Seating in the office includes a pair of Mies van der Rohe MR 10 metal chairs and an Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni tractor stool.
Photographs of Mexican dancers, taken by homeowner Michel Hurst, line the living room walls. Furnishings include vintage case goods by George Nelson and Charles Eames, a Tobia Scarpa sofa for Knoll, a Joe Colombo floor lamp, and a rare limited-edition table lamp by Philippe Starck for Flos.
An Ettore Sottsass–designed Ashoka lamp for the Memphis Group adds a pop of exuberance to the hallway.
In the dining area, a circa-1920s Austrian black-lacquered bentwood armchair, a circa-1950s Saarinen Tulip chair, and a pair of circa-1950s Eames chairs surround a vintage Saarinen table.
Outside the dining area, a Panton chair is positioned next to a circa-1962 Nesso lamp and an acrylic side table designed by homeowners Michel Hurst and Robert Swope.
A vintage Yasha Heifetz–designed floor lamp anchors a furniture grouping in the library.
Not far from the couple’s apartment, the 1927 José Gómez Echeverría–designed fountain in the Plaza Popocatépetl punctuates Mexico City’s Condesa neighborhood.
Previously featured in the December/January 2017 issue of NYC&G. Read the full story here.
EDITOR’S NOTE
You can take it with you—at least some of it. For decades, Robert Swope and Michel Hurst were mid-20th-century-modern furniture dealers in SoHo, trailblazers long before Carrie Bradshaw tottered along the neighborhood’s cobblestones in her Manolos.
Like many longtime New Yorkers edging toward retirement, they lived briefly outside New York, in a Pennsylvania weekend home, before decamping full time to Mexico City. Not popular Mérida or Tulum, but bustling, chaotic, underappreciated Mexico City (to my mind, one of the world’s greatest metropolises).
They offloaded most of their furniture and saved the choicest, most meaningful pieces for their new digs in a 1975 apartment building in Roma Norte. And whenever they want to get away, historic villages and tranquil beaches are a short bus or plane ride away. Even in retirement, Swope and Hurst are still way ahead of the game. —K. C.