This Apartment in a McKim, Mead & White Building Only Gets Better With Age Designer Julie Hillman’s refresh of a landmarked Manhattan maisonette is a master class in living with history. By Vanessa Lawrence and Produced by Cynthia Frank Jun 4, 2021 Simon Upton The challenges of renovating a historic property are myriad. Do you restore it to a mirror image of its past self? Must the furnishings be period? How do you impart your own aesthetic identity on someone else’s? For Julie Hillman, the answer to the latter question is simple: You tread lightly and thoughtfully. “I’m not going to be the designer who changes [a] historical space—it’s just not what I’m about,” says Hillman, a New York–based designer who recently overhauled this Beaux Arts Fifth Avenue home. “I don’t need to put my mark on something that’s been around forever and is spectacular as it stands.”