Designing small: making the most of a narrow NYC lot
Many New York lots are 20 feet wide or less. The design moves that turn a tight footprint into a home that never feels cramped.
A huge share of New York's residential lots run 18 to 25 feet wide — a constraint every design has to solve for before it solves for anything else. Done well, a narrow lot doesn't read as small; it reads as efficient.
Borrow light before you borrow space
Skylights, light wells, and windows placed to catch reflected light off neighboring facades do more for a narrow home than an extra few square feet ever would. We model daylight early, not as an afterthought once the layout is fixed.
Let the plan run vertical
When you can't go wide, you go up — and that means treating stairs, hallways and storage as part of the design, not leftover space around it. A well-placed stair can double as a light shaft; a hallway can double as a gallery.
Where the zoning envelope actually lets you build
Side-yard and rear-yard requirements shrink the buildable footprint further than most owners expect. We test the zoning envelope before a single interior wall is drawn, so the layout that excites you is also the layout the city will approve.
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