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Strange, Super-Vertical NYC Retrofit with a Tiny Footprint

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Here’s a sleek loft in a teeny Manhattan apartment that makes interesting use of the tiny space.

Much taller than it is wide, the attic space represented one of the most unusual design challenges faced by Specht Harpman Architects.

It’s difficult to overcome the sense of oppression in a very small space with a disproportionately high ceiling.

The poky but tall space was the attic at the top of a six story building.

As the architects describe it, there was nowhere you could reasonably put a couch or a bed in the original space, even though it was 25 feet tall in places.

Yet they succeeded in creating this restful living space for a generous seating system and a bed!

How did they manage it?

Stairs play a key role. The kitchen is lower than the living room, so a waist height workbench in the kitchen wraps around a cabinet to become a low hearth coffee table height in the living room.

The result is that from the kitchen, you look up a few stairs at the living room.

And in the other direction, the bathroom is another few steps down from the kitchen.

The two full staircases (to the bedroom, and to the roof) are the storage space – but of course you knew that. Putting the storage under the stairs is Space Saving 101.

The very high ceiling means that the view from the bed is a long view – so rare in midtown Manhattan apartments – but that long view is straight up to the ceiling! Strange, and unique.

A high loft bed, with the view looking down, might have been the more well-trod path here.

But the effect of this very unusual choice could be curiously restful, even meditative. What do you think?