Loft moves: a young designer turns spare rooms in his father's house into a multifunctioning loft of his own

Residential Architect, Nov-Dec, 2003 by James Schwartz

When Tom Allisma needed a senior thesis topic, a knockout punch for his budding portfolio, and a place to live following graduation from the University of Nebraska Lincoln, he decided to tackle all three tasks at once. He designed and built, with his father's help, a striking 390-square-foot apartment inside a portion of his family's home in Omaha, Neb.

"My challenge was to take part of this typical Omaha house built in 1981 and dig deeper to create a loft that could perform tasks as a bedroom, gathering room, gallery, studio, entertainment space," he says. "It was a handful, but I like experimenting with spaces and structures that serve many different purposes at the same time."

His program began with the creation of a new private entrance, through a former workshop at the rear of the garage. Constructed entirely of economical, durable birch plywood, the "entry box" or vestibule, showcases a rolling storage cabinet on casters that doubles as the bathroom door. The cabinet is "voyeuristic," says Allisma, because you can see partly through the screen to the corrugated metal walls of the bathroom beyond--but you never get "a good solid view of what's going on in them." A cantilevered staircase composed of construction grade 2x12s with aluminum angle noses, leads to the apartment above.

Space tot the loft was created by combining several rooms at the back of the house and raising the ceilings from 8 feet to 14. Allisma calls the result "cross-programmed space," because it incorporates seating areas. a display wall for Iris model-car collection, closets, a dining buffet, and a multipurpose storage unit. Modeled after a lifeguard tower, the moveable unit holds a closet on one side and a ladder on the other. The ladder leads to the lifeguard chair he uses for a closer view of the wall-mounted television and to an elevated wine cooler placed nearby. Hidden completely out of sight is the bed, which rolls into the loft from an insulated cavity in the south wall. Allisma says it takes just seconds to glide the sleeping platform into place.

A final surprise is the secret staircase that leads to Allisma's third-floor studio. It's integrated into what he calls "a transforming structure" on the north wall that contains a large storage closet and a mini-kitchen. The second tread of the staircase extends into the kitchen to form a countertop for the sink.

The apartment may be small, but it "adapts itself for all my needs," Allisma says. And thanks to the sweat equity of his father and friends, he brought in the entire project for just $15,000.

Since completing his home base three years ago, Allisma has worked at Avant Architects in Omaha, and designed several restaurants he co-owns, including BLUE-Sushi Sake Grill, in West Omaha, and a new venture called Roja due to open next year.

Still, he points to the planning and construction of the loft as a key experience in his professional trajectory: "Creating such a tiny space that could serve multiple functions was one of the most valuable learning tools for me as a young designer. And working on it with my father was a great experiment."

Apparently you really can go home again, and you may even enjoy time return trip.