OCV Architects

OCV Architects completes 74 Warren Street, transforming an historic manufacturing building into three luxury lofts and one duplex penthouse in NYC's fashionable Tribeca neighborhood. The project is also featured as backdrop to an edgey fashion spread in FLAUNT Magazine.

74 Warren, New York N.Y., November 2006 – Sara Arnold, OCV R.A. and partner, is the architect behind the master plan, which transformed a manufacturing building in Tribeca's Landmark District, into 3 luxury lofts, and a duplex penthouse. In collaboration with Stylander Design Group for interiors, the architects created spaces that are open and opulent with 12 ft. high floating ceilings, exposed brick and new amenities throughout. 

The owners wanted to create spaces that were workable for families as well as single people: "We wanted features of apartment living, without giving up the unique qualities of this 100-year-old loft. New construction doesn't deliver the same look and feel, even when it’s marketed as lofts. Here you get the ceiling heights, exposed mechanical infrastructure, and huge, deep spaces. "

The original brick is exposed and restored to preserve the historic city loft feel while highly polished details, such as translucent mosaic tiles and glass doors were added to make the space bright and airy. “The challenge, architecturally, is to bring as much light as possible into the interior of the loft," says Sara Arnold. The polish of the space is accented with high-end amenities, such as radiant-heated stone floors, recessed halogen lighting throughout and opulent bathrooms with spa features. This modern purism is further realized in the open plan and the environmentally-friendly Poggenpohl kitchens. Guest and master baths are well-appointed with porcelain fixtures from Duravit and Dornbracht. Recessed marble baseboards and windowsills act as a perfect complement to the slick, durable interiors.

It is the architect's role to feature ‘space’ as the ultimate urban luxury. In fact, it is OCV’s extensive experience with codes and special-use zoning laws for downtown Manhattan real estate that make them a good choice for NYC high-end residential loft conversion.

Johan Stylander, well-known for his interior design work at prestigious Wall Street law firms, designed the chic interiors. “It was rewarding to collaborate with a gifted interior designer and to use such lush materials in an understated way. I think of Johan is a master of restraint," Sara Arnold said of Stylander.  The challenge was to preserve historic aspects, but to overcome the typical challenges of lofts which can tend to read as long and narrow in the extreme. The ceiling is the main player in unifying and brightening the whole.  "We put more design time into the ceiling than into the space;" Arnold said.  Everything mechanical had to be hidden behind the white surface, which appears harmonious, light, and airy. It is a modern-day, and much more modest, Boromini tribute.  To that end, OCV Architect's Carla Fuquena-Pena and Stylander Design Group's Brian Hackathorn spent no small number of hours in the field working with the individual trades — air conditioning, electrical, and sprinkler — to make the elements read as the unified design you see here.

We are pleased that Stephanie Pfriender Stylander chose to use the loft as the backdrop for her recent edgy fashion shoot featured in FLAUNT magazine, No. 77.  Said Arnold of the magazine editorial; "These photos cause me to look at the space in a new way. As architects, we tend to visualize space in the abstract, flat, and without people. It's interesting to see it from a different point of view." 


 
 

Posted on November 28, 2006 02:59 PM|Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://makingabetternewyork.com/blog-mt/mt-tb.fcgi/10