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57 projects I was able to complete in one weekend." Practicality aside, the apartment also works hard socially. "That sectional can seat six or seven, and I have eight or 10 people over pretty regularly, and it's still very comfortable," he says. Located in a restored 1940s building in Montrose's historic Hyde Park community, his apartment is within walking distance of many restaurants and bars. "It's a perfect place to start or end the evening," he says. His friends know Viviano as an accomplished cook, so the bare-bones kitchen might come as a surprise — but for a guy with a hectic schedule, it's liberating. "Cooking meals is just not where I'm at right now," he says. "I'm out with my friends a lot, foraging in between work and the gym." Still, he insists on ceremony at the impromptu bar: Tucked between the liquor bottles arrayed on the counter, some touchstones nod to a time when he lived and decorated more opulently. Among them is an American Brilliant Period cut-glass martini shaker "that reminds me of who I am," he says. In the end, it's that balance that matters most. "For the moment, my home is just this tiny little respite — the yin to the yang of my work life." "It was all thrown together in a pretty ad hoc way, a little improvisational. These are projects I was able to complete in one weekend." — Michael Viviano