Photo: Bruce Damonte
Due to its 182-foot by 127-foot infill site being closely flanked by three buildings, SPF:architects (SPF:a) designed a nontraditional floor plan for The Line Lofts mixed-use apartment building. Units are distributed so lofted apartments are on the ground and top floors. Double-floor units on the first floor provide ample daylighting while maintaining privacy.
Vertical, multifloor connections occur at various elevations. The second and third floors, and fifth and sixth floors are linked. An open-air courtyard is joined with the sixth floor. Egress stairs are on the exterior as alternative building circulation to free up interior space.
Zoltan Pali, FAIA, founder and design principal at SPF:a, says, “The goal was to get light as deep into the spaces as possible. Details we would normally implement in a custom home, we tried to achieve in these apartments. We wanted to improve upon the rigid living environment that’s typically associated with multifamily residential buildings.”
The design incorporates corrugated metal wall panels, solid and perforated, and aluminum-framed windows and sliding glass doors. At the east façade, Tinco Corp. installed 3,370 square feet of Metal Sales Manufacturing Corp.’s TL-1222 metal wall panels with Kynar Mistique Plus metallic finish. The company also installed the same type of panels, but perforated, at ground level and first floor units to provide daylighting with privacy. There are 2,500 square feet of perforated panels on the south façade and 250 square feet on the east façade. All Weather Architectural Aluminum Inc. supplied its windows and sliding doors.
The six-story, 68,000-square-foot building houses 82 units, a mixture of studio apartments, one-bedroom apartments and two-bedroom apartments, single and two-level, ranging from 480 square feet to 1,265 square feet. Additionally, there is a 1,100-square-foot retail space at ground level occupied by a coffee shop.
