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The eponymous founder and principal of Michael K. Chen Architecture resuscitated a four-story, 3,600-square-foot home in Brooklyn’s Clinton Hill neighborhood that was built in 1895 and had been abandoned for 20 years. Its newest owners—a tech investor and an art teacher at a public school—were inspired by the playful color palette that was still apparent underneath the building’s decay. "We had epic color palette meetings, looking at deck after deck for paint colors that spoke to us or provoked a particular sensation,” says Chen. “You don’t look at the color, you inhabit it.”

During: “It has significance as a very high-status farming building of its time,” says Tom, of the archaeologist’s findings. “It was very state of the art.”

“Our interventions were about making it extremely clear what we were putting back, and where we were adding new elements,” says Tom.

The entrance to the kitchen at Redhill Barn.

An old cistern found on the original site is now a black concrete plunge pool.

A clean-lined bathroom of stone and concrete.

A dialogue between ancient and contemporary can be seen in the bedroom.

Contemporary materials like concrete and steel are a wonderful contrast to the ancient stone walls.

A wisteria-shared courtyards and garden with a dining area.

The entranceway with a stairs that leads to the apartment.

The property has a discreet, wooden door garage.

Marble was used on the kitchen island, complimented by walnut cabinetry and butcher-block countertop, as well as a backsplash of ceramic tile.

The renovated stairway now has a rounded wall at its base, to pair with the curved wall across from it and make room for more natural light from the extension's glass wall to spread into the interior.

In what's now known as the music room on the ground floor (previously called the front parlor), a stucco-clad fireplace was paired with a stone base and rounded edges capped in Accoyo wood.