Before & After: A Gloomy Brooklyn Brownstone Gets Spruced Up With Splashes of Color

At a dinner party more than 15 years ago, architect Frederick Tang and Anne hit it off. "She was so interested in architecture," remembers Tang. Years later, when Anne and her wife, Alexis, purchased a run-down 1896 brownstone in Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, Tang was ready to take their call, in spite of the challenge. "It was a quintessentially vintage Brooklyn townhouse in a landmark district, and not in the best shape," says Tang. "They knew it was going to take some work."