些精品公寓裏,一切都關乎藝術

As glass condominium towers continue to push their way into city skylines like sunflowers squeezing up through walled gardens, some homeowners and developers have come to a realization: Floor-to-ceiling glass may provide breathtaking views, but it cuts down on opportunities for displaying art. And because art collectors represent a significant portion of the small pool of people who can afford homes in such buildings, that can be a problem.

隨着玻璃外牆的高層公寓樓不斷擠進城市天際線，就像在封閉花園裏奮力生長的向日葵，一些業主和開發商開始意識到一個問題：直通天花板的落地玻璃也許帶來了絕佳的風景，卻少了掛出藝術作品的機會。而在買得起這類住宅的一小羣人當中，藝術收藏者佔了可觀的比例，因此這個問題不可小視。

“The trajectory of wealth is very basic,” said Leonard Steinberg, a New York broker with the creative job title of chief evangelist at the real estate company Compass. “It starts with going out to expensive restaurants and ordering fancy wine and impressing your guests,” he said, before Moving on to luxury cars, homes and investments. “Then what do you do to get status? You buy art.”

“財富的軌跡是很基本的，”紐約房產經紀人倫納德·斯坦伯格(Leonard Steinberg)說，他在房地產公司Compass的職銜很有創意，叫作首席佈道師。“一開始是去很貴的餐廳，點高級紅酒，讓你請的客人對你刮目相看，”他說，然後就是豪車、豪宅和投資。“再然後做點什麼來提高身分呢？買藝術品啊。”

To cater to wealthy people amassing Warhols and Murakamis, a number of developers are designing condo towers specifically with art display in mind. At 100 East 53rd Street in Midtown Manhattan, for instance, where apartments start at $2.45 million and run past $9 million, the development company RFR commissioned the architecture firm Foster & Partners to design some units with the vibe, and wall space, of a downtown gallery.

爲了迎合收集沃霍爾和村上隆的這些有錢人，一些開發商在設計高層公寓樓時把藝術品展陳格外放在心上。比如在曼哈頓中城的東53街100號，一個245萬美元起、最高超過900萬美元的公寓項目，發展商RFR聘請了福斯特建築事務所(Foster & Partners)來設計其中一些戶型，要有下城畫廊那種韻味和充足的牆面。

“I would love to be recognized as a developer who creates spaces that are really geared for an art collector,” said Aby Rosen, a co-founder and principal of RFR and a prominent art collector himself. “I’m a big advocate. Art does something to you. It connects you with history. It connects you with the desire for culture.”

“我很希望被看作是一個真正爲藝術藏家創造空間的開發商，”阿比·羅森(Aby Rosen)說，他是RFR的創始人和主持人之一，自己就是知名的藝術收藏家。“我很推崇這個。藝術會對你起作用。它把你帶進歷史，帶進對文化的渴求。”

On a recent tour of the loft-style units, Mr. Steinberg, whose company is handling sales and marketing for the building, pointed to the uninterrupted expanses of concrete walls and also to the polished concrete floors. “It’s the kind that you may see when you go to a Gagosian Gallery or Paul Kasmin gallery,” he said.

斯坦伯格所在的公司承接了這幢公寓樓的營銷推廣，最近一次帶客人蔘觀這些倉庫風單位時，他指着綿延的混凝土牆面和磨光的混凝土地面說，“你去高古軒(Gagosian Gallery)或者保羅·卡斯明(Paul Kasmin)畫廊看到的就是這種。”

The ceilings are finished with fluted concrete panels separated by slots that allow lighting to be installed and arranged to illuminate particular works. The exterior glass filters ultraviolet rays to help protect precious pieces.

天花板貼有槽紋水泥板，用凹槽隔開，凹槽中可以安裝燈光，佈置對特定作品的照明。幕牆玻璃濾掉了紫外線，有助於保護珍貴的作品。

“These spaces have contemporary high-rise benefits, but all the attributes of a downtown loft — without the creaking floors and subway rumble,” Mr. Steinberg said.

