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Partner-in-Charge: David Sherman
Contractor: Yorke Construction
Photographer: Catherine Tighe
Completed: 1998
This loft occupies a unique location in Manhattan, impacted at the intersection of Shinbone Alley and Jones Alley, with window exposures into what is effectively the middle of a NoHo block (near the corner of Lafayette and Bond Streets). The NYC Landmark facade of the Robbins and Appleton Building is designated as an excellent example of cast-iron architecture, a commercial palazzo in the French Second Empire mode, which was originally a watchcase factory in 1880. The loft in question is on the top floor, the walls of which are a mildly canted mansard roof, above the building's cornice. The Owner?s collection of folk art is envisioned as the foreground texture for a clean modernist interior, inserted into the industrial-quality building envelope of the alley facades of this ornate building. The interior materials include an artisan plaster wall, with straw broadcast to the surface; maple cabinetry and mahogany doors and windows; aluminum hardware; patterned glass with hot-rolled steel frames; custom concrete sink basins and floors with zinc control strips. Because of the absence of any outward view from the apartment, the design of the interior was conceived as a series of facades. A spiralling view is anticipated from the visitor, as one experiences the main double-height space by entering and then rotating counterclockwise to review the four disparate walls, culminating with the vast artisan plaster wall. This wall serves as a backdrop to the Owner?s Retaglo and other folk art pieces.View to Dining Area Bathroom.
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