Bummer about the wall.

If that's to scale not enough room for cabinets on both sides.

must the sink remain on that side of the kitchen? skooch cooktop to the left ...place paneled fridge at the far right end, and put sink between fridge and cooktop. Get the tall storage elements at 12 in deep on the small wall. With your good choice of materials and details: sink/faucet/backsplash/counter....I think loading up your 20 foot wall will be your best bet and storage behind on the "new wall" . If the "new wall" is 53 inches and you bank it up w storage cabinets, couldn't you get an island opposite fridge within the 15 feet remaining?

Here's the way I address this. Get an engineer's report on moving the pipes. Have your contractor carefully with time is of the essence specify the time to make the move. Speak with the affected coop members for their OK. Take everything provided it's positive to the board for approval. Many ways to fail but there's always a path to success. In your favor is the top floor. The waste pipe is vent for the lower people. That would be a problem if you were in a lower unit. Water and gas will be quick turnoff and reconnect to the already rerouted new pipe runs.

If those measurements are correct, I agree with artistsharonva. If you can use a range, and move the sink under the window, you could have shallow shelves on the left wall. 6" wide shelves will hold a lot of canned goods on the bottom, with doors added, and open shelves on the top for cups and glasses. Or put the ovens to the left of the fridge.

Thank you all for taking the time to consider my dilemma. I really appreciate it.

Artistsharonva, I know it's hard to imagine that anyone can cook in an aisle that narrow, but we do it in NYC all the time. Here's the floorplan of the room, with the old galley kitchen we're ripping out. It will go right back into this footprint, but we'll annex the back wall of what's now the dining area. The kitchen and dining are on a raised platform that I've indicated with the dotted blue line.

Herbflavor, the sink can't be moved. Given this, I don't think moving the pantries to that wall will help. I'd rather keep them flanking the fridge.

Dan1888, the board won't even consider it, and I can't blame them. Since the gas explosion last year, any NYC building that touches a gas line these days has to be stress tested - and almost all prewar buildings will fail. I know a Brooklyn co-op that had to replace a hot water heater last March, their building failed the stress test, and everyone was without hot water until September while they tango'd with the conflicting demands of various inspectors.

Mamagoose, I like the idea of the sink there and turning this galley into a U, however the water and waste pipes can't be relocated there. And there's an exposed steam pipe and a gas pipe that can't be touched where the dishwasher would be.

I think I'm stuck with this:

Instead of a wall of tile, I'm considering a curved marble backsplash right behind the sink. I'm not a fan of open shelves, but I have enough storage given all the wall cabinets on the opposite side.

What I'm having trouble visualizing is the countertop material. Because of the proximity, do the two sides have to have the same material? If I want marble on the cooktop counter and backsplash, can I have white quartz on the sink counter?

Thoughts, anyone?

I would put wall cabinets above sink and place the freezer drawers over on long wall,[do you need them?] and to left of sink, curve the end of counter /cabinets [base]., you can reduce depth for end cabinet or have just open counter at very end. Keep counters within line, cost wise, and pick the same all areas. I would attempt to reduce the mass of cabinetry on your long wall . I would move fridge to left and remove that particular pantry....I would have one pantry right of fridge, then have at the end of the long wall, counter/with base and possibly open shelves there...consider this last bit of run ,possibly at reduced depth, to put in something for visuals, with change of materials or some creative way..use a designer and spend here, not at the sink wall. You have 10-11 feet ,or more, to right of cooktop to place counter/fridge/ a pantry and then do something special where it will be of value at the end. 3 ft of counter /3 ft fridge/18 in pantry and 3 ft at the end to add value to the wall......keep the sink wall in the "function" rather than "style" format, and put cabinets there..you can raise the backsplash height or reduce their depth,or both.

Wow! 27" +/- only aisle between cabinets?

Are you able to open your appliances fully?

Aisle widths aside (we adapt when we must), I think a curved backsplash would be fine, and since the sink wall will be hidden from the living area, you can use a different counter material. I'm of the opinion that if you have good function, you can do what you want, since it's your kitchen. I'm posting links to pics of curved marble backsplashes, and also of soapstone backsplashes, since there are several curved examples

I see questions--and advice given--about more than two cabinet colors, or more than two counter materials; my quirky small-to-medium-sized kitchen has three cabinet colors and three counter materials, and I still love it. It also has narrow aisles, but they are luxurious compared to your work aisle--the next time I have to shoo someone out my path to reach X, I will think of you. ;)

Curved marble BS

Curved soapstone BS (Be still, my heart.)

artistsharonva, yes, in the old kitchen all the doors opened fully. In the new design we've at least got the dishwasher on the right this time so family members can still get to the refrigerator for drinks and snacks when someone's cleaning up. There's no range. It's a cooktop. The ovens are in the wall and the doors need 22" clearance. Plus, that's why I've notched the countertop in the sink run back to 12". So that I can stand in front and take out my turkey.

I wonder actually if I can get away with 15" countertop there? It will make perching with my tablet or laptop more usable.

Mamagoose, I'm considering doing both sink run and range run in white quartz and using the marble slab for BOTH backsplashes now.

I really admire English kitchens, especially HenryBuilt which I could never afford but would be my dream. I'm thinking with simple slabs on either side and some wall-mounted lighting and perhaps reflected in wall mounted faucet, this might all pull together.

I noodled around in my mind while I slept about how to make this wall seem more intentional, and drafted these this morning. What if instead of the planned pendants, which looked so good over an island, I change to wall mounted lights?

Pendants I've already ordered: