Feature: Perfect Profile
A London developer hits the bull’s-eye in a Belgravia row house.
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ShareFebruary 1, 2007
It’s all about the profile. Any successful businessperson will tell you that narrowly defining your customer is the first step to success. Get the profile wrong, and you might as well cast your marketing materials—and your investment—into a stiff wind blowing out to sea. Fortunately for Mike Spink, the 40-year-old residential developer behind his eponymous British company, he has that profile down pat, and it could hardly be more exclusive.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Developer Mike Spink had a very specific type of
client in mind when he reworked this seven-story home in Belgravia. The 800-square-foot living room includes a 1950s burr walnut furniture suite by
Hille, black leather-strap Wassily chairs by Marcel Breuer, a large carpet from
the Rug Co. and a painting entitled Venice by Patrick
Hughes. (Click image to enlarge)"We operate only in Kensington, Chelsea and Belgravia," he says, "the top-priced residential areas in London. We do very little private client work, and most of it is restoration and refurbishment. Almost all our properties are speculative, but we imagine a very specific type of person. We go for a very narrow audience." His target? "A couple unlikely to be retired because they wouldn’t be using houses of this size in London. Their children have grown and left home. So they’re people at least in their 50s, but younger than 70, who do a lot of entertaining." They also possess substantial private means, enough to afford places like this 8,000-square-foot, seven-story house in Belgravia with its own private garage and a roof office with a retractable ceiling that opens en plein air.
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This house was speculative too, but Spink has developed 150 projects over the last 15 years, and he always gets his man—in this case, a 50ish oil executive with multiple homes around the world and a large contemporary art collection. With nine architects and some 50 construction professionals working exclusively for him, Spink pulled out all the stops.
It was a traditional townhome, and like most row houses, it was
somewhat deep and narrow, but seven floors tall. There was also a mews home
behind the main house, so Spink fused them together to achieve more ample
proportions and increase living space. The mews portion was less restricted by
historic preservation codes, so "we were more free architecturally," he says, to
create something a bit more modern. Even so, Spink followed his natural
inclinations, which are to mix modern and traditional styles to create an
understated hybrid. In the landmark parts of the house, this meant building out
walls with handsome millwork while retaining original windows, friezes and other
details that embody a "traditional envelope" for each room. Furnishings followed
this same basic philosophy.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
Porcelain blue walls trimmed with Farrow & Ball
cream-colored paint set the tone for the dining room. The space also features a
late-19th-century chandelier, a pair of Georgian consoles purchased at a
Sotheby’s auction and a set of 10 1950s chairs from London’s Pimlico Green
enclave. The photo still life above the fireplace, modeled after Dutch
Renaissance paintings, is by Olivier Richon. (Click image to enlarge)
The house alternates between something completely contemporary
and rooms that are more a kind of historically referenced modern, particularly
on the lower floors. On the traditional end of the spectrum, for example, is the
entry hall, which boasts a restored original black-and-white marble tile floor
and a cantilevered staircase of Portland stone (for the first three floors,
after which it converts to timber stairs that once serviced the household help).
Look up through the stairwell and you will see a classic cast-iron-and-glass
cupola on the roof of the first of the building’s setbacks, which floods the
well with natural light.; function voidFunc() { } voidFunc();)
The stainless steel, wood and Corian kitchen is by
Boffi and includes appliances from Gaggenau and Sub-Zero. Spink customized the
table, which sits on legs at one end and fits into a notch in the Corian on the
other. The kitchen and dining areas flow into the orange family room, which is
part of the more modern mews section of the home. (Click image to enlarge)
The porcelain blue dining room still has its ornate plaster
ceiling frieze, from which Spink suspended a French chandelier, circa late
1800s, that he found in Kensington. Two Georgian consoles purchased at Sotheby’s
flank the black marble fireplace, but the dining table is a glass-topped steel
base surrounded by 1950s French chairs bought in London’s Pimlico Green
area.
On the more contemporary end of things is the sleek first-floor
Boffi kitchen with Gaggenau ovens, a steamer, plate warmer, two dishwashers and
Sub-Zero refrigerator. The vertical Corian that separates cooking and eating
areas is notched to accommodate a thick sheet of structural glass that shoots
directly out from the kitchen, its other end coming to rest on steel legs, thus
creating a thoroughly modern dining table.
Spink Properties
+44.208.380.0808
www.spinkproperty.co.uk
