The Insider: Greenpoint Townhouse Flexes to Evolve With Growing Family

The design ethos of this recently renovated three-story townhouse — minimalist but warm, with a whisper of the future — sprang from more than one source. Architect Fabian Lorenz, trained in Europe and a former senior architect at Bjarke Ingels Group, a Danish firm, gravitates toward what he called “a minimalistic Scandinavian palette.”

One of the homeowners, a filmmaker with an affinity for Korean and Japanese design, was after “nice, clean, resolved, sophisticated details,” Lorenz said. As a point of reference, she cited sci-fi movies like “After Yang” and “Her.” “They’re both set in a utopian future, but it’s not a display of technology. They’re human centered,” said Lorenz, who established his Brooklyn-based firm, Studio Fabian Lorenz, in 2021. “We were interested in a homey feeling, with a calm, natural palette of wood, but there are subtle cinematographic hints of this futuristic layer in the design.”

Hence the special attention to reflective surfaces, lighting effects, and use of color. Such elements as a kitchen backsplash of dichroic glass that breaks light up into different colors depending on the viewing angle, moody nighttime illumination, and unexpected jolts of color throughout “transport you,” as Lorenz put it, “from the neutral atmosphere.”

The gut renovation transformed the stoop-less and circa mid-19th century wood frame house from a down-at-the-heels multi-family to a two-family. There’s an owner duplex on the two lower floors and a separate apartment on top, in keeping with the homeowners’ vision for a long-term residence that would adapt to different stages in the life of their family. It was an “A to Z” job, Lorenz recalled. “We took out a bearing wall and remediated the structure heavily with steel. There was a time you could look from cellar to roof.”

Wood prevails in the reconstructed interior. “We wanted something that feels warm, so pale or washed-out woods were dismissed,” the architect said. “We found this beautiful cherry for the floor that exudes a warmth you don’t get with oak. It really carries a lot of the project.” Cabinetry veneers are cherry as well, though lighter in tone.

The ground floor’s open design is conceived around a multifunctional millwork wall that stretches the length of the building, incorporating a Murphy bed in front, a dining alcove in the middle, a kitchen at the rear, and a load of storage. New sliding glass doors open to the garden. The second floor contains three bedrooms: the primary bedroom; a guest room that doubles as a home office; and one large bedroom for the homeowners’ two children, to be divided into separate spaces in years to come.
 

The ground floor’s public space was organized around a long custom millwork wall. “The wall is like a Swiss army knife,” Lorenz said. “It has all these functions in different sections that activate different uses,” while preserving a maximum of open floor area.

Accordion panels tucked into the wall slide out to convert the front portion of the large open space into private guest quarters. Integrated lighting around the Murphy bed supplies atmospheric illumination.

The custom dining table, designed by Fabian Lorenz Studio, seats 10 comfortably. Its cantilevered shape allows people to slide easily into the built-in banquette, which is upholstered in orange-red Knoll fabric.

The dining light is a futuristic Nebula pendant from Artemide; the handcrafted Bunna chairs were sourced from Serbian maker Zanat.

The construction of the all-custom kitchen, which includes a stainless steel island with a 6-inch-thick top of fiberglass-reinforced concrete, involved several different trades.

Herman Miller’s Luva sofa in sunshiny yellow harks boldly back to 1970s Italian design.

Cherry millwork in the primary bedroom is leavened by closet doors painted warm white. The custom desk is made of ash.

A slatted wood pocket door filters light into the windowless primary bath. The architects took the opportunity to introduce color with an accent wall of deep blue and insets of transparent salmon-colored material layered between the door slats.

Today a single space with two twin beds and a large play area, the children’s room was designed to anticipate family life in years to come. “The space is laid out in a way that with the insertion of one simple wall and door you can create two equally sized rooms,” Lorenz said. “We even left cables and stuff in the floor so they can easily connect.”

A regular medicine cabinet in the children’s bath was modified with a custom light cove.

A newly inserted straight-run stair starts in a small shared vestibule into which the house’s one entry door opens, and runs along a party wall to the top floor unit.

The skylit top floor apartment, used now for guests and anticipated as an eventual home for grandparents, was designed to be melded into the duplex at a future date.

A bold orange bathroom is an energetic pop of color at the top of the house.

[Photos by Eva Zar]

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The Insider is Brownstoner’s weekly in-depth look at a notable interior design/renovation project, by design journalist Cara Greenberg. Find it here every Thursday morning.

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