Gut renovation and conversion of a Landmarked Prospect Heights Brooklyn multi-family townhouse to a single family triplex with rental unit. The final scheme was arrived at through extensive analysis of numerous potential options from multi-family to single family with and without additions, analyzed in terms of design and budget and market proforma and weighed with the client’s lifestyle, budget, and long term desires.
In order to maximize space, light and connectivity between the house and the outside, the facades are opened up at the rear, connecting the ground floor social space with the rear yard, as well as the front. All windows and doors are pushed outward, particularly at the front bay window and monolithic rear doors, where the brick façades morph from wall to extruded bay window frame. This pushing out of spaces within is given form through a reimagining of the historic Neo-Grec brick facades. The brick wall is corbelled outward with only incidental ornament – and only minor augmentation of a standard structural system - to frame the outstretched windows and doors, and house a bench and large windows and sliding doors within..