Decatur Street Townhouse, Brooklyn, NY

This project was a gut renovation of the top floor of a townhouse in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. The brief was to update the space to include three bedrooms, a living area, kitchenette and bathroom with a strict budget and limited scope of work. Given the considerable amount of program that needed to fit within a single floor, it was important to prioritize a plan that was as open, airy, and flexible as possible. Select existing features were kept to maintain a connection to the lower, more traditional floors of the home while modernizing the palette and spatial organization.

The design emanates from the introduction of a skylight corridor. Three small, square skylights were added on axis to mark the central family room and flanking bedrooms. Limited in size by mechanical equipment at the roof level, the skylights rely on a flaring ceiling plane to accentuate their presence and diffuse light to the rooms below.

These flaring ceiling planes define areas of custom millwork. The pieces serve as the transition between public family area and private rooms when closed and function like walk in closets when opened. Large, symmetrical pocket doors allow the full floor to be opened up along the skylight corridor. This creates a visual connection between the pairs of traditional window surrounds at the front and rear with the pairs of modern millwork at the center.

Photographs: Julian Wass
Project Team: Vrinda Khanna, Robert Schultz, Veronica Patrick
General Contractor: Showcase Construction