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May 5, 2008
Fort Greene House Tour Wrap
Like the Brooklyn Flea, the Fort Greene House Tour yesterday benefited from some much overdue sunshine. We were only able to hit about half the stops on the tour, but there was nary a clunker among them. As expected, the highlight (for us at least) was a look inside the modern studio building designed by British architect David Adjaye. Unfortunately no interior photos were allowed. It was a modern design that employed cool (as in temperature) colors and clean lines while also feeling extremely livable. As for the more traditional homes on the route, we were most seduced by 219 Carlton Avenue, whose judicious use of European fixtures and some impressive cabinetry enabled the house to be at once comfortable in its traditional shoes and a little lighter and less stuffy than your average townhouse. As you'll see from the slideshow, we also made it to 237 Cumberland Street (a condo project with quite a backyard) as well as 297 Cumberland Street and 98 South Oxford Street, both of which had some serious old-school charm. What were your favorites?
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Comments
I'm surprised you found the studio on Vanderbilt to be livable; I appreciated the design, to be sure, but thought that all that concrete made me feel like I was dying inside. I really liked the renovations at (I think) 96 South Oxford Street; and I loved the kitchen with the wisteria (can't remember the name.)
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 9:12 AM
Yeah, we loved it. Not livable for a family, obviously, but it didn't feel cold and sterile, the way one might expect. The wood floors are probably what made the difference.
Posted by: brownstoner at May 5, 2008 9:16 AM
Re the Adjaye house, I found some interior pics here: http://tinyurl.com/4hx74g
Sure looks cool!
Posted by: johnife at May 5, 2008 9:16 AM
Mr B's favorite was actually the stop I liked least. Although there were a few nice details (the recessed handrails, for example) I found it rather grim--but then, yahoo that I am, I don't like modern buildings. The Forte MIGHT have been my least favorite, but it was the one stop I skipped.
My favorite,predictably, was the over-the top Victorian on South Elliot Place, although it would have be too much for even me to live with.
I also really liked the frame house on South Oxford and appreciated the attention to detail of the new building on Cumberland.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at May 5, 2008 9:26 AM
It was nice to get inside the Forte, having watched it rise over the neighborhood. I don't mind the profile of the building, but I was disappointed with the layouts of the condos. Great views, but not particularly effective uses of space. That over-the-top Victorian on South Elliott was something else. Do you think that the owners live in the two floors that were on display, or do you think they just use them almost as a museum piece?
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 9:34 AM
The houses I enjoyed most were those where the owners had bought them way back when and had slowly renovated them to their own taste (the two older South Oxford houses and the South Elliot house). The majority of the houses on the tour were, unfortunately, variations on how wealthy people ( or those with access to big loans) can make every brownstone look pretty much the same - airy parlor and to do for kitchen in the rear opening out to a deck. What I think we see in Fort Greene is a "mature forest" - tall awe-inspiring trees with little of the humor or surprise one might find in a woodland pasture or edge woodland. I was intrigued, however, for a house for sale on South Oxford on the Lafayette/Fulton block across from one of the show-houses. The owner was there, telling people it wasn't an open house, but allowed me and my partner to tour the house, which was one of those woodframed houses with the parlor floor entrance closed off by a full width porch (I assume th street was regraded at some point). A total, total wreck, complete with half scraped off linoleum and porn magazines strewn around. He was asking 1.4 something. In another era (i.e ten years ago) it would have been a house I would have loved to have bought a personally renovated it one room at a time.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at May 5, 2008 10:30 AM
Putnamd,
Your comments about wealthy people bore me. This entire blog has become a cliche. The whole 'wealthy people' or 'rich people with loans' comments are about as overused as the 'i saw that band before it was famous' comment. It's your last ditch attempt at trying to be cool. None of you are cool, none of you are trend setters. Most of you are not starving artists (they all moved out to Philadelphia) get over it. All of you want to be wealthy. If you didn't then you would be rallying down at Atlantic yards trying to make a difference instead of posting here while sipping on your $2 coffee's trying to be cool at the Outpost Cafe or Choice while making the owners wealthy and allowing them to take huge loans.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 10:45 AM
Whoa there "guest." I am sorry I am boring you so early in the morning. I was expressing a judgment on what makes a house tour interesting to me. I like the unexpected - much of what we saw at the house tour was lovely - but not unexpected.
