THE ULTIMATE IN REAL ESTATE VOYEURISM
living
Om, Sweet Om!
Internet Entrepreneur Tatiana Platt and her architect husband Campion create a calm oasis in the heart of Soho.
On a drizzly Manhattan morning, when most New Yorkers are trudging to work under cheap umbrellas and fantasizing about beach vacations, Tatiana Platt is thrilled to be home. "We just got back from Morocco. We're leaving tomorrow for Colorado. It's so nice just to be here!" says the former AOL executive, padding barefoot around her 4,100 square-foot penthouse loft, on Mercer Street in Soho.
For Tatiana, 38, and her husband, architect Campion Platt, 46, personalizing the raw space they purchased together in 2004 has been about creating a haven of calm above the hectic city. Her sleek, light-filled home, she says, "is modern, fresh and daring". Flourishes like a branch-shaped Swarovski crystal chandelier dangling above the marble-top dining room table and canvases by artist Hunt Slonem boldly accent the apartment's whitewashed floors and walls.
"Living in a chaotic city like New York, it's great to have a white haven to come home to," says Tatiana. The Internet executive, who, according to Forbes.com, is worth $75 million in Time Warner stock, moved to the city from Washington, D.C., in 2004, to be with Campion. The two met on a blind date in 2002, and were married two years later. He gave up his Park Avenue bachelor pad almost immediately, and they moved into this four-bedroom Soho loft while it was still under construction.
The power couple have become a mainstay on Manhattan's social and charity circuit. In public, Tatiana favors sexy clothing by designers like Roberto Cavalli and Dolce & Gabbana (although today she's wearing brown leggings and a matching long-sleeve Fendi T-shirt), and she sits on the boards of several organizations, including Best Buddies International, which provides employment for people with intellectual disabilities, and the Byrd Hoffman Foundation/Watermill Center, an arts foundation. When it comes to designing her own home, however, Tatiana takes a backseat.
"Campion is a about the touch, the materials, the textures, the seen of the French-finished plaster walls," she says. "Why get involved when he does this for a living? He knows what he's doing." (Campion's eponymous architecture firm designed MercBar in Soho, the Bulfinch Hotel in Boston and the Turks and Caicos Ambergris Cay development.)
Among the nontraditional rooms in Tatiana's home is the yoga space on the first floor, equipped with floor-to-ceiling mirrors, a flat-screen television and black satin pillows. There's also the "men's den," outfitted with brown-leather furniture, bookcases filled with art tomes and the ambience of a smoking lounge. Tatiana says she doesn't spend much time in the den, the only dark room in the sun-drenched apartment. Her presence remains in the room, though, in the form of a sultry photograph of her by avant-garde artist Robert Wilson.
Off the second-floor master bedroom suite, a terrace offers a view of the Empire State Building as well as Soho's water towers. "The towers have so much character - none of the buildings around us are tall, so we have a great view," says Tatiana. Next to the bedroom is her walk-in closet, a space as big as some studio apartments. "I have two other closets, too, with extra-high bars for gowns so they can hang freely without getting wrinkly," she says. "Campion also measured the height of my shoes and spaced the shelves to fit various heels and boots."
Tatiana, whose father worked for the foreign service, grew up in Washington, D.C., moved to Paris when she was 6, and completed high school in Rome. She graduated from Georgetown University, before moving to Portugal to work for the Intercontinental Hotels Corporation.
Today she and Campion travel about 20 days each month, but since Tatiana quit her job as AOL's chief trust officer nine months ago in order to work as an angel investor and consultant to Internet start-ups, she has enjoyed spending more time in her home. The dining room has become a makeshift boardroom, where she works full-time on FameGame.com, a social-networking Web site that's a cross between Facebook and Wikipedia and populated by high-profile New Yorkers.
Tatiana might be adventurous in her travels and career, but when it comes to dining in NYC, she sticks with sure things. Restaurants Barolo, Cendrillon and Balthazar are her neighborhood go-tos. "When my brother comes to town, I always take him to the same places," she says. "He complains, but I tell him, "At least you know what you're going to get. You start venturing out, and you never know!" -- Annie Karni
www.famegame.com
March 9th, 2008
The New York Post
