2017 AIA Brooklyn Merit Award

Situated within a landmark former warehouse, the project combines two previously renovated apartments into one new home for a young, growing family. With complex lives that require flexible live and work space, the design re-balances the spatial distribution to emphasize a grand, communal area while minimizing the sleeping spaces. Natural light filters across large wall planes in the nearly thirteen-foot-tall spaces, providing ample wall space for the owner's art works and to reflect light softly.

Using reclaimed, fifty-year-old white cedar from water towers in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, custom millwork pieces were designed to introduce a warm flash of color at a generous bench in the entry foyer, a screen wall that masks a small work space, and a twenty-four-foot-long desk. The wood has two faces: a purple-gray side once exposed to the water within the tower, and a vibrant yellow side that had previously faced out toward the atmosphere. 

Select details of the building's original structure are revealed by pulling away ceilings to express the old beams and exposing the original cast iron columns, which were encased in a thin, fireproof paint.

Completed 2016

Photography by Devon Banks Photography