Renovated 30th floor condo brings back memories of New York living

Jul 09, 2023

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The living room has a light color palette, leaving art, decorative pillows and a beautiful sunset to provide color.

The streamlined staircase rises in two levels instead of three.

The long kitchen is set up for prep work and cooking at one end, with dining or entertaining on the other end.

The kitchen was completely gutted, using one end for prep work and cooking, and installing beautiful tile as backsplash. The other end can be used for dining and entertaining and has grasscloth wallpaper and art.

A small third bedroom was removed to make the kitchen larger.

Removing the third bedroom allowed the main living area to nearly have an open floor plan.

In the primary bedroom, designer Lily Lazarus created an accent wall with embossed wallpaper that she painted charcoal gray.

The primary bathroom has lighted mirrors.

The primary bathroom has lighted mirrors and an L-shaped shower.

The second bedroom got new furnishings and a ceiling fan just like the one in the primary bedroom.

The primary bedroom has a terrific closet, large enough for an island in the center for clothes storage.

For the kitchen backsplash, designer Lily Lazarus ran tile from the counter to the ceiling.

Removing a small third bedroom that was next to the kitchen enabled the small kitchen to become much larger.

The main living area and the primary bedroom both have balconies with a northern view.

Bruce Rich looks out at the night lights of Houston from his 30th floor condo in the Royalton, and it feels a bit like being back in Manhattan, where he used to live.

The Long Island, N.Y., native also lived in Florida, but he says the warm climates of Texas and the Sunshine State are great, but he couldn't replicate the thrill of living in Manhattan until he shifted from a traditional home to a high-rise.

"I lived in Manhattan for 15 years and I loved the feel, the lights and big windows. I missed it," said Rich, 56, an entrepreneur who sold his company, C-Bond Systems, a few years ago, about the time he bought his 2,422-square-foot condo. His company used nanotechnology to create a spray-on solution that made glass, such as car windshields, strong enough to resist chips and cracks.

From the huge windows in his unit, he looks down below to see Buffalo Bayou winding through park space, and in the distance he can see the Galleria.

When he bought the condo, it had three bedrooms on two floors and while he thought it could use some remodeling, he didn't do anything about it until now.

Before, the floor plan had a living room, smaller kitchen and dining area on the first floor. A small third bedroom was located next to the kitchen, and while it had its own balcony, it did not have its own bathroom.

Rich hired interior designer Lily Lazarus for finishing touches after reconfiguring the space to create a more open-concept plan for the first floor and to update the entire condo with contemporary style in a six-month renovation project.

Work inside Rich's condo mimics what's happening elsewhere at the Royalton, which is currently undergoing its own renovations to update the building that opened in 2010.

Taking out the third bedroom opened up much of the first floor so that Rich could achieve a more open layout. In a condo, not just any wall can be taken out, and there are more restrictions about plumbing and other systems, too.

So a tall wall that creates a living room in one corner of the condo is still there, and a narrow wall still exists between the kitchen island and dining area. In both of these cases, the walls provide a place to hang art in this window-heavy unit.

The kitchen is huge now. It's broken visually into two distinct areas, one for food prep and cooking and the other for entertaining or potentially setting up a bar or food.

The kitchen was gutted, taking out dark wood cabinets in favor of more contemporary style: quartz marble counters, geometric shaped porcelain tile for the backsplash, new appliances, a long, trough-style sink and a combination of canned and track lighting. The island extends the full length of the space, but the section intended for entertaining has four barstools at the island, grasscloth wallpaper where backsplash tile might be and a beautiful piece of art on the wall.

Two sets of sliding doors lead to a balcony that used to be accessible through the little-used bedroom, now making it available to everyone.

Losing the third bedroom didn't matter much to Rich, who has grown children.

In the living room, Lazarus wanted to lighten things up, so she filled the space with a white sectional sofa and a white upholstered ottoman, plus two white swivel chairs. She brought in texture in the furniture fabric and added color in decorative pillows and art, including several pieces by one of her favorite artists, Carol Simon, who works from a studio at Sawyer Yards.

Near the living room was a three-layer staircase to the upstairs bedrooms. Rich and Lazarus straightened up the stairs to just two flights and installed stainless handrails and glass walls to replace the more industrial steel and wire that were there before.

The primary bedroom on the second floor has a new bathroom treatment, with an L-shaped shower, two new sinks and lighted mirrors. In the bedroom, Lazarus installed embossed wallpaper and painted it charcoal gray. The second bedroom also got a makeover, with new furniture and the same contemporary ceiling fan as the primary bedroom. Its bathroom was updated, too, though it kept its bathtub.

"Wallpaper has made life so easy," Lazarus said of using an accent wall to add loads of style to a room. "I try to stay with neutral, nothing too crazy. And new lighting is a splurge item, totally a splurge."

Rich said he likes high-rise living for the metropolitan feel, but also says that the building's amenities made other parts of condo living easier to cope with. Many people in the building have dogs — and Rich used to have a dog, too — and they all use the service elevator with dogs to take them down to a ground-floor dog park where the pets can run and play.

Rich loves the building's gym, which has everything he needs and is rarely crowded. And their self-serve coffee/soft drink bar makes him feel like he has a cozy coffee shop at his disposal.

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