The impressive master suite overlooks the living space via a wall of glass. Enjoy the four seasons from one of the coziest spots thinkable [the high-end Poliform bed falls in line with most of the other furnishings throughout], or pull the remote-controlled shades. The Broadway Lofts, built originally in 1898 as McDonald’s Chocolate Factory, and famous for bold, gallery-ready walls of concrete and brick, are an art appreciator’s dream. Current owner being no exception, impressive pieces are hung and lit perfectly throughout [we love the Gerard Bourgeois nude], all of which are available for purchase. The kitchen is skillfully ripe for hosting, given the space, elite cooking tools, and appliances from GE and Bosch. An occupant with an eye toward entertaining would be a poetic match — a recent fundraiser testifies to the space’s potential to host any soirée, fête, ball, bash, or function.

The icing on this dreamy cake, we say, is the location, with a plethora of options for entertainment, dining, and social events, alike. The loft is just across the street from the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, and tasty cuisine in all its forms [Italian, Japanese, American, seafood, etc.] is scattered in every direction. Blocks from the SL Farmer’s Market, City Creek, and all things SLC, it’s basically propped nicely in the perfect downtown location. Perfect. Yes…that’s the word we’re looking for.

     

At night the loft transforms into a captivating, romantic space complete with a light therapy feature and a designer “moon” light fixture art piece. The mezzanine upstairs boasts a walk in closet, sitting area, library and tempered glass feature that allows you to see directly downstairs.

Also, it’s available for rent here

A dining room is defined through shifting materiality within the larger living space. Secondary rooms are united with the main space with large-scale swinging doors. The apartment abuts the highline, and two loading dock apertures, formerly blocked off, are blown open and filled with glass block to let in sunlight but obfuscate direct views. Now entering visitors can see through the main space, through the guest bedroom out to the sunlit shapes of highline guests.

The project consisted of a seismic upgrade and restoration of a heritage building in Vancouver’s historic gastown district, and a warehouse loft interior design project.  The loft is organized around a new courtyard open to above, inserted into the heritage fabric of the building, allowing light into the centre of the very deep plan.  All other interior elements are rendered crisply using precisely machined elements, conceived to stand in strong contrast to the rough heritage fabric of the existing shell

The owner is a bachelor who became deeply invested in Gastown before its rundown warehouse spaces became fashionable. (Indeed, his various business ventures there have helped spur the area’s revival.) So, when he approached designer Omer Arbel, then working at Peter Busby’s offices, he asked for a home that would “just let the space be itself.”

The space, though, had been practically abandoned, used as rough storage for an appliance vendor. Arbel was handed a mess of clumsy interior walls and years of spider webs. His task: preserve the history that lurked there, all while overlaying it with a real, functional living space.

The first myth of Gastown living—that one must sacrifice fresh air and greenery for the rush of city life—was dispelled in short order. Arbel knew that neither Water Street nor Blood Alley was going to offer lush vistas, so he created, at the heart of this loft, a walled courtyard that only looked up to the sky. Light and breezes spill through its open top into the home and, when three of the courtyard’s walls roll away, one might easily stroll from room to room via a happy cube of garden.

“Everywhere,” says Arbel, “we were really just dropping these objects, these boxes, into the larger plan.” Against a surround of vintage brick, for example, the kitchen’s crisp white millwork hovers, with space above and below to emphasize the box-within-a-box effect. One is constantly aware, here, of contemporary design as a sort of complement to (rather than an abolisher of) the original warehouse.

Look up and you’ll see a network of original Douglas fir beams, lit up to dramatic effect by a set of skylights. There’s a five-foot volume between the beams and the building’s actual ceiling—another clearly defined envelope.

Ultimately, though, Arbel’s loft does what a great loft ought to: it gets out of the way. “You want to revel in an open floor plan like this,” he says. “Part of the promise of living in a loft is the way nothing’s fixed.” There are no walls to break off the living space, kitchen or dining area, save for a couple of paper “soft walls” by Molo, which accordion, shift or disappear depending on that day’s whims.

Arbel can create structure when it’s called for; he’s justly happy with the bathroom, where a vanity area, a tiled shower and a halo of light at the shower’s rear make up a set of three nesting boxes. But mostly this is a home where the owner’s superlative (and eclectic) collection of furnishings can take centre stage. Baroque chandeliers and Parisian café chairs share the space with Buddhas and Japanese wind socks.

The massive dining table is a replica of one at nearby hot spot Salt Tasting Room restaurant. A modern abstract painting by Charles Forsberg and a stunning chandelier enhance the scale and conversation.

Large hanging fish kites catch the light in the living room. Architect Omer Arbel’s tips for how to introduce modern elements to an existing space ripe with character:

1. Use dramatic colour shifts to distinguish new objects, while respecting vintage surfaces and palettes.
2. Embrace the contrast between old and new. “It’s a tense conversation at times, but within that tension there’s a wonderful place to inhabit,” says Omer.
3. Use “reveals” to delineate materials. Allow for breathing space in the transition from new walls and fresh flooring options to existing walls and ceilings.
4. Apply discreet trim to define the lines between vintage and modern elements.

This scenic site is a part of the residential area developed in the natural greenery area of the mountain gwanggyo and that is located at the entrance area to trail to mountain.

From agony about the direction to which major living space see, the plan of this house started. After all, the direction to the opposite mountain that will be preserved in the natural green space forever was selected. But this charming selection that introduce the permanent natural landscape brought the problem, bad solar condition, that the major living space is faced to northwest sunlight. And so, we must make the solution to absorb the southern and eastern sunlight into the inside of the house.

“Glass box of light” that will absorb the useful sunlight was introduced to inside space of the various level and these boxes which are planted with flower and fruit are functioned as “Floating glass garden”. Actually, we solved the problem and we own both the two conditions that are the introduction of landscape and ecological environment and naturally, we have been reached to the complex solution that all the rooms have their own garden.
The dynamic, unrealistic interior space which are produced with several floating glass boxes over the major living space that is opened to the vertical height of 3 floors, will be the symbolic impression of this house.

We expect that this landscape architecture will coexist with the surrounding context for a long time, as if a small purple hill….

Glass doors leading out to a private courtyard connect the inside to the outside, while the upstairs bedroom with full bath offers the owner a relaxing private space. Custom built-ins and an exceptional selection of furniture create a modern living space.

Photos by David Livingston