The furniture was called "Danish modern" in the early 1960s. We were grad students and newly married, but found affordable versions of it. To me this is more of a 20th century revival.
29
I am puzzled by the stairs, which look narrow and steep. Do they meet code? I would like to see articles exploring how to redo stairs to make them safer and more comfortable.
15
Applause for restoring a great property. However, is this not a bit like painting an antique piece of furniture? I'd live there but...
Once I tore up an old factory and spray painted it. That was cool and inspired my imagination. Some things need to stay original and authentic. I am not here to decide which.
35
I live on the top floor of a well-preserved 1899 brownstone in Crown Heights. I really appreciate the original features and the years of upkeep, but these homes needs serious renovation work so I'm not mad like others are that they changed some things. My floor droops, there's no insulation, no vents in the bathroom, creaky stairs, half the outlets don't work, and no central AC. For $3K a month you'd expect a palace.
A click-through photo gallery would've been nice.
56
I must respectfully disagree with most of the commentators. The old design, while classic, looked deteriorated and moldy. Paint peeling, old wood, creaking floors. I personally prefer brighter colors and lots of light. It gives an air of life and cleanliness to the environment. And a lot of the old fixtures, the wooden posts and crown moldings are still there, simply refinished. Beauty's in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.
At the end of the day, these folks didn't renovate Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone or some national treasure. It's a home, the interior of which only the owners will ever see. I consider myself a romantic, a sentimentalist and a history-hobbyist, but after reading the backlash in some of these comments, perhaps I'm not as much of a curmudgeon as I think.
75
What a loss of a perfectly beautiful interior.
210
That they are renting via AirBnB (rather than creating community via a longer-term rental) is also symptomatic of having embraced a transient relationship to the neighborhood.
229
A beautiful renovation ...... beautiful !
Would you guys/ladies, live in girdles ; long skirts with hoops ; mustaches brought into 'formation', etc etc ....?? Skip the casual style clothes we love and part of the age ?
Why can't we live in our own age when it comes to our homes ?
Ikea, which is forever brought up, is a poor quality alternative to what is really going on in modern design ; comfortable, and beautiful if you are able to look beyond convention. Beyond old conventions .
29
Heartbreaking to see. To pick one example, why remove the original mantelpiece and replace it with a generic Home Depot one? And why remove the fireplace?
223
Where the hood for the cooktop?
18
some nice tricks, some glaring destructive moves. painting wood is bad enough but removal of architectural woodwork? please. stop. kudos for energy management. what a shame no one thought about making a latex mold of a glorious ceiling medallion before it "came crashing down". all the prep work ahead of the game and no one thought this through? well, it's nice for the folks living there and most assuredly, the next owners will do their thing and soon enough, it will all be lost to the dust bin of history.
129
Would this have been the house of a rich person back in the day? Does anybody know?
8
This is such a shame, and frankly I'm angry that preservation laws don't adequately govern fine, traditional homes such as this former gem. Those moldings and wooden fixtures were beautiful, and I see no reason why people who don't respect antiquity would purchase such a property. If you want to live in a new-build, buy one.
221
What a fabulous improvement of a dreary old victorian. And it’s passive!
37
Maybe they embraced the future but definitely destroyed the past.
188
Times change, so do tastes in decor. Deal with it.
37
Hey, people, it is THEIR house. I find it pretty blah but not everyone wants to live in an old, dark house surrounded by brown.
49
This architect couple had to use their skills on a beautifully preserved original interior in a historic neighborhood? They couldn’t have restored an already-gutted townhouse or a dilapidated commercial property in their old neighborhood in Bushwick?
What a shame.
172
I love the new space.
21
This project is a travesty in this preservation architect's mind. Destroying existing fabric in the name of "sustainability." Flawed logic with all the embodied energy of destroyed and new materials.
151
I applaud the owners for taking on a renovation of this scale and implementing passive designs, I would love to get rid of my electric and gas bills. Well done!
As for all the people moaning about the loss of interior details, go buy your own house and stop being home fascists, or better yet, move to a gated community with specific covenants that keep things cookie-cutter for you.
And NYT, what gives with exposing their Airbnb?? Not nice!
22
I live in an Arts & Crafts Mission Style townhouse in Jersey City Heights complete, like this one was, with original moldings, features and hardware (wooden door knobs no less). We have restored it. A painting contractor came in one day to give a quote and I proudly showed him this original gem. "You know," he said, "Young people today would have all this woodwork painted white." He added that he refuses those jobs. What is it with this white thing? As many have commented, it takes the warmth, the soul, out of the place.
158
Negative comments are silly.
There are thousands of houses in BedStuy with ‘original woodwork’ in all shades of brown to depress you for the rest of your life. These guys preserved what they could and painted it white, so what.
Why don’t you complain about all the historical properties being demolished for big multi family developments. Or the ones where every detail gets destroyed because the cheap flipper tears everything out to do a 50k quick renovation. It happens all over the place in Brooklyn.
