A Striking Jolt of Color Brought This Historic Philadelphia Home Into Modern Day

PublishedJun 11, 2024 1:56 AM EDT

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OK, so International Klein Blue—the ultramarine hue mid-century artist Yves Klein was obsessed with—is a notoriously fickle pigment that’s honestly hard to work with. Without getting too into the weeds, it needs a binder to become paint, and if you use the wrong kind, it dulls fast. But get it just right? It’s the kind of color that’s naturally enveloping, striking, and grounding all at once. As it turns out, its development was happening right around the same time I.M. Pei and Associates’ Society Hill Towers were going up in the Philadelphia neighborhood of the same name. Pretty cool, right?

The concrete trio, built in the early 1960s, was a central figure in the urban renewal happening in Washington Square East at the time. But while the towers get all the attention even today, it’s actually the 37 brick-clad townhomes that anchor the buildings to the rest of the historic area. Each unit rises three stories with a centrally located staircase, arched doorways, clerestory windows, plus a private courtyard and small steel balconies. When an empty-nester couple approached Brooklyn-based design firm TBo about renovating one, principals Bretaigne Walliser and Thom Dalmas jumped at the chance. And naturally, Yves Klein Blue would play a role.

The owners, relocating from nearby Wilmington, Delaware, wanted a home that felt bright and welcoming—intimate enough for just the two of them, but able to flex when their grown children and grandchildren came to visit. Structurally, the townhouse was totally sound, but the internal systems needed updating and the finishes and layout required a complete overhaul.

Original Formica, small ceramic tile, and vinyl were everywhere—deteriorating and worse for wear. The kitchen was narrow, and the bathrooms smaller than what people want these days. One choice Pei made that Walliser wanted to keep, though, was the increased privacy as you head upstairs. “The primary idea that he had was that there was social space below on the first two floors, and then it would be increasingly more intimate on the upper floor,” she explains.

Working with local Hivemind Construction, TBo recast the space in 2023 in a way that honored Pei’s original vision while adding contemporary, earthy touches inspired by the homeowners’ time living in northern Europe and their love of art. First, they removed walls to create easier circulation around the staircase and integrated cabinets with flush doors for pantry goods, cookbooks, wineglasses, and more. After refinishing the original oak flooring (it was, says Walliser, “a crazy orange”), the team took cues from Pei’s material choices to inform the custom white oak millwork by Loubier Design. Given the smaller scale of mid-century dwellings, this let the designer maximize storage that kept things tidy and navigable, but not too hidden, in the galley kitchen.

Across the way, Walliser reveals they tried and tried to cast the concrete countertops and sink in that elusive Yves Klein Blue. “It can’t withstand any heat,” she says, acknowledging its limited alkali resistance. “So when you’re casting concrete, there’s a lot of heat generated from the chemical reaction. If it kills that blue, the pigment just dies and turns gray.” After a few attempts, they ended up with cobalt blue—a much stronger, more stable pigment. Then they painted the curved base in Benjamin Moore’s Watertown to create one cohesive wow-factor piece. (Bonus: the end caps are cabinets that actually open!) The couple spends a good chunk of their time seated nearby, where they get views of their garden through the patio doors.

“One of the challenges we faced was what to do with the stair railing,” the homeowner says. “We had to replace the railing to code, and [had] tried any number of designs when Thom came up with this beautiful, simple metal railing that fits perfectly.” It’s a subtle statement that uses metal and geometry the way Pei did, without abandoning functionality—it’s easy to grab as they head down the stairs.

Up those stairs, the primary bedroom is complemented by custom oak wardrobes and vintage light fixtures, like a Murano pendant lamp and Swedish table lamps. The space flows into a small library, where an oak dk3 Royal System hangs opposite an original brick fireplace. Dutch maps, art books, and other vintage ephemera mingle with a Flos Kelvin lamp and a Mies van der Rohe MR rattan side chair. Both rooms connect to a primary bath tucked in the darker core of the home.

Pei’s use of transom-style windows inspired Walliser to bring the technique back to let more light in. “That was a way of borrowing from his language that he had established in the houses and sort of manifesting it in a new way for the owners,” she says. For the bathroom floors, the designers took a page from Bauhaus artist Anni Albers—the cement tile placement is inspired by her work. “We studied her sketches and weavings, along with traditional and modern quilting, and created a series of ‘woven’ tile schemes,” Walliser explains. The idea is mirrored in the other two bathrooms, with patchwork tile in combinations of pink and green and variations on blue. So good.

From the Scandinavian furnishings and oak wood to the Albers textiles, TBo’s thoughtful renovation stayed true to the building’s modernist roots without getting stuck in the past. “It’s just very airy; the scale is wonderful,” Walliser says of the new interiors. And that stunning blue? It makes the homeowners happy every single time they see it.

Samantha Weiss-Hills is the managing editor for Domino. She edits and writes home tours and features, and she’s the friend who everyone texts for glassware, sofa, and sheet recommendations. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Alex, and their beagle-corgi, Elsa.

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