Studio.

Vlad Markov began with lime in his hands at fifteen, plastering exterior render with his uncle's crew on the Black Sea coast. He left for Italy at twenty, trained five years in Vicenza under a Marmorino master, then traveled to Fès to apprentice in Tadelakt at the medina's last working lime kiln. He spent another two seasons with a Japanese plasterer in Kyoto, learning Otsumigaki and the discipline of the single, perfect trowel pass.

He arrived in New York in 2008 and opened the MarkOn® Walls studio in Greenpoint the following year. The studio has grown deliberately — never more than a dozen plasterers, all atelier-trained, most with him for a decade or longer. Every wall the studio finishes still passes under Vlad's trowel for the final burnishing pass. There is no shortcut for this. There is only the hand.

His work has been quietly specified by some of the most considered designers and architects working today, from Manhattan townhouses to Hamptons retreats, Mayfair pied-à-terres, and a small constellation of private residences across Aspen, Palm Beach, and the Côte d'Azur. He does not advertise. He answers the phone himself.