From Floor To Ceiling

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

With one hour before 40 guests were to arrive for an Asia Society fundraising dinner last week, Andrea Stark walked purposefully through her lobby. Nervous? Not this hostess. First she stopped at the sixth floor apartment of her daughter Ashley, who was herself hosting a party for the jewelry designer Ashley Dodgen-McCormick that evening. Mom wanted a first look – at the jewelry and the apartment. “You cleaned up nicely. Turn on those lamps,” she said, before walking over and turning them on herself. “It’s so fun to see her. It reminds me of all the parties I gave at her age.”

The parties that Mrs. Stark gives now are on an entirely different scale, which has a lot to do with where she and her husband John live: in a duplex at the top of the building with a wrap-around terrace that offers 360-degree views of the city.

It is a showcase for the carpets, fabrics, wall coverings, and furnishings made by Stark Carpet, the business founded by John’s parents, and the Starks frequently host parties there. This one was the third in a span of a week, part of the Asia Society’s worldwide benefit dinner series “Asia On My Mind,” which includes house parties in Sydney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Mumbai.

Party preparations were in high gear when Mrs. Stark arrived home. The waiters were setting up the bar and in the kitchen, three chefs from the Japanese restaurant in the Maritime Hotel, Mat suri, were cutting cucumbers, rolling sushi, and shucking oysters.

In the formal dining room – not so formal, really, with a seagrass area carpet and seafoam green curtains accented with silver and white beads – Mrs. Stark reviewed the dishes and serving utensils for the buffet. Spring was very present, with vases of pink peonies throughout the room, and a Swarovski chandelier, designed by Tord Boontje, that looks like a branch of cherry blossoms arcing over the table.

“We’re not serving chardonnay, only pinot grigio,” Mrs. Stark told the waiters. “It’s time to light the candles,” she said, before disappearing upstairs to change.

One could say Mrs. Stark knows her mind about entertaining and decorating. Fast forward about an hour into the party, halfway through her tour of the house for guests. “Interior design is my passion,” she said in her study, pointing to a wall of shelves stuffed with home design magazines. She had just finished describing the wallpaper, a butterflies and birds pattern taken from the Stark archives. “Normally it’s done on a small scale. Here our designer, Jeffrey Bilhuber, blew it up to make it look more contemporary,” she said. “That’s what Jeffrey is so known for: mixing contemporary and traditional.”

It’s on show throughout the house, with Kenneth Noland stripe paintings mounted over silk brocade wall covering, and modernist furniture placed next to antiques.

In the area that was a greenhouse before the Starks moved in, a guest asked about the carpet. “David Hicks designed the carpet. We re-colored it so that it’s more up to date,” Mrs. Stark said.

In the spacious white marble bathroom with a deep tub in the center, guests were almost speechless. “This is so beautiful,” the nutrition and health guru Oz Garcia said.

“I wanted it to be spiritual, Zen,” Mrs. Stark said, pointing out the crystal that rests on a cushion.

In the bedroom, Mrs. Stark stepped back from the details of fabrics and furnishings to describe more generally what she and her husband were seeking when they set out to create this new home. (They also have homes in Palm Beach and Aspen.)

“I wanted to feel like I’m on vacation. I see everything as a dust collector, so I wanted to pare down, not to be bothered by clutter. I wanted it clean and easy,” Mrs. Stark said.

“You make me want to go home and redo everything,” a member of the Asia Society’s board, Ruth Newman, said.

Mrs. Stark led guests back to the hallway, capped by an atrium, and down the dramatic curved staircase, where she greeted the playwright David Hwang, whose latest entry on Broadway is “Tarzan.”

Some guests – Zang Toi, Lucia Hwong Gordon (a cohost), Barry Wine – were content to mingle in the sparsely furnished entry hall, but – Jonathan and Somers Farkas, Francine LeFrak, and Richard Friedberg – took refuge in the living room with its Dorothy Draper sconces designed for Hampshire House, Asian vases and sculptures, and multiple places to sit, upholstered in leather and velvet.

“I worry about the carpet, all the high heels here, but they must know it’s okay,” a guest, Sandra Eu, said.


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