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February 1, 2000
Web posted at: 1:40 p.m. EST (1840 GMT)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- In the concrete jungle of urban living, the views within an apartment are often more important than the views outside. So when architects Victoria Meyers and Thomas Hanrahan were commissioned to design the interior of a Manhattan loft, they tried to make the arrangement of the walls and cabinetry stimulating, versatile and functional.

Meyers says they approached the project with nature in mind.

"We considered the maple floors as the ground, and the maple cabinetry as sort of like pieces of landscape coming up out of the ground. ... Those landscape pieces never touch the ceiling, so that they create areas -- but they don't make rooms.

A 48-foot (14-meter) glass-and-steel wall that runs the entire length of the loft acts as a divider between the public and private areas of the home. At the back of the loft, glass separates the master bedroom from the den/work space. The architects put in moveable opaque panels and pivoting walls in case the owner wants to enclose the work area or create two rooms for guests.

"It has much more freedom, and much more openness, and much more airiness than a normal house would have," Meyers says.

CNN Style Correspondent Elsa Klensch contributed to this report.

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