A Quintessential Tribeca Loft Is Reworked Into an Art-Driven Family Home
NoNo Studio takes a blank-slate approach to reshaping a landmarked 19th-century apartment into a flexible residence that balances heirloom objects with kid-friendly vignettes
One of the great privileges of New York living lies in constant proximity to the past. A sense of continuity indeed registers immediately in this quintessential Tribeca loft, housed within a history-laden 19th-century building commissioned by grocer Horace K. Thurber and designed by architect Charles F. Mengelson. The former industrial warehouse still retains its original Neo-Grec red-brick façade, punctuated by rough-cut granite keystones and corner blocks. It has passed through several lives over the years, moving from grocery use to light manufacturing and offices before ultimately being converted to residential units in the mid-1980s.
In 2005, a bachelor working in law purchased an apartment inside—long before marriage and children entered the picture. As their family grew, he and his spouse briefly entertained the idea of selling, but a deeper dive into New York’s unpredictable real estate landscape prompted reassessment. Their attention soon turned inward, toward the building itself. Its landmark status and his own personal history there provided a unique sense of depth absent from the polished contemporary homes they initially eyed. Rather than walk away, they committed to transforming the loft into a long-term family home they could recalibrate over time as their needs evolved.
At that point, the apartment existed as a single sweeping room, largely untouched since its residential conversion and needing a gut renovation. A colleague introduced the couple to NoNo Studio, the ascendant firm founded by designers Susannah Stopford and Alejandra Murillo, whose work centers on what they call “rigorous play”—a methodology rooted in careful listening and hands-on engagement with materials in pursuit of spirited, soulful interiors. The studio drew early attention through Stopford’s own home in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, where they transformed a 1930s hunting cabin into a warm, convivial refuge.
Stopford and Murillo entered the renovation with an open mind. The process naturally began by “learning how the client lives and what you can do architecturally to support that as much as possible,” Stopford explains, before confronting the realities of building in New York, where plumbing constraints, landmark regulations, and lengthy approvals can hamper even the most considered schemes. Fortunately, the clients placed major trust in the firm’s judgment with a few clear priorities in place. “Maintaining the existing masonry envelope was important,” Stopford says, as was preserving select personal pieces and committing to material choices aligned with the family’s focus on healthy living, including finishes free of formaldehydes and VOCs.
That trust allowed the designers to pursue what Murillo describes as a blank-slate approach to the plan. They kept the primary bedroom in its original location, introduced children’s rooms on the opposite end, and reorganized the remaining square footage to support a flexible domestic framework that could adapt over time. The home’s central volume now holds the kitchen, dining room, and living area within a single open expanse, illuminated by north- and east-facing light that shifts gradually throughout the day. Low-slung furnishings, millwork, and wainscotting keep the visual focus low, preventing the high ceilings from feeling too overwhelming. “The intention was to move things around a lot,” explains Stopford. “You might as well benefit from open-plan living. You don’t get the rich charm of specifically defined rooms, but at least you get flexibility.”
The home still carries plenty of character. Stopford and Murillo layered each room with artwork and furnishings sourced largely from local studios and galleries, offsetting the pared-back walls with meaningful pieces that lend warmth and intrigue. “We balanced the white envelope with tonally rich, curious objects,” Stopford says. An heirloom piano backdrops the dining area, its dark wood echoing the striking carved details of a vintage 1970s dining table. In the living room, the curves of an Umberto Bellardi Ricci cocktail table flow gracefully into a wall-mounted Garcé Dimofski shelf displaying ceramics and objects positioned below a spectral Arlina Cai canvas.
Clever storage is paramount in New York, and the designers found hidden solutions throughout. Every inch works hard behind the scenes, starting with the 20 feet of built-in cabinetry tucked beneath the living room windows. “They’re lawyers, so there are a lot of books that you don’t really want to show, definitely not coffee table books,” Murillo quips, noting how the long surface also displays ceramics, candelabras, and artwork leaned casually against the walls. The kitchen, meanwhile, includes dedicated cookbook nooks; ample surfaces in the primary bath pop open to reveal medicine cabinets. “We were careful about paying attention to less glamorous but important needs,” Murillo adds. “I think their storage dreams came true.”
With clutter kept at bay, the walls take on greater presence and forge a gallery-like ambience softened by playful gestures. In the children’s rooms, an arboreal canvas by Venezuelan artist Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe introduces a note of picture-book imagination. The primary bedroom changes tone, its hanging cast bronze wind bell by Paolo Soleri tempered by a cartoonish Giancarlo Valle rug and a rhythmically scalloped wooden desk by Maison Madeleine. Perhaps no vignette exemplifies Stopford and Murillo’s pursuit of “rigorous play” more.
“They wanted a put-together home that felt like kids could live there, but was also for adults,” Stopford says. “It was a clean slate and there was a lot of negotiation, but for that reason we got to really do soup to nuts.” Another exciting chapter in a building long accustomed to change.