Visual Thinker: Robert Kaner
NYSID alum Robert Kaner ’02 (AAS) obtained a BA in public policy from Princeton before getting a law degree from Harvard. He became a partner at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in 1996. In 1999, he pivoted, left the firm, and enrolled at NYSID to pursue his lifelong interest in Modernist design. He began his design career at Steven Harris Architects, after which he established Robert Kaner Interior Design in 2003. His company celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Alumna Krista Gurevich ’16 (MFA1), vice president of the NYSID Alumni Council, is on his staff and collaborated on this project. Kaner’s life and design are testaments to the fact that taking risks can have rewards.
Glamour in Geometry
Kaner designed this interior for a couple who had multiple residences and would be spending only part of their time in New York. He says, “The fact that this was not my clients’ only home gave us the freedom to play with glamor and glitz. The space didn’t need to feel subtle or everyday, but it did need to be comfortable.” Kaner wanted the interior to feel rooted in its downtown neighborhood and the architecture of the building, a new Tribeca structure with references to Brutalism. To give the interior “edginess” that spoke to the Brutalist gestures of the building, he incorporated metallics, brasses and bronzes, and created a refrain of angles in the carpet, furniture, and overhead fixture–one that mimics the geometry of buildings against the skyline. The space functions flexibly for entertaining in front of this spectacular view or watching TV on a wall opposite the couch.
Kaner chose this low-backed, sectional couch from Todd Merrill to open the sight line to the apartment’s striking corner windows. A small column to the right of the window bumps out into the room and would have kept Kaner from getting the sofa flush against the wall, so his team cut a notch out of the back of the sectional, and painstakingly calibrated the seating’s tufts.
Kaner commissioned a decorative painter, former NYSID faculty member Dean Barger, to do a burnished bronze finish on the concrete strips of the ceiling to give them the rough quality of ingots.
Kaner worked with Venfield NYC, using pieces of brown vintage glass to create a fixture inspired by the lines and curves of a NYC subway map.
This custom rug, commissioned from Tai Ping, plays off the lines and colors of the ceiling.
Photo: Tria Giovan