Fort Greene House Tour Wrap
[nggallery id=”21148″ template=galleryview] Like the Brooklyn Flea, the Fort Greene House Tour yesterday benefited from some much overdue sunshine. We were only able to hit about half the stops on the tour, but there was nary a clunker among them. As expected, the highlight (for us at least) was a look inside the modern studio…
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Like the Brooklyn Flea, the Fort Greene House Tour yesterday benefited from some much overdue sunshine. We were only able to hit about half the stops on the tour, but there was nary a clunker among them. As expected, the highlight (for us at least) was a look inside the modern studio building designed by British architect David Adjaye. Unfortunately no interior photos were allowed. It was a modern design that employed cool (as in temperature) colors and clean lines while also feeling extremely livable. As for the more traditional homes on the route, we were most seduced by 219 Carlton Avenue, whose judicious use of European fixtures and some impressive cabinetry enabled the house to be at once comfortable in its traditional shoes and a little lighter and less stuffy than your average townhouse. As you’ll see from the slideshow, we also made it to 237 Cumberland Street (a condo project with quite a backyard) as well as 297 Cumberland Street and 98 South Oxford Street, both of which had some serious old-school charm. What were your favorites?
I thought the tour was awesome. Of the residences, my favorites included each of the South Oxford houses (especially #56) and the kitchen/deck and garden at 306 Cumberland. Still,I found all matter of design delights in all the others as well. As fantastic as the South Elliot house was, the floors on display were a museum. Despite that bathroom with the wainscotting and stained glass ceiling which was to die for, I could not imagine living in that space. Just as I could not imagine living at the Adjaye house — which btw, is not intended as a living space! (I do not understand why some are attempting to critique it as such). However, as a structure for artist studios, or as an office work, I rate that building as an A+.
That said, I also agree with Putnamdenizen a bit on the money thing. I know I’m dating myself when I say that I can remember brownstone house tours as showcasing homes where the emphasis was on restoration projects which featured owner creativity and sweat equity. Nowadays, the tours tend towards homes that are projects of high end professional designers and architects. And, I won’t lie about it: I loved these houses! Wish I could do the same! But I’m a homeowner who doesn’t have it like that, financially. So, as much as I appreciated the fact that the owners were gracious enough to open their doors and allow me to see their interiors, I must admit that I also left the tour simultaneously inspired and deflated. You would have to have beaucoup bucks in order to pull off what most of those owners have done and that’s unlikely to ever be my story.
It would be nice to see a revival of brownstoner house tours that are more balanced between homes that have been gut renovated and designed with big bucks and those that are DIY or are more modestly remodeled/designed with more modest budgets.
12:24 Get over yourself. You are a hypocrite. Calling someone on a blog “gross” for expressing an opinion about a house they bought a ticket to see is at least as judgmental as saying you think someone should/shouldn’t have chosen to paint their trim.
I believe the “no-stoop 5 story” was 56 S. Oxford. The owner added radiant heat on the parlor floor and replaced the floors with new quarter white oak.
“Seemed to me like those who should have painted their trim white”
Should have?? It’s comments like this that are really bothersome. Why SHOULD someone decorate their home according to YOUR standards?
I love brownstones as much as the next person, but saying what people should and should not do to their interiors is just gross.
How about enjoying the diversity of people’s design choices and revelling in their differences instead of suggesting that each one should be a carbon copy of the next.
Seemed to me like those who should have painted their trim white (those with narrow, dark parlors) didn’t and those who could have stripped and stained the wood (those with big, high-ceilings) did.
Anyone know why those people redoing the 5 story without the stoop on S. Oxford ripped up the floors? You could see gorgeous original parquey in the photos they had posted. They put in some fake looking stuff to go with their new crown.
Brownstoner, if you liked that place, you should go see corcorans listing on st. marks in PH for a version a person could actually live in. I myself am so over the blond wood. It feels like a 60s-70s day care. The lighting was also terrible in that studio. If it wasn’t a beautiful sunny day, I don’t know how you’d get any work done in there.
Random comment – (and no it isn’t meant to be defensive) – by civil rights and criminal defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson whom I heard speak on Saturday: “the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice.”
I am assuming most of the houses on the tour were either on the market or going on the market soon? (The stoop-less house has already been featured ,has it not, as HOTD?) My understanding is that years back house tours were started as ways for community members to encourage like minded (i.e. gentrifying) folks to consider neighborhoods “beyond the pale” (pun intended). The photos and other info on display by the something A South Oxford house certainly brought me back to a time when Fort Greene (which my understanding was more crime-mpacted than Clinton Hill back in the day) was considered a dicey area. Interesting to note that there were struggles over redevelopment way back then very similar to the Atlantic Yards struggle today.
I would agree that yesterday was a lovely day to be in the neighborhood. Thanks to those who opened their doors and those who staffed the house tour.
Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the Ft. Green Home Tour yesterday although I was in Ft. Greene for a big part of the day for the Flea and some exploring (and did at least walk by some of the great homes). What a beautiful day! The neighborhood had so much energy and excitement! Has anyone gone to that restaurant Kif on Dekalb…? Delicious if you have not tried it!
Brooklyn just keeps getting better and better!
A bunch of my co-workers have been saying…so have you heard about this Brooklyn Flea…I’m like…I’ve been there for the past 4 weeks!!!!
They all live in Manhattan. So the word is indeed spreading!
The 2nd stop and the last served as great bookends for this tour. One ultra victorian and the other ultra modern. I was uncomfortable in both. The first was claustrophobic and museum-like. Deep rowhouses like this one are deprived of light in the best of times and the ponderous draperies and dark paint and woodwork made it worse. Unless you like that sort of thing. Me, I’d get rid of half the contents and paint everything white. I did love the beautiful back yard.
The other was too severe for my taste at least. That cement backyard must get too hot to be usable in the summer.
The 2 houses on the tour that epitomized the high-ceilinged, 20ft+, post Civil War ideal townhouse were very impressive. Can’t remember the addresses but if you went one was the stoopless one where the owners painted everything white and had meticulously restored the old moldings. It WAS lovely but as my husband says, it shows the dangers of fetishizing a house. It leads to way too much time and energy better devoted elsewhere. I hope the owners the best and only recommend they not get carried away and over-renovate which could give the place an institutional look. Hopefully they will paint the interiors something other than “default white” as its spaciousness and airiness means they’re not limited to that like so many others are.
The other house of this type had a beautiful palette, grays and browns that really showed off the beautiful white moldings.
All the backyards we saw except for the last were gorgeous.
Fun was had by all on this beautiful spring day, the streets full of pedestrians out enjoying the day and well-patronized sidewalk cafes.