As far as the ad hominem comments, well, the outpost jab hit mighty close to home (as my handle might indicate), but the rest? Come on guy, I don't think you know me, how I spend my working hours, what is important to me in the world (or you might if you had wasted as much time as I have reading this blog since I, unlike you, actually sign in). If you do as much social justice work as I do every day, then I guess we are both making the world a better place.
So take a chill pill, and relax.
And what did you think of the house tour, "guest"?
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at May 5, 2008 11:21 AM
The house tour was fantastic. We went to every one of them except the Forte, plus a couple of open houses.
I've always wanted to see inside the Adjaye house, and I, too, was impressed in many ways. One criticism though: While the idiosyncratic placement of the windows and skylights is witty and fun, and allows lots of light into the house, they're positioned so high in the walls that none of them allows an occupant to SEE OUTSIDE except out into the paved backyard. I found this really weird, as if the house was built by an agoraphobic. But I loved the recessed handrails, the towering wall of cabinetry with library ladder, and the flow from floor to floor. And the 12-foot brick wall in back.
That "interesting" garden on Cumberland was hilarious. You had to read the backstory on the brochure for it (and the wacky bathrooms with 19 kinds of glass tile in them) to make sense. The building was designed and built by someone who already had lived on the block for ages, really loved gardening, and wanted a really big canvas to plant on. Congrats on that.
The mad queen with the insane collection of Victoriana was really fun to see, but I wouldn't want to dust it.
Also noteworthy: Several parlor kitchens that actually worked. This is really rare. Congrats to the FGA and the homeowners, and thanks for letting us see your homes.
Posted by: Rehab at May 5, 2008 11:26 AM
"All of you want to be wealthy"
Nah 10:45, except in the sense that being "wealthy" means having everything I need, which is more a function of realistic expectations than a fat wallet.
Posted by: Bob Marvin at May 5, 2008 11:28 AM
Girls! Girls! Stop it! Its Cinco de Mayo for crying out loud.
The house I loved was the South Elliot house (The one with all the ART) without a doubt. That's one of the most amazing houses I've ever seen.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 11:31 AM
"there was nary a clunker among them"
I'd have to disagree. Who put 237Cumberland condos on the list? It was basically an open house for a half-constructed condo project that I'd never go to if I saw the listing. I thought the house tour would be showing us things like the owners house next door. Instead I arrive to see the view of their garden from the windows of the condo monstrosity they're worried won't sell now that the market's changed. They couldn't even figure out how to orient their hideous glass tile.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 11:38 AM
The 2nd stop and the last served as great bookends for this tour. One ultra victorian and the other ultra modern. I was uncomfortable in both. The first was claustrophobic and museum-like. Deep rowhouses like this one are deprived of light in the best of times and the ponderous draperies and dark paint and woodwork made it worse. Unless you like that sort of thing. Me, I'd get rid of half the contents and paint everything white. I did love the beautiful back yard.
The other was too severe for my taste at least. That cement backyard must get too hot to be usable in the summer.
The 2 houses on the tour that epitomized the high-ceilinged, 20ft+, post Civil War ideal townhouse were very impressive. Can't remember the addresses but if you went one was the stoopless one where the owners painted everything white and had meticulously restored the old moldings. It WAS lovely but as my husband says, it shows the dangers of fetishizing a house. It leads to way too much time and energy better devoted elsewhere. I hope the owners the best and only recommend they not get carried away and over-renovate which could give the place an institutional look. Hopefully they will paint the interiors something other than "default white" as its spaciousness and airiness means they're not limited to that like so many others are.
The other house of this type had a beautiful palette, grays and browns that really showed off the beautiful white moldings.
All the backyards we saw except for the last were gorgeous.
Fun was had by all on this beautiful spring day, the streets full of pedestrians out enjoying the day and well-patronized sidewalk cafes.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 11:39 AM
Unfortunately, I didn't make it to the Ft. Green Home Tour yesterday although I was in Ft. Greene for a big part of the day for the Flea and some exploring (and did at least walk by some of the great homes). What a beautiful day! The neighborhood had so much energy and excitement! Has anyone gone to that restaurant Kif on Dekalb...? Delicious if you have not tried it!
Brooklyn just keeps getting better and better!
