With designer Andre Mellone at the helm, a Brazilian devotee of modernist furnishings makes a home for his ever-expanding collection in a Manhattan pied-à-terre.

Based out of Sao Paulo, Brazil, famed shoe designer Alexandre Birman comes through New York once a month for business. The core of his time revolves around Midtown East near his showroom and new storefront, so when it came time to hunt for a pied-à-terre, there wasn’t much hunting to do. Birman found Rafael Viñoly’s celebrated 432 Park Avenue nonpareil. “The infrastructure of the building and facilities it offers are incredible. 

“We wanted to rethink a midcentury environment housed in a contemporary building, mixed with young artists and contemporary artisans of fabrics and accessories,” Mellone says. Additional inspiration came from a famous Julius Shulman photograph of a Pierre Koenig house in Los Angeles, where midcentury design is superimposed onto the expansive views of the city after dark. Their intention was to echo that milieu with the New York skyline.