In addition to being a high-profile attorney and MSNBC analyst, Andrew Weissmann is also a natural-born collector with a deep-seated passion for design. The brief for his home in Manhattan’s Flatiron District was to maintain the loft’s existing character with its wood columns and muscular moldings, but also to make it work better with interventions that felt appropriate for the space. The ceiling was high, so we suspended a steel loft with rods and turnbuckles to make a library, and connected it to the ground floor with a slender folded steel staircase that takes up a minimal amount of space. Brake-form steel shelves offer a place for Andrew to store and display not only his extensive book collection, but also a range of intriguing curiosities, including antique cameras and a first-generation iPod. At the entrance to the bedrooms, we added a wood shelving unit with sliding doors to serve as a flexible divider between public and private spaces while also offering a place for another of his collections: a range of white ironstone china. For ventilation above the kitchen island, we suggested a commercial dust collector rather than a conventional kitchen hood, which is a detail Andrew loved because it amplified the industrial feel of the space. And then we worked together to place his extensive range of vintage furniture, objects, and works of art, which he has spent a lifetime collecting.

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