Oh my, I hope the sterile up-scale hospital cafeteria look doesnÂt become a trend. If it does it doesnÂt look at all cozy so I wouldnÂt expect it to last long. But then again with the N.Y Times hanging at the end of a financial thread for so long who would have thought they would still be around.

Kitchens big enough to have sofas and wide screen TV's? A sofa in the kitchen?

Oh my....

But then in the next paragraph it says contemporary kitchens have gone a long way in making meals more sociable. Sociable? With a sofa and a wide screen TV? I'm one of those relics who believes meals are sociable when they involve 2 or more people sharing food, and having a conversation. Or maybe they mean making meal preparation more sociable, because guests can lounge on the sofa watching TV in close proximity to the cook? (Which also doesn't feel very sociable to me.)

8-/

Actually, what I think it means is that they knocked down the maid's room and probably the dining room to make a larger space, and then filled it with family room furniture giving a NY version of the great room or keeping room that so many of our members are knocking down walls of their kitchens to create.

Yep. It took thousands of women remodelling their old houses that didn't work the way they wanted them to, to tell Mr. Fancy Pants New York Architect how to "innovate" with the design of the kitchens for his pre-war era redo project.

Reminds me a a cafeteria. Very sterile.

They did this last year, too. I wouldn't worry too much about their opinion. I don't think they're really in touch with what people are doing with their kitchens. Not everyone has $200K to put into one room of their house.

The apartments in question are 8 figures. That is $10M. The kitchen they are talking about is larger than many peoples entire apartments in Manhattan. (I know a couple whose bedroom was 6 x 13. A full sized bed did not really fit so the bed was in the LR.) The idea of an open kitchen like this is still unusual in NY, even loft spaces tend to have smallish kitchens.

As for the appearance of the kitchen, in its context, its fine: it would not look particularly good in a colonial revival in Iowa, but neither would a country kitchen look particularly appropriate in a semi sky scraper. There is a skyscraper in my city (1980s post mod deco) that had the upper storeys--40th floor and up--converted to condos in the 7-8 figure price range and I am sorry but the apt. tricked out with the traditional kitchen when the LR wall was all glass and 500 feet up looked ridiculous.

That particular style of cabinetry was introduced about 1960 by Seimatic and some form of it has been in production since then. Thats fifty years, the look is semi-antique. So it has a market segment, just a very particular market segment. Its hardly sterile, its just minimal and most people are maximalists.

Check out last month's Architectural Digest for a family house with "discipline" where the people live with this kind of minimalism and absolutely no stuff. And a basement playroom for their poor kid. :)

I actually liked certain aspects of that kitchen; the clean lines, that nice long dining table, and that colorful wall hanging has a home here anytime it wants! Of course, I like contemporary kitchens, so that is a factor there.

I don't think that people who live in architecturally minimal or sleek spaces necessarily keep them that empty. Remember that picture is heavily staged.

The favorite "empty minimal" house that I saw was one where each room had a giant "closet" that opened to reveal all the stuff of daily living. Including the piano in the music room. I couldn't live with everything behind doors, but it worked for them, somehow.

They can move that kitchen into my house anytime they're ready! They might have to stretch my house out a bit to make it fit... but that's a really awesome kitchen. Like cat_mom, it's my style, so I like it.

I think she's presented a pretty good history of what's happening. The problem is -- as an architectural historian -- she's assuming Robert A.M. Stern, who's been top architecture dog in NY for the past decade is setting the style for kitchens in NY.

You look at Stern for a lot of things, but not kitchens. Stern is designing many new buildings with condos starting about $5 million. People buy those to live in a Stern building, not for the kitchens. Also, in NYC, some people cook but it's not really necessary to have a workable kitchen let alone one that's either modern or fancy. Comfortable chairs are probably more important than a vent hood.

Having said that though, in the high-end apartments kitchens tend to be modern and there's a real emphasis on amenities. The newest "must-have" is the Miele built in espresso machine. High end appliances are expected. Home prices in the city haven't dropped so much either, especially the bigger apartments in certain neighborhoods

Of course, as I always say, New York is another country.

This is what they're looking at over in the decorating forum. Guess we should be reading there, too.

Here is a link that might be useful: beautiful kitchens