Fred Steckhahn and McKinley Williams blend a maverick spirit with luxury living in their loft in Adams Morgan. They juxtapose the hard edge industrial elements of their loft – the exposed pipes, 15-foot high concrete ceiling, a steel catwalk and a corrugated tin roof – with glamorous furnishings – distinctive Niermann Weeks and Allan Knight custom-made creations plus Asian antiques and family heirlooms.
Steckhahn, 57, president of Niermann Weeks, and his partner, Williams, 50, director of corporate and foundation giving for the Whitman-Walker Clinic, are both diehard urbanites. Steckhahn grew up in mid-town Manhattan and London. Williams was among the first to buy a loft in Portland, Oregon when an industrial building was converted years ago.
“Adams Morgan is about the most urban part of DC,” Steckhahn says. “It’s the closest to a city core, I think more than Dupont Circle.” Steckhahn, who commutes to his office in Millersville near Annapolis, thrives on city living.
“I like the pace of it, the convenience, the accessibility to all cultural events … the energy and the diversity of the people. It’s a very dynamic situation. The neighborhoods are always changing; there tend to be more creative people. I personally do not like sylvan environs and quiet,” Steckhahn says.
Williams enjoys the convenience of living in The Lofts at Adams Morgan. “I can walk out and catch a cab and be at work in 10 minutes. Or if I want to walk, be there in 20 minutes,” he says. “We can walk out the door and have a variety of restaurants – Thai, Ethiopian, Spanish, Salvadoran – within two to three blocks of our front door.”
The Look of the Loft
Steckhahn and Williams collaborated with designer Bradshaw Orrell to give a traditional/minimalist look to their 2,650-square-foot loft, which also features an additional 1,400 square feet on two terraces.
“Fred loves a lot of stuff and a lot of different kinds of stuff – Asian chofas, French creamware, Victorian needlepoint. Yet we wanted to keep it clean and modern,” says Orrell, who is the lead designer at Baker Knapp & Tubbs and former design director at Niermann Weeks. “He had some existing pieces such as a big neoclassical cabinet.
We let that be the bones and then we let all the other stuff be accessories.”
The bibliothèque, which holds rare treasures including a 3rd century Roman torso and prehistoric fossils, anchors the wall in the dining room area. It balances the fireplace, which has a concrete surround that Orrell designed to replace the original standard metal surround, on the facing wall in the living room area.
A few changes produced dramatic results.
“None of the door heights were the same. That drove me crazy, and they had big barnyard doors that would slide on tracks that I didn’t like, so we just took those off,” says Orrell, who had the tops of the doorways raised some six or eight inches to a uniform height of eight feet. The openness creates a studio feel.
One night when friend and Interior Designer Frank Babb Randolph stopped by for drinks, he suggested that the floors be bleached and pickled. By lightening the floors, they eliminated the color division and unified the flow from the bamboo floors inside to the concrete terrace outside.
Creamy custom silk draperies grace the spacious living room/dining room area and creamy custom linen draperies are in the owners’ bedroom. Most of the walls in the loft are Barely Gray by Duron. Steckhahn and Williams converted two of their four bedrooms into sitting rooms, made one a guest room and the other the owners’ bedroom. The walls in one sitting room are a rich chocolate brown that took layer after layer of custom-mixed paint to create.
“I wanted it to look like a Hershey bar,” Steckhahn says. “I like the darkness in that room.” Steckhahn has a passion for needlepoint, a hobby he picked up when he was living in London and studying for his master’s degree in marketing and finance. He completely stitched the needlepoint rose medallion patterns on two bergères that had once belonged to his mother and are now in that room.
Sea grass carpets were used in the sitting rooms and bedrooms. “I love sea grass, it’s neutral and very, very durable. Nothing stains it. If it does, you rip it up and replace it,” Steckhahn says.
Orrell softened the shiny industrial edges of the loft with furnishings that reflect the gracious patina of age. For instance, it would have been easy to select slick furnishings for this urban loft such as chrome bar stools for the kitchen counter. But Orrell designed silver leaf legs instead.
“The whole aesthetic at Niermann Weeks is that everything has a hand to it. They really work hard at showing the hand. That’s just the feel of everything,” Orrell says.
In another case, Orrell custom-designed an oak bench for the owners’ bedroom that he had sandblasted to create a sun-bleached and weathered finish. “I really wanted it to look like it had been dug up. I told them to tear it to pieces so it would look old and crusty,” he says.
Orrell even carried the aesthetic to furniture that wasn’t made by Niermann Weeks, such as a vintage table from Steckhahn’s family. Orrell made the table, which is being used as a desk in the home office, look even older. “We fauxed in some age with wormholes and cracks,” he says.
Big Knight
The biggest challenge on moving day two years ago was how to get the custom-made, 12-foot high, steel-tube bed by Allan Knight into the loft. It wouldn’t fit into the elevator or clear the curves in the stairwell. Not one to give up easily, Steckhahn dashed down to the street to try to figure out what to do. He spied a cherry picker at a nearby construction site and convinced the operator to come to his rescue. The modern Chinese opium bed, as it’s known, was hoisted four floors and taken in through the terrace door to the bedroom.
Great for Entertaining
Steckhahn and Williams particularly enjoy the flow of their home. “We entertain a lot and whether we’re having small events or larger settings, the flow is always very wonderful. People sit in different groupings. A group of four or five could sit in here,” says Williams, while seated in the library, “and a group of five or six could sit in the other sitting room.”
Guests enjoy exploring upstairs and following the steel catwalk to the vast rooftop terrace, too. “This works well for parties. People come up here and don’t want to leave,” says Williams, whose passion for gardening is evident in the lovely ambiance he has created on the terrace.
Let There Be Light
The lighting throughout the loft, by Wayne Hinson of the Hinson Design Group, is inviting, too. “Installing a hanging rail system in the living room allowed us to mirror the shape of the room,” Hinson says. “By bringing the ceiling down a bit visually [the rail system is at the level of the valances] warmed the room up a bit.”
By integrating a whole home control system into the design, Hinson enabled Steckhahn and Williams to light their entire loft with the mere push of a button.
“For most people, if they have to run around and turn lights on, they don’t do it,” Hinson says. Steckhahn and Williams can create different moods throughout their urban space with a touch of the keypad. For example, they can subtly light the exotic chofas in their living area, or dramatically light the loft area above the kitchen to create an aurora borealis effect, or do both.
This is perfect for Steckhahn and Williams who love those city lights.
