Photograph by Spine 3-D
Feature: Lofty Ideas
March 1, 2006
“They tend to be more creative, driven people,” says Watts, the architect for Element in Marina del Rey. “They don’t fit into any particular demographic. It’s not just the urban young gritty copywriter who wants to be radical. It appeals to creative people willing to take risks.”
Says Cody of the South Group, which is building Luma in Los Angeles: “It means different things to different people, but it’s always exciting. Something about a loft evokes excitement. Some people don’t desire a huge house in the suburbs or, if they do have that, they want to complement it with an urban loft near fabulous restaurants, the opera house. When you think about it, what do you enjoy in life? What is the good life? It’s the arts, fine dining. Lofts bring you closer to that. And you can turn the key and fly off to France for the weekend and not worry about who has to mow the lawn.”Avenue Communities initially marketed its Third Avenue Lofts in Scottsdale to people in their 20s before it realized its mistake. Today, most of its buyers
are age 40 and up. Losch calls them “artsy creative types” who already have owned
a house in an affluent area and want to express themselves through living in an urban environment. One buyer, a single lawyer in her late 40s, invested more
than $100,000 in electrical work and cabinetry in her 2,000-square-foot
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A rendering of a great room at 50
Pine Street in New York, a
building that will comprise 20 lofts in the
hub of the Financial District. Photograph by Aniphase (Click image to
enlarge)
The freedom to create your own design on a large scale is alluring to many
buyers. Lofts are usually empty canvases calling out for creative color on the
walls or an arrangement of furniture that could only work in an area unrestrained by interior walls. “You can have lots of different staging groups or just enjoy
the open space with one sitting group that enjoys the view,” says Watts of
Element in Marina del Rey. “People get a kick out of it. It makes them feel more
creative. There is a deliberate shedding of clutter involved.”
At Parc Lofts in Miami, developer Harper-McCausland is proud of the fact that Intrepid doesn’t “do bedrooms, closets or walls.”
“I don’t believe we should tell people where to sleep,” he says. “It’s up to you to create what you want.”
One loft owner in an Intrepid building snatched up two units and redesigned the space into a 6,000-square-foot home, with its own private elevator, 36-foot-tall ceilings and a Molteni kitchen.
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