Room with a view

Amanda Puck’s reputation precedes her: The PR pro has a taste for glitz. Even in the dead of winter, you’re likely to see the 38-year-old Staten Island native stepping out of her boyfriend’s SUV on her way to Sunday brunch wearing a sequin-covered sweater over snug jeans and white boots. So the fact that the first image guests of the Puck residence set their eyes on is a shimmery homage to Paris in the form of a mosaic—hanging above a pair of pearly pumps and purple (albeit scuffed-up) Hunter wellies—seems exactly right.

“My friends who own Jake call it maison diamonte, meaning house of diamonds,” she says, standing beside a bottle of Moët & Chandon Champagne embellished with her initials in rhinestones.

The most striking piece of art in the Puck residence, however, is the window reflected in the mirror adjacent to the front door: an omniscient view of the city from 52 stories high above the Mag Mile. “My apartment faces west, so at night it’s literally like a glittery bed of lights,” she says. Step a few feet into the boxy apartment and this panoramic vision of the Chicago skyline spans the length of her west-facing wall. (The journey to her place alone requires two elevator rides and a stroll past a gourmet grocery store, where residents can make emergency runs for Brie and Bordeaux.)

Puck moved into the iconic high-rise about a year and a half ago. Not only did the location eliminate her daily commute—her office at PR firm XA, The Experiential Agency, is on the building’s 26th floor, conveniently close to its high-end clients like designer boutique Jake and the James Hotel—but the apartment’s previous owner had done the place up in just her style. Between the floor-to-ceiling living-room mirrors, black-tiled bathroom, ivory-colored marble floors and cylindrical silver lighting fixtures, it exudes that air of ’80s glam she sought to complement her midcentury modern style of decorating (the majority of her furniture comes from local vintage purveyors like Modlife and Revival). For the most part, she keeps the palette basic: a foundation of grey, black and white with pops of color from pieces such as an orange-velvet chair in the living room and a blaring-pink portrait of Barbie resting on her bedroom dresser.

Maybe it’s the strappy stilettos in every corner or the cocktail cart by the smoked-glass, Chromecraft kitchen table or the stack of coffee-table books like The Proust Questionnaire and a collection of Andy Warhol portraits, but the place appears perpetually ready to host a party. And, in fact, she does so quite often, putting her Cornell degrees in hospitality (“I always say I have a master’s in butt-kissing,” she jokes) and about 18 years in the restaurant industry (including seven years as manager at Spago) to good use.

1 A Kidrobot fiend, Puck lines the top of her kitchen counter (just below her Missoni china) with these darkly comedic action figures.

2 Her initials pop up all over the place, from this metal “A” on the wall to the rhinestone design on her compact case.

3 The libation station remains perpetually stocked with top-shelf bottles of alcohol and kitschy Warhol appetizer plates.

4 A recently purchased Hermès throw paired with a Baroque-style Blick backdrop adds a touch of glamour to the bedroom.

5 Details like this collection of perfume bottles on a tray lend a nostalgic quality to the space.