New York City is chock-full of laughably small, awkwardly shaped apartments. Which is why it takes a good imagination to not only make them livable but actually desirable.

The designers at Specht Harpman Architects recently worked wonders on a 425-square-foot loft on the Upper West Side.

The space, at the top of a six-story brownstone, had 25 feet of vertical space and even access to a rooftop, giving the architects plenty to work with.

Check out the photos below to see the new microloft.

This was the space before. It was run down, with exposed brick walls and dated paint.

Specht Harpman Architects

The small space didn’t have much room for storage.

Specht Harpman Architects

The architects’ solution was to create multilevel “living platforms” in order to squeeze everything in, but still make the space feel open.

One of their goals was to create a flowing interior “that dissolves the notion of distinct ‘rooms.’”

A cantilevered bed on steel beams floats over the main living space on the third floor.

And the tiny bathroom is tucked beneath the stairs …

… which now offer a ton of storage space. They feature built-in drawers and shelves, similar to Japanese kaidan dansu.  

The roof garden at the top allows light to radiate throughout the apartment. 

Pretty impressive. It’s hard to tell that this was still the same apartment.

Compare it again to the new space:

Job well done.  

Alyson Penn wrote an earlier version of this post.

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