1APA\ ESE
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Interior designer
Susan Winton-Feinberg
uses Oriental accents.

I BY LISA BRODY

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ALCOLM LEV-
enten likes to go
out in style.
At least, that's
my assumption
after visiting the
last home the
architect/builder
designed and
built It is a Japanese contemporary
in North Wabeek, with a simple off-
white split-rock brick exterior with
limestone trim which belies a unique,
cramatic interior. The owners,
retailers who had lived in Southfield
for twenty years until they moved last
November, now have the home of
their dreams.

"The 'base' concept we worked with
was that the owner wanted Japanese
contemporary on the first floor," says
Susan Winton-Feinberg, ASID, of
Walter Herz Interiors in Bloomfield
Hills, who designed the entire interior.
"When I think of Japanese
contemporary, I think black, simple,
and straight lines."

Entering the home, it is easy to see
that these objectives have been met.
Almost the entire first floor of this
11,000 square foot home has black
granite in two-foot squares for
flooring. A grand, dramatic entrance
is accented with all forms of antique
black and gold wedding baskets. The
centered front doorway is balanced
on either side by Japanese consoles
and matching mirrors in black ash.
Take a few steps in, and your focus
is directed to a magnificent, enor-
mous staircase that horseshoes out
after a handful of risers to two wings
upstairs. The staircase floats and also
is black, with a contemporary mosaic
grid pattern rather than traditional
spindles. "I had seen an itty-bitty
picture of a grid that I liked, and from
that Susie designed the whole stair-
case," says the owner. "We wanted it
to be a focal point without it taking
over the house," says Ms. Winton-
Feinberg.
The powder room is tucked in off
the grand foyer, and the black granite
continues as flooring and countertop.

The floating staircase is a

dramatic entry into the

home built by Malcolm

Leventen.