Here's a project I'm working on for my portfolio.  I'm looking at designing a corner loft in a vacant building that actually exists.  The loft is on the 4th level, but I also intend it to occupy the 5th and 6th floors as well.  As you can see, the floors have been removed a very long time ago.  I hope to post floorplans soon, but I like viewing space in 3d.

 

I figured I'd start by modeling the rough space.  I'm not exactly sure what I want, but I have an idea where walls and rooms will go (although I intend there not to be too many walls)  I'm deciding what type of floors to use.  I thought about a typical wood floor joist system, but after modeling it, I thought it looked a bit too messy, or like someone's unfinished basement with them set upon the beams instead of an "old mill" look.  After browsing through flickr, I was actually more impressed with exposed concrete ceilings.  I'm thinking about a hollowcore precast system for the floors.  You've might have seen this before in some loft construction. 

 

Check this: http://www.bison.co.uk/products.aspx?id=31.

 

I believe it's more appropriate for this type of building

 

They sell in 6 in slabs on US manufacturers websites, and I figured it would be nice to shove all the electrical and plumbing inside.  The only things that will be exposed are the ductwork. 

 

I'm going to keep the brick, although I'll paint the orange terra-cotta block the same color as the brick.  I'm obviously going to have to divide this building into separate units, and I would like to use the same brick that's already on the walls. A very similar color is still available today. 

 

There will be one full master bedroom and a guestroom+bath on the third level.  The second level will have an entertainment/office/studio/everything type of area that could be turned into a bedroom if necessary.  It will be entirely open but have a wall that can pull out for privacy.  There will also be a bathroom on this level.

 

First floor will have a living space that is double height, so you'll be able to see down from the studio.  There will also be a dining area that will separate the living area from the kitchen.  It will all be open, but variation in the ceiling will help separate spaces.  A mechanical room will be off to the side of the kitchen.  A foyer will either lead you to the kitchen or to the living area down the hall.  A bathroom will be accessible from the foyer space.  I want there to be a procession into a grand space basically as you walk in.

 

A little history

The building is located in East Downtown Saginaw.  It's definitely an area that hasn't seen much redevelopment, since Saginaw's other downtown "Oldtown" or Hamilton Square is seeing a lot of new loft activity.  But whatever, I'm going to pioneer this area.  East downtown is primarily where Saginaw's larger office and commercial buildings are.  This particular building was historically a 3 story auto dealership and repair shop.  It burned in a fire and was rebuilt preserving the original facade sometime in the 20's I believe.  4 more levels were added although the 7th floor wasn't all that big.  The top levels used steel construction and smaller steel trusses like you see at big box stores.  A HUGE innovation for that time.  I don't think the levels were used much, and the trusses were eventually removed. 

 

The city classifies the building as "Parking Structure" and apparently it served that for the last part of it's useful life.  There's no inclined ramps, just a massive car elevator.  The building has been abandoned for a very long time.  The current owner expressed interest in renovating it or demolishing it.  When it was briefly up for sale, my architecture firm had considered buying it, but opted out for a more historically valuable building not too far away. 

 

Current Building:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted to model my dream loft, but I felt this project would be challenging and perhaps create a vision that might help in saving this building if demolition is what the developer is leaning toward.

 

So here's Update 1 showing the shell of the building.

Looking toward the front of the loft.  The beams on the first floor have only about 8'5 of clearance which is why I wanted to achieve extra height by setting slabs atop them.  The floors above have much higher clearance

 

Looking toward my corner from a different angle, the horizontal beam in the lower right foreground is actually where my unit ends.  I'm technically standing out where the common hallway would go.  BTW, there's a 3 story outdoor courtyard!

 

 

So, more updates coming soon!

You could do almost anything with the open floors.  Please keep us posted on the progress. 

Are the precast hollowcore floors designed as a safety precaution and/or for strength that comes with an aquaduct-like design? Sounds like an cool project, I can't wait to see how it turns out. I'll take two units!

hollowcore has higher fire ratings, and it's also relatively quick to install, thinner than a wood joist system, and will conceal all my wires and pipes.  It works really well in conjunction with steel frames.  Plus I have some helpful spec sheets with dimensions and what not.

Do you have a budget to work from?  If not, these floors are really cool.  Alumafloor....aluminum tiles that are engineered to fit together without grout joints.  Pretty expensive, but really cool, and surprisingly quiet.  Rem Koolhaas (sp) used them at the student center at IIT for the remodel. 

 

http://www.aluminumfloors.com/

 

Also, another good idea if you want to break up the space, but want to have it open sometimes too...an electronic privacy glass wall is clear and then goes opaque when turned on...we are using this for a big open penthouse space in one of our projects at work.

 

http://www.switchlite.com/home.html

 

These tiles are cool too:

 

http://www.sensitile.com/index_splash.html

This is cool too, transparent concrete:

 

http://www.litracon.hu/

 

Hope you don't mind me throwing in some ideas for some cool materials

 

I definitely don't mind at all.  I've seen the glass walls that switch before, but never knew the manufacturer.  I had this idea where I might put the glass over parts where there is drywall, and this product could continue to enclose rooms in the center.

What's urbanmichigan.com? Did you register that domain? I went to it expecting it to be like urbanohio.

I killed it years ago when Brandon and I decided to work together on detroitrising.com.  The current site will be scrapped too and a shiny up to date design will be in place of it.

 

We will not have forums.

 

I still have ownership of the domain though.