Playboy's Penthouse Apartment

A man yearns for quarters of his own. More than a place to hang his hat, a man dreams of his own domain, a place that is exclusively his. Playboy has designed, planned and decorated, from the floor up, a penthouse apartment for the urban bachelor – a man who enjoys good living, a sophisticated connoisseur of the lively arts, of food and drink and congenial companions of both sexes. A man very much, perhaps, like you. In such a place, you might live in elegant comfort, in a man's world which fits your moods and desires, which is a tasteful, gracious setting for an urbane personality. Here is the key. Let's use it together and take a tour of discovery.

It is just after dark on an evening with a tang of autumn in the air. The front door (that's at the lower left) takes us into a hallway with a facing wall of primavera panels. One slides easily aside, a light goes on automatically within and we hang our topcoats in a dust-proof closet. To our right is an illuminated aquarium and a wall-and-ceiling skylight, lending a romantic atmosphere to the entrance-way, and to our left, at the end of the hall, the apartment beckons warmly.

Coming down the hallway, we are able to view the entire width of the apartment and through the open casements, see the terrace and the winking towers of the city beyond. Then, quite suddenly, we are in the apartment proper – a modern kitchen adjoins the dining room and before us is the main living area.

The fire in the raised and recessed Swedish grate casts a magnetic glow on the couch facing it, forming an intimately confined area, a romantic setting for a tête-à-tête. The floor beneath us is cork tile. The smooth plaster wall is in dramatic contrast to the stone hearth, which has a painting on its right and a raised planter with climbing vine on its left. The apartment's sense of masculine richness and excitement stems in part from such juxtapositions of textures – the smooth wall, the stone, the planter, the cork floor – and for visual impact the unadorned brick wall which closes off the bath and the kitchen area. Turn to the window wall. Here's drama and contrast again, a view of the city through casements richly hung with white dacron and slate gray silk shantung overdrapes. Below these are continous hanging storage cabinets.

The rest of the living room is best seen by utilizing a unique feature of the couch. It flips, literally: at the touch of a knob on its end, the back becomes seat and vice versa – and now we're facing the other way. Immediately before us are four low square tables, placed together. Each has a foam rubber cushion. Right now, two of the tables are being used as such and two for seating; with all four cushions in place, it becomes a large area for very casual lounging; with all cushions removed, it serves as a low table for drinks for up to eight guests sozzled enough to be sitting on the floor. A Saarinen couch and the classic Saarinen armchair with Versen floor lamp complete a charmed circle, a conversational grouping held together texturally and visually by the deep-pile green nylon rug. And remember the foyer closet where we hung our things? We're now facing its living room side, a fourteen-foot-wall faced with two-foot-square primavera panels, with flush-mounted color TV and built-in stereophonic speakers and hi-fi components behind them. This is our electronic entertainment installation. From it, lines go to individual speaker installations in every room, each with its own on-off and volume control. Here we can stack mood-music recordings on the automatic changer, or flood the apartment with music for dancing. Or, if the occasion calls for serious listening – to Bach or Baker – we switch to the manually-operated transcription turntable and pick up for the highest in fi. Here, too, are long- and short-wave tuners, FM tuner and tape recorder. Also, movie and stereo projectors that can throw pictures on a beaded screen which lines the back of the painting by the fireplace.

And speaking of entertainment, one of the hanging Knoll cabinets beneath the windows holds a built-in bar. This permits the canny bachelor to remain in the room while mixing a cool one for his intended quarry. No chance of missing the proper psychological moment – no chance of leaving her cozily curled up on the couch with her shoes off and returning to find her mind changed, purse in hand, and the young lady ready to go home, damn it. Here, conveniently at hand, too, is a self-timing rheostat which will gradually and subtly dim the lights to fit the mood – as opposed to the harsh click of a light switch that plunges all into sudden darkness and may send the fair game fleeing.

The same advance thinking prompted the placing of an on-off widget for the phone within the cabinet, too, so that the jangling bell (continued on page 60)or, what's worse, a chatty call from the date of the night before, won't shatter the spell being woven. (Don't worry about missing out on any fun this way: there's a phone-message-taker hooked to the tape recorder.)

The Playboy apartment brings back the dining room – done away with in many another modern apartment – but this is a dining room with multiple functions. For intimate dining à deux and in style, the four-leaf Mathesson gateleg table can have just one leaf raised. For less intimate occasions – say a midnight after-theater snack – the Shoji screens which close off the kitchen may be rolled back, and the kitchen's island counter becomes a cozy, handy spot to set up chafing dish and silver ice bucket in which nestles a bottle of Mumm's Gold Label.

