Floorplay founder Batya Cohen with a rendering she created for a client. (Floorplay)
Before you move in, it’s good to have a little Floorplay.
That was the big idea Pratt Institute School of Architecture graduate Batya Cohen spawned as the pandemic raged back in 2020, when she pivoted from working for a few firms to taking on freelance assignments helping friends plan the layouts of the homes they would suddenly be spending a lot more time in.
The now 27-year-old Cohen realized she had a knack for making things flow around those abodes and, thanks to her knowledge of design software, was able to put the ideas in her head on paper so clients could get a clear view of what their living spaces would look like — square foot by square foot — once everything was put in place.
“I quickly found I had a flair for making living spaces more livable,” she told TRD. “Understanding scale and space takes a part of a brain not everyone can use, and I can show it to them and help make it a reality.”
With a slew of clients to work with, Cohen, with the help of her husband Benji, try to figure out a way to scale up what was quickly becoming a company. Soon, she was taking on customers beyond the friends who entrusted her to figure out where to put the couch in the living room, and Floorplay was born.
“We said yes to tasks regardless of how small and, over time, our services grew based on our clients’ needs,” she said.
That meant taking on jobs building schematic design sets, architectural surveys, test fit plans, marketing plans, furniture layouts and any computer assisted design-related work for clients that included real estate professionals, interior designers, retail businesses, office tenants, homeowners, contractors, and even architects.
“We pretty much didn’t say no to anyone,” she said.
In fact, the proudly female-owned company, which now has four full-time designers on staff along with eight freelance designers, does just about everything in the field except design buildings.
“We are not licensed architects, but instead focus on giving some clients the ideas they need to take to architects,” she said. “That saves on the time it takes to come up with plans, which saves money in the long run.”
Incorporated in November of 2020, Cohen has used word of mouth and social media to branch out, and says she now has nearly 100 clients including such big real estate firms as Douglas Elliman, Related, Newmark, and KSR, for whom her company designs marketing floor plans to showcase residential and commercial units, along with the food delivery company Jokr, for whom she created architectural surveys for its retail location.
Reached by TRD, Newmark associate director Alex Hedaya said he was happy with the work Floorplay has done for him on numerous occasions, and even recommended Cohen to some of his own clients.
“As a retail broker specializing in tenant representation in Brooklyn, I’ve toured countless spaces with clients that don’t offer accurate floorplans,” he said. “Upon the first tour of a space, I always like to connect my tenants with Floorplay. Batya and her team have helped many of my clients create new floorplans and discover new layouts with cleaner and more efficient space solutions.”
And Oren Altmark of the Altmark Group said he brought on Floorplay to create layouts for a new, mixed-use 28-unit project in the Bronx, which help potential renters figure out what their apartments would look like once the furniture was brought in.
“It goes a long way in marketing and lease-up, especially in regards to studio layouts where prospective tenants sometimes lack the vision of how they would lay out the units,” he said. “We believe it most definitely helped in our lease-up efforts, and it allows us to stand out from our competition on leasing websites like StreetEasy.”
Cohen added she is proud of the fact she’s found her niche in a field that has long been dominated by men.
“If you took the program I took at Pratt 50 years ago, there would be very few women in the class,” she said. “Now, it’s about 50-50, but many of those women don’t end up going into the field. That’s why it’s exciting for me to have a mostly female-based firm.”
She noted that her four full-time employees are all women, and her freelancers are a 50-50 mix of males and females.
And she couldn’t be happier using her expertise to make her customers’ lives better.
“Design isn’t just a skill, it’s a talent,” she said. “And I enjoy taking a client on that adventure.”
Floorplay, the New Age Architecture Firm, is online at floorplay.co, and can be reached at (347) 395-2994. See its designs on Instagram at Instagram.com/Floorplay.
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