The Insider: Arched Openings Are Elegant Leitmotif in Renovation of Fort Greene Townhouse
The graceful arched openings are but one element of a renovation that transformed a narrow building’s interior from several rundown apartments to an elegant owner’s triplex plus garden rental.

Photo by Francis Dzikowski
In reimagining a compact mid-19th century townhouse as a tranquil home base for a newlywed couple with high-powered careers, his in the media business and hers in travel, architect Alexandra Barker of Gowanus-based Barker Associates Architecture Office (BAAO) lit upon the idea of creating arched openings between rooms. “The front facade was two arches — the entry door and the arched window to the left of it — so we thought we would carry it through” as a theme throughout the building, Barker said.
The graceful arched openings are but one element of a renovation that transformed the 16-foot-wide building’s interior from several rundown apartments to an elegant owner’s triplex plus garden rental. A three-story rear extension with large steel and glass openings expanded living space to a total of 3,700 square feet, with five bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths.
The front facade of the building is not unusual for circa 1860s Anglo-Italianate townhouses: brownstone on the lower half, brick above, with a short stoop. “It didn’t have the generous ceiling heights brownstones typically have,” Barker said. To gain more head room for the kitchen in the center of the parlor floor and the living room beyond, BAAO raised the ceiling structure in those areas 2 feet. The dining room at the front of the parlor floor, framed by a dramatic arch off the entry foyer (top photo), retained its original ceiling height.
Correspondingly, the floor above, at the rear of on the house’s third level, was raised an equivalent amount. “We ended up having the master bedroom be a few steps up,” Barker said.
The house was blessed with a fair amount of vintage detail, including marble mantels and a well-preserved staircase. “Some parts were in amazingly good shape,” Barker said.
Jae Joo Designs, a Tribeca studio, meticulously curated the serene interiors, with furnishings sourced from such makers as Philadelphia’s BDDW.
There’s a bar lined with Fornasetti wallpaper and a powder room in a corridor between the dining room at the front of the parlor floor and the kitchen beyond.
The kitchen spans the width of the house, with a central marble island, custom cabinetry by Bespoke 7 (a millwork shop in Lodi, N.J.) and a modernistic light fixture from Flos.
Calacatta marble with subtle veining defines the open kitchen, which is free of the clutter of upper cabinets.
Faucets here and in the adjacent bar are from Kallista.
The centerpiece of the living room is a fluted fireplace surround by Brooklyn-based Kamp Studios, which does specialty plaster work.
The salvaged original staircase turned out to be a showstopper. “You couldn’t see it well before, because there was a small hallway,” Barker said. “We removed some walls so you could see from front to back.”
The railings and balusters were painted a dark matte tone and the existing coffin niches fitted with new marble shelves.
The moldings and trim in one room in particular, overlooking the street on the third floor, were nearly perfect. “That room had the most detail,” the architect said. “We just added the hearth stone and redid the floors.”
The primary bedroom opens onto a balcony through new steel doors.
The primary bath, with a freestanding tub and luxurious marble shower, are reached through arched openings via a raised passageway.
Lighting sconces on the mirror are by Danish mid-century master Arne Jacobsen.
Kingston Brass supplied the fixtures for the third floor bathroom. Wallpaper came from Anthropologie.
[Photos by Francis Dzikowski]
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