By Mary Ann.
Developers have handed New York City interior designers an interesting challenge in developing a product that is a loft in name only. The classic loft was large raw space in a commercial building that offered openness and high ceiling and an esthetic that New York City interior designers found challenging: they could break it up, leave it open, allow the walls to remain rough or smooth them out uptown style. Now, however, developers are calling almost any apartment that has a living room a loft – and Manhattan designers are using their loft design skills to make large open kitchens blend into living rooms. The outcome is often the equivalent of a suburban family room: a friendly, open space. We show many of these loft interiors and the New York City interior designers who specialize in lofts – whether it’s a loft or an apartment in NYC that pretends to be! -- Karen Fisher