Playboy Plans a Duplex Penthouse

Way back in the fall of 1956, we presented Playboy's Penthouse Apartment, by far the most successful and mail-garnering modern-living feature we had ever published, and the first in a series of Playboy Pads--actual and projected. Although we have featured a great variety of dwellings, they all have had the same specific design purpose: to appeal to the urban bachelor who believes a man's home is not only his castle but also an outward reflection of his inner self; a place where he can live, love and be merry, entertain his friends with parties big and small, play poker with cronies from the office or relax alone with a fond companion. Now, 13 years after our first penthouse design appeared, and with a new decade dawning, we are again projecting our concept of the pinnacle of urban living, this time a duplex penthouse that combines the latest technological and architectural advances with an idea that's as old as the hills--the Roman hills, that is. Houses in ancient Rome were often built around an atrium, a central courtyard, that provided air and sun, and could yet be enjoyed in privacy. Our duplex penthouse uses the atrium concept but is otherwise a model of modernity. Its first level provides for the more gregarious pursuits of the owner, both within its walls and on its garden and patio-terraces. The second level is reserved for his more intimate, private activities, and provides him with unroofed patio-terraces from which he may enjoy the sun and stars, the surrounding urban scene and seasons. Both first and second levels are oriented around the two-story atrium.

Our duplex penthouse is, as we said, contemporary--as our first one was in its day. And, like our first penthouse, it is a combination of projected design and actual (that is, purchasable) elements. Now, as then, we have started with a realistic urban premise: There are terraced penthouses for rent. Today, however, more duplexes are available, not only on lease but for co-op ownership and as condominiums, and--at some cost--they may be modified to suit one's personal needs and preferences. This may require remodeling, to be sure, but value is thus enhanced. No alteration is required for most of the available furnishings and appliances, and elements of decor, which we would recommend be considered as suitable to this penthouse and the life style it affords, though some customization--and custom installation--is often desirable.

A large part of this new urban way of life is responsive to architectural serenity and spatial sculpturing, to gain a sense of quite-private interior vistas, rather than focusing on or relying upon the outward view from the penthouse windows, garden and patio-terraces.

The contemporary architect's feel for cleanliness of line and absence of clutter is apparent in this new penthouse, not only in terms of what one sees but in what one does not. Thus, unless it makes no utilitarian sense at all, the mechanical and electronic accouterments are cunningly concealed in cabinetwork and behind motorized panels; few people, after all, drive their cars with the hood open to reveal the engine, and the novelty of electronic, transistorized and semi-automated aids to easy living has sufficiently worn off to make their display rather ostentatious, as well as decoratively obtrusive. You will see that the atrium not only is two levels but is roofed with a motorized skylight and bridged by two balustraded (text continued on page 161) catwalks that join the private chambers on the second level and provide vaulted vistas for the more gregarious activities for which the first level is reserved.

For detailed floor plans, see page 234.

In both architecture and decor, we have striven to give this penthouse the feel of a proper house--as opposed to an apartment, however luxurious it might be. (For example, the building's elevator opens not on an apartment-house hall but directly into the penthouse's entrance foyer; the solid elevator door may be opened by the owner's key or remotely, from within.) The individualization that is ever more important in today's world is most readily achieved, we believe, by working from a validly conceived and pleasingly proportioned architectural matrix for living, to be imprinted with each owner's choice of colors, textures, works of art and personal bibelots, be they heirlooms or recent acquisitions. What you see here are our suggestions; each man will have his own preferences, but may find ours to his liking or stimulating to his imagination. Now--in imagination--we invite you to tour the proposed premises, as a prospective owner would do.

You leave your car with the doorman or parking (continued on page 233)Duplex Penthouse(continued from page 161) attendant and take the elevator, which whisks you up to the penthouse.

The elevator opens, you step inside the first-level foyer and the door closes again. To your right is the living-room area's slightly sunken talk pit, with its leather-covered Domino Chairs, the backs of which can be removed as comfort dictates. When, say, a chestnut roast is the order of the day or evening, the two sections directly facing the fireplace may be moved aside, and then, when you and a special someone have cooked your fill, a motorized black-glass hearth screen can be slid into place.

In the middle of the sunken talk pit, which is covered with a thick wool rug, sits a lacquered Knoll cocktail table. Its stainless-steel top is the answer to a bachelor's dream, as spilled drinks and forgotten cigarettes are cleaned up with the swipe of a cloth, while accumulated books and magazines can be tucked away in a compartment at the center or stashed in storage areas along the sides.

