Townhouse Renovation in Park Slope | Olbos Studio

The townhouse features a number of spectacular turn-of-the-century details including a stained glass peacock on the front door, mahogany frames and hardwood floors throughout. The chosen details were used to compose perspectives and frames, allowing the eye to be constantly curious to move throughout the space and see more of it, finding new frames and points of view as well as color hints and paths. The themes present to this projects were many, from the request to restore the historical character of the building, to the introduction of playfulness, colors and natural wood. The existing townhouse provided a rich base of spaces and architectural details, but required refinement to open up channels for natural light and maximize functionality, in pursuit of a house whose framed compositions feel like shots in a movie.

The project began with an intensive accounting of the existing conditions and conversations with the clients about how to respect the original details, while removing the false historical decorations. The design team had to lead a meticulous analysis through comparison with buildings of the same age in the same area of Brooklyn in order to identify and date the various components - and then focused on how to lighten up the whole townhouse through natural light without massive demolitions, in order to minimize waste and debris. The client was truly invested in reusing the original, repair the window shutters, restoring the compromised staircase to obtain a project where history is not erased but enhanced through light touches. By embracing the interplay between past and present, the townhouse feels historic, but airy and fun for the client’s very young three daughters, as well as calming for himself and his wife.

The challenge to juxtapose a contemporary, minimal language with bright pastel colors and rigid heaviness of the original mahogany was achieved by introducing microcement, white oak, handmade tiles, colorful wallpaper. The third floor of the townhouse was entirely renovated, both in order to ensure a more functional layout that includes generous storage, and to deliver spaces that would be peaceful and calming, with some green moments. With this in mind, the master bedroom is designed with simplicity through the use of custom made white oak panels that hide the walking closet (with natural light) as well as a small radiology office that requires darkness. The master bathroom plays with tones of green, with a microcement floor with radiant heating, a large shower area that includes a relaxing bath tub in front of a window. The window glass is transparent, but screened thanks to a sill-planter, designed to host large plants and making the bathroom feel more intimate. The tiles used for the walls are hand made and the vanity with the double sinks is also made in white oak. The H-VAC system is hidden by a dropped down oak volume with embedded openings for air circulation. At the second floor, the same critical approach was put in place to elegantly embed the ventilation within a new shelf/step to access the exterior balcony and not distract from the restored original window shatters. At the parlor level, the main spaces were simply lightened to enhance natural light, but the kitchen and breakfast nook were renovated with a contemporary and pop taste. The use of microcement for the kitchen floor and backsplash allows the original marble of the countertop emerge. 

The design gestures through the house’s second and third floors feature similarly framed and reframed vignettes. The designers made slight changes throughout, simplifying and refurbishing existing details while clarifying perspectives like on the first floor (parlor). Colors throughout the house are collected in the petal-like geometry of a custom runner for the stairs between second and third floors.

In preserving what matters and refining where necessary, the home is now ready for the next phase of its life.

Project team: Giorgia Cedro, Jeffrey Kuhn, Federica Betti

Contractor: NY Eagle Contractors Inc  

Photographer: Filippo Tommasoli (https://www.tommasoli.it/)