TriBeCa, New York · 2023 · Adaptive reuse residence
The Urban Loft
An adaptive reuse of a 1908 cast-iron warehouse into a single-family residence with a rooftop pool.
Location
TriBeCa, New York
Year
2023
Discipline
Adaptive reuse residence
Area
720 m²
The Brief
A technology entrepreneur and his family commissioned RowUI to convert the top three floors of a landmarked 1908 cast-iron warehouse in TriBeCa into a single-family residence. The brief called for the insertion of full 21st-century residential performance — acoustics, climate, security, wellness — into a shell that could not be visibly altered from the street. The programme was 720 m² of continuous residential space plus a 200 m² rooftop terrace with a full outdoor kitchen, pool, and wildflower meadow. The clients wanted the industrial character of the shell to remain legible, while the interior life of the family remained fully contemporary.
The Challenge
Landmark protection covered the primary facade, the original cast-iron structural columns, and the historic ceiling of the lobby. No visible modification to any of these was permitted. The existing floor plates were engineered for industrial loads but had degraded over a century of moisture and micro-cracking. The building had no elevator suitable for residential use, no rooftop structural capacity for a pool, and no mechanical infrastructure beyond a mid-century steam heating system.
The RowUI Solution
The approach was surgical. Every new element floats: the kitchen island is cantilevered from a hidden steel moment frame; the master bedroom is a suspended timber volume that never touches the original brick; the primary staircase is milled from a single block of Belgian bluestone, engineered to look weightless. A new steel moment frame was threaded through the existing structure, carrying all new floor loads while preserving every visible original element. The rooftop was rebuilt as a full outdoor living programme, with a 12-metre stainless-steel pool set on a new reinforced concrete slab tied back into the primary structural frame. A dedicated residential elevator was inserted into an existing lightwell, minimising the loss of original fabric.
The Architectural Detail
Interior finishes preserve the industrial character in the primary volumes — original cast-iron columns, exposed brick spandrels, and salvaged timber joists — while inserting contemporary elements in a distinct material vocabulary. New joinery is hand-oiled European oak; new walls are hand-troweled lime plaster; new floors are wide-plank reclaimed oak from a nineteenth-century Vermont barn. The rooftop composition includes a stainless-steel outdoor kitchen, a wildflower meadow supporting a working beehive, and a glass pavilion housing a dining table for twelve. Every mechanical service is routed through a new ceiling plenum that preserves the exposed original beams below.
The Result
The residence has become one of the most photographed adaptive-reuse projects in Lower Manhattan. It has been featured in the New York Times Real Estate section and two international architecture publications. The building achieves a 40 percent reduction in energy use compared to the code minimum for its climate zone, despite the constraints of a landmarked envelope. The family has occupied the residence as their full-time primary home since 2023 and has commissioned RowUI for a country residence in upstate New York.
