Developers to Flip Fort Greene Manse With Plans for Mayne-Designed Carriage House OK'd by LPC

In a surprising turn of events, developers last week listed for sale the historic mansion at 176 Washington Park in Fort Greene after getting city approval to restore the crumbling 1860s Italianate and build a new Thom Mayne-designed “carriage house” on the site, which sits within the Fort Greene Historic District.

Despite little of the rehab having taken place since the 2021 Landmarks Preservation Commission approval, the listing price is $6.5 million, almost double the $3.7 million Shape Capital (under the name 176 Washington Park LLC) paid for it in mid-2020 when it was being pitched as an “essentially uninhabitable” teardown.

Broker Alexander Maroni of Douglas Elliman told Brownstoner the building, which sits on the corner of Washington Park and Willoughby Avenue, had been gutted.

Department of Buildings records show a range of permits have been issued for work on the site, including an alteration permit issued in August 2022 to convert the historic mansion from a three-family house into a five-family property with exterior renovations and new bulkhead.

A full demolition permit was issued in June for the single-story garage in the backyard, which was expected to be replaced by Pritzker Prize-winning Los Angeles-based architect Thom Mayne’s modernist take on a carriage house. A new-building permit for the carriage house has been applied for, but not yet issued.

It’s unclear why the group of investors, which includes Sam Alison-Mayne (Thom Mayne’s son and co-founder of Dumbo-based development firm Tankhouse) have now decided to sell, especially having been through the LPC approvals process. Brownstoner reached out to Shape Capital and Tankhouse, but did not hear back by the time of publication. Maroni said there was “no particular reason” for the sale.

The developers enlisted architect Ted Kane of Kane Aud Architecture and Urban Design, who worked with Thom Mayne at Morphosis for more than a decade, to rehabilitate the existing circa-1868 mansion. When plans for the exterior restoration were presented to LPC in March 2021, that part of the project was relatively uncontentious.

Mayne’s modernist carriage house, however, attracted a bit more criticism, with commissioner Michael Devonshire saying it resembled a demolished building and commissioner Jeanne Lufty saying it looked “institutional” and resembled “entering a college campus.”

Some Brownstoner commenters also had critiques: It was “very stark and impenetrable,” said one named leeb. “That really does look like a building ruin crossed with a campus arts center,“ said RlyLove.

At the hearing, Mayne said he wanted to create something that celebrated the history of Brooklyn and the surrounding typology. Despite his reputation for making what he called strong and active buildings, he said he had “no interest in that whatsoever” for this site.

“We were interested in actually maintaining this and producing something that was clearly 21st century and proving there’s still validity in resurrecting history and expanding that…it didn’t seem like the site wanted anything kind of special. It didn’t want kind of an icon, it was not necessary. It wanted something actually quite the opposite. It was about continuity.”

Mayne returned to the commission a month later with revised plans that were met with effusive praise from commissioners, and were approved. “The rear house, whatever we’re calling this, is just simply fabulous,” said Commissioner Fred Bland. “I’m just so excited we have the ability to have architecture like this in historic districts.”

The Washington Park mansion was constructed between 1868 and 1869 by builder T. B. Jackson, and after having only a few owners over its more than 150 year history it was recently entangled in a deed theft case. In 2020, when the current owners rightfully purchased the house, Brownstoner got a peek at the crumbling interior and saw some of the original details, like the grand stair and marble mantels, were still intact.

“We want to respect the history of the house and include original elements,” Maysaa Halloway, a partner with Shape Capital, told Brownstoner at the time.

It’s unclear now what the future will hold for the historic structure. The listing says the new owner could keep the plans to convert it to five condos or have it as a “unique oversized single-family mansion.”

The listing notes the property comes with LPC and DOB approved plans that will save the new owner “significant time, energy, and capital.”

However, if a new owner wanted to alter the plans for the carriage house or the restoration of the mansion’s exterior, they would have to return to LPC for approval.

Update: The sale does not include the rear of the property where the garage stood, 9 Willoughby, which was divided into a separate tax lot in 2022. Plans for the carriage house have not changed, a source knowledgeable about the situation told Brownstoner.

Related Stories

• The Decaying Splendor of a Fort Greene Manse
• Fort Greene Carriage House Design From Pritzker Prize-Winning Architect Gets LPC Approval
• LPC Asks Pritzker Prize-Winning Architect to Adjust Fort Greene Carriage House Design

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