Ms. Thomas and Mr. Donahue, a divorcé with five children, had a long-distance courtship; she was based in Los Angeles, he in Winnetka, Ill. Not long before they married in 1980, “Phil told me, ‘I can’t live in L.A. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life interviewing John Wayne. I can live in New York or Washington,’” Ms. Thomas said. “And I told him, ‘Well, I can live in New York or L.A.’ So New York it was.”
For the sake of Mr. Donahue, who had never before lived in an apartment, it needed to be New York with a terrace. For the sake of Ms. Thomas, a human heliotrope, it needed to be New York with abundant sun. Think Malibu overlooking Central Park. The penthouse duplex that ticked all the boxes has been home since 1987.
The couple’s architect, Charles Gwathmey, convinced them to knock down many a wall to take full advantage the apartment’s three exposures: north, south and west. The light from the floor-to-ceiling windows — they were a headache to install, Ms. Thomas said, but eminently worth it — brightens the flowing space that comprises the dining room, the living room and the library/TV room.
That girl was very clear with that architect. “I told Charles, ‘I don’t want a house with Louis anybody — no Louis XIV, no Louis XV. I just want comfortable furniture,’” Ms. Thomas said, urging a visitor to try out a high-backed, pale-blue leather chair, one of a pair.
She has two of the same style in gray. “When they arrived, Phil called me and said, ‘The chairs came, but there’s been a mistake. They’re not all the same. There are two blue and two gray,’” Ms. Thomas recalled. “And I said, ‘Yes, that’s the point. Otherwise, the room would look like an airport lounge.’”
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