A bunch of my co-workers have been saying...so have you heard about this Brooklyn Flea...I'm like...I've been there for the past 4 weeks!!!!
They all live in Manhattan. So the word is indeed spreading!
Posted by: jerri blank at May 5, 2008 11:43 AM
Random comment - (and no it isn't meant to be defensive) - by civil rights and criminal defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson whom I heard speak on Saturday: "the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice."
I am assuming most of the houses on the tour were either on the market or going on the market soon? (The stoop-less house has already been featured ,has it not, as HOTD?) My understanding is that years back house tours were started as ways for community members to encourage like minded (i.e. gentrifying) folks to consider neighborhoods "beyond the pale" (pun intended). The photos and other info on display by the something A South Oxford house certainly brought me back to a time when Fort Greene (which my understanding was more crime-mpacted than Clinton Hill back in the day) was considered a dicey area. Interesting to note that there were struggles over redevelopment way back then very similar to the Atlantic Yards struggle today.
I would agree that yesterday was a lovely day to be in the neighborhood. Thanks to those who opened their doors and those who staffed the house tour.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at May 5, 2008 11:59 AM
Brownstoner, if you liked that place, you should go see corcorans listing on st. marks in PH for a version a person could actually live in. I myself am so over the blond wood. It feels like a 60s-70s day care. The lighting was also terrible in that studio. If it wasn't a beautiful sunny day, I don't know how you'd get any work done in there.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 12:00 PM
Seemed to me like those who should have painted their trim white (those with narrow, dark parlors) didn't and those who could have stripped and stained the wood (those with big, high-ceilings) did.
Anyone know why those people redoing the 5 story without the stoop on S. Oxford ripped up the floors? You could see gorgeous original parquey in the photos they had posted. They put in some fake looking stuff to go with their new crown.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 12:09 PM
"Seemed to me like those who should have painted their trim white"
Should have?? It's comments like this that are really bothersome. Why SHOULD someone decorate their home according to YOUR standards?
I love brownstones as much as the next person, but saying what people should and should not do to their interiors is just gross.
How about enjoying the diversity of people's design choices and revelling in their differences instead of suggesting that each one should be a carbon copy of the next.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 12:24 PM
I believe the "no-stoop 5 story" was 56 S. Oxford. The owner added radiant heat on the parlor floor and replaced the floors with new quarter white oak.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 12:33 PM
12:24 Get over yourself. You are a hypocrite. Calling someone on a blog "gross" for expressing an opinion about a house they bought a ticket to see is at least as judgmental as saying you think someone should/shouldn't have chosen to paint their trim.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 12:54 PM
I thought the tour was awesome. Of the residences, my favorites included each of the South Oxford houses (especially #56) and the kitchen/deck and garden at 306 Cumberland. Still,I found all matter of design delights in all the others as well. As fantastic as the South Elliot house was, the floors on display were a museum. Despite that bathroom with the wainscotting and stained glass ceiling which was to die for, I could not imagine living in that space. Just as I could not imagine living at the Adjaye house -- which btw, is not intended as a living space! (I do not understand why some are attempting to critique it as such). However, as a structure for artist studios, or as an office work, I rate that building as an A+.
That said, I also agree with Putnamdenizen a bit on the money thing. I know I'm dating myself when I say that I can remember brownstone house tours as showcasing homes where the emphasis was on restoration projects which featured owner creativity and sweat equity. Nowadays, the tours tend towards homes that are projects of high end professional designers and architects. And, I won't lie about it: I loved these houses! Wish I could do the same! But I'm a homeowner who doesn't have it like that, financially. So, as much as I appreciated the fact that the owners were gracious enough to open their doors and allow me to see their interiors, I must admit that I also left the tour simultaneously inspired and deflated. You would have to have beaucoup bucks in order to pull off what most of those owners have done and that's unlikely to ever be my story.
It would be nice to see a revival of brownstoner house tours that are more balanced between homes that have been gut renovated and designed with big bucks and those that are DIY or are more modestly remodeled/designed with more modest budgets.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 12:55 PM
sometimes nice old parquet can't be salvaged. we had some parquet floors in our house we wanted to keep, but they were worn so thin that they could not withstand a restoration, so we had to replace most of them.
