Wealth & Finance International - February 2017

Wealth & Finance International 18 Working with Space and Light: Secondary Homes become a Wealth Management Strategy in NYC HWA has captured a niche market in New York City, meeting the demand for elegant, functional, non-primary housing. Many of LHWA’s clients have multiple homes in the US, including residences in the Hamptons, Colorado, Flor- ida, and Buffalo. Others have homes in Australia, the Bahamas, India, Singapore, and St. Thomas. Growth in the second home market has paralleled the emergence of an elite, mobile consumer class. Both local and international second homebuyers continue to exert influence on the luxury residential real estate market in Manhattan below 96th Street, and LHWA’s clean aesthetic appeals to those seeking a contemporary pied-à-terre or a floor-through or duplex apartment. Clients often use these properties as “non-primary units,” rather than primary residences or productive rental assets—apartments that are not used as the owners’ principal homes. Most do not buy these apartments for potentially high financial returns. In this sense, non-primary homes are consumption goods that, in addition to providing some potential financial upside, carry symbolic value for the expanding US and global elite. These non-primary homes are not outright investments but as part of a comprehensive wealth management strategy. LHWA’s pure sensibility evolves not from a predetermined architectural style, but rather from the intent to design clean, intelligent, and func- tional spaces that operate as a background to what is contained within them. Working with space and light as sculptural materials, the firm constructs architecture dramatic in its purity of means. Formal simplici- ty requires intellectual rigor and aesthetic restraint, which is immediate- ly apparent in each of the firm’s projects. Each project is opulent in the clarity of its spatial and functional resolution. When beginning a new project, LHWA’s approach to design is defined by a specific set of criteria: the unique needs of the individual clients and their space; the development of an unequivocal, clean, simple, seamless, and sophisticated background for the programmatic require- ments; and the creation of an aesthetically unencumbered environment. The work combines a clean modern aesthetic with an understanding of how people will actually live and use the spaces on a daily basis. In the future, the firm will begin exploring new markets, including the design of private jet interiors and commercial projects, where Wein- reich’s considered design aesthetic and innovative use of sustainable materials can be applied in new and challenging ways. Name: Lilian H. Weinreich, AIA RAIA LEED-AP(BD+C), NCARB Firm: Lilian H. Weinreich Architects Email: [email protected] Web Address: http://weinreich-architects.com Address: 150 Central Park South #502 New York, New York 10019-1566 United States of America Telephone: 1(917)770-1000 Lilian H Weinreich Architects (LHWA) is a boutique architectural and interior design firm based in New York City with roots in Australia. Led by renowned Architect Lilian H. Weinreich, AIA, RAIA, LEED AP BD+C, NCARB, the practice aims to transform ordinary spaces into spectacular and unique environments in the most straightforward, practical, precise, and functional way. L 1612WF03 Central Park South, New York © Francis Dzikowski/Otto