St. Paul Loft

St. Paul Loft

Architect: Geoffrey Warner
Firm: Alchemy

When Erika Herrmann purchased her condominium in a nineteenth-century apartment building in St. Paul, the 1,350-square-foot space was a drywall box, suitable, she thought, only for someone with not a clue about good design. The floors were carpeted because the hardwood had been stripped in an earlier, generic renovation. The trim was plain and ungenerous; the closet doors were hollow and of the folding variety. The fireplace, surrounded in drywall, had been painted a dull white and sat too large in the space. The apartment was located on the top floor, though, and it had striking original windows and high ceilings. She purchased the condo in 2000 with the idea of transforming it into a loft.

The first thing she did was rip up the carpet and install maple floors in the living room and hallway. Then she called in an architect who had done an irreverent and inexpensive renovation of one of her favorite coffee shops [Anodyne Coffeehouse in Minneapolis]. Geoffrey Warner’s job was to add style and character for $30,000. . . .

Repeating the mantra “No, you can’t afford that,” the architect approached the renovation as a creative reinterpretation of the existing space, using inexpensive materials like plywood, diamond plate steel, and sandblasted acrylic. . . . By using low-cost materials consistently and creatively and rethinking existing functions, a drywall box has been transformed into a decidedly new-world home. . . . A bland condo was reborn as a loft. The renovation made the most of the bones of the space—high ceilings, good windows—and then imbued it with an eclectic, contemporary flair. 

From Good House Cheap House by Minneapolis author Kira Obolensky, published by The Taunton Press, 2005. Available at bookstores this month.