New! Straight From The Architect's Mouth
The program for this Park Slope brownstone’s kitchen came from a common lament: everyone likes an open kitchen, but no one wants guests looking at their dirty dishes. This family has young boys, so for supervision alone, they needed a wide opening between the kitchen and dining room, but since the kitchen is squeezed into…
The program for this Park Slope brownstone’s kitchen came from a common lament: everyone likes an open kitchen, but no one wants guests looking at their dirty dishes. This family has young boys, so for supervision alone, they needed a wide opening between the kitchen and dining room, but since the kitchen is squeezed into the little single-window room, we couldn’t sacrifice an inch of counter space. Our solution was to extend the base cabinets halfway into our new double-wide door opening. We based our design for the ribbed-glass and walnut double doors on doors found elsewhere in the house. When closed, the doors look original, but one of them slides into a pocket and the other hinges ninety degrees to allow them to open fully in the tight space. This unorthodox configuration also lets you bolt the slider closed for more formal occasions (that’s why the glass stops above counter height.), while servers come and go through the hinged door. The ribbed glass lets light through but keeps the kitchen private. At dinner parties, the kitchen glows like a lantern.
DELSON or SHERMAN architects pc is a licensed architecture firm with a broad range of experience in residential, commercial, and institutional design. Based in Brooklyn, they have built projects around the country, combining clean, understated design with careful space planning.
Park Slope Brownstone [Delson Sherman]
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People were not jumping down your throat, 12.10, it was the “artist” who was basically saying that people who hire architects have no taste and need to pay for it. I can totally understand budgetary constraints and your frustration with your conversation, or lack thereof, with the expensive guys…
Being the “griper at 12:10”, responding to anonymous 1/18 at 9:51, otherwise known as “missed my point entirely”, my only point is that for those of us who DONT have $200K to spend, I was put off in my particular interaction with Perla, in that her first, *literally* her first statement to me, without knowing much about the house, its condition, what we were looking to do etc, was that she would continue with the conversation if I was prepared to spend $200K or more.
My posting on this particular renovation was based on the fact that when we saw this acutal featured renovation on the Park Slope house tour and spoke at length to the owners, we were in love and wanted to have it done in similar form in our home…we were very impressed with the work, finishings, etc. and they had good things to say.
HOWEVER, the phone interaction we had with Perla to ask her more and perhaps engage her in our project, was VERY off-putting b/c she literally cut me off to inform me of her MINIMUM threshold. Additionally, she was unable to recommend anyone that might consider working within our budget (of around $100K) for a kitchen+ renovation.
It sounds like many people have had a good interaction with her and I don’t doubt them…I’m simply trying to relay my experience with this particular featured renovation, the featured homeowners and the featured architect. To belittle this experience, is to belittle all the comments people give on a site like this.
I think architects are very important to the process as they can help us see our homes and their potential so much more clearly, not to mention take a lot of the hassle of contracting and bureaucracy out of our hands.
In the end, we hired another architect, one that was willing to work within our financial constraints (give $25K), and one that came up with an even more personalized and contextually appropriate design that we love, and did it on time.
I’m not saying its easy to be an architect today, but it certainly would be easier to be one that can just focus on renovations in which the budget is a secondary consideration…working within financial constraints was a key element in selecting the right architect, as it likely is for most of us reading this site. Those are not “gripes” or “envy”…but rather, reality.
think this website is getting way too grumpy. but there are some issues on here worth exploring. although brownstoner may never get another architect to agree to be featured in this way again. i too had these architects over to discuss a job and they told me that my budget was way too low. so now i’m working with another architect that has been in business even longer than they have and we’ll see where we end up money-wise. i think hiring an architect is like getting involved in any kind of very personal service-driven relationship, it depends a lot on the people involved and how they view the goals (budget, timing, aesthetic) and how they communicate together. it’s also one of the great kind of artistic matchings a client and an architect i think…reminds me of how i wish i could hire a great composer to write something “beautiful” for me. but sure there’s a price tag for great beauty and it’s also only a good value if you can afford it. i couldn’t afford them, perhaps i can’t even afford the reno job we are setting out to do. i’m happy heading in to the great unknown budget-wise. i’m sure they’ve been down that road and had miserable results with enough clients to know that they don’t want to try that route again. i hope that anon 5:03 is right, that anybody with good taste can get the job done. time will tell if this is true in my case. i would probably sleep easier if i could afford to hire somebody like d+p so i don’t have to sweat every detail.
Amen to Anon 5:19. I’ll take an architect who thinks about money any day. What did Mr. & Mrs. Artist and that griper at 12:10 want – a bow-tied dreamer who can’t dirty his hands with a budget? My dream architect would know the value of a dollar so she wouldn’t surprise me with a design that costs triple what I asked for, and she’d know the value of her work so she wouldn’t do it for free. Sound fair? By the way, those nice pictures speak louder than all these words.
*Love* the 5:31 comment — how true.
New Yorker Talk of the Town deja vu?
To the owners of the featured brownstone…never said D or S was snooty…just said perhaps their approach comes off as snooty to some-HOWEVER…and proceeded to pretty much defend D/S business choices and automony.
I agree TW. Pretty funny sometimes. Can’t let it get to you, gotta laugh… 🙂
If you ask me, a lot of the negative posts on this site are envy masquerading as taste, financial acumen, liberal outrage, environmental responsibility, etc.
The artist fellow from 5.03 and 11.42 comes off as a bit rude to the others on this thread who are not critiquing the artist, but rather stating what their experiences were with architects. If Mr./Ms. artist did not want to pay for an architect’s “so called taste”, then why did you hire one in the first place? Also, why critique others who have hired architects with snide, sarcastic comments. You sound like a real nightmare of a client for any architect or other service provider. BTW, I am not an architect or contractor. I’m handy and have done a real mixture of DIY and hired help as funds have permitted to restore/renovate my brownstone. I just think Mr. Artist is being unnecessarily rude to others on this thread due to his/her bad experience.
Also, ironically, after critiquing others for allegedly needing to brag about using Yale trained architects because they have no taste, Mr./Ms. Artist found it necessary to humbly note in their 5:03 post that their place has been featured as a backdrop in “a few high end magazines”. How self-depricating. LOL