West Broadway, SoHo, NYC: the TRAloft
A COLORFUL LIFE
Location: SoHo, New York City Size: 2,200 SF Type: Loft Residence Photographer: Marili Forastieri
TRA studio’s Assistance: Preservation, Architectural Design + Documentation, Interior design, Furniture Selection, Lighting, Development Strategy, Owner’s Representation, Construction Management, Agencies’ Filing
TRA loft-421 West Broadway-SoHo-NYC
TRA Loft: between a living space and gallery
Caterina, an architect from Venice, and Bob, an environmental designer and artist, moved into a typical SoHo “shoe-box” loft, where their studio occupied the front half of the space. Following the arrival of their son, they transformed the semi-raw open space with few windows and no storage, into a luminous residence with flowing common living spaces.
The comfortable and luminous aura, the certainty of the power of color are typical of both of TRA’s interiors and of Robert Traboscia’s paintings, which are routinely exhibited as in a true artist’s loft.
Contrary to the belief that art is best displayed against white backdrops, the intense colors of the walls and the art complement and enhance each other: the art becomes part of the architecture. The color palette, palette has been specifically imagined and realized, by the artist himself with the purpose to exhibit his own art pieces. The bold colors are full of surprising choices: deep aubergine, dreamy blues, silvery shades of grey and a bright yellow backdrop highlighting the bright collection of mid-century venetian glass.
The palette also draws from the natural materials found in the loft: raw brick, raw steel details, stained wood beams and the faded but still legible painted sign on what used to be the exterior wall of the abutting loft building. The dining room and library are entirely built from the beams they salvaged after the demolition of the building that stood before at 44 Mercer, where now a new building designed by TRA studio now stands. The carefully restored Master bathroom is clad in tiles designed by Enzo Mari’s in 1970, (curious fact, when the interior was demolished prior to construction, only the tiled walls remained standing).
The loft, like all of TRA studio’s interiors, is one that visitors never seem to want to leave.
Press:
“Roiatti highlights the connection betweenTRA Studio's design work and Traboscia's artwork, and explains that the aesthetic found in their projects is the same aesthetic found in the couple's own home. "We don't see the distinction between interior and exterior," Roiatti explains. "We think of each project as a whole."
- Design Bureau Magazine, Inaugural issue, by Annie Fisher, November-December 2011
- Moja4zida, publication
- Loft as Stage, by Ivana Skoro, November 2011
“ Roiatti and Traboscia’s loft is a seamless fusion of life and work”
”both precise eclectic modern and warm, it is clear that Roiatti and Traboscia’s style has been honed to perfection after years together on the job and at home”
- Design Bureau Magazine, A Colorful Life, by Nalina Moses, January-February 2012