The It's-Not-a-Problem Apartment

Sarah and Adam Meister's easy-to-maintain, walnut-walled mid-century apartment has a dining/ping-pong table for the kids.

- By Wendy Goodman

It said in the advertisement for the apartment, ‘Featured in House Beautiful,’ ” remembers Sarah Meister of this postwar three-bedroom in a Richard Roth–designed building on the Upper East Side. “I discovered the article that called it ‘The Problem Apartment.’”

This was in late 2013, and she and her husband, Adam Meister, bought it anyway from the niece of the original owner. It turns out that the article, which ran in the August 1967 issue of House Beautiful, was praising how the designer Edward Wormley had prescribed walnut paneling to camouflage the six doors that crowd the entry foyer and to modify the L-shaped living-and-dining area—the two “problem” attributes of the apartment. He also designed the whole thing: the bookshelves, cabinets, and woodwork paneling.