tang kawasaki studio

This 2500 square foot slice of a historic former caviar warehouse in Tribeca was delivered to us raw, after years of delinquent inhabitation. Ceilings were stripped down and repaired, sub-floors leveled and patched, and brick walls were blasted starting the course of the gut renovation. Our clients, a young family of four, led us to a richly reductive and utilitarian design that could accommodate the needs of casual entertaining and raising children in the city.

In the main loft space, the gravity between a rough waxed heavy-timber ceiling and wide-plank Brazilian walnut floors is balanced by a framework of white-washed vertical surfaces that articulate a contrastingly subtle set of lines. The kitchen is concealed behind glossy white lacquered doors and a fourteen-foot long fibre cement island worktop anchors the circulation of living spaces. A dining nook is nestled into a sun-drenched corner of the loft that is re-claimed from the building's original freight elevator shaftway. As natural light thins deeper into the space, a line of rugged columns establish the rhythm between steps up to a private landing. A palette of Burmese teak, Carrara mosaic and Venetian plaster is set against an old wall of pellet-blasted brick in the master bath. The boys' suite is characterized by a play of warm and cool spaces, held in dialogue by the various textures of walnut, limestone, leather and resin.

Photos by Andrea Morini