Beyond the circa-1884 cast-iron, Italianate facade of the historic Engine Company 13 firehouse in the Mission—the oldest standing firehouse in the city—lies a modern, 3,700-square-foot, three-bedroom loft owned by Daniel Lucas and designed with the help of his longtime friend, architect John Maniscalco. Lucas, a general contractor, is the principal of DML Renovations (a contemporary-architecture company run out of the firehouse’s cavernous six-car garage).
“I did a fairly major restoration and paint job on the front, but to be honest, there wasn’t too much about the interior to get excited about,” says the London native, an avid modern-art collector. “The previous owner lived here for over 30 years. I had to strip away three layers of old wall coverings to expose the original brick”—now hung with a museum-wing’s worth of photography by Todd Hido and Lucas’ ex-girlfriend Elena Dorfman, a haunting multimedia canvas by Austrian painter Gottfried Helnwein called I Walk Alone and a humorous “wallpapered” self-portrait by local artist Tim Sullivan. “It was really dark and filthy,” recalls Lucas. “Now, it’s open and warm.”
Lucas admits that the nearly decade-long renovation process—whose earliest stages included a seismic upgrade (the two massive steel frames he installed were left exposed, intensifying the loft’s industrial feel) and the addition of a mezzanine-level master bedroom—will likely never end. Most recently, the 40-year-old added a 1,500-square-foot extension comprising a sunroom, an outdoor patio and a future space for Alina, his 10-month-old daughter with wife Svetlana. “She’ll have to share it with a new pool table,” he laughs.