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"View Slideshow\n\nSince my husband is a writer, he needs a calm, spalike place to work,\" entertainer Elaine Joyce Simon says of her prerequisites for the pied-\u00E0-terre she shares with her husband, Neil Simon, located a mere 20 flights up from their original flat in the same building. \"Neil likes to go into his cave, so our downstairs apartment is that of a writer, all dark and woody. When I showed it to John, I said: Not this. This time I want everything light, airy, fun.' And he said, Like you. I'll make it look like you.' And when Neil and I finally walked through the door into this lean, blond space,\" she laughs, \"I thought, My God, it does look like me.\"\n\nWhen the Simons decided they needed more space, they stayed close to home, snapping up the penthouse at their current New York address. \"What they wanted was a small second apartment in the same building,\" explains New York-based interior designer John Barman, \"a place to work that doubles as guest quarters for her children and friends. So it's like going away without having to travel. They wake up downstairs, spend the day up ... she in her office, he in his. In fact, Neil couldn't have cared less about the bedroom or living room; his main concerns were where he'd sit and on what he would write.\n\n\"Usually I dealt with Elaine, who was very involved and went with me to see everything,\" Barman continues. \"But one day she said, Neil's going with you alone to pick out his desk.' I said, I'm petrified.' She said, Don't be. He's fun.' And he was. At the end of the day he said, I'm going to write a play about your business. I even know the title: 16 to 18 Weeks, because everything I want takes forever.\" With the desk finally in place, Barman felt the empty wall behind it needed something. \"So I asked Neil, Do you have any stuff to hang?' He said, I don't know.' And I said, Go try and find something.' He did, and I filled up the wall, thinking, Maybe he has opinions about where all these awards should go. But all he said was, Gosh, how nice all my things are here.' \"\n\nThe original penthouse, Barman explains, \"was a total disaster of a '20s apartment\u2014a moldy rabbit warren of rooms with warped floors.\" (The sole remnant of the former space is the '60s chandelier hanging over the arched mirror in the entrance hall.) Today, thanks to its clean lines, white-stained plank floors, golden tones and heavenly views, the five-room space is suffused with a kind of unbearable lightness of being, as it were\u2014away from it all ... warm, calm, serene. \"This apartment is all about the spectacular views,\" says Barman, \"from every window, including the dining room. Elaine wanted it to be that, of course, but also asked for banquettes so you could lounge.\" Or, in her husband's case, pile up papers. \"Because Neil writes by longhand, on a pad, he's always concerned about where his papers are,\" says the designer. \"And if they're not on his desk or dining room table, they invariably end up in piles on the banquette.\n\n\"The apartment was done around Elaine's sensibility and the art,\" Barman adds, pointing out the Modigliani, part of the couple's collection of 20th-century paintings. \"To best show it off, we used a neutral palette, balancing it with strong colors\u2014ruby, amethyst, sapphire\u2014pulled out of the paintings.\" \"John is a primary- color person, so I really had to fight him, because I'm so not that,\" chuckles Elaine Joyce Simon. \"Taupe, blond, earth tones are what make me feel comfortable. The best thing about Neil is he's color-blind. So we get along perfectly.\" Nevertheless, her husband has \"such a great eye,\" she says. \"He's seen it all, knows when it's good. The other morning he woke up and said, I feel like buying a painting today,' and off we went looking. Both of us could sit in art galleries and libraries all day.\"\n\nUntil this project, Elaine Joyce Simon says she was \"always more interested in the exteriors, not interior, of a house. I couldn't pick out curtains to save my life, though I always knew what I liked. The initial time I shopped with John, he asked, What do you like?' I said, I don't know. Let's just go look.' And I'd point out a chair I liked here, perhaps just the legs of one there. When he came over and looked in my closet, he was stunned. Where are your shoes? You don't have any.' And I told him, I have all the important ones I need because I know what I like\u2014a certain high heel and the rest of the time sneakers and flats.' \"\n\nIndeed, what still amazes Barman is the modesty of the celebrated couple\u2014starting with their first encounter. \"I got a message that a Mrs. Simon wanted a consultation, so, of course, I went for the interview. Elaine was delightful\u2014pretty, effervescent, up. Her husband, meanwhile, who had a cold, kept his head down the whole time, saying nothing\u2014not at all friendly. I thought, Nice woman but don't know about that husband. Anyway, as I'm leaving, I notice a lone poster, right by the front door: Plaza Suite by Neil Simon. Neither had said a thing. I thought to myself: How stupid can you be?\"\n\nWhen it came to giving the Simons want they wanted, however, Barman was absolutely \"brilliant,\" says Elaine Joyce Simon. \"We both adore the apartment's library feel, and it's just such a fun place to go. Neil loves it. Every morning he goes up and works, and on weekends we go there and party. In the end, it's the best of both worlds\u2014exactly what we wanted\u2014a hotel in the same building.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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