NOHO LOFT
NOHO, NEW YORK CITY
NOHO LOFT - NEW YORK | RESIDENTIAL
NOHO - MANHATTAN, NY
915 SF | Interior DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
When manufacturing began leaving New York City in the 50s and 60s, a rising inventory of manufacturing built up across the city. Especially in Manhattan where the appetite for residential space was rising quickly, manufacturing buildings began a conversion process to turn be re-tooled into residences for a growing population. The catch was that the deep and wide open floor plates of these buildings were not laid out for apartments or the code requirements of light and air that supported them. An entire breed of what people came to know as a quintessential “New York City Apartment” was born with its own collection of challenges and idiosyncrasies. In this case, an example of a “railroad” apartment.
The trick here is that with only having windows on one, short end of a very long apartment there were restrictions on how the space could be divvied up into residential use. The high ceilings gave way to the opportunity for lofts and mezzanines, but “dark” space near the front door could be difficult to program.
The key here was a tactful use of the “kitchenette” within NYC building code as a way to keep a kitchen area beyond 30 feet from the windows. With a combination of layout and a 12” soffit to serve as a smoke curtain, this layout gave the clients (who loved to cook at home) an amazing linear kitchen with a long island for seating and prep.
Without a doubt, millwork became the mechanism for transforming the space while also tying it together. The entry celebrates the full of the apartment while also letting the sleeping loft open up to double-height space on both sides. From there, custom millwork in white oak helped define closets, built in storage, kitchen millwork, more storage and a beverage bar tucked until the stairs.
What was once a long and narrow space filled with dark storage and a tiny kitchen evolved into a streamlined setting of modern living in the heart of NoHo.