While you're in the living-room area, fix a drink at the wet bar located on the wall opposite the multipaneled floor-to-ceiling abstract painting. Here, there's practically every accessory that a mixologist could desire, including a built-in glass chiller, fridge and a well-stocked liquor cabinet filled with potables ranging from anisette to Zytnia vodka.

But, as you may already have guessed, there's much more to the living-room area than first meets the eye. For example, the outsized abstract you've been admiring was created with abrasionproof acrylic paints applied to panels that open by remote control to reveal the latest in video and audio equipage.

All of the wall's built-in gear is operated from a master control panel behind the abstract, while a number of the main controls are duplicated in an auxiliary panel that's been placed conveniently at finger-tip reach just behind the couch and to the right of the fireplace hearth. Thus, you can remain seated with your guests while entertaining them with your electronic showmanship.

And what a show it can be. When the painted panels behind the Torino table and chairs that serve as a game area have been flipped out of the way by remote control, the room (or the entire duplex, if you choose) becomes the sounding board for the latest advancement in audio technology--four-channel stereo tape. Four electrostatic speakers (two behind the abstract painting and two on the opposite wall at either side of the bar) are connected to a 600-watt amplifier that puts out 150 watts IHF music power per channel. With this system, listeners are literally at the hub of the room's hi-fi system (other leisure rooms also have four mounted speakers).

Of course, you're not limited to four-channel tape; while in the living-room area, you can select whatever sound source suits your fancy: an automatic and a manual turntable (the latter is equipped with a straight-tracking tonearm that holds an ultrasensitive cartridge capable of high trackability); AM, FM, short-wave and FM stereo pulled in by tuners that are hooked to a rotating audio-video master antenna mounted on the roof; and reel-to-reel, cassette and cartridge tape decks that allow all types of material to be recorded, played back and/or converted to another format. Most of the LPs in your collection are housed in an automatic selector-player, which does away with the frustration of having to flip through a stack of albums for a favorite recording. The selector-player--controlled by a set of push buttons located over a bin holding 500 vertically filed LPs--features a mechanical arm that slides the record forward for play or offers it up to the operator. After a side is finished, the record is returned to its slot. The selector-player, of course, is a boon to parties, as music can be programed prior to the guests' arrival. (Platters that require very delicate handling are stored by hand in padded bins below the manual turntable.) Audio tape reels and cassette cartridges are retrieved from special compartments by a push-button selector that slides the desired tape forward, ready for play. All tapes are stored in heat-resistant and magnetically shielded drawers.

In the center of your sight-and-sound setup are three color TVs with 25-diagonal-inch screens (while you're watching one show, you can be transcribing another on set number two and have the third one free for closed-circuit monitoring).

Tied into the TVs are three multi-speed video tape recorders capable of handling anything from professional color video tapes to the quarter-inch home video variety. Black-and-white or color video tapes can be made by using one of three portable, wireless TV cameras that stand ready in their recharging storage racks. All video-tape-recorder film canisters are stored out of sight in special compartments. On a night when you're away from the pad, one of these color units can be set to tape a show for later viewing.

Both 8mm silent and sound movies and 2" x 2" slides (all with a synchronized audio tape) can be electronically projected onto any of the three TV screens. However, when a 16mm or a 35mm film is on the evening's agenda, a 6'x 12' projection screen can be lowered in front of the entertainment wall and the film is then rear-projected onto it, the ceiling speakers supplying the audio.

So much for the cameras and the electronic action of your apartment. How do you turn on the myriad flush-mounted ceiling lights installed throughout the penthouse? These, too, can be controlled from your electronic wall, through the use of a unique card system that enables you to instantly illuminate all or specific areas by simply inserting a perforated card into a slot hooked up to a minicomputer. All cards are labeled and stored in the wall and, for convenience' sake, individual room lights can be turned on and off by a concealed button. A duplicate card system is also built into the headboard of the master bed.

Incoming phone calls first register on the entertainment wall, where an answering service either takes the message or transfers the call to the area you're in. If you wish to speak to the party, the push of a button will switch the caller to the room and his or her voice will come in soft and clear over the ceiling speakers. Two-way conversations can be held, as the speakers double as amplifier-microphones. (For more private conversations, a number of phones and phone jacks are also strategically placed about the pad.)

There are other details in the living-room area worthy of note. On either side of the white-stucco fireplace wall, which contrasts with the black-slate floor used throughout the penthouse (except where there's carpeting), are floor-to-ceiling glass doors that roll back, permitting access to a patio-terrace with a fireplace plus lounge chairs placed next to a small garden that's open to the sky. A spiral staircase winds upward to a second-level patio-terrace, directly above, that's adjacent to the master bedroom.

