Ultra Modern Reno on South Portland Avenue
[nggallery id=”27585″ template=galleryview] Here are some very cool before and after shots of a renovation of a South Portland Avenue brownstone that took place in 2007. The architect was Field Lines Architecture, an Lower East Side-based duo with clearly modern leanings. We have to admit to mixed feelings about the whole thing: On the one…
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Here are some very cool before and after shots of a renovation of a South Portland Avenue brownstone that took place in 2007. The architect was Field Lines Architecture, an Lower East Side-based duo with clearly modern leanings. We have to admit to mixed feelings about the whole thing: On the one hand, the finished product looks really amazing, what modern architecture should be; on the other, the intact interior of a brownstone on the definitive brownstone block in the city was lost in the process. At least there are no Fedders boxes! Update: The architects just sent in another view that shows how they did in fact maintain original details where they could. Great to see that our fears were misfounded! “We at Field Lines believe that the real magic occurs when palimpsest of the past are not erased but rather incorporate as unique opportunities for design,” they wrote. Check out the new image on the jump.
is it possible to “agree vehemently”?
Daveinbed, what do you say?
And I agree vehemently with Prodigal Son:
“The interior design, furniture and accessories are 1 step above IKEA.
Seriously…”
Much as I usually hate that “McMansion-y” (as someone put it) mezzanine cathedral ceiling thing, in this case, it is the perfect solution for what I’ve always hated about most renovated brownstone layouts– the segregation of dining/kitchen area from living/room area by an entire floor. In this case, the levels are at least visually unified by the mezzanine. And how glamorous, really, to step from the historic details of the front living room to the modern clean lines and bright sunlight of the back dining/kitchen area. That kind of contrast — to have both eras in one house, and be able to experience either extreme — is the ultimate luxury. I can’t take too much contemporary for too long (feels like Chase Bank after a while), nor too much Victoriana gloom. The balance of both, though, is heaven.
Congratulations, architects and owners.
Love it, love it, love it. The back of the parlor floor and patio garden look like some kind of awesome hotel or chic private restaurant. While I find some of the finishes a touch cheesy for my taste, this is the nicest blend of traditional and modern styles in a brownstone I think I’ve ever seen.
I am very jealous.
BTW, that green and yellow house on Cumberland did sell for close to asking, and had definitely been recently renovated.
Ooops…sorry. I just realized this is a four-storey house, that it is the extension that led me to believe it was only three.
Speaking of glass floors and personal tastes, has anyone noticed the yellow and green clapboard house on Cumberland (between Greene and Lafayette) sold…I think for nearly asking price, no?…and is now being renovated? I went to an open house and found the place, which had had a huge rehab (I knew the house prerehab in the “good old days”)not that long ago, and I believe the huge rehab was after a modest rehab in the 90’s…Hhh…the noive…That’s a lot of money to spend. Anyway, I hope the new work improves the back part of the house and they manage to fix some of the exterior wood window casings that obviously needed work at the time of the open house.
Speaking of ML…what to say?…I left Merrill in the nineties. All I can say is it was a men’s club and women were usually written off (to put it nicely and not use profanity). It was awful. You would hear about the stripper’n’cigar parties. I was revolted.
…I have to say, I loved the view at the WFC. Oh, well. That was a while ago. You take the bad with the good.
Regarding the house on this thread. We live in “old-fashioned”…but I really like this house. I’m trying to figure out which house this is…is it, by any chance, on the block between Fulton and Lafayette or Atlantic and Hanson…one of those shorter houses? I think there may be only one or two (if any) three-storey houses on the big block of South Portland between Lafayette and DeKalb.
Will the house be on the Fort Greene House Tour?…food for thought…
Sorry…just wanted to add the furniture bill to this thread…didn’t mean to hijack it with a BofA discussion.
I’ve met Ken Lewis several times….he bought the firm I used to work for…he’s a pompous asshole. There’s no way those top Merrill guys were going to “report” to him. Thain sold BofA a bill of goods and Lewis swallowed it without doing the due diligence over the weekend. How could he?? Lewis bought it based on his own ego and arrogance. And then uh oh.
dave – he was trying to support merrill’s long position in sothebys. ken lewis should be thrown out as well.