Good Modernist Bones

James Spindler and John Vitale bought their U.N.Plaza apartment from the family of its original owner, who had decorated it as though it were a prewar. They opened it up.

- WENDY GOODMAN

The Living Room The view is to the north and east. The big Extrasoft sectional is from West NYC Home. The area rug in Terre banana silk is by Mark Nelson Designs.

JAMES SPINDLER and John Vitale had been living together for seven years in an edgy Union Square loft that was originally Vitale's bachelor pad. It had a translucent wall between the shower and the kitchen and living area. Dramatic as it might have been, it came to feel too small for them both, especially after Vitale retired from his job as executive vicepresident for merchandising at Bloomingdale's in 2016 and took up the banjo, necessitating thicker walls.

The Foyer The entrance now opens into the living and dining area, which had been closed off before. The art on the left is by Robert Longo.

"Banjo is a loud instrument, and it accelerated the search, I would say," Spindler, the executive creative director of RadicalMedia, explains.