Midtown Hammam
A five-centered domed steam chamber on the 38th floor of a pre-war Manhattan tower, anchored by a Carrara göbek taşı and a hand-hammered brass star.
The brief
The clients had grown up summering in Istanbul and wanted to bring the cadence of a neighborhood hammam — slow heat, cold plunge, attentive ritual — into the private floor of a Midtown high-rise. The challenge: deliver authentic massing and material weight inside a structural envelope that could not be widened, and within an HVAC loop sized for a typical residential apartment.
We worked alongside the building’s engineer to introduce a dedicated steam riser and a vapor-tight ceiling assembly, then re-imagined the room from the inside out around a centered marble bench, a domed plaster sky, and a wash of warm gold light.
What we made
- A five-centered plaster dome, hand-finished in tadelakt and traced with a hand-applied gold-leaf star.
- A 2.4 m diameter göbek taşı in honed Calacatta, heated to 38 °C via a hydronic coil beneath the slab.
- Four wash niches in book-matched Verde Alpi marble, each fitted with a hand-hammered brass
kurnabasin. - A 14 °C plunge basin lined in unglazed terracotta tile, oriented on axis with the entry.
- A vestibule in fluted Travertino Navona stone, set with a hand-forged iron gate detailed in pomegranate motifs.
