Monday, October 19, 2009

The Hollywood, redux

No one builds apartment buildings anymore, do they?

I spent an hour or so revamping unit A6 at The Hollywood, a recently completed apartment (read: loft) building in Hollywood.

Original floor plan.

In spite of architect Stephen Kanner's boast about the "big open windows" in his spiel on the building's official website, according to his floor plan this "unit" seems to derive almost all of its light from the sliding glass doors that lead to the balcony. But really, you don't care whether your bedrooms have windows, do you?

My revamp leaves all of this apartment's infrastructure—including plumbing, HVAC, and miserly fenestration—in place. But it does complexify and attempt to remedy (insofar as possible) Kanner's reductive grovel to the "contemporary lifestyle, " i.e., no storage space, kitchen as foyer, dining room as afterthought.

The revamp.


The Hollywood, Hollywood.



at 2:19 AM

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5 comments:

  1. I like your kitchen/bar layout much better. plus closing off the kitchen helps save the rest of the house from getting any cooking smells. and having the bar there keeps cooking with friends informal and social enough without needing an open plan.

    And when will the islands trend die? they are always in the way. your triangle is much more efficient - though i'd prefer the fridge to be closer to the sink as opposed to the stove. I cook a lot.

    and there's something to be said for having those little cutting boards that pull out from under the counter - very very handy.

    nice job.
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  2. Lovely! What made you drop the half-bath?
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  3. I prefer your layout losing of the half bath and creation of a utility room (perhaps a better name than storage closet?) to spread out when doing laundry. However I am still one of those types who likes my open plan kitchen with the island. If I purchased your layout, I'd lose that wall/door between the kitchen & dining but keep the bar area.
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  4. That took you an hour? While I like the kitchen layout, now it is hell hole with a weak connection to the rest of the unit. The bar should have been on the south side. And exactly how much value did you just lose by losing the powder room? I like the walk-in closets; good move.
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  5. I intentionally put the bar on the east side so that you couldn't see into the kitchen from the living room. I guess I'm one of the few these days who doesn't feel that a service area like the kitchen should be the centerpiece of an apartment. Statistics prove me to be in the minority, however. Perhaps someday having the laundry area open to the living room will be all the rage, in which case I'll have to rethink my design.
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