Soaring over a cobblestone block in lower Manhattan looms a Herzog & de Meuron apartment building with a cast-aluminum twist gate and a facade of mirror-polished stainless steel, glass, and pre-polished brass in glossy green. The grandeur (and brilliance) of this physical palette gives the 11-story 40 Bond the feel of an urban fairytale palace.
That would make Gabriel Hendevar, artistic director and CEO of New York-based furniture and lighting design studio, burly (and bald!) Rapunzel stare out of a floor-to-ceiling window in his apartment. Hendifar, who has claimed a high position not only in this building but, increasingly, on the international design scene, moved into the apartment in 2019 with his former life and business partner, Jeremy Anderson. After the couple separated at the end of 2020, Anderson left their joint home and apparatus to focus on his burgeoning ceramics practice; Since then, Hendivar has taken full control of the business. He also put the final touches on the interiors of his apartment, turning it into a design laboratory and a place to relax; Relaxation is fundamental to his creative exercise like thinking.
In the decade since founding Apparatus in 2012, Hendifar has spent a great deal of time thinking – and building his brand. From the start, largely because of its creative direction, the studio was one to see, with sexually appealing lighting and furniture designs that flaunted exquisite craftsmanship. No surface has gone without looking. No details are overlooked.
After breaking up with Anderson, Hendivar retreated inland. His home played a major role in this period of contemplation and experimentation. “After 10 wonderful years of living with someone, you begin to understand what it means to constantly negotiate space,” he says. “What I allow myself to do in this apartment is to let my mind go where it wants, to protect my alone time, and indulge in whatever I feel inspired.”
The Hendifar apartment was designed by British architect John Pawson and has a triangular configuration, divided by two floating panels. As you enter, your eyes meet a wall of windows that runs the length of the space, with views of a series of New York apartments straight from rear window. Hendifar matched floor-to-ceiling velvet curtains with pistachio walls, drawing a line of continuity throughout the apartment. Far to the right is the dining area, where a fine velvet banquette—dead stock was discovered at Mood Fabrics in the city’s Garment District—with a copper burlap oval table and Hendifar olive wool satin chairs. There is a kitchenette too, but Hendifar prefers eating out over cooking. (The evening I visited, serve steak and artichokes to order from Via Carota, a West Village favorite.)
At the opposite end is his bedroom, a seductive bedroom with plush bedding and a mirrored wall facing the bed. The bathroom is tucked behind an almost invisible door, where an antique marble bust overlooks a deep soaking tub. These two spaces reserve the heart of the house, a living area with a curved sofa and an L-shaped tête-à-tête that lends itself to conversation. Plush leopard print rugs reach and pull you all the way in. (Handevar admits he spends hours on the carpet.) He is fond of creating a completely immersive sensory experience: at any given moment, there are scents wafting, jazz playing, and candles casting shadows.
And the finishing touches are just as important: a portrait of Larry Collins still eclectic in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which makes a meditative composition from a pair of bread rolls and spilled cream; an old incense burner used as an ashtray; A marble-encrusted bowl inspired by a box inlaid with a delicate ring inherited from his Persian grandmother. He explains that each purpose is part of the narrative that he consciously makes. “These subtle moments,” he calls them, “help tell the story.”
Hendivar’s holistic approach to design is all-consuming. There’s no surface here that he didn’t decorate, from the hand-glazed finish he used on Pawson panels in the living room to the languid bronze mirror cladding on the walls in the dining and sleeping areas. His eye never seems to stop, she quietly creates cosmopolitan spaces filled with rich colors and opulent materials.
The personal history of Hendevar is the line through which this creativity flows. His parents, who fled Iran in 1979 and settled in Los Angeles in the early 1980s, were both musicians: as a child, he loved watching his father play Persian drums while his mother sang and played the piano. He inherited this sense of ingenuity. He believes that “my currency is my ability to perform and create”.
It is fitting, then, that his first steps into design came as a teenager, when he created the most expensive theater in the history of his high school in the Pacific Palisades. The production you dreamed of men and dolls So amazing, it made him his first interior design client – the mother of his classmate. He was 17 years old.
Now 40, he’s just theatrical. Each of the device groups is treated as a mass production with titles indicating the structure of literature and drama. In 2018, for example, the Act III combination of lighting and furniture was introduced by a short film, directed by director and photographer Matthew Placek, in which a boy sits high above a desert landscape. Hindufar’s mother sings a Persian song in the background. “There are always musical and film cues that set the mood,” he says. “These are the mechanisms of creating feelings.”
The Henivar aesthetic is thoughtful and luxurious, as influenced by the simple luxury of Pierre Cardin and Halston as it is from the modernist utilitarianism of Wiener Werkstätte. In many ways, the design of his apartment represents a rediscovery of himself that includes every version of who he is, who he is, and who he hopes to become. The same is true of things he does for others. “Through the device, I express my need for human communication,” says Hendevar. “Creative work is a work of hope, after all.”
of format Michael Reynolds.
This story originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of ELLE DECOR. Participate
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