For large formal dinners, the Mathesson table can be expanded to seat twelve, but for casual get-togethers or big informal parties it folds practically flat against a wall, where one leaf can be raised for cold or hot buffet.

It is when we wish to host a host of folks that the flexibility of the apartment's separate areas comes into full play. By moving aside the Saarinen chair, which acts as a psychological room divider between living and dining rooms, by rolling back the kitchen's Shoji screens and opening the terrace windows, all these areas become united and we can entertain half a hundred, if we're a mind. This is possible because the apartment is not divided into cell-like rooms, but into function areas well delineated for relaxation, dining, cooking, wooing and entertaining, all interacting and yet inviting individual as well as simultaneous use.

Consider again the dining room's multiple uses. Obviously, it's ideal for a full-production gala dinner, as no "dining alcove" is. Or, with its pull-down globe lighting, it's perfect for all-night poker games, stag or strip. Yet we've seen how simple it is to join it to the living room. Similarly, the kitchen may be closed off from the other rooms by pulling closed the sliding screens. But since the urban male prides himself on his culinary artistry it may, more often, be open onto the dining room, so the host can perform for an admiring audience while sharing in conversation.

Now let's review the areas we've seen, starting at the entry again. The hall is 4'x 14', closed off from the living room by the floor-to-ceiling storage wall. In addition to its clothes press, the hall side of this unit is partitioned to hold gear which no bachelor who takes pride in his home would want to lug through the house. Here are compartments with pegs and racks to hold skis, poles, waxing kit, rucksack. The floor of this space is linoleum tile. Adjoining is a ventilated, dehumidified cabinet for tennis rackets in presses, golf bag, bracket for trusty Evinrude, fishing gear. A vertical space has pegs for hanging the good things that come in leather cases: binoculars, stereo and reflex cameras, portable radio, guns. Other compartments hold wet weather and winter outer garments and footwear.

Starting from the end of the storage wall and going around the dining room clockwise, we come first to the short 8-foot wall facing the terrace. This is walnut-panel veneer. Standing against it, on a low wrought-iron stand, is a garden-type parabolic planter with giant philodendron growing in it. The long adjacent wall – which measures roughly 20 feet – is smooth plaster, stark white, with high, 30-inch clerestory windows hung with blue drapes. Below them, serving as sideboard, are a grouping of Herman Miller storage cabinets in rosewood (No. 5520, $646). The window wall is approximately 14 feet long and consists of steel casements hung with translucent white dacron draw drapes, through which can be seen the weatherproof, metal, terrace furniture, all by Salterini.

Now we come to the kitchen wall. This consists of six Japanese-style Shoji screens, which can slide to completely close or completely open the kitchen. Frames are of elm, covering is translucent fiberglass. The Shojis are by Cal Craft of California.

Other dining room furniture is also elm: there are 8 dining chairs by Singer (No. 162, $122) upholstered in blue, and the Bruno Mathesson table already described. Two pull-down globular lighting fixtures provide even, ample light.

And now let's roll back those Shojis and enter the kitchen. Your first thought may be: where is everything? It's all there, as you shall see, but all is neatly stowed and designed for efficiency with the absolute mininum of fuss and haus-frau labor. For this is a bachelor kitchen, remember, and unless you're a very odd-ball bachelor indeed, you like to cook and whomp up short-order specialties to exactly the same degree that you actively dislike dishwashing, marketing and tidying up. All that's been taken care of here. Let's look it over.

Notice, first, that it's clean and functional, but doesn't have the antiseptic, medical look of so many modern kitchens. The walls are smooth gray, the floor of vinyl. Those hinged wood panels on the rear wall house a vertical freezer where you'll keep frozen fruits, vegetables, seafood, game, and plenty of meat. Even if your apartment's a haven for drop-in guests as well as planned pleasures, there's ample space here for weeks of good eating. Next to the freezer is a vertical wine bin, a honeycomb framework which holds the bottles horizontally. There's sufficient capacity here so you can exercise your canny skills in finding buys in, say, a special half case of rosê, a rich Burgundy that's on sale, or a few choice bottles of vintage Riesling – just right to go with your tossed-greens salad. Below the wine, which is stored hand height, are compartments for larger bottles, i.e., your stronger potations and vin ordinaire,which you order in bulk and pour as needed into decanters. Next come dry-storage shelves and a utility closet where your once-a-week servant stores brooms and vacuum.

