Myrtle Avenue Loft
An historic chocolate factory, originally built in 1947 in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, this project developed a series of spaces within an otherwise open layout. Subtle zones, or rooms, were created by playing with the scale, color and texture of materials, referencing the existing palette of the industrial factory space, and creating sectional change through raised platforms.
Sectional / Elevation Change
Most notably, the Myrtle Avenue project challenged conventions of how a loft exists by introducing sectional, or elevational, change into the typical large, open loft space. In creating several zones amongst the general open interior landscape, it encourages the resident to explore the “rooms” as separate, unique experiences.
In many lofts, every space is equally capable of hosting any activity, and is therefore equally inadequate to host any activity. If a dining room can also be an office, gym, and workshop – is it the best place to have dinner?
A specific example of this sectional differentiation can be seen in the primary area of hosting. The dining area was raised, and a metal-mesh ceiling was lowered, in order to create a closer relationship with the high loft windows (and light) as well as create a smaller, more intimate space for conversations.
House in a House
The second concept of the loft was thinking of it as a “house-within-a-house,” treating the wall of the master bedroom as if it were a façade of a building. Here, the treatment of the wall texture (rough, troweled plaster at the base; speckled textured plaster in the middle; and smooth, seamless plaster at the top) references the look of a classical palazzo – where the base, middle, and top organization to the wall accentuates the gradually increasing privacy of the program behind. Within the bedroom, the closet millwork was also conceived as yet another nested building. It becomes a second, even smaller scale façade, highlighting the idea of moving in and out of distinct interior and exterior spaces as you move throughout the loft. Finally, when observed from above, the space can be viewed as a series of spaces that fit inside of each other much like an urban scene of a piazza which includes many overlapping public and private areas.
