Brooklyn Loft

"Oh no! A baby's coming and we have a loft apartment?!" Hired by a young Brooklyn couple expecting their first child, DHA took on the challenge of retrofitting an urban loft for a new family.

Conceived as a piece of furniture, a series of storage elements combine to create a secluded child's bedroom. A carved, wood box contains the trappings of parenthood (including the baby) but still maintains the open feel and suitability for entertaining that the client's love about their loft.

This project is a prototype of bedroom infill construction to adapt loft living for a wider range of users. Cities across the countries have loft-style apartments occupied by young people transitioning into parenthood. Making lofts more flexible makes them more urban: residents stay in their lofts, invest in their communities and demand betters services. This creates vibrant and resilient urban neighborhoods that support different lifestyles. This is version 2.0 of the post-industrial urban neighborhood.

Orange Beach Tower

Everyone gets their own view. For this ocean front condominium, balconies curve around the building, creating a dynamic and shifting form. This form resulted from a study of the limits of conventional concrete construction: the primary strucutre is continuous throughout the building, only the balconies shift. This creates an iconic tower for a minimal cost increase over a conventional building.

This project was led by David Hecht Architecture in collaboration with FORUM design.

West Hollywood Hotel

A spiral of public spaces is carved into the solid block of the hotel. Exterior spaces, pools, restaurnts and lounges weave throughout the building. This move animates a typically closed courtyard building type and opens it to the public and to the Southern California weather.

A project of TEN Arquitectos, David was a project architect during construction document development.

Prague Library

It's all in the walls. Undulating concrete walls hold books and data, display information and create canyons of knowledge. These dramatic top-lit spaces are the heart of a library that defines a new national identity. Floors are secondary elements to the uplifting power of the massive walls and the continuous glass roof.

For this international competition to design the Prague National Library, David Hecht Architecture collaborated with FORUM design.

Dead on the Inside

Working with the photographer Shannon Ebner, David Hecht Architecture worked to design and build this installation in Rockefeller Center. Inscribed with the phrase "Dead on the Inside," the concrete block cylinder created an inpenetrable barrier bewteen exterior and interior - one can only catch glimpses of the inside. The massive presence of the installation suggests the weight of our inner thoughts and belies the structure's temporary existence.

Olivebridge Tower

Introducing the veritcal country house. This residence in upstate New York is a tower amongst the trees. The 4th level living room spans across a ravine and affords views over treetops to a distant reservoir. The south facing stair tower is a four story ventilator, naturally pulling cool air through the house.

A Peter Gluck and Partners project, David was the staff architect in charge of design and stair and curtain wall fabrication. David oversaw the first phases of construction.

Industrial Re-use

These are design studies for the adaptive re-use of a massive, landmarked beer brewery complex in Harlem. The design capitalizes on the over-capacity of the original building's structure to place a vertical addition atop the building without requiring additional support. Carving into this new top allows light to penetrate deep into the existing structure.

The glass and steel addition makes the combination of new and old buildings explicit; it accentuates the projects history and suggests the evolution of the city over time.

A Peter Gluck and Partners project, David was the design architect.