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The Insider: Attic ‘Cabin’ in Fort Greene
Welcome to The Insider, here every Thursday at 11:30AM. It’s written and produced by Cara Greenberg, as is The Outsider, Brownstoner’s new garden series, every Sunday at 8AM. ALWAYS SEEKING LEADS TO WORTHY INTERIOR DESIGN AND GARDEN PROJECTS!!! Please contact caramia447@gmail.com
THIS MULTI-FUNCTIONAL SPACE at the top of a five-story brownstone was once “a weird scenario,” says Manhattan-based architect Ole Sondresen, who renovated the entire building for a pair of artists with two college-age children — a utilitarian attic, 22′x60′, divided up into “six or seven little storage spaces.” Now it’s a destination for the family, used for movie nights, games, and music-making. “It’s meant to be almost a cabin at the top of the house,” Sondresen says. “A getaway in one’s own space.”
Enhancing the cabin feeling is the unorthodox use of wood, wrapping around the entire ceiling and down the wall to become a bench under the windows. “We saw it as an upside-down space,” the Norwegian-born Sondresen says. “While the rest of the house has wood floors and plaster ceilings, this space has white painted oak floors and the warmth of wood as the ceiling.”
The contractor was William Dorvillier.
More photos and details of the attic loft, as well as the new kitchen on the parlor level, after the jump.
Photos: Ole Sondresen
05/24/2012 11:30 AM
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Brooklyn Sites Lead PIP Grant Awards
Looks like the top two winners of the much-hyped Partners in Preservation grants went to sites in Brooklyn. Though the official winners haven’t been announced yet (that will come later today), as of last night the #1 pick was the Brooklyn Public Library, which will receive its full grant request of $250,000 for the historic front doors. Second up was the Congregation Beth Elohim, which will get $250,000 for a comprehensive restoration of the roof, parapets, dome, and stained glass. (CBE really fought for its grant money, as evidenced here.) In third and fourth place were the restoration of the man-made cascade at the NY Botanical Garden and the restoration of landmarked gardens at the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum & Gardens. The top four sites will receive the full grant requests, the other 36 historical sites will receive the leftovers of the $3 million. UPDATE: The four winners have been announced, click through for details!
Vote to Preserve NYC Historic Places [Brownstoner]
Photo by jordanguile (more…)
05/22/2012 10:00 AM
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Checking In at a $270,000 Red Hook Townhouse
The owner of this cheapo Red Hook townhouse wrote in to us, two years after they snatched up the property at a foreclosure auction for $270,000. Back then, the discussion centered on whether or not this was a good buy, considering that the townhouse looked like it needed serious work. The owner says: “Yes, it was a great buy. We did a total gut-reno and it was a lot of work but it took nowhere near 500K to fix it up. (The inside is twice as nice as the outside.) I am not a bank, a flipper, a hipster (I hope), a tearer-downer and luxury cinder-block builder…and there was no lein. I haven’t been shot on the way home. It’s blissfully quiet, and I have the nicest neighbors. I love living here.” So now you know! Click through for a 1930 tax photo of the building.
A Red Hook Townhouse for $270,000? Yessiree Bob [Brownstoner] GMAP (more…)
05/21/2012 12:00 PM
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The Insider: Gentle Reno in Prospect Heights
WELCOME TO THE INSIDER, our weekly in-depth look at a recent interior design/renovation project, here every Thursday at 11:30AM. Like The Outsider, Brownstoner’s new garden series on Sundays at 8AM, The Insider is written and produced by Cara Greenberg.
IT TOOK TERI BRAJEWSKI of TWB Design a full year of apartment-hunting to settle on what she calls a “petite three-bedroom” in an eight-unit building from the 1890s. It wasn’t just the intact woodwork and other Victorian niceties, including a fretwork archway, bay window, and tiled mantelpiece, that sold her on the ground floor unit, or even the private backyard. “It was one of the few I looked at and didn’t think, ‘If only I could tear this wall out…’”recalls Brajewski, an interior designer and co-owner of Interior Provisions, an online and by-appointment home goods shop in Nolita.
In fact, the long, narrow, 1,100-square-foot floor plan functioned so well for her family — she’s a single mom of two — that all the walls stayed right where they were. Brajewski lost no time gutting and replacing a full and a half bath; that’s been the major work to date. Other sprucing up includes floor refinishing, new lighting throughout, new furniture, and a carefully considered paint job with Benjamin Moore’s Natura line of no-VOC paints.
