the

high
life

Glamorous,
sophisticated
and highly
stylish, the
penthouse
residence of a
philanthropic
Austin couple
has even its
homeowners
in awe

PHOTOGR APHY
BY C A SEY DUNN

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

BY GENE MENEZ

Austin Home Winter 2014

93

The originality of the space

goes from head to toe: The
ceiling is covered in silk that
was hand-painted while
wet; and the gray sectional
with the integrated tables
and lamps was designed by
Cravotta and custom made.

94 Austin Home Winter 2014

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

hilanthropists Sandra
and Walter Wilkie know
how to do a home right.
Over the years, the couple has lived everywhere
from a glamorous Manhattan apartment with Central Park views
to a beautiful duplex with Arts and Crafts
detailing on Manhattans Upper West Side to
a residence in a quasi jungle in the Coconut
Grove section of Miami, which was so well
decorated that it made the pages of Elle Decor.
Yet the Wilkies choose to live in a
6,000-square-foot penthouse on the 29th
floor of the Four Seasons Residences, and it is
easy to see why. The apartment is part home,
part entertainment space and 100 percent
design brilliance. The two-bedroom home
which has virtually unobstructed views to the
north, west and southis a gumbo of design
aesthetics: glamorous, rustic, and ultramodern. But they all blend together effortlessly to
create a delicious and unique environment.
How can you not like this apartment?
Sandra asks rhetorically. I think this is
the prettiest place Ive been in, in Austin.
The roots of the project were planted in
2009 when the Wilkies, then living in New
York City, bought a new, 3,000-square-foot
unit in the Four Seasons Residences to serve
as a secondary home and hired noted Austin
designer Mark Cravotta to decorate the inte-

How can you not like this apartment?

Sandra asks rhetorically. I think this is
the prettiest place Ive been in, in Austin.

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95

Joining the two units required

repurposing spaces, such as a
secondary egress that has been
converted into a high-end wine
room (top left) and a bedroom that
became Sandras office (bottom left).
Materials played a significant role
in the design, from the 78-foot-long
wall made from thousands of black
leather pieces (top right) to the
linen fabric that has been used as
wallpaper in one of the bedrooms.

rior, in his words, from soup to nuts. The

Wilkies were so pleased with his work that,
after buying the adjacent 3,000-square-foot
unit three years later with the intention of
joining the spaces and making it their primary
residence, they asked him to reprise his role.
Cravotta accepted and hired architect
David Webber (of Webber + Studio Architects)
to reimagine the new, combined space. The
units were mirror images of each other, Cravotta recalls. You dont need two kitchens,
two of everything. So I thought, We really
need to reconceive how that would all work.
Cravotta also brought along his go-to contractor, David Wilkes (David Wilkes Builders).
The team kept a couple of principles in mind
with the new space. First, Cravotta wanted
to carry the level of sophistication used in
the first unit to the expanded home. Second,
since the Wilkies are such active philanthro-

96 Austin Home Winter 2014

pists (they support, among other causes, the

Austin Lyric Opera, Texas Performing Arts
and the Texas Book Festival), they wanted a
home with enough space to host fundraising
events for up to 80 people.
They wanted a really large entertaining
space in connection with their existing unit,
Webber recalls, and there was not really any
choice other than gutting it and starting over.
The combined space required knocking
down some walls, constructing other walls,
repurposing spaces (e.g., a bedroom in the
original unit was converted to Sandras office)
and generally thinking outside the box.
The result is a home that drips with style
and sophistication. That is evident from the
moment a guest enters the unit and is greeted
by a grand entry featuring a floating bench that
is partially held up by a hand-forged bronze
chain. (Bronze is a look that is repeated often in

The floor in the unit is composed of 3-inch-wide white

oak boards that have been through an extensive
preparation process before being laid out in a Marie
Antoinette pattern.

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97

Colors from all over the rainbow are used in

the apartment, from the Howdy Yall sign (from
Roadhouse Relics) in the casual living space (this page)
to the deep eggplant silk wallpaper and blood red
cushions in a back television room (right) to the bright
orange chairs in the casual dining area.

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

The units were mirror images

of each other, Cravotta recalls.
You dont need two kitchens,
two of everything. So I thought,
We really need to reconceive how
that would all work.

98 Austin Home Winter 2014

the penthouse.) The bench connects to a wall

that is covered in brilliant red-and-chocolate
dimensional ceramic tiles that only the mentally strong can resist touching.
The sophistication continues in the wood
floors, which are 3-inch-wide white oak boards
that have been milled, beveled, stained, laid
out in a Marie Antoinette pattern and then
separated by interlacing basket-weave borders. The craftsmanship adds dimensionality
to the floor and gives it the effect of looking
50 years old even though its not even five.
In the newer, more formal half of the unit
(the original half is the less formal side), beautiful hand-painted silk covers the ceiling. The
silk was painted while wet, which causes the
bleeding effect that makes the ceiling look
like a large piece of watercolor art.
The most stunning piece of craftsmanship,
however, is a 78-foot-long wall thats wrapped
in thousands of pieces of black leather from a
tack shop in Michigan. To execute the idea for
this wall, Cravotta hired his dad, Jimmy, who
beveled the edges of every piece.
Since the leather came in six different thicknesses, the wall has texture to it. But since the
leather is black, photos alone cannot convey
either the texture or the craftsmanship that
was involved in creating the wall. I think my
dad was working on it for 12 hours a day for six
to eight weeks, Cravotta says, not to mention
the two weeks he spent here installing it.
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100 Austin Home Winter 2014

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

Cravotta is pretty handy himself, having

designed many pieces of furniture in the unit.
Among the pieces he drew up (and had made)
were the U-shaped sectional with integrated
tables and lamps; the bed and headboard in
the summer suite on the north side of the
unit (the southern side holds the other bedroom or winter suite); and the bookshelf and
desk in Sandras office. Cravotta and Webber
collaborated on the design of the massive walnut bookcase that greets guests as they enter.
Throughout the home, materials mix with
textures. There are pieces that are rich and
glamorous, such as an over-the-top 1940s
Venetian chandelier from an old European
hotel that hangs over a shipyard-steel dining
table. That table is juxtaposed against ultramodern, high-polished lacquered chairs with
black leather cushions. Below everything, of
course, is that rustic wood floor.
I like the way all of the different finishes
come together, Wilkes says. There are a lot
of different finishes, but it doesnt feel cut-up.
Says Cravotta: Mixing those elements
helps the space really feel special, but it still
feels comfortable. Hopefully it doesnt feel like
it should be behind a velvet rope. You can still
plop down and make yourself comfortable in
any of the spaces.
Or make yourself at home, permanently,
as the Wilkies did.

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

The winter suite

(right) features a 1950s
chandelier from an
old burl wood stump,
while the bathrooms
are decked out in
Carrara marble.

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