loft porn: Dietz Lantern loft transformed at 429 Greenwich Street

from good to great
A twitterverse mention of Manhattan Loft Guy on Tribeca Live (eventually) lead me to photos of a beautiful redesign of a loft at the Dietz Lantern Building (429 Greenwich Street), via Remodelista, a “sourcebook for the considered home”. Drooling over the pictures, I (of course) had to try to find the exact loft, in hopes I would find the “before” for these lovely “after” shots. With the hints of a specific Dietz Lantern layout (2 bedrooms, entry hallway, corner kitchen, windows on one side) plus the architect / design team (SchappacherWhite) and the standard “Projects” button on such sites I was able to match the layout and the owner’s name to this “2,054 sq ft” loft, which these Kiwis bought heading into The Peak (September 13, 2007) for $2.57mm, a heady $1,251/ft.

2007 beats 2009 (d’oh!)
The Kiwis paid more for their 2nd floor loft two quarters before The Peak than their new neighbors with the same footprint paid after the market had thawed in late 2009. This “gorgeous” loft was in no worse condition than the Kiwi loft (possibly better, with “commercial” appliances), has a better floor plan than the “before” floor plan (with 2 exposures [better light!] and the kitchen more centrally located), and sold with 2 parking spaces on December 22, 2009, but it only got $2.45mm.

These folks paid peak pricing and then invested a big chunk of change to upgrade.

more redesign than renovation
Before you check out the many “before” pictures from that 2nd floor Corcoran listing, look again at the palette and materials of the current loft. (Waiting….) Those pictures show a standard age-appropriate high end Tribeca loft conversion, circa 1997, when the Dietz Lantern converted to residential condominium lofts: oak floors, barrel vaulted ceilings, and exposed brick walls, with (probably) the same ”spa” baths that the higher floor loft claimed in 2009.

The two sets of photos offer no precise pairings, but if you look at the “before” photos in the context of the “before” floor plan you will see how the puzzle fits together. You will also see that it is very likely that the only structural change from “before” to “after” was to extend the kitchen along the other corner wall and to pivot the island; the rest of the “before” floor plan is consistent with all the “after” photos.

Put one way, all they did (apart from the larger kitchen) was to change the skin. But Oh What A Beautiful New Skin!

I like oak hardwood floors in lofts as much as the next guy, but the black and white palette in the “after” pix is pretty spectacular. That first pic on Remodelista (with the thoughtful young prop on the floor) shows “white oak, sanded, bleached, and stained gray”, but I can’t figure out what they did to the left wall (formerly white sheet rock). Might be just paint, might be plaster. Interesting that they took one of the white elements and changed it up, even as the entire palette is white and black (with grey).

What had been a natural (clear) seal on the brick wall in the master bedroom is now a white wall (with that floating walnut headboard). Of course, the kitchen is completely different, though in the same corner as before. Totally different materials, colors, appliances, cabinetry, and island, with the plumbing moved around the corner and the entire kitchen being much bigger. I especially liked this bit of archi-speak:

"One thing that we really worked hard to do in the kitchen and with all the rest of the cabinetry is to frame them, so they became objects in themselves," says Schappacher. "We didn’t want them to be big huge built-ins, in order to retain the open feeling of the loft."

where does that small prop sleep?
Now as I toggle back and forth between “before and “after” photos and the “before” floor plan I wonder if there has been another layout change. The new “small guest room” doubles as a kid playroom, with chalkboard on the base of the Murphy bed and a tack board for kid art on the front of built-ins.

I originally thought that was the 2nd bedroom in the original floor plan, but it does not seem big enough for that, and then where does that child in the first pic sleep? Now I think that they extended the entry gallery wall east, to fit that (open?) guest room / play area, with the dining area just south of that. So perhaps they did do a bit more carpentry than I originally thought.

Regardless of the carpentry done, this is one drool-worthy loft. One that looks completely different than it did before. Props to the Kiwi owners and to Mr. Schappacher and to Ms. White. Exquisite taste, all around.

On the one hand I wish them many many years of enjoyment. On the other hand, I am impatient to see if The Market would value the “after” loft at the kind of significant premium over the “before” that I think it merits. But this world of Manhattan residential real estate, loft division, does not merely exist for my benefit. Alas.

In an even contest, I am pretty confident that the black-white-grey loft will beat any original condition competitors by a good margin, including the current record holder in the building, #4C, which cleared at $1,429/ft in June 2010.

© Sandy Mattingly 2012