Brajewski is a LEED AP (accredited professional). She incorporated some sustainability principles, a water-saving toilet and the use of locally-made and vintage furnishings among them. Contemporary and mid-20th century pieces look magically at home in their surroundings. “The gracious scale of mid-century furniture works very well against a Victorian backdrop,” she says.
For now, Brajewski is living with the existing kitchen, though she bought a new dishwasher and washer/dryer, and the garden remains a frontier yet to be conquered. Brajewski “called in a ton of favors and got a lot of trade discounts” but estimates the cost of her improvements, including new furnishings, at about $100,000 for a civilian. The contractor was Jim Savio.
Above: The apartment’s front room is divided by an archway into areas Brajewski uses as a living room and a home office. The made-in-USA sofas are contemporary, from Thayer Coggin, but with a ’50s/’60s look. The vintage coffee table is from a shop in Hudson, NY; the rug from a sample sale. Cafe curtains were made by Angel Threads of Brooklyn.
Photos: Ofer Wolberger
See more, including a complete list of paint colors, after the jump.
05/17/2012 11:30 AM
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A Modern Rehab in the South Slope
A reader sent us the picture at right of 605 6th Avenue, the very modern renovation of a multi-family Slope building. Our tipster noted that the renovation’s been going on for awhile now. One of the most interesting details? The siding of blue corrugated metal, which our tipster guesses to be aluminum or steel. Check out a close-up after the jump. GMAP P*Shark (more…)
05/14/2012 11:00 AM
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The Insider: Beautiful Basement in Prospect Lefferts
Welcome to The Insider, a design and renovation column appearing on Brownstoner every Thursday at 11:30AM. It’s written and produced by Cara Greenberg, who also contributes The Outsider, Brownstoner’s new garden column, Sundays at 8AM.
HERE’S WHAT PROFESSIONAL DESIGN can do: turn a miserable subterranean space under a 1915 Tudor-style row house in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, formerly used for laundry and junk storage, into a serene and lovely 800-square-foot office suite for two psychotherapists, with a waiting room clients have been known to come early just to relax in.
Jennifer Katz and Maria Gonzalo hired Manhattan-based interior designer Caroline Beaupère for the job. “We gutted everything,” Beaupère says. “It was major work.” Windows were unblocked, and a concrete slab floor removed and ceiling beams exposed to gain additional height in a space whose original ceiling height was barely 7 feet. “We gained about a foot by removing the ceiling and building a new slab as low as we could.”
Colors, materials, and furnishings, including earthy wood pieces, a whitewashed oak floor, and linen window shades, were all chosen, Beaupère says, to create a “soothing, Zen environment.”
See more, including ‘befores,’ after the jump.
Photos: Matthew Arnold
05/03/2012 11:30 AM
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Having Some Fun in the Kitchen with PANYL
When we built our small kitchen on the second floor as part of our 2004 renovation, the idea was that this would be a short-term solution and that at some point in the next five years we’d move the kitchen down to the parlor floor and do it right. So while we bought some nice appliances, we went with Ikea cabinets to conserve funds. So here we are eight years later, surprise, surprise, still using our small kitchen (above). We’re still hoping to be able to afford to do the parlor floor kitchen at some point in the next couple of years, but in the mean time we’ve decided to have some fun.
There’s a cool new company called PANYL, which has developed a proprietary approach to customizing Ikea cabinets (actually Ikea furniture of all kinds), using a flexible self-adhesive vinyl film. Through mutual friends, the two founders, one a Park Slope resident and the other the designer behind Brooklyn Bowl, approached us about being guinea pigs. Since we’re not emotionally or financially attached to the existing cabinetry and they offered to do it for free, we said, Why the heck not–Let’s have some fun! Plus, if we decide we’ve gone overboard in a couple of months, we can always remove it with a hair dryer. And even if we were paying for it, all the materials would have cost us less than $700. On the jump are a schematic and rendering of the plan. Tune in next week to see the finished product.
