urbanSTL

Did the tour again today. Good progress seems to be under way. Snapped a couple of more photos. One is where the 9th floor community patio will be and the other two are looking out the north windows of unit #901.

Quick question for all of you more knowledgeable folks! We did the tour on Saturday and we freaked out just a little when we noticed how "small" our 1400 square feet seemed to be. I am not sure if this is a visual perception issue or not since neither of us have bought a loft (or house) as it is being torn apart and re-built. For those of you who know a lot about this, did you find that your space seemed small when it was in the phase of the project as the Syndicate Building is?

bronte16 wrote:Quick question for all of you more knowledgeable folks! We did the tour on Saturday and we freaked out just a little when we noticed how "small" our 1400 square feet seemed to be. I am not sure if this is a visual perception issue or not since neither of us have bought a loft (or house) as it is being torn apart and re-built. For those of you who know a lot about this, did you find that your space seemed small when it was in the phase of the project as the Syndicate Building is?

Yup, It's a visual perception thing. My space is 1389sqft and when I walked it during early demolition I remember thinking to myself "Wow this space seems very small." But now that it is framed up and I have seen finnished units, It is definately more space than it looked like. The smallness perception is caused by you being in a large open area with no walls and then having to focus on only a small section of that. Also keep in mind that 1400sqft does not mean 1400 useable sqft.

bronte16 wrote:Quick question for all of you more knowledgeable folks! We did the tour on Saturday and we freaked out just a little when we noticed how "small" our 1400 square feet seemed to be. I am not sure if this is a visual perception issue or not since neither of us have bought a loft (or house) as it is being torn apart and re-built. For those of you who know a lot about this, did you find that your space seemed small when it was in the phase of the project as the Syndicate Building is?

When I bought my first loft I too had a "freak out" moment on the perception of the space. In the initial phase of demo, everytime I walked in that space I thought there is no way this space is over 1500 SF. Then when they got the framing done the space actually looked bigger. But then after the drywall was installed (before taping and painting) I really freaked as that made the space look smaller than ever. I remember just standing there for like an hour thinking I had gone with the wrong floor plan. But then things started to get finished, painting got done, cabinetry went in, bathrooms came together and so on. It was during this phase that the place looked great to me and no longer looked or felt small. It ended up being a great loft and is now home to a happy new owner.



So, the perception will change during the different phases of construction. I wouldn't worry too much about it. And just wait till you get your furniture in. You'll be amazed at how big it feels once that happens.

Thanks you all! I suspect that we will continue to freak out a bit but my husband just asked for the dimensions of the floorplan we chose (not included in the paperwork we have as far as the floorplans go). We have asked for these measurements before (no success!) but we were told on Sat that we should get these this week. I think we would be more at ease if we had a general sense of how large each room is (esp. the bedroom).



Again, much appreciation for all the responses!

Yeah, its weird. My parents moved recently, from a large home to a two-bedroom apartment. When I first saw the place (without furniture) it looked so small. But after all of the furniture was moved in, it somehow seemed bigger!

Space, for the most part, gradually looks bigger the more it's enclosed from floor to frames to walls to furniture. Heck, I still remember being scared a decade ago at the size of my future bedroom at home. My new puppy absolutley loved running through the construction space and was impossible to catch: puppy could run through the frames, I was blocked by the electrical in between.



Oh, and before you move in your furniture, don't forget to do a nice romp and run throughout your new home.

I think it is also a function of the way units, lofts at least, are measured in St. Louis. The square footage figure you see on floorplans is the gross measurement....measurements to the outside of all perimeter walls... In the case of large substantial buildings like the Syndicate, the building's exterior walls are a foot or more thick and the areas of exterior support columns are even thicker. Bottom line is that the interior space, including the areas containing interior walls and the areas where utilities are run, knocks a 1500 square foot gross figure down to about 1400 or so. When you subtract out the areas taken up by interior walls and the areas used to run utilities, you get down to perhaps 1300 square feet of interior floor space.

There was some concern earlier in the thread about the ceiling heights. Can any of you folks who have toured so far comment on that? Thanks!

vollum wrote:I think it is also a function of the way units, lofts at least, are measured in St. Louis. The square footage figure you see on floorplans is the gross measurement....measurements to the outside of all perimeter walls... In the case of large substantial buildings like the Syndicate, the building's exterior walls are a foot or more thick and the areas of exterior support columns are even thicker. Bottom line is that the interior space, including the areas containing interior walls and the areas where utilities are run, knocks a 1500 square foot gross figure down to about 1400 or so. When you subtract out the areas taken up by interior walls and the areas used to run utilities, you get down to perhaps 1300 square feet of interior floor space.

In regard to the calculation methods of square footage, you are correct that a lot of developers do include to the outside of the perimeter walls. But you'll be happy to know that Loftworks does it differently. They start at the front face of the exterior walls and go to the interior of the demising walls. So if you have a 1 foot thick exterior brick wall, you are not paying for that unusable square footage. They used this same method for previous projects such as Printer's and Moon Brothers.

Thanks for clarifying irock. The space in our unit just got a little bit bigger than we had assumed.

It's amazing how much difference the exterior cleaning is making. Some of the bricks are so bright they almost look painted. And now you can really appreciate the incredible cornice on this building.

Framer wrote:It's amazing how much difference the exterior cleaning is making. Some of the bricks are so bright they almost look painted. And now you can really appreciate the incredible cornice on this building.

They are painted, well sort of. They are cleaning the exterior and then applying some type of coating. Look at the south side of the building, it almost looks brand new. And wait till the windows get installed. The window frames will be a dark charcoal which will contrast with the light and bright exterior. I think it will give the building a very elegant look.

^That will be great. I never much liked this building, always thought they should have torn this one down instead of the Century, but with the cleaning I've come to respect the building much more. It really will be something when finished.

Are there any pics of the building cleaned?

stlmike wrote:Are there any pics of the building cleaned?

I've got a picture of it ½ cleaned I took last weekend. I'll try to upload it soon.



-RBB

...

I've got the full-size version, too, if anyone wants to see more detail.



-RBB

and this is the building that some wanted torn down. Is that building in New York, San Francisco or St. Louis?

OT, but why can't they clean city hall like this?

^If so, that's pretty pathetic. You'd think they would consult science before applying acid to a historic structure to see what the effects might be.

Not to go too far off topic, but my understanding is that it's possible to clean City Hall (there are even test patches that have been done), but it's cost prohibitive. I believe the Ambassadors (who funded the cleaning of the Soldier's Memorial) undertook a campaign to rise funds for it, but nothing appears to have come of it.



(I just want the tower back!)