When Ian Ferguson and Ryan James Brandau-the CEO of tech start-up Pinata and music conductor, respectively-called on General Assembly to merge two neighboring apartments they owned in a circa 1910 Greenwich Village co-op (the structure is actually two buildings that were merged), maintaining that storyline was top of mind. All those layers of history add narrative and atmosphere, but after one too many remodels it can be easy to lose the plot. Structures are built, cut up, stitched back together, and added onto 100 years later in an entirely new material palette. New York City apartment buildings, after all, are a bit like architectural patchwork quilts. It’s an apt analogy for the home: A prewar structure, refracted through a contemporary lens, ever mindful of the history that lies beneath the floorboards. “It’s sort of like an introduction to the house,” says Colin Stief, partner of General Assembly, who renovated the place with copartner Sarah Zames a few years ago, using this painting’s dusty-primary palette and sense of geometry as a creative springboard. If you look closely you can vaguely make out the characters of the famous Spanish court scene, rendered by Lister in colorful squares: The five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa at center, the king and queen reflected in the mirror, the foot of young Nicolás Pertusato playfully provoking a large mastiff on the floor. Of course, if you just give it a glimpse, the artwork is blissfully abstract-a soothing mix of colors and shapes. A watercolor by Adam Lister-a colorful cubist rendition of Diego Velázquez’s intriguing 1656 painting Las Meninas-hangs in the entryway of this Manhattan apartment.

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