Posted by: z at May 5, 2008 12:55 PM
"sometimes nice old parquet can't be salvaged. we had some parquet floors in our house we wanted to keep, but they were worn so thin that they could not withstand a restoration, so we had to replace most of them."
this is more often the case than not. you can only refinish an existing floor so many times because when you do, you sand the top layer off.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 1:10 PM
What some of these comments about the David Adjaye building on Vanderbilt seem to overlook is that it isn't a residence. It's two studios for working artists. I would posit that explains the lack of views to the exterior and the extreme minimalism. I loved the double thickness birch ply bookshelves with the striated edges showing. What a great, affordable solution. Think I'll steal it.
Views from the Forte were predictably stunning but what disappointing layouts: one in the NE corner had a sofa practically backing up into the after-thought of a kitchen. And the bedrooms were tiny.
The recreated plaster cornice in the large So. Oxford St house was incredible, though overall that house felt a little sterile to me. Maybe they just need to live in it some more.
The 237 Cumberland condos were attractive. But sooo over-priced.
I agree that there were some great kitchens on view. My favorite was the Cumberland St house with the full-width kitchen located in a rear extension. The one with wisteria on the back wall. Beautiful layout and stone countertops. The fridge is cleverly tucked into an alcove in the hallway where you enter the kitchen. The Carlton Ave kitchen was also very cool (lovely bamboo cabinets, an island, and still room enough for the dining table).
The narrow house on So. Oxford btw Hanson & Atlantic was fascinating and full of atmosphere. Especially the owner's spread of old photos showing the area behind his house as a vast over-grown meadow before the pre-Ratner Atlantic Commons was built. And the plan that existed before Atlantic Commons -- the Rose corp had proposed a vast redevelopment in the area incl the block btw Flatbush and Ashland, the entire Atlantic Terminal mall area, and the Atlantic Commons site. An object lesson for all those following the AY story.
Big shout out to the volunteer house sitters who make these tours possible. Thanks to you all.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 1:14 PM
The 56 South Oxford house did not have original parquet when the owners bought it. It had cheap, ugly parquet installed by the previous owner in the parlor ONLY, and there was a huge hole in the parlor floor where an interior staircase had been. Rather than patch the hole when the staircase was removed, the owners ripped up the "old" floor and put in quartersawn white oak. (Not cheap!)
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 1:17 PM
Anyone have the addresses for the entire tour, especially South Elliot Place?
Posted by: arby at May 5, 2008 2:08 PM
I thought even the suggestion from Brownstoner to seek and point out the "clunkers" on a house tour to be really catty and tacky. A house might not be done to your taste but to actually call somebody's lovingly renovated house a "clunker", I'd just think they have issues.
Posted by: guest at May 5, 2008 5:19 PM
What are you talking about 5:19? Jon said there wasn't a clunker, and although some of us were more interested in some kinds of renovations than others, the comments I read are pretty damn positive. This threads been going on for hours without a problem (or much interest, if truth be said), so me thinks your negativity is a wee bit misplaced.
Posted by: Putnamdenizen at May 5, 2008 7:18 PM
Re:I am assuming most of the houses on the tour were either on the market or going on the market soon?
The House Tour is not a Real Estate Broker's Open House. Many of us, the home owners of these 'marketed homes', live in them, and plan on continuing to live in them. Many of us have been here for 20-30 years.........and hope to be there that many years again!
The 'marketing' that happens is part of the Fund Raising aspect. These are the funds that allow a relatively small neighborhood organization to do community outreach, to our schools and youth organizations, and help in our neighbors in small ways. We have worked to fight large scale development, to expand the historic districting, that was done 30 years ago, and is so critical to the neighborhood that we are today. There are initiatives for 'greening' and ways for our aging neighbors to stay in thier homes. This is a community effort.
So please, next time you come on our House Tour, come to appreciate the old-time home-steaders, and the newer ones. The Fort Greene House Tour is presented as a cross-section of the neighborhood, it's ecentricities and its' beauty. We are a different group, and the homes were equally different from each other. We celebrate that diversity.
Posted by: guest at May 7, 2008 9:42 PM
i volunteered and only had time to see the condo on 237 cumberland where the after-party was hosted.
yikes!
bad taste to host a marketing party.
and
please hand these guys a big axe to chop their prices.
(someone must have been in a cave the last 6 months)
Posted by: guest at May 8, 2008 10:47 AM
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