89

b.th

er

e m

ag

az

ine

Br

us

se

ls A

irlin

es

’ Eu

ro

pe

an

ne

tw

or

k in

fligh

t m

ag

az

ine

apr

il 2014

brussels airlines’ inflight magazine issue 89 | april 2014brussels airlines’ inflight magazine issue 89 | april 2014

artThe

BT001 April Cover_FINAL.indd 1 20/03/2014 12:42

april 201414

Michael Davis

FLY TO new york jfk daily. brusselsairlines.com

O rphaned as a child, architect and

interior designer Michael Davis grew

up with an uncle in a brownstone

on E61st Street that had once belonged to

Montgomery Clift. “Most of the people on

the street there in the 1960s and 1970s were

families,” he recalls. “Little by little, as the

real estate market began to climb, it became

wealthy single people.”

A certain nostalgia for that era has stayed

with him – and laid the foundations for his

profession. “I learned at a very early age that

there is no more powerful influence on who we

become than where and how we live,” he says.

In 1987 a real estate boom meant housing

was in short supply. Fortuitously, an

advertisement in The New York Times –

omitting the listing’s then-unfashionable

postcode – drew him across the river to

Brooklyn. “I came up out of the subway, and I

was in Manhattan… the one I’d grown

up in and left when I went to school. I was so

enchanted that I found a wonderful brownstone,

and I’ve lived in Brooklyn ever since.”

Davis currently occupies a one-off, antiques-

laden loft called The Clock in an iconic Brooklyn

Heights warehouse. He first fell in love with it

when cataloguing buildings for the Landmarks

Preservation Commission, but didn’t acquire

it until years later after several twists of fate.

His first task: to un-do the series of botched

developments which had marred its beauty.

“I find everything that’s original and work

from there,” he says of his design philosophy.

“Old buildings have a soul, and my goal is

never to impose some new vision but to allow

the building to express itself. I believe that

architecture is more a practice of discovery

than invention.” Such a credo has served

Davis well, and he has made his name using

architectural salvage to create warm, people-

centric homes for several starry clients.

The centrepiece of Davis’s own apartment

is an original three-metre glass and iron clock

The New York architect tells Violet Gabor how the city’s extraordinary old buildings inspire his work

face with a startling panorama of his favourite

New York landmark, the Brooklyn Bridge. The

bridge’s interior is usually closed to the public,

but Davis has peeked inside: “It’s a cavernous

series of gorgeous masonry – vaulted spaces

once used to store everything from wine to

gold bullion,” he reveals.

Another place he particularly loves is Inwood

Hill Park, a 200-acre public wood located at

the very northern tip of Manhattan Island.

“In pre-historic times it was occupied by the

Lenape Indians, whose caves can still be seen,”

he says. “Indeed, the tulip tree under which the

Dutch purchased Manhattan from the natives

stood in the park until 1933.”

It’s the same palpable sense of history which

draws Davis to Keens Steakhouse on 36th

Street. He explains: “It’s been active since 1885,

and has on display thousands of meerschaum

pipes originally given out to regular patrons.

Those belonging to everyone from Winston

Churchill to Lillie Langtry and countless other

luminaries can still be seen.”

Last year Davis got involved in the restaurant

business himself, teaming up with head chef

Zak Pelaccio (of NYC-hotspot Fatty Crab) to

launch the upstate restaurant Fish & Game.

“It’s in an old blacksmith’s from the pre-Civil

War Era in Hudson,” he says. In keeping with

his trademark, its design takes cues from

the past, and the result is a warm, Victorian-

style country lodge with a glowing fireplace

and rotisserie.

Meanwhile, Davis’s architectural salvage

and interiors store, 3FortySeven, occupies

an art deco gas station nearby. He had owned

the property for years, but saw a chance

to capitalise on it with the influx of arty

New York refugees. “Everywhere I’ve gone

I’ve unintentionally been ahead of some

wave,” Davis reflects of his latest real estate

coup. “Hudson has gone through its own

transformation now, like Brooklyn. It

has become very chic and happening.”

Top to bottom: view of the Brooklyn Bridge from The Clock; Fish & Game; Keens Steakhouse; 3FortySeven

MA

IN P

OR

TRA

IT: E

VA

N S

UN

G; N

ICK

WO

OD

BT014-015 My City_KW_MM_FINAL.indd 14 20/03/2014 12:30

“Old buildings have a soul and my vision is to allow the building to express itself”

my cit y

BT014-015 My City_KW_MM_FINAL.indd 15 20/03/2014 12:30