This loft apartment occupies the top floor of a converted mill building, where the Mississippi River, grain silos, and skyscrapers create a dynamic urban context for collectors of abstract and minimalist art. The architecture is austere, though tempered by the warmth and richness of Douglas fir, its primary finish material.
The openness of the loft is punctuated with figural elements, particularly the library defined by curved steel and plaster walls lined with fir cabinetry. Translucent curtains define a zone of perimeter circulation and create privacy for the adjoining bedrooms. A large, sliding wood panel tracks along an exterior glass wall to provide both shade, and new wall space for art.
The rooftop terrace manifests many of the same ideas as the interior space: minimalism as a framework for daily life, and the creation of warmth with only a few, carefully chosen materials. An elevated plane of natural grass framed in COR-TEN steel defines a spatial center and visual anchor for the other terrace elements, including a meditation pavilion wrapped in black wood lattice and monumental COR-TEN steel planters.
Photos by George Heinrich