Park Slope House Tour
We haven’t heard much feedback on the Park Slope House Tour that took place last weekend. One reader was nice enough to send in photos of some of the houses on the tour though. Clockwise from top left: 416 Seventh Street, 546 Eleventh Street, 597 Eleventh Street, 683 Tenth Street. With the upcoming holiday weekend,…
We haven’t heard much feedback on the Park Slope House Tour that took place last weekend. One reader was nice enough to send in photos of some of the houses on the tour though. Clockwise from top left: 416 Seventh Street, 546 Eleventh Street, 597 Eleventh Street, 683 Tenth Street. With the upcoming holiday weekend, brownstone gawkers get a chance to recharge their batteries in anticipation of the garden walk and the PLG house tour on June 4.
Park Slope House Tour This Weekend [Brownstoner]
I too went on the tour and felt it was uninspiring. The first two houses we saw are the two Anon 11:45 mentioned. Those were both nice for the reasons s/he mentions, but the rest of the tour was a drag.
This was my first house tour so I was under the impression that I would be exposed to beautifully designed/decorated places but most of these just seemed… boring. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, and I don’t fault people for not putting hundreds of thousands of dollars into their place, but I just hoped they would be more than just your average house.
The only reason I might have been in awe of any of these places is because of the original 1800’s architect’s (with the exception of the architect’s place) work, nothing to do with anything any of the current residents have done. None of the places took the whole space into consideration when making their design decisions, all of them seemed like they were put together piecemeal.
And the shameless advertising throughout one of the houses… YUCK!
Anon. 1:41,
A good cause, as Anon. 1:46 points out, is one reason and no, there’s no tax donation.
However, as someone who’s about to put his house on tour for the 4th time (over a 30 year period) I can add that it forces you to finish projects you’ve been putting off and, in the end, its a lot of fun(although that’s a bit hard to see now when we’re still vacuuming up plaster dust).
Is there a tax deduction if your house is on the tour? I’d be happy to put our brownstone on a tour. We have thick skins 🙂
most homeowners agree to it for a good cause– to raise $ for the local organizations that are supported by the fundraising/ticket sales. i’m sure it isn’t easy to have that many people tromping through however.
I don’t understand why a homeowner (unless for vanity reasons) would want to put there place on a house tour with people tromping through your place and potentially scoping it out to steal something or break in later. No thanks. I’ve been on tours myself and found enjoyable enough to look, but would never be inclined to do it myself.
Speaking from experience as a committee member of one neighborhood’s tour group, the reality is that it’s increasingly difficult to persuade homeowners to put their houses on these tours. There seem to be several reasons: i) since property values have risen so steeply, there’s no longer a need to “recruit” new homeowners to brownstone Brooklyn; ii) new owners are more protective of their privacy (perhaps because they paid so much and/or are bringing a more Manhattan mindset with them); iii) as websites like this demonstrate, the level of criticism of the houses on display is pretty high — many owners are saying they just don’t want to expose themselves to such a negative experience.
i too thought the modern reno was well-done and i liked that it was still in the construction stage and showed how real people deal with this kind of project while trying to live in a space and do it over time, as opposed to someone just plopping down a huge chunk of cash and making their “modern” townhouse look all ready for design mags.
I’m the photog. The tour had great attendance – with an older demographic than FG (which could explain lack of commetns) – about the same age as the BH tour.
It was a shame that we didn’t get to see more floors, and the renovations were all a little tired-looking with the exception of the double-wide house (great house, exchanged hands for 2m a couple of years ago which seems like a great deal). There were details galore, esp. on the 10th Street houses but the ceilings seemed to be mostly tin as opposed to decorative plaster.
I loved 597 11th, the architect’s house – I actually like the way he did it as opposed to the same-idea reno on the FG tour. Cute intercom system he had with vintage-looking copper tubes and re-used coal shuttle cover.
here we go…wouldn’t it be nice if we could have some enlightened discussion of the architecture/interiors of homes in brownstone brooklyn? i went on the tour and thought it was mostly a fairly uninspired group of houses, though there were some real goodies. 597 11th street was a very interesting modern reno, where the owner/architect had gutted the entire parlor floor and put up a gorgeous open staircase. there were also floor to celing windows in the back that looked out onto a pretty, green garden. didn’t get to see the rest of the house and they were mid reno. the other gem was 546 11th street, which was beautifully decorated and extra wide with an addition on top of a carriage house that made the place feel huge. also had a really nice roofdeck garden leading to carriage house in back. a little bit of a maze, but a cool place. i’m guessing it wasn’t everyone’s taste, but i enjoyed it. 2nd floor was the full-width across and had kids wing and parents wing, which seemed unusual. also had a garage. the other houses were nice but most only allowed us to see 1 floor so it was hard to get a sense of the whole place.