This is a low energy house which preserves the uniform look of the street. Who cares what’s inside? You know how ugly and rat filled most houses are inside? Have you ever been to Brooklyn?
In Europe it is mandatory to fulfill certain energy standards. In NYC you can build a house with uninsulated plywood walls if you want.
Anything goes, you can plaster a 150 unit house with 150 external Hvac units instead of putting in an energy efficient whole house solution. The noise and industrial looks completely destroy the historic surroundings and destroy property values around you. But it’s ok. No one cares
61
What type of couch is that? I like it.
4
I wondered if the fireplaces were working or doesn't that fit into a passive house design? 3 people sharing 2,100 sq feet doesn't seem so "green" to me. Hopefully they will put the garden level apartment back on the rental market. I understand being a landlord in the current environment sucks but doubtful this would be rent controlled.
35
Sad what they did to that irreplaceable plasterwork and beautiful woodwork.
167
Interesting comments, as usual in here. While I agree with many that the 1889 essence was stripped out, I also agree with one commenter that this was a "Euro" style renovation. In many older Italian towns (like Lucca) you see 14-17th century apartments gutted and done "Ikea" style. Partly for budget, partly because everything is so old you have to start from scratch, there's not much to save inside except the walls, ceiling timbers, or the floors, probably redone in early 1900's. Also, few people want to live in a museum piece...when it's your home you do it your way. In Italy, you cannot sell the old antiques, the Italians don't want them and they are taken to Firenze and Rome for the American tourists to buy. Here's a good tip...go to FB marketplace in Tuscany for some incredible antique deals. And for what it's worth, Ikea "carcasses" are terrific....well built cabinet boxes better than many custom builds and in frameless you want laser cut MDF boxes, not plywood. You can find many custom door companies like Reform that give you countless finish options.
38
I am not a strict preservationist, by any means. I have lived in a several early 20th century houses, and think it is fine to update them in ways that reflect contemporary lifestyles, but it is important to respect the bones of the house as well as the parts of it that show off the particular beauties of prior design and architectural periods. The "before" pictures showed a lovely, late 19th century house with spectacular woodwork. I've painted less distinguished trim myself, and generally prefer white woodwork, but this was appalling. I was shocked, and not in a good way, to see the "after" photos of the same locations--they could have been taken in a modern house, so little of the original style and detail was left. It made me sad. I don't think this is a good example of updating an older home, either in terms of style or efficiency, given the huge amount of work and resources that went into this project. Why not find something less salvageable if this is the desired end?
226
Beautiful home and commendable intentions. In terms of temperature and sound-proofing, average American homes are way behind other countries, to the financial and physical detriment of owners and renters. For instance, the type of bedroom window they have is standard in much of northern Europe. Home construction here all too often strikes me as a race to the bottom in terms of the quality of materials used, even in supposedly high-end buildings in the city.
34
Why not find the exact house you’re looking for? We looked for three years and made almost a dozen offers. In the end, just like all the other suckers, we sucked it up and got the “best we could do.” And we don’t even have an agenda. There are a lot of greedy sellers and goofy buyers out there. Just like New York!
6
I live in an historic home in an historic discredit in Oklahoma City. My house is a Craftsman gem built in 1913. We consider ourselves caretakers of this beautiful house as we are just passing through, people lived her before us and others will ,ice here after we are gone.
We love our original oak floors and woodwork, our gray bricks fireplaces, our 1913 windows with their original wavy glass, and the layout of the house which makes practical use of every inch of space. There have been a few changes in the floor plan over the years but not many, a downstairs half bath was added by the previous owners, and we renovated the kitchen and upstairs bath, rooms that had already seen many changes over the years. We upgraded them from the 1960s to the 2010s but used material any styling that coordinated with the original Craftsman style.
It makes me sick to see what was done to this beautiful old house. They took out a gorgeous fireplace and replaced it with a white box. They painted what little wood trim they saved, ruining it probably forever. It is very difficult to take that paint off. As others have said, why didn’t they choose a property that had very few original features left instead of ruining one that did? Sadly, this is also common in my neighborhood, as people take out original features and paint everything white.
247
@Lucy H
I agree-- the gutting of this beautifully preserved house is a travesty-- these "architects" destroyed much of what was lovely and historic and installed white-washed junk with insulation.
Horrible, horrible, horrible.
As a nation, we should be more aggressive about preserving historic structures so this kind of facade of maintaining an old and well-maintained structure is not destroyed by arriviistes.
135
It’s made it through all these years without being painted, and they’ve just erased it. Some poor soul in the future will be working so hard to strip the paint off all the woodwork and spindles on that fireplace in order to restore it to its original glory.
104
It sounds like the new owners care very much about the environment. The most environmentally friendly thing they could have done was to simply move into the beautiful home that existed.
196
Not for me, altho' I appreciate their decision to become a tight house, with passive heating.
