As with all projects that we do, the concept, design and production of the work is collaboration between the owner, architect, engineers, contractors and suppliers. But the renovation of Melissa Marks and Vicente Caride’s loft in Chelsea took the process of collaboration to another level. Both Melissa and Vicente are creative professionals in their own right. Melissa is a painter whose recent exhibitions include the Adventures of Volitia at Cortijada los Gazquez, Velez Blanco, Spain and the Bloomberg SPACE in London. Her husband, Vicente, is an Art Director and Graphic Designer.
The owners and architects worked together to develop a plan that would create order amongst the different functions by adding bathrooms, bedrooms, storage lofts, stairs, a studio, office and a living room without dividing up the existing open plan of the space. To this end, a series of sliding walls each weighing over 500 lbs serve as alternating studio and exhibition walls that reveal or conceal different areas (studio, office and living room) according to the time of day and who is using the space.
Because artists and architects both use lines to express ideas it was decided that different household functions would be delineated and their use defined by a solid walnut line that circumnavigates the entire loft to become shelving, stairs, door jambs, window sills, desks and countertops, thereby unifying the space while differentiating the various functions that take place there.
A minimal pallet of walnut, carrera marble and white paint was chosen as a backdrop for Melissa’s drawings, some of which are made directly on the wall. Only two areas were given a color scheme: the stair railing in their son, Archie’s room and the bathroom walls in which a variety of blue tiles were hand- placed by the owners themselves to evoke a spray of water.
The stair railing is made of nearly 20,000 LEGO® blocks. The architects designed the stairs, structure and Mondrian inspired openings d on LEGO® dimensions (measured by dots) while the Marks/Caride family worked with Sean Kenney, one of two licensed LEGO Artists d in New York City, to create a flow of receding or intensifying color up and down the stairs. The final design is composed of an on-going series of additions made by Archie, his parents and his friends; allowing the project to grow and change with input from the people, who live, work and play in the space.
