Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
10th Street Residence by Tirmizi Campbell
September 21st, 2013 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Tirmizi Campbell
Q&A with Asifa Tirmizi, firm principal
Q: How did you get involved in working with the client?
A: We have renovated several apartments in this building and were referred to the owners of this apartment by the building management team.
Q: How would you describe this apartment?
A: It’s a unique apartment because of its high ceilings and the amount of light it gets for being on the ground floor of a building. I would describe it as a loft style apartment.
Q: Can you talk about what the apartment looked like before the renovation?
A: Prior to renovation, the apartment had a similar footprint with exception to the kitchen, which we opened up. It was your typical dated apartment that needed to be renovated.
Q: What kind of building is this?
A: The Albert is a combination of several buildings that are combined internally to form a larger building, originally designed as a hotel.
**Some background on the Albert
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/realestate/17streetscapes.html?_r=0
http://thehotelalbert.com/history.html
Q: Was the building always a residential property?
A: The building was originally a hotel and because of this, there are unique layouts and sizes for each apartment.
Q: What were the clients’ design objectives?
A: To make the apartment feel more open and contemporary. Their requirements and aesthetic preferences were in line with ours.
Q: What were your biggest challenges when working on this project? How did you overcome them?
A: Challenge: to make the apartment feel as open and spacious as possible. We replaced the old drywall low walls acting as guard rails for the loft area with a customdesigned open wood and cable system. This opened up the loft space visually and made it much more inviting instead of feeling like a storage space above. We also refinished the existing stair to make it feel like a proper stair to a second floor.
Another challenge: to transform the kitchen into a larger open kitchen without taking up more square footage. To do this, we utilized the underside of the stairs as storage space which transitioned into one side of the kitchen, this worked well in utilizing space that typically gets wasted. We also decided to go with underthecounter refrigerators which maximized counter space in the kitchen and provided the same volume of refrigeration as a traditional taller refrigerator.
Q: Can you talk about the design process why did you place the kitchen under the stairs?
A: To maximize the size of the kitchen and keep it as open as possible.
Q: Were any of the existing elements kept from the original apartment?
A: We kept some of the exposed brick and painted it white to give it a more pristine look.
Q: What did you use for inspiration for your design?
A: We are always inspired by the Albert building itselfits uniqueness and historical presence. We love to transform the spaces in the Albert into contemporary customized residences set against the historical backdrop of the building.
Q: Can you talk about the color and material palettes?
A: We wanted the material palette to be warm, natural, and pristine so we went with grays and whites complemented by a medium dark teak wood.
Q: Can you walk me through the furnishings and why you selected them?
A: The floors are natural wide plank ash wood stained with a light gray finish. We love the gray found in the concrete floors and the way it complements almost any finish that is put up against it. We thought that we would try to achieve this color, but do it in wood to keep the warmth of a wood floor.
For the cabinets and barn door we used teak (we love teak, but haven’t used it with a dark finish before). We did a sample and loved it. The walls are simple white to be backdrops for artwork and photography. The lighting is recessed in a grid layout to provide even light throughout the space, however we used a decorative pendant to mark the entry and wall sconces in the bedroom for reading lights.
Q: What are the project highlights?
A: A wonderful upper loft space that can be utilized as a home office or second sleep area, great 17foot ceilings in the living room, an open kitchen with generous storage, original exposed brick walls, a custom teak wood barn door with exposed track, and large tiltandturn windows to maximize the amount of light coming into the apartment.
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