“這些空間有着當代高層建築的各種好處，而老式的下城倉庫風住宅那些毛病——吱嘎響的地板、地鐵的轟隆——一概沒有，”斯坦伯格說。

To hammer that point home, one of the model units is staged as a gallery rather than a home, with a trove of contemporary works from Mr. Rosen’s collections, including large-scale canvases by Damien Hirst, Andy Warhol and Jonas Wood, and sculptures by John Chamberlain, Urs Fischer and Jorge Pardo. The building’s focus on art extends to the lobby, too, where residents are greeted by a site-specific work by Rachel Feinstein that depicts New York City icons, including the Empire State Building and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, commissioned specifically for the building.

爲了把這個特點強調到極致，其中一套樣板間乾脆陳設成了一個畫廊而不像個家，用上羅森收藏中的一系列當代作品，包括達明·赫斯特(Damien Hirst)、安迪·沃霍爾(Andy Warhol)和喬納斯·伍德(Jonas Wood)的大尺幅畫作，以及約翰·張伯倫(John Chamberlain)、烏爾斯·費舍爾(Urs Fischer)和豪爾赫·帕爾多(Jorge Pardo)的雕塑作品。對藝術的強調也反映到大堂，恭迎住戶的是紐約藝術家瑞秋·費因斯坦(Rachel Feinstein)的一件場域特定作品，描繪了紐約市的諸多標誌，包括帝國大廈、大都會博物館，是專爲本建築委託創作。

This art-friendly attitude has attracted buyers like Ingrid Cincala Gilbert, principal of the art consulting firm Cincala Art, who bought one of the building’s more conventional units, with white-oak floors and drywall.

親善藝術的做派吸引了英格麗·辛卡拉·吉爾伯特(Ingrid Cincala Gilbert)這樣的買主，她是藝術投資諮詢公司Cincala Art的當家人，買的是樓裏一套偏傳統的單位，使用了白橡木地板和石膏板牆面。

“The vision that Aby Rosen had for making art an important character in the story of the building was really compelling to me,” Ms. Cincala Gilbert said, noting that many of her clients had art display in mind when buying real estate.

“把藝術當作這座建築的故事裏的重要角色，阿比·羅森的這種眼界對我特別有說服力，”辛卡拉·吉爾伯特說，她的許多客戶在購買房產時都會考慮到藝術品的陳設。

“More and more these days my clients are interested in living with their art, as opposed to having to store it,” she said. “The trouble is sometimes this can be at odds with contemporary architecture, with the emphasis on transparency and expansive areas of exterior glass, and also open floor plans. Sometimes, this can really restrict or remove altogether opportunities for art.”

“如今我的客戶們越來越多地想要和他們的藝術品朝夕相處，而不是存進庫房，”她說。“問題是這種願望有時候跟強調通透和大面積幕牆玻璃的當代建築背道而馳，還有開敞式的格局。有時這就限制了或是徹底抹掉了藝術品的機會。”

That may help explain why floor plans for apartments at 160 Leroy Street, which the developer Ian Schrager conceived with the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, and which are priced from $4.5 million to $50 million, are labeled with room types and also with wall locations where works might be displayed.

這也許就是爲什麼勒羅伊街160號公寓的樓面圖不光展示戶型，還標出了哪些牆面可以懸掛藝術品。該公寓由開發商伊恩·施拉格爾(Ian Schrager)與赫爾佐格和德梅隆建築事務所(Herzog & de Meuron)聯手打造，價格從450萬到5000萬美元不等。

“We thought it would just be an interesting thing, as an assist, to let prospective buyers know where would be great places to hang art,” Mr. Schrager said. “We thought that collecting art would be something that a lot of our buyers would be focused on.”

“我們就是覺得這麼做很有意思，作爲一種協助，去告訴可能的買主，哪些地方掛作品特別好，”施拉格爾說。“我們覺得藝術收藏是我們的買主當中很多人都會花心思去做的。”

At 180 East 88th Street, where apartments start at $1.295 million and run past $6 million, the development company DDG is building a 50-story masonry skyscraper with punched windows, which leaves more wall space for art than a building with a glass curtain wall. Units are equipped with picture rails that allow buyers to install art on chains.

