Life on the Edge: An Architect's Eccentric NYC Loft - Remodelista
Photography by Matthew Williams for Remodelista. I first met David Ling, a new member of the Remodelista Architect and Designer Directory, in the cavernous, all-white New York offices of Richard Meier, the world-renowned architect whose cult-inducing abstract art and architecture inspired many aspiring architects from all over to come and train. A recent tour of his 2,500-square-foot live/work loft in a 19th century building near Gramercy Park is a testament to his particular Zen-like view of perfection–not an end goal in itself, but rather a mere and often fleeting byproduct of the poetry he worships in the process of design itself. The dining area serves as the dividing line between Ling’s office at the front of the loft and his living area and bedroom at the back. The dining table by Mira Nakashima is made from live-edge American black walnut and the white chair is a prototype that Ling developed. The kitchen area is defined by an 18 foot long counter of hand troweled, custom colored black cement, which has an inset stainless sink and Dornbracht faucet with a platinum finish. On the floor Ling installed 4-foot by 8-foot mirrored acrylic sheets purchased from an industrial supply store on Canal Street. Ling explains his spectacles collections this way: “My world is very visual, and I enjoy collecting instruments that help me see near (vintage glasses on the table) and far (binoculars). Some of the finest optics were made in Germany–hand-ground glass lenses.” Much of Ling’s work is inspired by natural forms that are found in organic materials. Ling’s living area faces a moat and a waterfall that cascades from the loft above in a sheet of water (when it’s turned on). The living area is a repository of Ling’s European modernist furniture collection and includes a Poul Kjaerholm pk31:3-seater sofa, a pair of Mies van der Rohe Brno Flat Bar Chairs, an Otto Kolb Table Lamp, and the Bauhaus Table Lamp by Carl J. Jucker and Wilhelm Wagenfeld. A row of potted greens add an organic touch to the black leather Mies van der Rohe sofa. The Reclining Nude chaise is a Ling design that won the Future Furnitue Award from Interior Design Magazine in 2003. Louis Ghost Chairs by Philippe Starck form a seating area around a “negative table” (a pit that was part of the existing buildling) in the moat. In a loft filled with surprises, the tiny second floor is perhaps the most astonishing: Ling opened up what had been an enclosed sculpture studio, and built out a platform for his mattress, so that he literally sleeps on the edge of a precipice. A Josef Hoffman Haus Koller 3 Seat Sofa and pair of 17th century copies of earlier Zen ink wash paintings illustrate the mingling of Ling’s European and Chinese influences. “I thought, wait, why attach the railings to the floor all the time–why not the ceiling for a change?,” he says. A calla lily-shaped wall of galvanized metal forms Ling’s bedside shower. Ling isn’t the only designer intrigued by prison accessories; have a look at Design Sleuth: Toilet Roll Holders Inspired by Prison Design. The monogrammed leather suitcases that Ling’s mother carried when she emigrated from Hong Kong to New Jersey in the 1950’s sit by Ling’s bed. Just beyond his office on the first floor, Ling displays architectural models, building material samples, and outsized Chinese calligraphy brushes on a table that he fashioned from tatami mats set on shoring posts. Well before bare bulb lights became all the rage, Ling installed junction boxes in the ceiling and hung Satco Incandescent Tubular Bulbs on socketed wires. His homemade fixtures–”about 30 cents each”–hang in the stairwell that leads down to a library. Ling fashioned the desks in his office from salvaged materials. Ling pairs a collage by our former employer Richard Meier with an abacus. The architect stands with his rescue dog, George, in the back of his 1880s building, originally a dental factory. A plan of the first floor of Ling’s live/work space shows the office area in the front and the living area in the rear. A longitudinal section cuts through the length of the space. To get started on creating your own look, see our DIY posts A Bed Made From Reclaimed Wood and the George Nakashima Rope Chair.