Gut Reno on Gates
[nggallery id=”35152″ template=galleryview] When we saw this post go up on the Forum last week, we emailed the poster and asked to see more photos of the 5-story gut renovation he’d been performing on a brownstone on the eastern edge of Clinton. He obliged, along with a brief description below. The project came about as…
[nggallery id=”35152″ template=galleryview]
When we saw this post go up on the Forum last week, we emailed the poster and asked to see more photos of the 5-story gut renovation he’d been performing on a brownstone on the eastern edge of Clinton. He obliged, along with a brief description below.
The project came about as a way to give myself a informal, tactile education in architecture and building. I was trained as an engineer but I always felt curious about the built environment, partly its appearance, of course, but moreso how it is put together and how it affects us psychologically, emotionally, and socially. I came across this building about two and a half years ago and it was a wreck – no working plumbing or electrical above the parlor floor, every window was shot as was every flight of stairs, all three roofs leaked liked sieves, and it was snowing in the top stairwell. Still, I loved the scale of the building and the details, and it was undoubtedly a big project, bigger than I could probably handle, which made it that much more enticing.
I collaborated on the design with Public, a firm from San Diego, California, where I lived before moving to New York. We knew getting light in the middle of the building was important, as was taking advantage of the building’s stepbacks to create outdoor space. And we wanted to preserve some of the building’s sweet ruin and add modern elements carefully and in balance with the building’s delicate detail. This was probably the hardest and most time-consuming part, creating details in the language of modern materials and construction realities that didn’t feel faux-historic or forced. Hopefully we managed to succeed in a few places – whether or not we did, I got my education, and opened up all kinds of possibilities in my head for what and how to build in a brownstone.
Lovely work. Hope it all comes together in the end. Just a word of clarification: the option to higlight historic features in a given house or a given room and to replicate missing or damaged pieces or features in order to return a room to its original or historic appearance is usually referred to as restoration, not faux. It really isn’t faux if it is done right and with some knowledege of historical styles and construction details.
The approach taken here of mixing and matching new and old is perfectly valid and good. I appreciate that the old features did not end up in the dumpster as they so often do.
Amazing windows — who did all your window carpentry???
Wow, there are some wonderful features in this house, and you are going a great job. To avoid being redundant, please re-read what Brooklynista said. Would love to see more, both from this poster, and in general.
This is indeed a very beautiful gut-renovation!!! I am speechless!
But what is a ballpark cost for such a work???
This is very exciting and well-executed gut level work in a brownstone structure. I’m drooling over the various ways natural light is being allowed to flood into a historic rowhouse and most especially loving that center light shaft! So much so, I want to see and hear more about the project specifics. I find this and the current garden reno in PH to be exactly the kind of home reno projects I’d love to see featured on the front page of B’stoner week after week.
Beautiful! I would be very interested in what you learned in the process. What are your successes and your regrets, and what advice would you give to someone embarking on a gut renovation in your neighborhood?
I usually find reno’s and new construction extremely boring, but this looks great to me. Beautiful work – nice combination of materials and new/old. If it gets finished off without the usual viking stove and whateverthehell stainless fridge I will regard the owner as something of a master…
WOW! This is gorgeous. I have been wanting to do a similar gut on my PHeights Brownstone but my husband is unconvinced–this is just the ammo I need. Thanks for sharing!
Mopar you can get wooden windows like that from Marvin. Excellent noise and temperature insulation but they are expensive especially if the windows are arched.