Living room

AT HOME WITH

Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado

The choreographer couple on blending their lives on the Upper West Side.

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Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado sit at the bench in a breakfast nook. Their four-year-old daughter stands on the bench next to Mr. Peck.

By Joanne Kaufman Photographs by Katherine Marks

June 4, 2025

The husband and wife dancer-choreographers Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado moved into their apartment on the Upper West Side exactly one day before New York City shut down in March of 2020 in response to the coronavirus.

A living room with two couches, floor cushions and three windows along the back wall.

It would be a while before the couple’s decorating ideas would be fully formed and their three-bedroom, prewar co-op fully furnished.

“I don’t think we had like a perfect plan for what we were going to do,” said Ms. Delgado, 42, whose collaboration with her husband on the choreography for “Buena Vista Social Club” resulted in a joint Tony nomination. (Mr. Peck, 37, has won the award twice: in 2018 for “Carousel” and last year for “Illinoise;” the awards broadcast is June 8.) “But we started to notice that we were attracted to vibrant colors and patterns and that we had kind of this desire to make our home feel peaceful but, at the same time, very inspired.”

They were similarly drawn to the idea of filling the space almost exclusively with furnishings and objects that connected to their personal and professional histories.

Because they’re both from sunny places, in Mr. Peck’s case San Diego and in Ms. Delgado’s case Miami, “we started to notice we wanted plants,” she said. The apartment is full of greenery; every Sunday Mr. Peck and the couple’s 4-year-old daughter, Lucia, go from room to room diligently tending to the watering.

A living room is furnished with a dusty rose couch, large rug and floor pillows.

The couple met in 2013 and married in 2018. The furnishings in the living room are a combination of Ms. Delgado’s (the Moroccan pouffe from her apartment in Miami); Mr. Peck’s (the blue-gray love seat and round accent table from his first apartment in New York); and theirs (the stone moon sconces, the secretary desk from the store Olde Good Things and the dusty rose sofa). Above the couch is an Art Deco mirror they bought together because of its appeal for Ms. Delgado: It reminded her of Miami.

“People think it’s really comfortable here. It’s a shoes-off apartment,” Ms. Delgado said. “When they come over, they throw themselves on the floor of the living room.”

A dining room table with three green chairs, a bench and a blue children’s high chair.

The dining table at the edge of the living room is a holding spot for items until they assume their rightful place in the apartment.

A painting of a city sidewalk hangs on a wall. Next to it is a child’s art easel.

Opposite the table is a New York streetscape, one of a few paintings in the apartment by Mr. Peck’s father, Sam Peck, an amateur artist. “I grew up staring at them, and I asked him if I could have them,” Mr. Peck said. “They’re another thing that kind of ties our home together.”

A kitchen has a built-in breakfast nook with wooden bench and café table on one side. To the right there is a kitchen counter and refrigerator.

Dinner guests feel the magnetic pull to the kitchen where Mr. Peck and Ms. Delgado had an L-shaped bench custom-made for the nook by Cult Woodworking. “It becomes the spot where everyone congregates,” said Mr. Peck. “Sometimes we have 10 people over and everyone squeezes in.”

On the wall behind the bench is a framed rendering of a backdrop from “Heatscape,” a dance Mr. Peck created for Miami City Ballet in 2015, with sets designed by the artist Shepard Fairey. Ms. Delgado, who was then a principal dancer with the company, had a featured role in the piece. Next to it is a vintage Cuba poster that was in Ms. Delgado’s apartment in Miami and has since followed her everywhere.

The grouping also includes a print by Faile, a street artist collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, and a pair of paintings by Marcel Dzama, a Canadian artist who was the designer for Mr. Peck’s 2016 ballet “The Most Incredible Thing.”

“He’s been super generous gifting us his art,” said Mr. Peck of Mr. Dzama.

A sign that reads “SPANISH GROCERIES AMERICAN” hangs in a wallpapered nook in a kitchen.

During the pandemic, many people perfected their sourdough starter skills. Not Mr. Peck. Instead, he learned the ins and outs of hanging wallpaper, specifically a stretch of pink-, white- and red-patterned wallpaper. Ms. Delgado, who was pregnant at the time, cheered her husband on, giving him a thumbs-up from her perch on the wooden bench.

A sign that reads “SPANISH GROCERIES AMERICAN” hangs in a wallpapered nook in a kitchen.

“Wallpapering is very complicated,” she said. “Justin was so meticulous. If there was a tiny little bubble, I was like, ‘It’s fine.’ And he was like, ‘No! We gotta do it again.’”

Part of Mr. Peck’s careful handiwork — “I’m really proud of it,” he said — is obscured by a grocery store awning that was part of the set decoration for the number “America” in the 2021 remake of the movie “West Side Story.” Mr. Peck was the film’s choreographer. When the shoot was over, Mr. Peck said, “The production designer was like, ‘If you want to pick one or two things, let us know.’”

A room with a bed, desk and leather chair. Framed artworks hang on the wall.

A room with a bed, desk and leather chair. Framed artworks hang on the wall.

A poster from the film hangs in the combination guest room and office above a desk that formerly resided in Mr. Peck’s old apartment.

“This room is always housing someone,” said Ms. Delgado. “My parents lived with us for a long time. My sister and her husband lived with us for a long time.”

In a corner of the office is a leather chair that Mr. Peck bought for a previous apartment, attracted by its style name Del Mar; he was raised partly in Del Mar, Calif. “It seemed like a sign,” he said. A rug from Ms. Delgado’s Miami apartment covers part of the floor. “You see, we continue to blend and combine our lives,” Ms. Delgado said.

Above the chair is a poster for “Heatscape” with Ms. Delgado front and center. Another poster features the tap dancer and choreographer Savion Glover, “who was like the inspiration for me to start dancing when I was a kid,” Mr. Peck said.

A few pencil drawings, the work of an artist friend, Jessica Dessner, also hang on a wall of the office.

A wall with framed artwork, including a poster for the documentary “Ballet 422,” a drawing of three masked women wearing dresses that resemble targets and a black-and-white photo of a Civil Rights march.

Mr. Peck is pictured on a poster for the 2014 documentary “Ballet 422” about the making of “Paz de la Jolla,” his third project for New York City Ballet, where he trained, was a member of the company and is now resident choreographer.

Resting atop a toy piano is a photograph of Mr. Peck’s paternal grandfather, James Peck, at a protest. He was a Civil Rights organizer and writer and was among the first wave of Freedom Riders who marched with John Lewis. “He got beaten up and had to get, like 50 stitches and went to jail a lot,” said Mr. Peck.

A meditation corner in a bedroom has an altar and pillows and lanterns on the floor.

In the primary bedroom, a meditation corner is dominated by a cabinet holding the Gohonzon, a scroll that aids the practice of Japanese Buddhism; it is bordered by cushions and, on occasion, it is illuminated by a red lantern, a replica of a prop from the Broadway production of the musical “Illinoise.” The lantern was a gift from the producers.

“In the morning if I wake up really early and it’s dark out, I turn on the lantern to meditate,” Ms. Delgado said. “I’m meditating as the sun is rising outside the window and I have the two light sources.”

Patricia Delgado and Justin Peck sit on a sofa as their daughter, wearing a dress and ballet slippers, twirls on the carpet next to them.

Mr. Peck and Ms. Delgado said they looked at 100 apartments during their search. The goal was to find a place that was an easy commute to the theater district and Lincoln Center — two frequent destinations. “And you know, we’re dancers,” said Mr. Peck. “We think and feel spatially. This apartment just flowed.”

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