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Last week the blog Desire to Inspire posted photos and an account (reblogged by Curbed) of the three-year renovation of 280 Washington Avenue, one of a pair of extra-large brownstones between Dekalb and Willoughby Avenues in Clinton Hill. Interestingly, though they are commonly known as the Pfizer Mansions, the owner of this one tells us her research shows that no Pfizer ever lived at Number 280!

Here’s what the owner–and decorator–of the 10,000-square-foot pad had to say about the reno:

Work started about a year after we purchased the house and is just now nearly completed. The garden is our next project. Basically, almost everything has been “touched”. There are all new bathrooms, a new kitchen, a restored copper skylight, new mechanicals . . . In terms of new construction, we built a copper-roofed room to replace an unattractive records room that had been built in 1925 on the foundation of the demolished conservatory for the Brooklyn Public Library offices. We followed the lines of the conservatory, using the existing curved base and the original plans that we found at the DOB. Two of the parlor parquet floors were damaged beyond repair and have been replaced. The heavily patterned parquet of the front parlor was discovered under carpet and linoleum tile and has been restored. A new curved iron stair has been added under the skylight to replace a narrow servant’s stair to the basement.

Desire to Inspire has a couple of in-progress photos in addition to a bunch of the finished ones. (You can also see a slideshow on the website of the contractor, Interior Alterations; the architect was Neuhaus Design.) The results, as you can see, are pretty stunning. Amazing job! We’re going to have some before photos for you tomorrow as well as some details on the neat archeological finds that were unearthed during the renovation. Stay tuned…


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