An Exclusive Tour of Olympia, Brooklyn’s Most Expensive Condo Building

That appreciation for Dumbo’s seafaring history and the neighborhood’s enviable views extends to how Workstead approached Olympia’s interior design. Alongside abstract renditions of the Manhattan skyline by painters including Georgia O’Keeffe, Workstead senior designer Nadine Lynch explained that “a photograph of a sailboat that was in this very dark and stormy sea” was an important aesthetic touchstone for the project. That steered Workstead in the direction of warm parchment tones, light timber, and moody, oceanic marbles. Which show up in kitchen backsplashes and elsewhere.

The area’s history is subtly woven into Olympia’s elements in other ways. Moreover, That starts with the use of gray tiling in the lobby that subtly suggests Dumbo’s cobblestone streets, blurring the distinction between interior and exterior beneath a kinetic Jacob Hashimoto sculpture, whose swaying motion evokes passing clouds or a boat’s wake. Ryan Mahoney, Workstead’s creative director of buildings and interiors, also referenced the desire to establish a rhythm that “brings a sort of rigorous texture” through the use of hand troweling and grooved wooden cabinets, just to name a few touches that draw out Dumbo’s past as a site of manufacturing.

The purpose of these history-honoring details is to endear Olympia to a design-savvy audience. Helping it stand out from other high-end high-rises that popped up in the greater Downtown Brooklyn area in recent years.

“Some of these buildings sometimes feel a bit like a white box. We were very fortunate to have a client who allowed us to push the envelope a bit,” Lynch says. “That shows in some of the execution that we were able to do with some of the details and materials. Making it almost feel more like a one-off residential project.”

Moreover, Workstead’s emphasis on standout design is by fellow AD100 firm ASH’s work in a model apartment on Olympia’s 16th floor. Emphasizing texture, rounded lines, earthier tones, and a retreat from excessive patterning. It’s a bit of on-trend inspiration for what one can dream up against the backdrop of Workstead’s appropriately parchment-hued canvas.

“After eons of gray-washed spaces followed by crisp white walls, we’re seeing a near-universal penchant for increased warmth,” Moreover, Andrew Bowen, partner, and head of staging at ASH, says of the thinking that informed the firm’s approach. While the price for a square foot of space in Olympia is on par with what it’d cost to rent a modest Brooklyn studio apartment for a month, the care with which Hill West and Workstead have approached the design means there’s far more going on here than luxury for the sake of luxury. And while few can afford to buy into the building. Stephen Hill believes Olympia’s value isn’t only for those who live there. “I want the residents of Dumbo surrounding that building to feel proud that it’s part of their neighborhood,” Hill remarked. “I want it to be a touchstone that people really feel a bond with.”