{"id":672073,"date":"2026-03-21T18:37:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/672073\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T18:37:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T18:37:27","slug":"the-minimalists-soho-loft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/672073\/","title":{"rendered":"The Minimalist\u2019s Soho Loft"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Great Rooms<\/a><\/p>\n

\n A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Dining Area<\/strong> The prints are John Baldessari\u2019s Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line (Best of Thirty-Six Attempts) (1973). \u201cThis piece has been in every home that we have lived in,\u201d says Jessica Morgan. The table is a 2016 prototype by El \u00daltimo Grito. The Verner Panton Flowerpot pendant lamps are by &Tradition. The Eero Saarinen Tulip side chairs are by Knoll. The Mathilda chairs are by Patricia Urquiola for Moroso.
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting that the director of an arts organization known for its association with minimalism lives in a home light on stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, I don\u2019t like having things,\u201d says Jessica Morgan, who leads the Dia Art Foundation<\/a>, sitting at a spotless table on the second story of the Soho loft she shares with her family. Morgan, who grew up in London, attributes her aversion to objects to moving often when she was a young woman. \u201cThe less I had to pack the better. It stuck with me,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When she was hired by Dia in 2015 after 12 years as a curator at the Tate Modern, Morgan brought very little to New York beyond books, clothes, and an enviable art collection, mostly gifts from artist friends. At first, she lived next to a Dia site, Walter De Maria\u2019s New York Earth Room on Wooster Street, for a few months while she looked for an apartment. The process was \u201clong and tortuous,\u201d Morgan says. Everything she came across needed work, and with other Dia sites undergoing significant upgrades at the time, she wasn\u2019t up for a construction project at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d almost given up,\u201d she says. Then, after years of renting, she found the duplex right before the pandemic. It was in a 19th-century former safe factory and had been renovated by the architect Wendy Cronk for the previous owner as a pied-\u00e0-terre.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they\u2019d even used the oven,\u201d Morgan says. Only cosmetic changes followed\u2014a fresh coat of paint and brighter lighting for the kitchen. The bedrooms remained on the lower floor, where Morgan took advantage of a built-in library, and the upstairs was set up for business and entertaining.<\/p>\n

Throughout, artworks by Lawrence Weiner and Lee Ufan are paired with reproductions of important modernist furniture by the likes of Le Corbusier and Gerrit Rietveld. The clean lines and walls in neutral or primary colors happen to adhere to the aesthetic values of the Bauhaus style, though for Morgan, sparse decoration is about something much simpler.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really tchotchkes people,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The Fireplace<\/strong> The bookshelves are part of a USM Haller system. The green Binta chair is by Philippe Bestenheider. The round marble table is by Saarinen from Knoll.
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The Seating Area<\/strong> The sofa is by Urquiola and the red armchair is by Ron Arad, both from Moroso. The Scighera coffee table is by Piero Lissoni for Cassina. The Le Corbusier Lampe de Marseille light was produced by Nemo. The lamp above the breakfast table is the PH5 1958 by Poul Henningsen.
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The Library<\/strong> The built-ins and a second USM shelving system are downstairs, between the bedrooms. The lithographs are by Agnes Martin from a 1990 series
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The Main Bedroom<\/strong> The Gerrit Rietveld chair was produced by Cassina. The 1998 etching is Mary Heilmann\u2019s 21st Century Fox. The vase on the credenza is Untitled by Laura Letinsky from the 2022 \u201cPreparing for Flowers\u201d series.
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The Second Bedroom <\/strong>The Callimaco lamp by Ettore Sottsass was produced by Artemide. The 2012 watercolors are by Neal Tait.
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n The Alcove<\/strong> \u201cMary\u2019s is the only work I have ever bought,\u201d says Morgan, sitting beneath Heilmann\u2019s Geometric Spin (2021) in the nook by the kitchen.
\n Photo: Annie Schlechter\n <\/p>\n

Thank you for subscribing and supporting our journalism.
\n If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the March 23, 2026, issue of
\n New York\u00a0Magazine.<\/p>\n

Want more stories like this one? Subscribe now<\/a>
\n to support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage.
\n If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the March 23, 2026, issue of
\n New York Magazine.<\/p>\n

Sign Up for the Design Hunting Newsletter<\/p>\n

Design editor Wendy Goodman takes you inside the city\u2019s most exciting homes and design studios.<\/p>\n

Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms<\/a> and Privacy Notice<\/a> and to receive email correspondence from us.<\/p>\n


\n See All<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Great Rooms A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman. The Dining Area The prints are John Baldessari\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":672074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[20371,5229,15080,283596,77171,25678,12215,405,403,20247,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-672073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-adaptive-reuse","tag-america","tag-design-hunting","tag-dia-art-foundation","tag-factory","tag-great-rooms","tag-interior-design","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-magazine","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116268620146851857","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}