
When art dealer Bee Tham opened The Bee in the Lion gallery in New York’s Gramercy Park neighborhood in the spring of 2017, she eschewed the de rigueur penchant for a warehouse-sized space capable of showing Hindenburg-sized installations and instead aimed to create a more intimate environment for looking at, considering and, of course, acquiring contemporary works of art. Indeed, since it opened, the by-appointment-only gallery has been housed in a petite, studio-style apartment on the second floor of a converted turn-of-the-20th-century warehouse building called The Foundry.
Born and raised in Singapore, the art maven no longer seems to operate The Bee in the Lion as a gallery space; Their website now promotes an online art initiative called The Front Room. She does, however, own the apartment, which has been for sale for more than a year, first at just under $600,000 and now at $550,000. Also for sale, with a more blue-chip asking price of $13.5 million, is Tham’s extensively (and expensively) renovated Upper East Side townhouse that, once inside, unsurprisingly resembles an art gallery as much as it does a private residence.
Located on a tree-lined block between Park Avenue and Central Park, tax records show Tham and her husband, Tham Khai Meng, former worldwide chief creative officer of advertising powerhouse Ogilvy, who was fired in 2018 for unspecified complaints of misconduct, purchased the property just over six years ago for $7.238 million. They subsequently spent, according to promo materials, several more million bucks on a two-and-a-half-year gut renovation. The time, money and effort shows.
The restored exterior of the circa 1874 townhouse looks as it always has, with a carved stone frieze over the arched front door and an elaborate cornice capping its roof. The interiors, however, have been stripped of period ornamentation and radically transformed into airy, loft-like living spaces that, according to listings held by Jaime Richichi of Nest Seekers International, pay homage to giants of minimalist architecture like Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson and John Pawson.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy Organic materials — think giant slabs of polished Calacatta marble and radiant-heated matte-finish white oak floorboards — and a smattering of antique pieces, including a couple of glass chandeliers, were smartly utiilized to create balance and harmony within the otherwise spare, gallery-like rooms.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy Ceilings are intentionally high in the main floor gallery/living area where a sculpture by the Japanese artist Mr. playfully animates the staircase and a murky, enigmatic portrait of a nude man by mononymsouly known artist Arslan hangs in the living room area. A full bath at the back allows the living room area to easily be closed off as utilized as a bedroom suite.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy Featuring a book-matched white marble fireplace and an ornate antique glass chandelier, the dining room is divided from the kitchen by floor-to-ceiling clear-glass panels.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy The crisp linearity of the expertly tailored kitchen is offset with a carved marble mantelpiece that might just as well be at home in a Parisian hôtel particulier. Beyond the kitchen, a sunny, skylight-topped breakfast room is dominated by a hydroponic green wall bursting with ferns and other tropical foliage.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy The unconventional layout of the three-bedroom and four-and-a-half-bath residence includes two ample en-suite guest bedrooms on the semi-subterranean garden level. Both bedrooms have dressing areas with custom closets and both open to small private patios.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy Bathrooms are sheathed a mausoleum’s worth of grey-veined white marble.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy Sprawling across the entirely of the six-floor townhouse’s fourth floor, the primary suite is a serene retreat with a geometric white marble fireplace in the bedroom, a lavish bath swaddled in marble and wood and, in between them, a spacious dressing room where all the detritus of daily life is hidden behind full-height wardrobes.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy The basement level contains a small fitness space along with a laundry room and an enviable, rare-for-New-York amount of storage space.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy The penthouse level is fitted as a library/office area. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves are filled with actual books., and a wall of glass doors opens the otherwise windowless space to a roomy roof deck tucked into the surrounding treetops.
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy -
Image Credit: StreetEasy The floor plan illustrates the townhouse’s unconventional layout and shows the elevator services only the lower four levels of the six-story home
-
Image Credit: StreetEasy