Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Buying a New Condo, Brooklyn Designer Showhouse Opens

Jennifer Connelly’s Former Park Slope Home Back on the Market Again for $14.5 Million

One of Park Slope’s most luxe and talked-about townhouses is back on the market, for the second time in two years and the third in under a decade. That’d be the five-story 1899 limestone mansion at 17 Prospect Park West, formerly owned by the actress Jennifer Connelly, who lived there with hubby Paul Bettany from 2003 to 2008.

—

Four With Curb Appeal to See This Weekend, Starting at $695,000

If nothing else, our open house picks this weekend merit a drive-by — they’ve all got curb appeal, from a Victorian with a front porch to a bay-fronted brick Queen Anne. Three out of four need work, though, and no small amount of it; the fourth is move-in ready. They’re found in Park Slope, Bed Stuy, Flatbush and East New York.
—

See How 16 Designers Pulled Out All the Stops to Decorate a Brownstone for the Heights Showhouse

If you are an interior design buff who goes bananas over brass and gaga over grasscloth, then don’t miss the first-ever Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse. Sixteen designers have filled four floors of the 150-year-old brownstone at 32 Livingston Street with lavish furniture, art, wallpaper, carpets and cabinetry to create showstopping rooms that combine modern design with the home’s original detail.

—

The Insider: Architects Burnish Park Slope Row House With Incredible Woodwork

The Victorian builders of this bow-front brick row house went all out with detail. There’s no shortage of oak woodwork, gingerbread trim and stained glass panels. But all that was only partly intact when Dumbo-based Delson or Sherman Architects were hired to rethink the deep four-story house for a young family. In fact, said Perla Delson, “It was a mishmash.”

—

No Regrets: How to Research a New-Construction Condo Before You Buy

Recently I was considering buying a condo in a four-unit new-construction building in Brooklyn. The pictures of the unit in the glossy marketing materials, naturally, looked gorgeous. But after some intensive digging into the building and its developer, I bailed. I had narrowly avoided buying the real estate equivalent of a lemon.

Related Stories

• Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Brooklyn Live Edge Tables, a Striking Park Slope Makeover
• Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: Bowie Exhibit, Affordable Housing Coming to Brooklyn
• Top 5 Stories on Brownstoner This Week: A Creative Family Makes a Colorful Brooklyn Home

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.