東88街180號，公寓售價從129.5萬美元到逾600萬美元不等，開發商DDG正在建這座50層砌石外觀、牆體開窗的摩天樓，這就比幕牆玻璃建築有了更多室內牆面留給藝術品。住宅內預裝了掛畫線，買主可以用掛鏈懸掛作品。

“You see museums such as the Met hang art that way,” said Joseph A. McMillan Jr., the chairman and chief executive of DDG. “We have heard buyers say that there’s nowhere to put their art” in glass towers, he noted. “So this really does help serve that.”

“你看大都會那些博物館就是這麼掛畫的，”DDG董事長兼首席執行官小約瑟夫·A·麥克米倫(Joseph A. McMillan Jr)說。在玻璃大樓裏，“我們聽一些顧客說沒地方掛他們的畫，”他解釋說。“所以這個真能幫上忙。”

David Mann, the founder of MR Architecture & Décor, said that creating places to display art was also a priority when his firm designed the condos in a new glass tower at 111 Murray Street, where units are priced from $2.5 million to $40 million.

MR建築與裝飾事務所的創辦人戴維·曼(David Mann)說，他的事務所在設計穆雷街111號一幢新玻璃大樓裏的公寓時，給藝術品展示留出地方也是放在首位的。那些公寓的報價從250萬到4000萬美元不等。

His firm sought to create wide expanses of interior walls that are not interrupted by doors, he said, so that “there are larger planes that can hold a bigger piece.”

他的事務所試圖在室內做出連續延展不被門打斷的牆面，他說這樣“就有了更大的平面可以容納更大的作品。”

Rather than buy a preconfigured apartment to show off an art collection, many collectors go the custom route and work one-on-one with an architect or interior designer to address their specific needs.

在購買現成公寓秀出藝術收藏之外，很多藏家也訴諸定製，找到一對一的建築師或室內設計師來解決他們特定的需求。

For one collector in Midtown Manhattan, Mr. Mann’s firm recently renovated an apartment where plump sofas by Mario Bellini now float in the middle of the living room. The liberated wall space is devoted to works by Bruce Nauman, Deborah Kass and Donald Judd. In the study, low, wall-mounted bookcases also free up display area.

曼的事務所最近爲曼哈頓中城的一位藏家改造了一套公寓，設計大師馬里奧·貝利尼(Mario Bellini)的胖乎乎的沙發現在擺到了客廳中央。空出來的牆面給了布魯斯·瑙曼(Bruce Nauman)、黛博拉·卡斯(Deborah Kass)和唐納德·賈德(Donald Judd)的作品。書房裏，安裝在牆上的低矮書架也給藝術品留出了展示空間。

Some projects, Mr. Mann said, are in complete thrall to a collection. “We have clients who have important works where we have actually started the project by isolating where they will go,” he said, “and then building the rooms around them.”

曼還說，有的項目完全就是爲一件藏品而做。“我們有的客戶有很重要的藏品，我們一開始真的就只是考慮作品放在哪裏，”他說，“然後再圍繞它們來建造各個房間。”

For one such collector, Mr. Mann designed a wall with ideal proportions to display a Minimalist masterwork by a renowned artist (he declined to disclose the artist’s name to protect his client’s privacy). Mr. Mann added recessed lighting in the ceiling above, arranged the furniture to funnel views toward the artwork and spent days experimenting with wall paint to find the most complementary shade of white.

曼曾爲某藏家設計了一面完美比例的牆，來展陳一幅某著名藝術家的極簡主義名作（爲保護客戶隱私，他拒絕透露藝術家的名字）。曼在其上的天花板裝了內嵌式的燈光，通過傢俱的佈置把視線導向畫作，花好幾天試塗牆漆只爲找到最適宜的白度。

All other design decisions were secondary, he said. The art was “the most important thing.”

所有其他的設計決策都是次要的，他說。藝術作品纔是“重中之重。”