Next to the reflecting pool you passed on entering the living-room area is a conveniently located powder room opposite a cantilevered stairway that also leads to the second level. And here, too--on both levels--is a minigallery for showcasing a collection of contemporary or classical sculpture. By parting vinyl vertical shades and opening another floor-to-ceiling sliding glass door, you can stroll onto two other patio-terraces, one on each of the levels.

The Oriental-influenced dining area, located at the opposite end of the first level (see the floor plans on the following page), offers an additional spectacular view of the city; doors open onto a terrace replete with greenery and a card table and chairs placed there for warm-weather outdoor gaming purposes. The thickly carpeted dining area (check the rendering on page 158) is conducive to casual Japanese-style dining. Eight cushions with lift-up backs are positioned around a permanent pedestal table with a marble top that can be raised or lowered hydraulically. When guests are being treated to comestibles either Oriental or Occidental, they don't experience that uncomfortably cramped feeling: There's a well under the table for their legs. Here, too, a formal dinner can be served after the table has been raised to the standard 30-inch height (thus closing off the leg well), the cushions removed and chairs provided.

As you stand in the dining area, gazing toward the patio-terrace, the room to your left is the office-study, a sanctum sanctorum where you can take care of pressing business matters or simply get away from it all. A man-sized mahogany desk with a swivel chair dominates the room, while books, papers, magazines, stationery, pipes and humidors, electric typewriter, dictating machine and correspondence are stashed in bookshelves and storage compartments built into two walls--one behind the desk and the other opposite it and just behind a table and two high-backed leather lounge chairs with attached high-intensity gooseneck lamps. (Including an office-study in the penthouse, of course, gives you an income-tax break, as you can deduct the cost and depreciation of equipment and supplies, plus a percentage of the annual upkeep.)

Back in the dining area again, facing the patio-terrace, the room to your right is the kitchen--a culinary oasis where a midnight snack for one or two, a sitdown dinner for eight or a buffet for 50 can be masterminded with a minimum of fuss and bother. The kitchen floor, too, is black slate for easy maintenance, while the floor-to-ceiling cabinets that stand on either side of the sliding glass door opening onto the patio-terrace are of burnished aluminum.

In the center of the room is an enamel-finished cooking island with a matching overhead hood exhaust that silently whisks odors up and away. Set into the countertop are four high-speed electric surface units and a gas grill that can impart a smoky and savory barbecue flavor to whatever is being prepared, either directly on the grill or skewered on a countertop rotisserie attachment that does the dish to a turn.

Under the counter is a superfast microwave oven that never needs cleaning, reached by pivoting open a portion of the island's side paneling. A potato popped into the oven is baked and ready for sour cream and chives in four minutes flat; a medium-rare standing rib roast is clocked in at six minutes per pound. During a dinner party, food fresh from the oven arrives at the table piping hot, not lukewarm, as the main course can be cooked while the consommé bowls are being cleared away.

The upper portion of the kitchen wall seen on page 159 serves as a storage area for nonrefrigerated viands housed there by means of a series of vertical conveyor belts. Compartments containing spices, canned goods, tins of coffee and tea, party-food munchables and other miscellaneous culinary necessities revolve into view at the touch of a button. On this wall, too, is a digital clock and, above it, a screen onto which recipes can be rear-projected in outsized type that can be easily read from across the room; all recipes are held in a master drum that operates by push buttons similar to those of a jukebox.

On the opposite wall is another identically dimensioned floor-to-ceiling storage area also of burnished aluminum. Here, there's a stainless-steel triple sink with disposals, hooked up to a reverse-osmosis membrane that's built into the pad's main water supply. Thus, when any tap in the apartment is turned on, out pours purified soft water that's crystal clear. By the kitchen sink is a built-in high-speed dishwasher that removes even the gooiest gourmandial vestiges of the night before.

In place of the conventional and all-too-bulky freestanding fridge and freezer units, you pluck your choice of meats, vegetables, fruits and other fare that require cold storage from cabinets and bins that keep their cool at a constant temperature. And should you be faced with a full day of meetings that are certain to continue well into the evening, you can, prior to leaving for the office, take a precooked and frozen casserole, place it in a special drawer that both freezes and heats, activate a timer and, that night, after a cocktail or two, the dinner's main course will be awaiting your pleasure, piping hot.

When a bottle of wine--be it a velvety Côte de Nuits burgundy or a Portuguese vinho verde--is desired, there are 200 choices, housed in a vertical and ventilated honeycomb wine bin, quite possibly the best place to age a munificent selection of vintages this side of Bordeaux.