The long wall around to the right is traversed for its full length by what looks like a doorless, blank-faced wall cabinet, with no way to get your hands on anything within. That's just what it is – it houses counter-balanced storage shelves that pull down to easy reach when needed.

And now we come to something you're going to like: that standing white cabinet in the center of the wall is an ultrasonic dishwasher. Stack its rack with greasy dishes, with glasses that bear the imprint of a lipsticky kiss, with eggy knives and forks. Shut the door and all is bathed in water and bombarded by ultrasonic sound waves which remove all dirt. Next in the automatic dish-doing cycle is warm-air drying and ultra-violet sterilization. And now we're ready to put the dishes away – but we don't have to. Relax. Light up. Talk to your girl. Play a Stan Kenton recording. The dishes stay right where they are, behind the panel, ready for their next use, since this machine also acts as a storage unit.

You'll notice a cantilevered work counter runs the full length of the wall under the cabinets. It's clear except for the foot-pedal sink – which need never be sullied by a dirty dish.

And now for the damndest island counter you've ever seen. At one end is a radiant broiler-roaster. Here, under the transparent dome, you can broil a four-inch sirloin or roast a pheasant – or a standing rib roast – to a turn, with all fumes drawn off and out of the house by a built-in blower which turns on when you turn on the heat. Lifting the hinged dome automatically brings the base of the unit to counter height. It's our bet that the manipulation of this broiler, and the sight through the dome of a sizzling steak, will prove for your guests a rival attraction to the best on TV. And you'll be the director of this show.

From the broiler on down the counter, for about half its length, is a smooth Carrara glass surface on which you can sit or lean – if you have no keys or coins in your pockets or ring on your finger. Because this, believe it or not, is your stove, although there's not a burner in sight and it's stone cold even when it's on. That's because it heats only metallic objects in its field, by induction: it's the pots and pans that do the cooking, not the stove top and you can be mixing a cool salad right beside a hot pot of potatoes. Pilot lights beneath the translucent glass top wink on or off to show what cool when you twiddle the dials on the dashboard.

The rest of the counter is work surface. Because this is a cool, light kitchen, the plant on it thrives.

Beneath the stove and work counter is more storage space, hand-height utensil drawers and, down towards the vertical freezer, a refrigerator to hold a few days' food, chilled mixers, beer and soft drinks, your pre-chilled Martini beaker and vermouth atomizer, canapés and cheeses, and an ample supply of ice cubes.

For further information on any aspect of the playboy penthouse apartment, write Playboy Reader Service, 11 E.Superior Street, Chicago 11, Illinois.

Next month: the bedroom, study and bath.

From left to right: Bruno Mathesson table ($220) comes in a variety of solid hardwoods (we've used elm in the apartment — it's shown here in teak), is an ingenious gateleg with four leaves)

foyer to right of entry has illuminated aquarium, wall-and-ceiling skylight

one of the Miller cabinets in dining room which is equipped with sliding silver chest, adjustable shelves

one of eight Singer upholstered solid elm dining chairs, suitable elsewhere as needed.

Above: The unusual flip-flop couch by M. Singer & Sons (#194,$495), pictured in various stages of flip, including the flat, on which overnighters may flop.

Below, Saarinen armchair by Knoll(#70,$285).

Below: rocking stools designed by Noguchi, built of hardwood and metal by Knoll (85T, 86T, $46.50, $48)offer casual living room seating in comfort.

Below: one of four Knoll tables (#305, $78), with foam cushions, may be used singly or together for seats or buffet.

Living Room

Above: The kitchen's ultrasonic dishwasher uses inaudible hi-fi sound to eliminate manual washing. No soap, detergent or hot water are required in the three-minute washing and drying cycle.

Left: unique kitchen stool constructed from rugged, contoured tractor seat.

The glass-domed oven in Playboy's kitchen is a rectangular modification of that by Frigidaire,shown above. The cooking "floor" of the unit is adjustable in height, can be lowered to accommodate the largestroasts,automatically rises to counter level when the dome is opened. It is radiantly heated,will roast, broil or barbecue with the luscious viands in tantalizing view.Joining it is the touch-cool induction heating stove, a solid surface on which cold foods may be prepared alongside bubbling pots. Because it's pots themselves that get hot,spilled foods can't stick to stove, which brings cold water to a boil in a matter of mere seconds.

Kitchen