Quadrant Loft

• location:
  Boston, MA
• Date:
  Completed 2006
• client:
  Edward Melia
• collaborators:
  Photographer: Anton Grassl
  Structural Engineer: Evan Hankin, PE
• project_team:
  Principal-In-Charge: Elizabeth Whittaker
  Design Team: Andrew Richardson
• description:
  The single client for the Quadrant Loft at the edge of Boston’s Leather District requested a physically divided yet visually open loft space. The design incorporates a series of pivoting and sliding glass partitions that segment the space into quadrants, allowing the layout to operate as four distinct spaces while maintaining its unity as a single volume.
  
  Glass lacks a visual edge. In this project, invisible glass boundaries are minimally framed with custom-fabricated stainless steel hardware. The glass frames operate as floating thresholds between adjacent quadrants, giving the space an ambiguous sense of depth. The glass panels are sometimes nearly invisibly transparent, and at other times create a reflective boundary wall, depending on the time of day and sun angle. The surrounding city and the bright digital signs nearby are reflected in the glass panels, creating a complex and ephemeral visual layer within the loft.
  
  Although glass is the primary material used in partitioning of space, industrial materials are used along wall surfaces and storage spaces. Striated engineered-wood veneer casework and a custom concrete dry bar counter provide a solid material counterpoint to the ephemeral glass walls and doors.