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04/20/2012 10:15 AM
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Renovations Begin at The Julius Liebman Mansion
The Julius Liebman Mansion at 380 Clinton Avenue, which sold last year for $3,800,000, is under renovation. The LPC approved renovations to the basement, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors and the installation of new windows and window wells. The DOB also approved plans for “non structural demolition and minor general construction work.” The building will remain a single family. The exterior work seems pretty minor, which makes you wonder about the purpose of the large construction fence now around the house. It is a 9,200-square-foot home on a 13,500-square-foot lot (with a carriage house fronting Vanderbilt Avenue, to boot) so there is a lot to work with here.
The Julius Liebman Mansion Sells [Brownstoner]
380 Clinton Avenue Now $1 Million Cheaper [Brownstoner]
Liebman Mansion Interior Revealed [Brownstoner] GMAP
Julius Liebman Mansion Hits the Market [Brownstoner]
04/19/2012 11:00 AM
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Work Begins on Prospect Heights’ Hard-Knock 580 Carlton
580 Carlton Avenue, the rundown home in Prospect Heights put on the market for an eyebrow-raising amount of $1,999,999, is under renovation. The listing promised that the future owner could “pick all your own finishes” but it isn’t clear whether or not the home is already under contract and being designed to suit. (The listing was removed from Streeteasy but the website’s still up.) Regardless of interior plans, the LPC already approved renovations to the facade, front door, and stoop. About time this home got a little TLC.
Customize 580 Carlton Ave. for $2 Million [Brownstoner]
580 Carlton [Official Site]
Renovations Planned for 580 Carlton Avenue [Brownstoner]
Something’s Afoot at Dilapidated Prospect Heights Home [Brownstoner]
HOTD: 580 Carlton Avenue [Brownstoner] GMAP P*Shark
04/18/2012 2:40 PM
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Habitat for Humanity Investing in 3 Bed Stuy Buildings
Habitat for Humanity is in the process of purchasing three adjoining buildings in Bedford Stuyvesant with funding from HUD’s Federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program and will turn the units in them into home ownership opportunities for low-income families. The prior owner of the buildings at 782-786 Madison Street had recently renovated two of them, and Habitat will renovate the third by summer. The properties, which are near the border of Bushwick, will cost Habitat $6 million. The buildings will have a total of 18 units, with 12 three-bedrooms and 6 two-bedrooms. They will go to families earning between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income, and to folks signed up for the organization’s sweat equity mission. GMAP
04/10/2012 9:30 AM
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The Insider: Speedy Reno in Williamsburg
Join us here every Thursday at 11:30AM for The Insider, Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at interior design and renovation in the borough of Brooklyn. It’s written and produced by Cara Greenberg, who blogs at casaCARA: Old Houses for Fun & Profit.
THERE’S A NEW ONLINE MATCH-UP SERVICE in town, but this one is strictly business. Instead of potential romantic partners, theSweeten.com helps homeowners find architects, designers, and contractors for their home-improvement projects, from large (whole-house renovations) to small (a wall of bookshelves).
Launched last year by Jean Brownhill Lauer, a Bed-Stuy resident who trained as an architect, theSweeten vets and pre-approves all professionals, thoroughly checking their references and quality of work so you don’t have to. She conducts face-to-face interviews, checks licensing and certificates, and monitors client feedback before inviting them to join the network. Design professionals pay for membership; homeowners pay nothing.
One such member is Sarah Zames of General Assembly, an architect who’s just wrapping up a Brooklyn Heights studio renovation she contracted through theSweeten. Her previous project, the subject of this post, was her calling card: a little bit of suburbia in Williamsburg. The home is a 1950s brick single-family across from Cooper Park, with front and rear yards and a parking alley, as well as air rights to build upwards in the future.
The current homeowners, a couple in the arts with a small daughter, hired General Assembly in January 2011, shortly after they bought the house. It had been unoccupied for three years. “It was a disaster,” recalls Zames. “It would definitely have scared most people off. The entire thing had to be completely gutted, re-plumbed, and re-wired, and the HVAC system replaced.” After a lightning-quick four-month renovation, the new owners had a completely remodeled home with a newly efficient floor plan, and were able to move in by Memorial Day.
The house is essentially a split-level, with a ground-floor living room/dining area/kitchen measuring just 300 square feet. Steps lead down to a guest room/art studio on the lower level. There are two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor.
The general contractor was Trevo Contracting, with millwork by Tribeca Design Build. Total cost of the job: under $250K. The house was staged for photography by Sarah Zames.
See lots more photos and read all about it after the jump.
