A Playboy Pad: Open Sesame!

This is not your basic New York City one-bedroom high-rise apartment. Oh, it started that way—as a small, boxlike, generally uninspired structure (barracks is the word most frequently used to describe this type of accommodation) in one of those Upper East Side buildings with uniformed doormen and closed-circuit TV in the lobby. But Tony Fisher—a 30ish real-estate exec who is into art, sports cars and motorcycles (not necessarily in that order)—had other ideas. And he found an interior designer—John Saladino—with whom he could communicate. The result is a beautifully organic pad that appears much roomier than its true dimensions.

They did it partly by removing a few walls and adding a new one that runs diagonally from the entry to the bedroom (see floor plan on page 161). The diagonal element is reinforced structurally by the terraced living room and visually by dark-colored areas on the walls, ceiling and floor. Additional interior space was gained by enclosing the outer terrace and turning it into a greenhouse. Each area of the apartment now flows into the next; and its organic quality is emphasized by a number of built-in attractions, including the bed and the table behind it (a sliding door closes off the bedroom when privacy is needed); the desk, which is part and parcel of the bedroom wall; and the double terrace in the living room, where the floor actually rises to form a table and seating area. All this "explodes the box," as one guest succinctly put it. Two other factors that make Fisher's apartment a one-of-a-kind pad are the controlled lighting—spotlights and louvers, which can create moods on demand—and the artwork, which is first-rate and in evidence everywhere: the floor lamp by Noguchi; the Albers and Fontana paintings; the Léger prints; the Nevelson sculpture et al. And the handsome materials used throughout—such as the antique rosewood table and the mohair carpeting in the living room—don't hurt, either. Which proves that you can have a one-bedroom crib right in Manhattan and turn it into something really nice to come home to. All it takes is time, money—and taste.