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project overview
At just 16 feet wide and four extra tall floors high, the house demanded careful reorganization to feel open and luminous. We had searched for properties alongside the clients, and it was the home's existing circular stair—its defining feature—that convinced us all it was the right choice. That stair, now crowned by a round skylight oculus, washes all four levels in daylight and anchors the vertical heart of the home.
Economy drew a line through the house. The front, better preserved with its stair and historic woodwork intact, was stripped to essentials and painted white.
The rear was pared back to essentials: larger window to bring in light, clad in affordable siding to unify the surface. A slender two-story white CMU insert ties the parlor to the yard and connects down to the lower living/play room.
The circular stair sets the parlor level in motion, its spring-like energy carried throughout the house. A barrel vault spans between parlor and kitchen, a sinuous wall links house and extension, and the slender kitchen island curves at both ends. Lifted above the floor, the kitchen modulates the long, narrow plan and its 11-foot ceilings, while also giving more height to the entertainment zone below. Repetitions of curbes stitch the spaces together, echoed in circular light fixtures, the primary bath and culminating in the new skylight oculus above.
A recessed light slot lifts the bedroom ceiling so it seems to hover above the walls. In the bath, daylight filters through a solar tube onto the elliptical shower, infusing the room with gentle light.
Thoughtful design turns tight limits into unexpected opportunties.By transforming a tall, narrow historic shell into a luminous home, we shaped a space of respite for creative lives, an architecture that supports both family and practice, order and play, retreat and inspiration.
"Artists CJ Hendry and Lewis Cook's Renovated Brooklyn Brownstone Reflects Their Australian Roots." Allison Duncan. Architectural Digest, March 8, 2023. Photography by Olivia Joan.