[nggallery id=”21393″ template=galleryview]

At least we know where I. M. Pei stands on the recessed-lighting issue! At some point, the famed architect designed the upper duplex of this four-story brick house at 491 3rd Street in Park Slope. (The lower two floors are floor-through apartments.) The design is nice enough, but other than the archway, there aren’t a lot of strong statements going on as far as we can tell. According to the listing, the two lower floor-through apartments have retained their historic details and will be delivered vacant. Given the location, the asking price of $2,795,000 probably isn’t too far off the market. The first open house is on Sunday from 12:30 to 2 p.m.
491 3rd Street [Corcoran] GMAP P*Shark


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

Leave a Reply

  1. Oh, and by the way 5:17, the “same” comment was not on another thread, it was above at 3:23. My last comment was an update on that post. Please get with the program, honey bun.

  2. I don’t have a problem with the lighting, and think the duplex renovation is fine. However, there’s one major problem with this house in my opinion — the layout is such that if you actually want more than the small duplex (and most people buying property for this price do) you basically have to tear out all of the I.M. Pei designed details to move the kitchen to the parlor or ground floor.

    So, for 2.8 million, you are really limiting yourself to a small segment of buyers who want a walk-up duplex with no outdoor space. I guarantee you that the typical brownstone family is not looking for this. So your pool of buyers is far smaller than for other brownstones with a typical configuration. So the I.M. Pei stuff is a waste, and really doesn’t add much value to this at all.

  3. Dave, today’s Garden of the Day now has a whopping 8 comments as of 5pm, including one by you. Boy, all those faded typers where so right about us killing the discussion yesterday. I’m sure they’ll all be showing up momentarily with hundreds of valuable gardening comments without us there to railroad the discussion.

  4. All the gorgeous $20 million historic townhouses in Manhattan have recessed lighting. See for yourselves. Look at the pictures on listings on the NY Times.

    But the $1 to $3 million brownstones in Brooklyn are too stylish for that?

    Whatever.

1 2 3 4 5 6 9