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In an old industrial park off Wycliff Avenue, one warehouse stands distinctly apart from its beige and boxy neighbors.  The concrete facade is coated in blank paint.  Polished aluminum gleams on the Fort Knox-worthy door surround.  A Louis Poulsen "Artichoke" Lamp glows dramatically through the building's vertically stacked windows.  If this were an exam, the answer to the question "Which one of these is not alike?" would be obvious.

Studios 1019, an unconventional combo of home, photo-studio and event space, is on the leading edge of a wave transforming the industrial neighborhoods northwest of downtown.

There's a fanciful quality to this sprawling wonderland that can make a visitor feel almost childlike.  Inside, it's a series of spaces, long hallways, and towering steel-and-glass doors that would appear to take all one's might to push open (but don't thanks to commercial-grade hinges and precise engineering).   There's even a secret panel of sorts.  In the residence's spa-like master bath, a massive Julian Schnabel lithograph is mounted on a hidden track. Slide the art to the right, and shelves appear, stacked with toiletries. 

If you could slice off the warehouse roof and peek inside, you'd see three distinct zones: the residence, a central atrium and a suite of commercial photography studios.  The wow factor begins right in the front entry, a voluminous space grounded by cork floors and crowned with the  Poulsen fixture.  Turn right, and a hall leads to the trio of expansive photo studios: light-flooded by day, ghostly by night with their floors, walls, and ceilings painted stark white.  Straight ahead is the entry to the private living space, commanded by a pair of 18-foot doors hand crafted by a local metalworker who also created the acid washed steel used on stair railings and the wall-mounted gas fireplace in the home's living room.  The dining room makes its own style statement, with a sculptural chandelier and barn-style doors that open to the adjoining kitchen.  The solid maple doors, sliding on German steel bearings, flow easily despite weighing 220 pounds each.

The outdoors is accessible via personal scissor lift, the hydraulic platform rides 20 feet up to a ceiling hatch that pops open to the rood.  The 360-degree panorama includes a spectacular view of the downtown skyline.  It's an ideal spot, perhaps ironically so, to escape the hustle and bustle of city life.

The heart of the commercial space is the soaring, sky-light-topped atrium complete with Mies leather daybed, 15-foot waterfall and slate ledgestone walls.  The green-house-like skylight, resembling a steel-framed pyramid, was secured and inlaid with thick panels of energy-efficient glass to cover the 800-foot wide open atrium below.  (The environmentally friendly design was one of many green choices the couple made here, including on-demand water heaters, sustainable-cork and recycled-glass flooring, and rust proof stainless air-conditioning units that use the eco-savvy Freon-replacement, Puron).

• great Innovation
• remarkable project
• done in a concise way, less carbon footprint impact on the world