Joel Sanders Architect, ANDarchitects, and Balmori Associates

LOFT RENOVATION, NEW YORK

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Real-estate developer Matthew Blesso is clearly in the business, but he morphed into Typically Demanding Client when renovating his 3,100-square-foot penthouse loft in New York. His expectations: cutting-edge design, sequestered spots for brainstorming, grand areas for entertaining—plus, a paradigm of Blesso Properties's sustainability mission. Joel Sanders, ANDarchitect's Andrea Steele, and landscape designer Diana Balmori tackled the latter challenge literally and figuratively. More than just specifying eco-friendly materials, they crafted a comprehensive green aesthetic. A staircase rises from a leafy planter that separates sleeping and dining quarters, leading to the 2,200-square-foot terrace's ipé deck, sewn with sedum and grass. Lush vegetation covers the master bathroom's "green wall." It's an urban garden that never acknowledges the boundaries between indoors and out.

Randy Brown Architects

project Eco Village residence, Omaha.

standout Bamboo floors, recycled-stone countertops, and a green roof up the eco ante in the renovation of this 2,964-square-foot house, the first component in what will become a 4-acre, 12-home sustainable development.

John Ronan Architect

project Yale Steam Laundry Condominium, Washington, D.C.

standout In going to extremes to retain the visual character of a 38,000-square-foot commercial laundry from the early 20th century, the designer found that less intervention meant more ecological construction—and a petite carbon footprint.

Thom Filicia

project Riverhouse model apartment, New York.

standout New York's only LEED Gold–certified condominium complex has a 2,100-square-foot model worthy of its pedigree: biodegradable wallpaper, bookcases of Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood, low-VOC paints, bamboo-fiber mattresses, and a pendant of recycled jet-engine parts.