Photos: Joe Fletcher (1st and 2nd floors); Paul Clemence (studio)
04/05/2012 11:30 AM
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Yay, More Clinton Hill Cornice Porn!
A tipster sent in the photo above of progress on the new prefab cornice going in at a house on Washington and Willoughby, noting that it is difficult photograph because of the surrounding construction equipment. As you can see, though, one section has been installed, so it’s possible to get a sense of how it will look when work wraps. The owner of the house is also renovating the facade.
Cornice Porn in Clinton Hill [Brownstoner] GMAP
04/03/2012 12:00 PM
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Protest Outside 470 Vanderbilt Avenue
We got the photo above from a tipster of protesters outside 470 Vanderbilt Avenue right now who are “shouting Montec.” Our tipster assumes Montec is a contractor, and we’re guessing it’s this firm. As we reported a couple weeks ago, the Human Resources Administration signed a lease for the facility and it has been under renovation. An HRA rep said the move-in date is now Spring 2013.
Development Watch: 470 Vanderbilt Ave. [Brownstoner]
HRA Getting Lease at 470 Vanderbilt [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
04/03/2012 11:15 AM
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Ambitious Coney Aquarium Revamp Starting Soon
The Daily News updates on the massive renovation of the New York Aquarium in Coney Island that’s been planned for some years now but is scheduled to actually break ground in the fall and be done by spring 2015. The project will cost $150 million. Here’s the exciting stuff from the article:
The 55,000-square-foot, three-story space will open to the public in spring 2015. It boasts a roof-deck overlooking the ocean, and a cafe, seating wall and sculptures on the iconic Boardwalk below. The cathedral-like open ocean shark tank will be the jewel in aquarium’s new crown. Schools of native fish and about 35 local sharks, including nurse sharks, blacktip reef sharks and sand tigers, will swim inside the 500,000-gallon tank. A coral reef tunnel will give guests a 360-degree shark experience.
The aquarium will stay open during the renovation process.
New York Aquarium Plans $150 Million Renovation, Including New Shark Exhibit [NY Daily News]
Coney Aquarium Gets Sparkling Makeover [Brownstoner]
04/02/2012 9:00 AM
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The Insider: Carroll Gardens Mini-House
Join us here every Thursday at 11:30AM for The Insider, Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at interior design and renovation in the borough of Brooklyn. It’s written and produced by Cara Greenberg, who blogs at casaCARA: Old Houses for Fun & Profit.
LET’S GET one thing straight right off the bat. “No period detail was harmed in this renovation,” declares architect Jeff Sherman of DUMBO-based Delson or Sherman. The interior of the stoop-less, three-story, c.1900 brick row house, he says, “had the feeling of a 1970s ski lodge, made mostly of plywood.”
The house has some very special features, including an entry wall of stained glass discs, above, by Lexington, KY glass artist Frank Close. A new cherry staircase has wide lower steps that create the illusion of a grand stair, leading up to a skylit top floor with a stone-walled meditation room. There’s a new custom kitchen with an orange-and-brown color scheme and two new baths, one with teak flooring and woodwork.
With only a 22′x29′ footprint to work with, the architects decided early on to enlarge the house by linking it to the outdoors. On the ground level, Delson or Sherman (the “or” goes back to the firm’s founding in the separate apartments of Sherman and his partner, Perla Delson) replaced the rear wall with storefront glass and took steps to “treat the backyard like a room.”
The general contractor was Brooklyn-based Hamilton Renovation. Cost of construction: $1.1million.
Read on after the jump.
Photos: Catherine Tighe (interiors); Tyler Horsley (garden)
03/29/2012 11:30 AM
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Still Hope for Bed-Stuy’s 329 MacDonough Street?
Old House Web wrote a comprehensive piece on the many troubles of 329 and 331 MacDonough Street, the landmarked Bed Stuy brownstones that almost collapsed after a contractor knocked out a load-bearing wall of the basement at #329. We reported on the accident and subsequent efforts to save the buildings. Last summer the DOB approved building permits for renovation, with a vacate order still in place. According to Old House Web, the vacate order at #329 is still in place, although a C-of-O was granted to 331 MacDonough in late April 2010. The owner of #329, heavily credited for saving the home, still owes $12,500 in penalties to the DOB and is already several hundred thousand dollars in debt after the rescue. Occasional construction work is heard by neighbors, with one speculating that someone is living on-site. But Old House Web couldn’t get in touch with either homeowner for a confirmation. We are still hoping for a happy ending here.
