The Awkward NYC Loft Before & After That Made Us Say “Whoa”

Written by

Nancy Mitchell
Nancy Mitchell
As a former Senior Writer at Apartment Therapy, Nancy split her time among looking at beautiful pictures, writing about design, and photographing stylish apartments in and around NYC.
published Apr 1, 2018
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There are some weird apartments in New York, but this might be one of the weirdest I’ve seen — an awkwardly divided split level, with a dining room, raised living room, and lofted bedroom all with no relationship to each other whatsoever. For the architects at STADT Architecture, it was a bit of a challenge to make this space look good — or make any kind of sense whatsoever — but they did, and added a lot of built-in storage in the process, so that this formerly cramped and confusing apartment is now a bright, modern, lofty space.

(Image credit: STADT Architects)

When you walk into the apartment, the kitchen is to your right: the space you walk into serves as both entryway and dining room. It’s an odd space, but the architects have helped to make sense of it by adding a breakfast bar that faces the living room, and full-height cabinets that cover the left wall.

(Image credit: STADT Architects)

If you’re anything like me, the “before” picture of the living room dropping unexpectedly several feet into the dining room makes you little anxious. But adding a wall of railing here would’ve blocked the views through the apartment to the dining room. STADT’s elegant solution was to have the back of the bar create a kind of lip, which doesn’t block off the space but keeps you from feeling you’re going to fall into the dining room. The lip wraps around the stairs to form a sort of railing.

(Image credit: STADT Architects)

From the living room, a short flight (it’s behind the door on the left) leads to the lofted bedroom above. Previously, the bedroom floor and half-wall above created a single solid form that jutted awkwardly into the living room. In the remodel, the architects made the bedroom floor stepped: most of the floor is at one level, but there’s also a ledge that is part bed platform and part nightstand. The stepped bedroom floor, seen from the living room, has a much lighter effect.

(Image credit: STADT Architects)
(Image credit: STADT Architects)

There was also a lot of attention paid to storage, since hidden storage is particularly important to keeping a small apartment from feeling cramped. The entire left wall of the apartment (and the entire back wall of the bedroom) is devoted to it, so there’s always plenty of space to put your stuff.

(Image credit: STADT Architects)
(Image credit: STADT Architects)

Although the layout of the apartment remains essentially the same, its function is dramatically enhanced — and it’s now a streamlined, modern space, as opposed to a haphazard collection of volumes with little to no relation to each other. It’s petite, but still a space any New Yorker (who doesn’t mind climbing a few sets of stairs) would love to call home.

Want to see more of this project? Check out the architect’s website at STADT Architecture.