Size: 1200 sqft

Photographs by Dana Meilijson

A lawyer husband and art collector wife were interested in having a private office for his law firm, and a shared space to display artwork like a small and intimate gallery.  They wanted to share the space while working together. 

They also wanted to have space so he could meet with his clients, and also be able to use it as a residence for when their children grow and need a place to live. Changeability would be the theme of the conversion.

EXD transformed this dilapidated former commercial space located on the ground floor of an Upper West Side Building in Manhattan, into an optimized, practical and beautiful LIVE-WORK space for the whole family to share.

The renovated unit functions both as an office and a gallery space. The media room, which serves as a storage space for office filing, can be separated for more privacy by closing the 3 FORM high tech sliding doors, ideal for when the clients must keep an eye on their children or to invite their parents over to stay. 

In the former kitchen area, we designed a kitchenette and where there was a single toilette, we created a secondary full bath so the unit could be transformed into a three-bedroom and two full bath home-office. For that purpose, we had changed the building’s CofO (Certificate of occupancy), to covert it from commercial space into LIVE- WORK, residential use.