Brooklyn Brownstone Preservation Victory: One Year Later [Old House Web]
03/22/2012 12:00 PM
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The Insider: Vertical Loft House in Park Slope
Join us here every Thursday at 11:30AM for The Insider, Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at interior design and renovation in the borough of Brooklyn. It’s written and produced by Cara Greenberg, who blogs at casaCARA: Old Houses for Fun & Profit.
THIS RADICAL RE-THINKING of a late-Victorian brownstone interior began with architect Eric Liftin of DUMBO-based MESH Architectures facing all the usual problems presented by an 18-foot-wide row house: a dark central core, cramped corridors, small rooms, an awkwardly placed kitchen.
His clients, Laura Lau and Chris Kentis, a pair of filmmakers with one child, had originally been looking for a loft, but fell in love with the central Park Slope location of this house. They asked Liftin to open up the triplex to space and light (the garden floor is a rental apartment). “They wanted the kind of family living that’s inherent in a loft — open and informal, rather than feeling everyone is isolated on different floors and cut off from each other,” says the architect.
Liftin and his team removed walls on the parlor floor to create one loftlike space, and opened up the central core of the house. “The central stair was very tight and dark, with narrow stairs and corridors,” says Liftin. “We stripped away plaster and sheetrock to show the old structure.” The original mahogany staircase remains, its elaborate carving a striking decorative feature on the parlor level. In the halls and landings on the two upper floors, flooring was replaced with translucent glass to allow light from an enormous new skylight to suffuse the entire house.
MESH re-purposed some materials from the old structure that was cut away, using salvaged studs from parlor floor walls to construct new walls on the upper floors. Ceiling beams were left exposed in the central zone, with lights made of plumbing pipe nestled among the joists. “At night, the whole vertical space is illuminated with a warm glow,” Liftin says.
The job also entailed re-plumbing, re-wiring, and cleaning up the heating and central air systems. Great Will Construction was the general contractor.
Photos: Frank Oudeman; MESH
Lots more photos, including ‘Befores,’ after the jump.
03/22/2012 11:30 AM
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HRA’s 470 Vanderbilt Move-in Date Pushed Back
Construction moves along at 470 Vanderbilt Avenue, where the Human Resources Administration signed a lease two years ago. Before construction started up, the move-in was scheduled for Spring 2012; once construction began, it pushed back to the end of this year. An HRA rep tells us the move-in date is now Spring 2013. When the move finally happens, it should bring 1,800 staff and 1,500 visitors to the area on the regular.
Development Watch: 470 Vanderbilt Ave. [Brownstoner]
HRA Getting Lease at 470 Vanderbilt [Brownstoner] GMAP DOB
03/21/2012 2:40 PM
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Cornice Porn in Clinton Hill
A reader sent in an enthusiastic message about how cornices are being installed on a Clinton Hill building: “Now THIS is what I’m talking about: The house on the corner of Washington and Willoughby has prefab cornice sections sitting on the roof, all painted-up and ready to install. He’s putting them on all three exposures, which is fantastic. He also has finished the scratchcoat on the facade, which was completely sheared off by some previous charlatan, and now is prepped for full-on restoration. This is gonna go from a neighborhood eyesore to a neighborhood jewel. Hopefully will inspire others. Before photo [above], showing nasty plywood patch over what once was a lovely cornice, until it fell off—and reportedly killed a woman who lived in the building, according to neighborhood lore.” Here’s the work-in-progress below, and click through for another shot. Should looks great in terms of adding uniformity to the buildings on the block.
(more…)
03/19/2012 11:30 AM
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Interior and Exterior Upgrades for Cobble Hill’s PS 29
This week Community Board Six reported on the extensive renovation coming to PS 29 at 425 Henry Street, between Baltic and Kane streets. This includes exterior masonry, roof replacement, parapet replacement and flood elimination work. (Here’s the full announcement from the School Construction Authority.) Construction workers were setting up scaffolding when we passed by yesterday, and most of their work will be done outside school hours with an exception in the summertime. The project should last until August 2013. GMAP
03/16/2012 2:40 PM
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466 dad
May 21, 2012 | 02:16 PM