This small apartment in the top floor of a landmarked Upper West Side townhouse had already been in our client’s family for decades when they entrusted us with its first major renovation since the 1980s.

The 370-square-foot space needed strategic rethinking, and with no room to grow outside the unit’s footprint, we decided to expand upward. Taking advantage of the apartment’s location at the top floor of the building, we installed an immense skylight and raised the entire living room ceiling, which added a large volume of space vertically to the unit without any visible changes from the street below. This was accomplished in part due to a unique existing facade feature that enabled us to conceal the skylight from the street - a key requirement in the landmarked neighborhood.

The addition of the new skylight, which we engineered and carefully situated to maximize light while still providing privacy, also creates enough headroom for a lofted bed with a dedicated work-from-home space below it. Access to the loft space is a set of steps - not your typical bed ladder - allowing an easy approach (even for pets), with the climb up made even smoother by new vertical clearance granted by the increased height of the ceiling.

Other design elements include a custom-built kitchen, softened by gently curved edges to smooth the boundary between spaces. We moved the wall at the bathroom to bring the sink area out into an expanded dressing room, creating a feeling of spaciousness within a tight existing condition.