Wowed by a Loft in Philadelphia, and Its Hollywood Pedigree

New York Times

18-02-2025

In 2011, when Sam Mink and Anthony Padilla bought the loft where characters played by Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas had lived in the 1993 movie 'Philadelphia,' there were many things they liked about the space.
'We were totally wowed,' said Mr. Mink, 49, an owner of the Philadelphia restaurants Oyster House and Mission Taqueria. 'It had a roof deck and open floor plan,' plus a ceiling that rose to 16 feet.
'It was in a great location,' added Mr. Padilla, 48, a former paralegal who more recently worked as a bookkeeper for Mr. Mink's business. The building was near grocery stores and restaurants, and came with a prized off-street parking spot.
Although the apartment had been changed by previous owners, its Hollywood pedigree provided a neat back story to share with friends. 'You could still see the remnants of the movie inside the place,' Mr. Padilla said, including a wood-burning stove that appeared on-screen.
When the couple bought the unit for $630,000, it seemed to have all the space they needed — about 2,000 square feet, with a mezzanine holding two bedrooms. But in 2014, they had a son via surrogacy and realized the home wasn't ideal for young children.
As Asher, now 10, began growing up, 'there were a lot of dangerous spots,' Mr. Mink said. 'There were open stairs without risers and a mezzanine railing that a baby or toddler could easily crawl right through.'
They added clear acrylic barriers to the railing as a stopgap measure, but as their son grew, they decided a little more space would be helpful too. 'When Asher had a friend over, watching TV or something, we were all in the same space,' Mr. Mink said.
They also grew tired of sharing the lone full bathroom. 'It was fine for many years,' Mr. Mink said. 'But we felt like he needed his own space, and we wanted our privacy as well.'
So in 2022, when the couple heard that the person renting the apartment next door was leaving, they reached out to the owner with dreams of undertaking a combination. They offered $550,000 for the 1,300-square-foot unit, the owner accepted, and the property closed that October.
Viewing the combination as an opportunity to reconfigure the two units into one beautiful home, Mr. Mink and Mr. Padilla hired Hope Velocette, an interior designer and the founder of Velocette Studio, and Sam Kim, a partner at Ambit Architecture.
'As part of my process, it's really important to name a feeling I want people to have as soon as they walk in the place,' Ms. Velocette said. 'At the outset of this project, I wanted people to walk in and feel lifted upward, almost like a cathedral effect.'
To do so, she aimed to 'express the verticality' of the space, she said, with tall architectural and decorative features.
Mr. Kim suggested creating a few impressive spaces rather than carving the combined unit into too many individual rooms. 'They liked that airy, lofty feeling,' Mr. Kim said. 'So we were really trying to give them that sense of space, at a big scale.'
In the end, the team settled on one large expanse for the main living space along a wall of windows, which encompasses a living room, large kitchen and dining area.
'The kitchen is the centerpiece of that main room,' Ms. Velocette said. A 17-foot-long island topped by Calacatta Viola marble provides storage, space to prepare food and room for stools at one end where family and friends can gather.
For the dining area, Ms. Velocette designed a sculptural element of dried flowers that sprouts from an LED light ribbon climbing up a Venetian plaster wall. For the living room, she worked with Argent Mirror on a tall, artful glass panel with uneven splashes of antiqued mirror, which she backlit with more LEDs.
Next to this double-height space, Ms. Velocette and Mr. Kim enclosed a reconfigured mezzanine with green-painted wood slats. This space holds a new primary suite, a bedroom and bathroom for Asher, and a guest bedroom. The area below is occupied by a mudroom, playroom, laundry room, powder room and flex space that functions as a home office and gym.
Scalzo General Contracting began construction in July 2023, and the project was completed last July at a cost of about $1.5 million.
'We wanted a comfortable space for our family that wasn't fussy, but also wanted it to be elevated and elegant,' Mr. Mink said. The renovated home provides exactly that by blending the industrial finishes of an urban loft with a few more luxurious touches. 'We can entertain and have kids over and not have to worry about things.'
Although the apartment might now be unrecognizable to fans of the movie 'Philadelphia,' Mr. Padilla has some ideas to celebrate its brush with fame. 'I keep wanting to get stills from the movie and maybe put them up in the bathroom,' he said. 'It would just be fun to give it a little nod.'