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?
“there was nary a clunker among them”
I’d have to disagree. Who put 237Cumberland condos on the list? It was basically an open house for a half-constructed condo project that I’d never go to if I saw the listing. I thought the house tour would be showing us things like the owners house next door. Instead I arrive to see the view of their garden from the windows of the condo monstrosity they’re worried won’t sell now that the market’s changed. They couldn’t even figure out how to orient their hideous glass tile.
Girls! Girls! Stop it! Its Cinco de Mayo for crying out loud.
The house I loved was the South Elliot house (The one with all the ART) without a doubt. That’s one of the most amazing houses I’ve ever seen.
“All of you want to be wealthy”
Nah 10:45, except in the sense that being “wealthy” means having everything I need, which is more a function of realistic expectations than a fat wallet.
The house tour was fantastic. We went to every one of them except the Forte, plus a couple of open houses.
I’ve always wanted to see inside the Adjaye house, and I, too, was impressed in many ways. One criticism though: While the idiosyncratic placement of the windows and skylights is witty and fun, and allows lots of light into the house, they’re positioned so high in the walls that none of them allows an occupant to SEE OUTSIDE except out into the paved backyard. I found this really weird, as if the house was built by an agoraphobic. But I loved the recessed handrails, the towering wall of cabinetry with library ladder, and the flow from floor to floor. And the 12-foot brick wall in back.
That “interesting” garden on Cumberland was hilarious. You had to read the backstory on the brochure for it (and the wacky bathrooms with 19 kinds of glass tile in them) to make sense. The building was designed and built by someone who already had lived on the block for ages, really loved gardening, and wanted a really big canvas to plant on. Congrats on that.
The mad queen with the insane collection of Victoriana was really fun to see, but I wouldn’t want to dust it.
Also noteworthy: Several parlor kitchens that actually worked. This is really rare. Congrats to the FGA and the homeowners, and thanks for letting us see your homes.
Whoa there “guest.” I am sorry I am boring you so early in the morning. I was expressing a judgment on what makes a house tour interesting to me. I like the unexpected – much of what we saw at the house tour was lovely – but not unexpected.
As far as the ad hominem comments, well, the outpost jab hit mighty close to home (as my handle might indicate), but the rest? Come on guy, I don’t think you know me, how I spend my working hours, what is important to me in the world (or you might if you had wasted as much time as I have reading this blog since I, unlike you, actually sign in). If you do as much social justice work as I do every day, then I guess we are both making the world a better place.
So take a chill pill, and relax.
And what did you think of the house tour, “guest”?
Putnamd,
Your comments about wealthy people bore me. This entire blog has become a cliche. The whole ‘wealthy people’ or ‘rich people with loans’ comments are about as overused as the ‘i saw that band before it was famous’ comment. It’s your last ditch attempt at trying to be cool. None of you are cool, none of you are trend setters. Most of you are not starving artists (they all moved out to Philadelphia) get over it. All of you want to be wealthy. If you didn’t then you would be rallying down at Atlantic yards trying to make a difference instead of posting here while sipping on your $2 coffee’s trying to be cool at the Outpost Cafe or Choice while making the owners wealthy and allowing them to take huge loans.
The houses I enjoyed most were those where the owners had bought them way back when and had slowly renovated them to their own taste (the two older South Oxford houses and the South Elliot house). The majority of the houses on the tour were, unfortunately, variations on how wealthy people ( or those with access to big loans) can make every brownstone look pretty much the same – airy parlor and to do for kitchen in the rear opening out to a deck. What I think we see in Fort Greene is a “mature forest” – tall awe-inspiring trees with little of the humor or surprise one might find in a woodland pasture or edge woodland. I was intrigued, however, for a house for sale on South Oxford on the Lafayette/Fulton block across from one of the show-houses. The owner was there, telling people it wasn’t an open house, but allowed me and my partner to tour the house, which was one of those woodframed houses with the parlor floor entrance closed off by a full width porch (I assume th street was regraded at some point). A total, total wreck, complete with half scraped off linoleum and porn magazines strewn around. He was asking 1.4 something. In another era (i.e ten years ago) it would have been a house I would have loved to have bought a personally renovated it one room at a time.
It was nice to get inside the Forte, having watched it rise over the neighborhood. I don’t mind the profile of the building, but I was disappointed with the layouts of the condos. Great views, but not particularly effective uses of space. That over-the-top Victorian on South Elliott was something else. Do you think that the owners live in the two floors that were on display, or do you think they just use them almost as a museum piece?
Mr B’s favorite was actually the stop I liked least. Although there were a few nice details (the recessed handrails, for example) I found it rather grim–but then, yahoo that I am, I don’t like modern buildings. The Forte MIGHT have been my least favorite, but it was the one stop I skipped.
My favorite,predictably, was the over-the top Victorian on South Elliot Place, although it would have be too much for even me to live with.
I also really liked the frame house on South Oxford and appreciated the attention to detail of the new building on Cumberland.