great rooms

A Fidi Loft With Room for the Pokémon: Before and After Photos

Architect Shane Neufeld’s streamlined renovation for Yuan Jiang and William Chen.

The Kitchen After: “It’s all white oak,” Neufeld says of the new millwork. “We did matte concrete floors and white walls and countertops, so it’s kind of a light box in a way. That whole back wall became storage.” Photo: Kevin Kunstadt
The Kitchen After: “It’s all white oak,” Neufeld says of the new millwork. “We did matte concrete floors and white walls and countertops, so it’s kind of a light box in a way. That whole back wall became storage.” Photo: Kevin Kunstadt

“They did not want walls,” says architect Shane Neufeld of his firm Light and Air’s clients, Yuan Jiang, a data scientist who works for a large tech company, and her husband, William Chen, who works at an investment management company. The couple had started looking for a loft space two years ago while renting in downtown Brooklyn. “We definitely wanted a loft layout because I think that’s what makes New York really unique,” Jiang says.

They found this 1,200-square-foot loft in the Financial District that had last been renovated in the ’80s. It’s in a converted 19th-century factory building which, as it turns out, Neufeld had experience in: He had already done an apartment — his in-laws’ — there.

The Kitchen Before: The kitchen was in hangover mode from the last renovation in the ’80s with dark finishes and a dead-end zone at the back. Photo: Shane Neufeld

Out went the dark stained finishes and floors; in came white oak, concrete floors, and Caesarstone countertops in the kitchen. “My intention was to create surfaces that would reflect and bounce the light around,” Neufeld says. Neufeld also had a mandate to create storage and display shelving. “I have a collection of Eevee evolutions because I grew up with Pokémon since I was a child,” Chen says. “And when Toys ’R’ Us went out of business, I decided I must have a full set of them.” He has nine, plus a few duplicates.

Jiang has her own collection of “Pusheen and Winnie the Pooh plushies,” she says. “I probably have over 500 hidden away in the loft right now, but we are planning to display them on the bookshelves that Shane designed for us.”

The no-walls request “forced us to think creatively about how to control the space through the architecture itself,” Neufeld says.

Before: The main living area, with the old flooring. After: The view from the entrance toward the floating bench that has storage on the other side, where there is a desk for Jiang in the sleeping area and a desk for Chen farther back by the window. The floors are poured concrete in the entry, kitchen and bathroom, and white oak elsewhere. From left: Photo: Shane NeufeldPhoto: Kevin Kunstadt
Before: The main living area, with the old flooring. After: The view from the entrance toward the floating bench that has storage on the other side, w... Before: The main living area, with the old flooring. After: The view from the entrance toward the floating bench that has storage on the other side, where there is a desk for Jiang in the sleeping area and a desk for Chen farther back by the window. The floors are poured concrete in the entry, kitchen and bathroom, and white oak elsewhere. From top: Photo: Shane NeufeldPhoto: Kevin Kunstadt
The floorplan, before and after. Shane Neufeld.
The floorplan, before and after. Shane Neufeld.
View into the dining room on the left, bedroom on the right. Photo: Kevin Kunstadt
Bathroom Before: The floors were tiled. Bathroom After: “The lights are hidden in coves so you get a pure volumetric reading of the space," Neufeld says, and by changing how you came into the room, it became larger. The concrete sink is from Trueform Concrete; the wall tiles are from Nemo Tile + Stone. From left: Photo: Shane NeufeldPhoto: Kevin Kunstadt
Bathroom Before: The floors were tiled. Bathroom After: “The lights are hidden in coves so you get a pure volumetric reading of the space," Neufe... Bathroom Before: The floors were tiled. Bathroom After: “The lights are hidden in coves so you get a pure volumetric reading of the space," Neufeld says, and by changing how you came into the room, it became larger. The concrete sink is from Trueform Concrete; the wall tiles are from Nemo Tile + Stone. From top: Photo: Shane NeufeldPhoto: Kevin Kunstadt
View Toward the Front Door, Before: “When you walked into the entrance foyer, it was kind of weird,” Jiang says. “The walls were actually slanted so that it triangulated the more you walked into the loft, so there wasn’t very much light in the foyer area.” After: Neufeld allowed the entrance natural light by floating the storage/bench by the desk and building out a wall of storage closets beneath the loft. “We specifically worked with Shane to make sure both of us could sit up fully anywhere in the loft area without hitting our heads,” Chen says. From left: Photo: Shane NeufeldPhoto: Kevin Kunstadt
View Toward the Front Door, Before: “When you walked into the entrance foyer, it was kind of weird,” Jiang says. “The walls were actually slanted so t... View Toward the Front Door, Before: “When you walked into the entrance foyer, it was kind of weird,” Jiang says. “The walls were actually slanted so that it triangulated the more you walked into the loft, so there wasn’t very much light in the foyer area.” After: Neufeld allowed the entrance natural light by floating the storage/bench by the desk and building out a wall of storage closets beneath the loft. “We specifically worked with Shane to make sure both of us could sit up fully anywhere in the loft area without hitting our heads,” Chen says. From top: Photo: Shane NeufeldPhoto: Kevin Kunstadt
Chen seen from the dining area, with a view of his collection of Pokémon, Eevee Evolution collection. Photo: Kevin Kunstadt
The display areas, just waiting to be populated. Photo: Kevin Kunstadt

More Great Rooms

See All
A Fidi Loft With Room for Pokémon: Before and After