A New York business exec brings home the look of a favorite golf club as the setting for his elite A/V toys.

It’s not often that the decor of an exclusive golf club becomes inspiration for a private residence.

Such was the case, though, when a New York businessman and jazz aficionado found himself enamored with the lofty, masculine and streamlined atmosphere of Long Island’s East Hampton Golf Club.

The Club was designed by the Manhattan design firm of Pembrooke & Ives. The financial executive liked the its interiors so much, in fact, that he hired Pembrooke & Ives to orchestrate the aesthetics of his New York apartment, perched on a top floor of a grand Upper Eastside building whose units—which variously offer views of the Hudson and East rivers, Central Park and towering skyscrapers—were still under construction.

“Our client wanted superb-quality sound and vision, but never wanted to compromise the look and feel of the voluminous interiors with its spectacular city views,” says interior designer Michael Lewis, who worked with Pembrooke & Ives owner Andrew Sheinman to fulfill the client’s wishes. “He demanded that the interiors and the technology segue seamlessly and effortlessly together—not an easy feat when the amount of controls and cabling that run through the apartment would be enough to cable a small village.”

Lewis isn’t joking. The wiring, he points out, snakes its way through the airy 3,500-square-foot apartment from an equipment room that is the size of many Manhattan bedrooms. “So often the equipment and technology can be allowed to take over and, in the end, become the focal point with wires trailing everywhere,” says Lewis, who credits the satisfactory invisibility of all of the audiovisual gear in this project to the expertise of custom installer Barry Reiner of InnerSpace Electronics Inc. in Port Chester, NY.
 

To get the wiring and outlets into the carefully plotted positions in order to accommodate the owner’s high-end audio and visual equipment, Reiner and Lewis worked closely with the client. “The worst thing from our point of view is looking from the side and seeing the whole bulk of the TV,” Lewis says. “We’re keen on integrating televisionsinto the interiors in a very streamlined way and not as add-ons—looking like the boy with the toy who bought these huge things and just shoved them on the wall.

Lewis marvels that there’s not one visible, dangling wire in the entire home, which includes a 63-inch Fujitsu HDTV plasma TV in the media room and a swivel-mounted Pioneer 50-inch flat-panel TV in the master suite.

“Either we did a bronze [frame] around the television, or the bulk of the TV is set with brackets into the wall,” the designer says. “An enormous amount of technology and wiring was going on behind the surface. The serene atmosphere isn’t compromised at all because everything is very carefully integrated.”

Secret technology aside, the beauty of the apartment lies in its spectacular triple-exposure cityscapes, glimpsed through 13-foot, floor-to-ceiling windows.

“The views are totally stunning,” Lewis says. “This is what you’re aware of when you arrive, and that’s why you couldn’t have the interiors take over. The views are the star.”

Unwilling to block those vistas with oversized furnishings, Lewis assembled and commissioned a collection of contemporary and vintage pieces for the home, ranging from Milo Baughman chairs in the master bedroom to Hervé Van Der Straeten cabinets and a 1950s Paul McCobb brass game table and chairs in the living area.