This 6,000SF “inverse triplex” - ground floor, 1/2 basement and 1/3 sub-basement – is for a family of four that loves to entertain. A new space for urban living, it embraces diverse materials, kinetic interventions and a highly developed sense of the unexpected. The industrial space is transformed into a programmatic sequence to accommodate different functions and moods, from public at the front to private in the back.
The front section at street level provides the loft-like living area with white resin floors and 16ft high ceilings; next is a bamboo-lined box with built-in storage and motorized tables that rise from the floor for Japanese-style dining. The Kitchen/Dining room follows with plum-colored concrete floors and walls, a formal table for 16 and an enormous kitchen. All the ground floor’s unique tables align and can be joined together for huge dinners, or a catwalk.
Dividing and connecting front and back, a new stairwell-light shaft cuts through the three floors accomplishing several simultaneous goals for the design: it introduces new circulation and visual connections between the floors, brings light into the heart of the exceptionally deep space, and interrupts the floor planes, allowing for their realignment. Beyond this point, the rear floors were completely demolished and reconstructed to allow for three full-height levels, to adapt the low basement and sub-basement for living. The light-shaft intervention not only marks the level-shift: it becomes a new triple-height space, complete with a mesquite-tiled floor, a translucent bridge connecting the master bedroom to a megacloset, and a doghouse/elevator for moving tired dogs, snacks or toys between levels.
Beside the stairwell, the Media Room with curved felt-covered walls, floor and ceiling provides a comfy nook and there’s a kids-only sleeping loft with a dramatic port-hole-like overlook. Two floors below, anchoring the apartment, the sub-basement has a hexagonal den whose walls double as bottle storage.
At the rear, the design reinvents a typical steel-and-glass industrial skylight running the width of the building; it is extended upwards to provide light-filled quarters for the children, and cut away to create an outdoor courtyard at the master-bedroom level below and distribute light among all the levels. At its base, a small garden gives a view to the guest and nanny’s bedrooms.