The Insider: Ultra-Modern South Slope Rebuild Centers on Dramatic Atrium

Behind the tidy, unassuming facade of a low rise brick building, once a carriage house or garage, lurks an unexpectedly modern interior crafted largely of steel and glass for a family of five.

Brooklyn-based Harper Design+Build, founded by husband-and-wife team Christine Harper, an architect, and Ryan Harper, a builder, executed the job, which was more ground-up construction than renovation. An expansive kitchen, dining area, and living room flow as one around a glass-walled courtyard on ground level. The floor above contains family bedrooms, while the top level, accessed via a separate entry door and staircase, is currently a rental unit, designed to be incorporated into the owner duplex in years to come.

“This was an interesting property because it was built all the way back. The space was just a shell, in real disrepair,” recalled architect Heather Braun Oko, who served as project manager. A rectangular footprint and backyard would have been conventional, but Harper Design+Build did otherwise. “We thought an interior courtyard would be a nice way to activate the space and bring in light, and we also added a ton of skylights. A lot of that had to do with getting the air required for code, but it was also great for bringing in even more light.”

Credit goes mostly to the homeowners for the assured selection of contemporary furnishings and lighting, complementing the project’s materials palette of natural stone and warm wood.

The homeowners live on the two lower floors. Harper Design+Build added a rooftop rental unit, set back from the street. The door on the left leads to the owner duplex; the right-hand door opens on a flight of stairs up to the rental apartment. The garage space is still used for the purpose by the homeowners.

“We made new openings in the front facade and reclad it in brick, mimicking vintage detailing so it looks like it’s always been there,” Oko said.

Inside the entry door to the duplex, a long hallway runs alongside the garage before opening into the main living space.

The showstopping staircase that links the two floors of the duplex was fabricated elsewhere and constructed on site. “During the planning process, we had that stair in almost every spot. That location works best upstairs, in terms of the bedroom layout,” Oko said.

Many walls are made of operable sliding glass panels. Flooring and stairs are white oak. Common grade wood with visible knots was chosen to make them feel “a little less polished,” Oko said. “In that big volume of space, we needed that texture and character.”

The central kitchen connects the dining room at the front with the more private living room at the rear.

The homeowners are enthusiastic cooks who love to entertain, so the kitchen was conceived as the heart of the home, adjacent to the atrium. “It looks pretty straightforward, but there’s a lot tucked into that kitchen,” Christine Harper said, including such unusual amenities as a dedicated baking area, a library ladder to access high-up storage, and a wood-wrapped island made from a tree felled on the clients’ property outside the city.

Slatted wood strip ceiling detail helps define the kitchen within the larger space, “creating different zones and a sense of separation,” Harper said.

Hamilton Blue paint by Benjamin Moore brings color to the cabinetry; the same hue was picked up for the playful design on the center island’s knee well, seen head-on from the courtyard.

A stained glass panel, backlit at night, was set into an existing window opening. The homeowners’ collection of artwork in gilded frames enlivens the soaring walls of the living room.

A ground floor bathroom is distinguished by an arched alcove filled with lively wallpaper.

Primary bath details include luxurious dark marble, floors of white sand marble, a pale wood vanity and minimalist lighting.

Wall and floor tiles of various sizes create patterns in the second-floor kids’ bath.

Large expanses of glass along the staircase provide views into the courtyard and out to the roof.

The roof terrace serves as another living space, with multiple seating areas and a ping pong table for the resident teenagers.

The primary bedroom is on terrace level, with sliding doors for easy access. The windows above belong to the rental apartment.

Harper Design+Build broke up the mass of the building’s rear facade with two different types of cladding. A rain screen panel system behind both creates a cavity that allows water to drain and air to circulate.

[Photos by Elizabeth Hope | Front facade photo by Beau DeWitt]

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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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