Seventeen-foot timbers and a river you can hear with the windows open.

The mills along this stretch of the river fed a country, and the buildings they left behind were built to carry grain by the ton, which is why No. 4C feels the way it does: Douglas fir columns you cannot reach around, brick walls three courses thick, and ceilings that clear seventeen feet at the ridge of the corner bay. Light comes in from two directions through industrial sash that was restored, not replaced, when the building turned residential.

The loft itself resists the usual conversion cliches. There is no mezzanine wedged where it does not belong; instead, two real bedrooms hold the quiet side of the plan, each with proper walls and doors, while the living side runs forty feet along the windows. The kitchen is a single line of blackened steel and walnut with a working pantry behind it, because the owner cooks and had opinions.

The building keeps a modest, well-run association: a shared roof terrace over the river, two heated parking stalls with this unit, and a freight elevator that still smells faintly of a century of flour when it rains. We are preparing the listing now. If you would like to see it before it is public, that is precisely what our private list is for.

Represented by June Okada · Meet the team · Neighborhood: Mill District guide