The day David Kamp and Michael Rubin walked into the Palm Beach apartment that would eventually become their home, their impressions couldn’t have been more disparate. The space hadn’t been updated since its construction in 1975, and its 1,960 square feet featured low ceilings, oversized acrylic chandeliers, black-and-silver flocked wallpaper, and two bedrooms with exterior views that left the living spaces dark and cramped.
“My first impression was that it was a tunnel,” says Kamp, a landscape architect and principal of Dirtworks in New York City. “It was confining. My heart sank.”
But Rubin, an architect with his own firm in Manhattan who recently passed away, saw nothing but possibilities. He assured Kamp on that March day in 2016 that this was the place for them. Having owned a Chelsea apartment that celebrated city views, as well as a more pastoral home on Shelter Island, the couple had come to South Florida looking for a new environment to connect to. “The light here is so magnificent,” says Kamp. “That’s one of the things that drew us here.”
The design goal for the unit, situated on the fourth floor of The Cove at the South End and facing the Intracoastal Waterway, was to make use of that light. Rubin immediately made drawings and obtained the permits for the project, which brought the interiors of the place down to a concrete shell when construction began in May 2017.
“When the architect says, ‘If we open up these two walls, the view will change incredibly,’ you trust him,” says Kamp. “Being partners for so long, I learned to trust his judgment in renovation matters, just as he learned to trust my judgment when [it came to landscaping].”
In the six months of construction that followed, the residence was transformed into a loft-like interior filled with multi-use spaces that embrace the outdoors. Ceilings were raised and the frame of the sliding glass doors leading to the deep balcony were minimized. White tile flooring was installed to make the outdoor spaces feel more connected to the inside. There are no more walls separating sleeping areas as they were replaced with retractable doors that can be engaged if privacy is desired. In the office area, a wheeled partners’ desk can be rolled to another spot in the apartment in case the Murphy bed in the workspace needs to be set up to accommodate overnight guests.
The end result, though it was difficult for Kamp to imagine initially, was exactly what he’d hoped for in a Florida retreat.
“It’s a little daunting to take the sledgehammer out, but it’s worth it,” he says. “All it takes, really, is a leap of faith.”
Story Credits:
dirtworks.us
Text by Kelley Marcellus
Interior Photography by Aaron Thompson
Portrait courtesy of David Kemp
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