Behind the floor-to-ceiling storage area (as you'll see by checking the floor plan) is a combination pantry--laundry room, where additional provisions can be stored.

Let's now leave the kitchen. There's an entire second level of the penthouse yet to explore and it's time you strolled up the cantilevered stairway and looked about.

At the top of the stairs, in the second-level foyer--which, again, has a black-slate floor--there are three open wells surrounded by catwalks from which you can look down into the living-room area, the dining area and the reflecting pool. Nearby, you'll find two storage closets, one for bedding and blankets and the other for sporting gear, camera equipment, etc.

As we mentioned before, the first level of your penthouse is primarily dedicated to entertaining friends with your electronic wizardry and culinary expertise, while the second level is strictly for privacy--except, of course, when an open house is the order of the night and guests are free to wander where they choose. The rooms to the right on the floor plan (those that overlook the living-room area) are a master bath, dressing room and bedroom complex separated from the rest of the second level by sliding doors that disappear into the wall--just as they do on the first level.

You've now stepped into the multimirrored master bath, which features a sunken soak tub (set in a radiant-heated floor), where you can relax Japanese style, light filtering through a small skylight directly overhead. Close by are double washbasins and on the opposite wall are push-latch mirrored doors that open to a wood-lined sauna for two, complete with sun lamp. Adjacent to the sauna are both a lavatory and a shower room, the latter has custom fittings that include both high and low sprays. An arm's length away, there's additional storage space for robes, towels, washcloths and toiletries. A walled patio-terrace by the bath provides a private place to sunbathe.

Connecting the bath with the master bedroom is a wood-paneled dressing room. Suits, sports jackets and slacks are stored here in dustproof closets built into both sides of a multibulbed three-way mirror. Also in this area are dustproof storage trays for shirts, ties, sweaters and underwear and a waist-high shoe locker holding permanently mounted rows of lever-operated shoe trees.

Beyond the dressing room is the master bedroom, where you, the lord of this lofty manor, can sink into the arms of Morpheus (or a more comely substitute). A king-sized sunken bed set in a molded-fiberglass frame dominates the penthouse bedroom. On the wall nearest the foot of the bed is a miniversion of the living-room area's electronic entertainment wall containing a closed-circuit TV-and-intercom monitoring system that enables you to communicate with visitors in other rooms, a color TV and video tape recorder, LPs and cassettes, plus a four-channel stereo tape deck and amplifier connected to four electrostatic speakers.

All gear in the bedroom entertainment wall can be operated from a prone position, as there's an auxiliary panel located between the bed's adjustable padded headrests. Lights throughout the pad, too, can be turned on or winked off from here by a card-slot mechanism that's identical to the one in the living-room area.

Since the lines of the bedroom are clean and contemporary, so are the paintings and sculpture. But this is 1970 and being turned on electronically by whatever feeds you and your date's audio-visual fantasies is really the name of today's bed game. Once the floor-to-ceiling painted panels on the wall behind the head of the bed are flipped back, a battery of projectors connected to the control panel between the headrests can--if you so choose--turn the room into an electric circus of swirling colors that contrast with blinking strobes fired in time to your choice of freaky far-out sounds. Or, if a softly romantic mood is what you're after, the room can glow like an ember, the walls and ceiling pleasantly pulsating, while you're serenaded by sounds more soothingly conducive to matters at hand.

Outside the bedroom's sliding glass doors is the walled patio-terrace pictured on page 160, which extends the entire width of the building, from master bedroom to master bath. Built into the wall is a low bench (covered with a weatherproof fabric) that faces a fireplace. Out here, you can kindle a late-evening fire, sip a nocturnal dram or two and listen to a mobile Italian-designed Brionvega AM/FM hi-fi unit adjacent to the fireplace.

At the opposite end of the second level is a guest bedroom, dressing room and bath complex that's similar to the master's suite of rooms--minus the electronic built-ins and the sauna. When out-of-town guests drop in for a weekend or a week, they're assured of both privacy and the latest refinements in luxury living.

All the rooms in the penthouse--each of which is air filtered and humidified--feature individual thermostats that enable you to select whatever degree of warmth or air conditioning best suits the season or the occasion.

Obviously, your duplex Playboy Penthouse circa 1970 is more than just the top two floors of an urban apartment building. It's a modern-living signpost that indicates the direction interior design and electronic technology will be taking during the upcoming decade. But, more important, it's also a bachelor haven styled for a man of taste who wants a place where he can entertain friends or take his private ease with equal equanimity.