Heidi Hefferlin designed the Williams Street Loft as a companion to the adjoining Akhriev Studio designed by Craig Kronenberg a few years earlier.  Originally the building housed a marble fabrication ship.  It was built in the early 1900’s using 2’ thick unreinforced concrete walls, heavy timber columns, wood joists and decking.

The building was quite deteriorated.  The rear third was partially demolished to make room for a pool and walled garden courtyard.  The walls were reinforced by interior structural steel studs giving us space for plumbing wiring, and insulation. 

The house is entered through a covered stoop, a characteristic found on Williams Street. 

We divided the building with public space on the ground floor and private space on the second floor.  The living room, dining room and kitchen are all incorporated in one large loft-like room that opens onto the private garden.  The second floor houses the private functions of the family all organized off a central hall.  We reused as much of the old materials as possible for flooring and trim, salvaged the existing mosaic tile floors in the entry way and reused steel beams for previous reinforcement.