Landmark Office Building Transformed into Luxury Residences

By W.A. Muller

Manhattan's Financial District, a long-time home to some of Wall Street's largest companies, is quickly transforming with new residential and hospitality developments. The Compass Lofts is a newly renovated, 10-story adaptive reuse residential and commercial building was previously the showroom and office of Keuffel & Esser, a famous manufacturer of architecture and engineering drafting materials and instruments. The building's developers, Elie Pariente and Josh Rahmani of EMP Capital Group, tapped architecture firm Colkitt&Co, interior design studio Tamara Eaton Design, Zaskorski & Notaro Architects, New York Design Architects, and others to transform the space into luxury residences. The restored landmark offers seven loft suites that combine historic architecture with modern conveniences.

The team strived to restore the landmarked building's historic integrity, having been built in 1893, while carefully recreating architectural details on the exterior. The facade features ornate, traditional engravings, including some of the original Keuffel & Esser signage. The two-story lobby, designed by Tamara Eaton Design in collaboration with Colkitt&Co, was inspired by a vintage manufacturing theme that nods to the building's history with touches of romantic decor. Above the lobby are seven, full floor luxury units – six of which are two-bedroom lofts – offering open floorplans that optimize the space and are accented by distinctive half-moon windows on both the north and south sides of the building. The seventh unit is a duplex penthouse, a new addition to the building, with 1,028 exterior square-feet spanning two private rooftop decks.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 1985, the building is bookended by two streets with the exclusive residence entrance located at 42 Ann Street, and the commercial entrance at 127 Fulton Street. The residences have sweeping views of the Freedom Tower, especially from the 3,444 interior square-foot penthouse suite.

Throughout the residential transformation, the building's rich architectural details such as barrel vaulted ceilings and window engravings are juxtaposed with high-end finishes including energy-efficient Viking and Liebherr appliances, high-gloss kitchen cabinets, hardwood flooring and porcelain countertops. The building also contains a private storage space available to every homeowner, a private keyed elevator, a virtual doorman, humidification systems and radiant heated flooring.

Colkitt&Co's motto, Drawn Together™ gets its meaning from the process rooted in collaboration between people, brands, agencies and communities. Nathan Lee Colkitt and his team at Colkitt&Co worked with Tamara Eaton Design on interior layout modifications in the residential units, and duplex penthouse, as well as worked through code issues to obtain the building's certificate of occupancy. Colkitt&Co also completed a design and renderings for the duplex penthouse, a unit which will remain unfinished until the space is sold and the new owner decides on custom finishes and furnishings.

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