Brooklyn Townhouse

New York City, NY, United States

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Brooklyn Townhouse

New York City, NY, United States

Firm

Redtop Architects

Type

Residential › Private House

YEAR

2013

The first and second floor apartments in this four-story Brooklyn townhouse were transformed into a single duplex apartment for the house’s owner, a bachelor who had grown up a few blocks away and who lives with his very large Burmese Mountain dog. The light-filled parlor level of the completed duplex comprises the public functions of the home; living, dining, and kitchen in a space open from the front to rear of the house. The garden level includes the private areas: two bedrooms, a dressing room, and two bathrooms. The upstairs and downstairs spaces are connected by a new steel and wood staircase opening onto a central study on the lower level. A glass-floored “bridge” spans over the study, creating a sense of connectivity between the two floors and bringing light down into this windowless middle area of the lower floor. The glass surface of the bridge, always cool to the touch, is the favored resting place of the dog.

On the two levels of the renovated apartment, the building was extended eight feet into the rear yard, and its new rear façade was constructed of fixed translucent polycarbonate panels installed vertically, with operable clear windows and doors on both of its sides. The translucent material allows light to enter the house while providing more privacy from the neighbors facing the back of the house than a regular glass wall, and also provides a higher thermal insulation value than would double-glazed windows. At the lower level, the translucent polycarbonate hovers over clear glass windows, creating an unexpected relationship to the garden from the master bedroom. A modified steel fire escape, painted bright green, extends down beyond this façade from the apartments above, connecting a small balcony off of the kitchen down into the garden.

During demolition and the installation of new structural joists, the existing wood subfloor within the project area was removed and repurposed as a wood wall and ceiling, running from the front of the house to the back, cladding a powder room space on the upper level and a custom desk/lounge seat at the lower level. The structural joists removed to create the double-height space were also salvaged, planed, and transformed into the kitchen island counter and side panels. The apartment’s quiet palette of white and gray walls and custom cabinetry is broken by the use of the salvaged wood elements as well as bright color accents throughout the house.

Photography by David Gilbert