this very Winka-tect designed 497 Greenwich Street loft was all over the inter-tubes

so I had to track it down
I don’t know why it came up like dandelions, but I saw a bunch of tweets last week about an Archi-tectonics designed loft in Soho, with links from many, many design websites, including this one and this one. Never one to let sleeping lofts lie (let alone sleeping lofts that are both high-fashion and all over the inter-tubes), I had to go to the architect’s site and then try to find the loft. The good news is that I found the loft. The bad news is that architects describe and take photos of their work without regard to my interests; indeed, the prose on the Winka site is nearly impenetrable (to me) and the pix obscure rather than reveal the space she started with. Darn.

they are not paid to write (I should know; I am not, either)
As with many architect firm sites, you have to scroll through their projects to find a particular job, in this case the Schein Loft. Start here, then select Work, then Schein Loft under Residential Projects. I would do you the favor of cutting and pasting the key text here, but the web formatting prevents that. And the description text box is so small that you can only see 4-5 lines of text at a time, requiring scrolling, and more scrolling.

The key facts are that this “3,200 sq ft” 8th floor loft has part of the “folded glass facade” of the new “smart loft” built around and on top of the 8-story warehouse building:

the horizontal plane of the traditional urban fabric is questioned by the insertion of a diagonal surface that bifurcates the facade plane. Here the [building] code was re-coded; the mathematical tool of inflection was introduced to provide a 3d glass zone, a “glass waterfall”.

The loft

has windows all around; the views are accentuated by the open layout, a layout which arranges the loft in a series of overlapping zones, rather than enclosed rooms. A sculptural metal and wood spine arranges the different private spaces adjacent to its organic structure.

O-kayyyyyyyyy….

There is no floor plan on the site (huh??) and it takes a while to read the pictures enough to get a sense of the space. The first interior shots are the front, obviously, with the diagonal glass curtain wall (and seating arranged away from the windows). That 4th pic begins to give a sense of how that spine splits the open space (and breaks the ceiling), with private “zones” (not rooms) such as that bedroom to the right. Perspective flips in the 5th pic, to see the public areas of the loft on the other side of the spine, here the kitchen and dining area zone. Pic #8 brings us back to the private side, with the bedroom bedzone separated by sliding blue glass from the bathroom.

(I am not sure where the text comes from on the HomeDSGN site [presumably, from Archi-tectonics], but it is not quite the same as that on the architect site; it is, however, easier to read and features a few more photos, also easier to scroll through.)

not exactly this loft
The name of the architect and the building photo were enough to identify this loft as in 497 Greenwich Street, not coincidentally a residential loft conversion/construction project by the same architect. With thoe owner’s name and the 8th floor designation, I could identify the loft as this one, bought on October 4, 2004 from sponsor for $3,309.313, apparently as a white box.

Seriously: does everyone lie about square feet? Note that the architect’s project was a “3,200 sq ft” loft but that the condo unit that is clearly the right one is “2,795 sq ft” (the name and floor match, and there are no “3,200 sq ft” lofts in the building).

We have the floor plan and spare description from the sponsor marketing, which show a Long-and-Narrow footprint, 44 x 72 feet to the outside walls, with terraces at either end and 2 or 3 windows on each long side, and no walls apart from the single bathroom. It is almost exactly like this larger unit’s floor plan from the floor below, The only difference I see in that “3,052 sq ft” loft is that the 7th floor is wider at the east end, though perhaps it is meaningful that on the 7th floor the front glass wall is straight, suggesting that the 8th floor may be set back a bit; whatever, the developer (and architect!) thought the 7th floor had 257 sq ft extra feet, compared to the "2,795 sq ft" 8th floor unit. The 7th floor has the same 2 windows on the long north wall as the 8th floor, but lacks the 3 south windows upstairs.

Now that you have seen the floor plan on the 7th floor, look again at the architect photos. They are almost maddening in their lack of overall sense of the space, despite the observation that “the views are accentuated by the open layout”. Also look at the photos associated with the 7th floor (Click for large photos, of course), and compare them to the 8th floor architect photos.

I won’t say that the two lofts have completely unrelated, but they are certainly very different. For all the archi-talk about the 8th floor, I find the 7th floor materials much lighter and the 8th floor spine to be a relatively massive element, visually overwhelming. “Interesting”, of course, but that is such a double-edged word.

Regardless of matters of taste and aesthetics, it is always interesting fascinating to get photos of two same-building lofts that started life looking the same but were built out in such different styles.

a more conventional loft in the same building
Not that I am stalking her or anything, but it happens that the architect herself bought one of the units in her 497 Greenwich Street project and that there is a floor plan and photo collection of what her loft looks like now. This one must be in the old part of the building, and features straight lines, an open feel, and a much lighter palette than the 8th floor.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012