City Modern Home Tours: Brooklyn
A few of the surprises to be found: a third floor courtyard garden encased by glass at the Willow Residence, a townhouse tucked into a small side street; an expansive five-story home Brooklyn Heights wonderfully blurring the line between outside and inside; a townhouse in Cobble Hill filled with furniture nearly as stunning as the sculpturally designed skylight; a Boerum Hill rowhouse gutted and uniquely divided by an architect and his multimedia wife; and a warm, townhouse-turned-farmhouse perfectly suited for a family who spends most of their time in the kitchen.
Willow Residence is a three-story townhouse on a quiet street in Brooklyn Heights. A complete demolition of the interior of the space left a an "empty box" for architect Robert Kahn, which was enhanced by landscape architect Susannah Drake's stunningly designed green spaces.
Here is the view from the second floor landing.
Let's leave rain boots and umbrellas at the door, slip on some optional baby blue booties, and see what's behind some of the brick and brownstone of Brooklyn.
Juergen Riehm of 1100 Architect worked in close collaboration with the owners of a five-story, 7,000-square-foot townhouse in Brooklyn Heights to create a home that both preserves its 19th-century details and provides an open, modern setting for a diverse collection of contemporary art and objects."We all worked together," the owner says of the couple's work with Riehm. "I love materials, so I loved those meetings. The three of us were really in sync; it was a fun process."
Original moldings surround the dining room.
The third stop on the Brooklyn home tour is a building with a history of transformations. Originally a single-family home, the structure was converted into a four-family dwelling. Though original details remained—such as fireplace, flooring, and moldings—a "fire-escape" like staircase had been installed. Architect Joseph Tanney reassembled the divided structure back into a single-family home and replaced the skylight in a dramatic way.
Rich colors and wonderful furnishings (the owner is a mid-century modern furniture dealer) are found within the Cobble Hill brownstone.
The dining room features an asymmetrical table and brilliant orange color on the walls. The previous interior colors made the home feel like a gallery space for the furniture. "Before it was all white," the owner says. "But we wanted to add more atmosphere and mood. We worked on the colors really hard, making boards for all of our finishings."
A 1940s rowhouse in Boerum Hill is home to architect Jordan Parnass and his wife Melanie Crean, an artist. The couple completely dismantled the interior to order to reconstruct a new space for living and working in a light-filled environment of many levels.
In the dining room, deep browns and blacks from the furniture and railings are balanced with bright artwork.
The final visit on the Brooklyn Home Tour is a townhouse on Bond Street designed by MADE architect Ben Bischoff for a family who spends much of their time in the kitchen. A perfect end for a fall day, this "urban farmhouse" is warm and inviting. While the kitchen may be the dominant room in the home, the staircase and the way its form plays with the existing space grounds the structure and reflects its charm.
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