This is a beautiful loft located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan showcasing the interaction between a gallery and living space. The main walls in the loft flow through the space, and together with articulated ceilings create hybrid conditions in which exhibition areas merge into living areas.

Over the years, the pair regularly visited possible sites for this new house in the suburbs of Hartford. Then, in a phone call to Amsterdam in the early spring of 2007 the collector announced he had bought a loft space in Manhattan. The architect finally received his commission: not for a house, but for a home for the collector and his art and books.

The design of the loft in downtown Manhattan mediates between art gallery and living space. Gently flowing curved walls were introduced to virtually divide the main space into proportionally balanced spaces. This created zones of comfortable proportions for domestic use, while simultaneously generating a large amount of wall space for the display of art. A floating exhibition wall blends into library shelves on one side and into a display case on the other side.

The loft aims to merge life and art by facilitating these daily interactions, and by making clearer his own unusual way of seeing. Whereas the walls form a calm and controlled backdrop for the works of art, the ceiling is more articulated in its expression of this transition. The opaque part of the ceiling consists of subtly arched elements that give a notion of an limitless ceiling which disguises the real height of the space.

The third element that the architect has added to this mix is the appreciation of the city which is expressed in the ‘framing of the views’. The former windows in the South wall have been replaced by full floor to ceiling glass panes that frame and extend compelling views, over a full glass balcony, toward downtown Manhattan.

As a last element a Douglas fir floor with 1½ feet wide planks covers the entire loft. The subtle, even-toned floor unifies the space and allows furniture and art to be positioned as floating elements in changeable constellations.

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