Pocket Doors Create Privacy in a Couple’s Renovated Brooklyn Brownstone

The full-floor primary suite can be closed off from the stairs, giving the owners—and visiting family and friends—spaces of their own.

This project was submitted by Arnold Studio and has been selected as an Editor’s Pick.

“Hancock Street House was constructed during Brooklyn’s early nineteenth century middle class development boom. The now renowned brownstone row houses were constructed in groups set back from the street, providing a balance of privacy, open space, and community engagement. Internally, the traditional townhouse typology of formal living rooms connected by a separate stair core, has frequently been adapted, but is no longer supportive of contemporary lifestyles. Our clients, a couple with grown children, required a house they could use openly, and in different ways—with more or less privacy to accommodate visiting family and guests.

Making way for a garden level apartment, the restored staircase now starts at parlor floor level.
To improve communication between floors and make more dynamic use of space, structural partitions enclosing the hallways at each level have been edited in various ways; inviting the staircase into the living spaces, and living spaces into the overall circulation.

At the parlor floor, a living and dining area extends into the landing of the staircase and is connected to a kitchen overlooking the rear garden. Windows in the kitchen have been converted to glass doors, which on pleasant days can be opened onto a shallow steel terrace; establishing a connection to the outside without sacrificing privacy. An over-sized stair—reminiscent of the iconic brownstone stoop—leads down to the garden, and suggests an occasional resting place.

Following the staircase up from the parlor level leads to a full-floor main bedroom suite, followed by study rooms at the top floor which can be converted to guest bedrooms. On the main bedroom level, sleeping and bathroom spaces are screened from each other by a freestanding, Judd-like volume containing a concealed walk-in-closet. When there is no need for privacy all parts of the floor are open to one another, and to floors above and below. If guests come to stay, two full-height pocket doors at opposing ends of the stair can be closed, isolating the suite from the staircase.

In order to unite all areas of the house the background finishes are continuous; walnut floors and plaster colored walls and ceilings resonate with the era’s traditional materials. Color is employed selectively at nodes—saturated green-blue at the bedroom suite and red at the kitchen—amplifying the purity of their forms, and contrasting the house’s original features. A terrazzo shower occupying a strip along the rear facade is slightly raised above the main floor level, marking the only break in floor materials. Here, the windows, which have been reglazed with translucent glass, and a textured glass screen, create soft layers, blocking views into the shower whilst allowing daylight to filter through. Both the original staircase and new garden stair are finished off-black, visually distinguishing the circulation components, and tying original and new details together.”