Duane Street Live Work Loft
This adaptive reuse of the ground and basement floors of an 1860s industrial structure integrates interior and exterior, existing and new, work and living, in a dense urban neighborhood using salvaged and low-cost everyday materials. Removing portions of the original rear yard extension and first floor enabled the installation of a garden, whose reflective surfaces animate and bring light deep into the interior. Organized on three levels, working spaces occupy the front, interfacing with living spaces that open toward the garden. The Loft’s strategic deletions and insertions construct a new sense of its urban site, reinterpreting its visible and invisible histories, and repurposing spaces and elements to allow new programs and relationships to emerge. The reuse of original materials from the existing space’s demolition defines new material assemblies, expressing an approach to sustainability that accesses the richness of history and place.*
*Architizer.com