When architects Ravi Raj and Evan Watts toured this West Chelsea property with their clients prior to purchase, the group was struck by the home’s defining features. “We immediately knew it was just an incredible space, and that it had amazing bones,” says Watts, a partner at D&A Companies. Watts and Raj, who leads RARARA, formed a joint design team to help their friends, who purchased the loft in 2017.

“It had beautiful brick walls and piers and beams—it was just an iconic old New York loft space,” says Watts. “But it was also immediately apparent that it was dated. And it wasn’t really optimized in terms of a layout. We knew very quickly that some simple moves could really make the space into a beautiful home.”

Before: Main Room

The loft sits in the Spears Building, which was built in 1880 by the Kinney Brothers in West Chelsea. The building started life as a cigarette packing facility, then became a furniture warehouse in the 1920s, before it was converted into residences in 1996—and today it enjoys views of the High Line.

The conversion preserved many of the building’s historic details, such as the oversized openings and thick masonry bearing walls, all of which the homeowners loved. But there were some previous design decisions that didn’t elicit quite as much fervor.

For starters, the living area’s dropped ceiling awkwardly wrapped the structural framework. Concrete floors tipped too industrial for the owners, who have children. A heavy beam bisecting the fireplace wall distorted the room’s scale, competing with the soaring ceilings rather than accentuating them, and the in-wall AC units were an eyesore.

After: Main Room

Shop the Look

During the demo process, the team discovered that the dropped ceiling in the main room concealed the building’s intact structural framework. With that pulled away, the grid of scarred wood beams and cast-iron brackets better emphasize the generous ceiling height. A reworked fireplace column and floor-to-ceiling shelves draw the eye upwards.

“That was the most exciting moment, when we realized those beams were in great shape,” says Watts. Since the owners wanted to preserve that patina, the ceiling beams only had to be lightly sanded and sealed, and the layers of paint on the capitals were kept. A palette of bleached walnut (used for the wide-plank flooring and shelves) and concrete plaster (at the hearth) temper the brilliant orange tones in the preserved brick and underscore the historical wear.

Before: Kitchen

After: Kitchen and Eating Nook

When the clients bought the loft, it had two bedrooms and an office accessed via a double door off the dining area. After giving the kitchen a new layout that accommodates an eat-in table, the team was able to repurpose the previous dining area into a bedroom. “It was a bit of a puzzle rejigging the floor plan to make sure that as we added more space, we kept natural light [throughout],” says Raj.

By reconfiguring the bedroom floor plan, the pair were able to create space for a new bathroom in the existing footprint as well. Now, there are two private clusters off the main areas: one for the master suite, and one for the two bedrooms and their shared bathroom. A third bathroom can be used by guests.

The new layout better balances the public and private wings of the loft, retaining the coveted openness that lofts promise with more intimate areas that can let family members get away. “One thing that we were trying to achieve was to retain that open feeling, but also provide separate spaces for their family to inhabit,” says Raj.

Before: Dining Area and Office

After: Bedroom Cluster

Before: Bathroom

After: Bathroom

Before: Master Suite

After: Master Suite

More Before & After stories:

Before & After: An Outdated 80s Loft Is Rescued From a Flashy Color Palette

Before & After: A Disjointed Loft in Brooklyn Now Luxuriates in the View

Project Credits:

Architects of Record: Ravi Raj, RARARA / @ravirajarchitect and Evan Watts, D&A Companies

Builder: Robertson-Tait

Lighting Design: Kugler Ning Lighting

Artwork Consultation: Uprise Art

MEP Engineer: ABS Engineering

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