These two lofts in the heart of New York’s SoHo Cast Iron Historic District were converted from commercial use to a family residential and a live/work quarters for artists. 

Artist Loft
The design preserves the existing loft’s spatial and historic industrial qualities while accommodating its new live/work use. Glass doors and transom windows that access the century-old Singer Building’s signature cast iron balconies dominate the open rectangular plan. The original operable mahogany doors and center-pivot transom windows of Ernest Flagg’s landmark façade have been retrofitted with insulated glass and restored to full operation utilizing original hardware.

Family Loft
This project in the landmark Little Singer Building was a four bedroom, three bathroom living environment for a growing family. The space was constrained by typical loft limitations: all light and exterior exposure is at either end of a long rectangular space, with no sidewall windows. To address this and organize the plan, the architectural strategy employed the idea of an interior street, open to the main living space on one end, traversing past the bedrooms and other support spaces to reveal the windows at the far end. The “street” served several roles; preserving the maximum length of the space, allowing for cross ventilation, and bringing in the natural light from opposite ends of the loft.