Tag: nyc architect

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Shared Living Suites – Semi-Apartments within an Apartment

SHARED APARTMENT LIVING

This layout option is for the Homeowner, who may not be willing to invest in our ultimate walkup shared living layout which has initial higher upfront costs with a higher return over a longer period of time making it more appropriate for the developer.  This version is more of a straight forward apartment with shared bathroom, kitchen and living rooms with more modest sized suites, the ultimate version to be released soon has individual suites with their own bathrooms and only a shared kitchen, the living areas are within each suite.

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Best Townhouse Plan for New Construction “‘8c’ Independent Party-Wall Prototype”

For new construction, and in this as other studies to create rental apartments, an Architect is going to be confronted by two likely scenarios, the adjacent buildings have existing party-walls with the property line running through it’s center, or, there are no adjacent buildings and thus new party-walls can be built directly over the property line.  In this version of our townhouse plan, we explore the ramifications of an existing party-wall that can not be used as it does not meet earthquake code requirements, or, a new building positioned it’s party-wall completely onto its own property.

This results in slightly less interior space, but also creates a unique situation where the joists can run from the front of the building to the back.  The design result, is a 2 bedroom apartment with a huge great room with 3 windows bringing in the light and air, something that most people in New York City, Chicago, Boston or any large city would love to have.

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Kitchen Renovation Project

We get a lot of calls for bathroom and kitchen renovations. Often we refer them to other companies given their limited budget.  Not that we’re unwilling to do them but we also don’t want them to spend money on us when with very limited funds it could be spent on materials.

That said, we do design kitchens, bathroom or whatever program element a home owner desires.  This project was special in that it was built for a NYC Police Officer hurt on the job and confined to a wheel chair.  Despite the limited budget we couldn’t say no. Continue reading “Kitchen Renovation Project”

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The Ultimate Townhouse Layout

The design challenge is to maximize the square footage within a typical 20’x45′ townhouse footprint while minimizing the lost space in public areas.  Sounds simple?  Haha, yeah sure.  To do so one needs to examine all the pieces to ensure they themselves are efficient, and then arrange those pieces in such a way to avoid wasted space and improve sizes of rooms based on their hierarchical importance.

So we want to minimize the public spaces, the hallways and push that area savings into the main rooms of the apartment.  At the same time we want to maximize the number of bedrooms, keep all plumbing and vent stacks in one area to minimize cost of construction, and keep everything nice and easy to build with simply arranged partitions, so the cost stays reasonable, and the time it takes to finish is quick.  Clean layouts means less confusion for contractors, thus avoiding mistakes.

Can we at SimpleTwig Architecture.llc do it?  We think we have and would like to present a clean, highly efficient apartment layout ready for most townhouses in New York City, Chicago and other urban areas, allowing the Home Owner to maximize their rent roll while providing their tenants with homes they will look forward to living in.

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Analysis of Residential Stair Configurations for Townhouses

This is a very cut and dry analysis of four different stair configurations that could help generate an additional $54,000 in rental income from a 4 story townhouse type structure just by reconfiguring the stair, touched on in a previous article (which we would recommend reading).  The first option is the traditional townhouse stair, found in most townhouses in New York City.  Often this stair offers stunning architectural detail and should be preserved, but more often than not the original stair has been replaced with a metal stair, due to sagging or some other issue.  Sadly the replacements lack character and often do not fix the underlying issue to why they were sagging and are themselves sagging, causing stress fractures in party-walls at each end of the stair.

The advantages of replacing the stair are simple, it frees up square footage that can be used inside an apartment.  The following compares three different stairs, the traditional, the compact and the ‘extended landing’, and a new comer, the squarish stair which is the best option (< spoiler alert). It is noted as ‘Stair 8’ which reflects the number of versions we’ve studied to get to that point. This ‘best option 8’ is shown in the article ‘The Ultimate Townhouse Floor Plan’ released August 28, 2017, so take a look at that one as well.

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Plans for 2 Duplexes and Cafe

A unique Brooklyn lot in that this property had two structures overlooking a city park, with exposures on 3 sides, SimpleTwig Architecture decided to make the most of the situation by creating a small cafe on the main street corner and providing outdoor porch seating between the structures, allowing for a substantial increase in available seating for the shop.

Further, both structures allowed for open floor plan duplexes, each with 2 bedrooms.  Together they maximize the rental capacity of the property and provide the community with an amenity of character which will be cherished for years to come.

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Embracing the Family Clan, for their Healthy Financial Future

With baby boomers reaching maturity, new responsibilities can become overwhelming in a struggling economy. With parents in retirement, children growing up but staying at home or leaving, the financial burden for each can strain the whole family’s finances to a breaking point.  Certainly if one finds themselves living paycheck to paycheck it is easy to make an argument for change.

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Top 5 Things the City of Newburgh Should Do Now.

With several hundred vacant buildings in Newburgh, NY owned by the city, the city needs to take drastic action to stop the decay and reverse the momentum immediately.

While the excuses of lost jobs, crime and the effects of urban renewal can be reflected upon, the lack of motivated intelligent and experienced direction is at the heart of the city’s failures. I too hear the voices of ‘oh I hope someone renovates this majestic structure one day’ and while everyone can share this sentiment it just isn’t enough to affect actual change, for if the city does not drastically modify its approach and attitude all those structures which hold so much potential will eventually need to be torn down, leaving more ‘urban renewal’ effects dotted throughout the city and thus further contributing to the decline of the city. The dam has broken and the water is all but gone.  First step, repair and strengthen the dam in a way that is more self-maintaining, in order to prevent decay or a breach in the future… so the water may once again fill in the cavity.

The following are the five most important things the city can do to begin to stop the negative momentum and change people’s perception of the city as one of opportunity.

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Human Design: Eyelashes and Eyebrows

Architecture is fundamentally connected to humans. That which is not connected is not architecture.

To understand function and how it influences the way something looks, one need only look at the human machine, and in this article the eyelashes and eyebrows. While the conclusions here are based on observation they hold within them a fundamental logic which is hard to deny.

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