And I like the bathroom sink, tub and fixtures.
It just seems as if there was a monumental amount of materials wasted in an effort to simplify.
67
I like it! I really do! People get all wrapped around the axle about pristine preservation of old homes, forgetting that houses are always transitioning in response to residents’ needs and were in the time that lovely property was built, too. I wish this family many happy years there.
32
@Allison I love the idea of this home. My son has one in Asheville that is a passive home but he didn't redo an older home, he built from scratch!
Can't believe they destroyed the beautiful wood moldings and plaster of this beauty.
It's a travesty what they did to this home but then again it's their right to do what they want if it's not on a historic register.
32
Clearly much thought and good intentions went into the technical makeover to reduce the energy footprint and lighten the interiors, but the minimalist interior design comes off as soulless and sterile, much like the rooms in the Yotel hotel chain or the Apple store at the mall. It is possible to update these older homes make them more energy efficient and airy without eliminating the warmth, charm and craftsmanship that makes them so appealing.
134
It’s like a small version of what they did to the old Penn station, and the architects are so proud of their handiwork. The “before” pictures look incredible, the ones that show what remains after their vandalism are pretty depressing. Well, architects have been destroying Victorian buildings for years, making those that remain all the more valuable and sought after. How sad to see this project and its hybrid outcome, neither historically interesting as preservation nor compelling as a contemporary space it will be viewed in the future as we see the Penn station of today....
157
While I appreciate many of the innovative clean design elements, this house leaves me cold (passive heat notwithstanding). It seems like it’s missing its heart and the interior needs a bauhaus exterior. I wish they had retained more of the original interior design elements.
I live in a 1926 Spanish bungalow and any changes done are done with the goal that they reflect the style and period of the home.
105
I agree that the period details are mostly all gone. But most old kitchens are pretty inconvenient. The several uses of " Ikea carcasses " was a bit startling to me though. I prefer white woodwork. Yes, even if you have beautiful corbels, cornices, newel posts etc. I do not think it is a sin to paint them white if you own them. On the other hand I would have hesitated with those pictured. Because they were in really good shape and of very high quality wood. This story brings home that real estate in N Y C is now such a struggle even for the very well off. Getting in to something/anything appears to be exhausting and to provide few choices even at the $ 2 million level. I would not want quite that much sound muffling if I had infants or toddlers. You want to know if they are sick in the night or otherwise distressed. Its nice and light for being not a corner townhouse. I loved the child's room. Seemed perfect. So many very negative comments. It's their house and the " green " features are forward thinking and informative. I could certainly live there without complaining.
19
Painting unpainted original woodwork should be considered a crime. It is very hard to reverse. Across the street from me in Park Slope a new couple recently painted every inch of woodwork white, and removed the original parquet floors to put down new floors. Basically they wanted everything to be new and pristine. The couple was relocated by their employer and the house is now for sale for an absurd price.
One of my neighbors told me (paraphrased): "I don't really own this house. I'm just the caretaker until the next person pays to take it over."
189
I cried when I saw these photos. All that beautiful woodwork destroyed. The soul of the house gone. Why?
314
A lovely remodel and kudos to the owners for not only going the extra model to reduce their footprint but to brave the comments section of the real estate section here which can less than kind.
47
Some of these comments are ridiculously critical. I think they did a lovely job remodeling this home. The exterior maintains the historic character of the neighborhood, while the interior tastefully brightens and elevates the space. It will surely continue to evolve as their family grows. Perhaps those bemoaning the loss of dark wood paneling, inefficient windows, and aging, creaking floors should trade in their modern cars for Model Ts or rally to bring back the soot-producing locamotives of yore. It's a private home, not a public space.
59
@JS
I think you miss the point. Using the car analogy it would be akin to buying a beautifully preserved vintage car and replacing the innards with a Tesla screen.
102
There are plenty of tastefully restomodded cars that maintain the exterior look of the vehicle while updating interiors and internal components.
Not everybody wants to live in a time capsule.
17
@JS
I agree that not everyone wants to live in a time capsule, but they should have been patient and respectful by finding a house that needed that kind of renovation - not a gem such as the one they destroyed.
130
Having lived in a Park Slope house by this same builder, I can easily say this is a travesty. Every generation has the hubris to believe their design sensibilities are the best. But the thoughtful details of our house, left in its original condition embraced my family happily for a quarter century. On the other hand, the 1960 floor-to-ceiling Go Go bars some cool architect added to our stairs from the parlor floor to the kitchen were woefully out of style by the time we purchased our house. This renovation will age the same. These architects really should have found the dump they originally sought. There are plenty of them. As it is, carefully preserved history has been besmirched.
321
This poor home is the victim of an atrocity. It is too bad that historic preservation laws do not cover interiors. I am sure the previous owners would be heartbroken to see their lovingly cared-for home's beautiful architectural details fall victim to this so-called restoration. I wish they had gone with their original idea of buying a house that needed gutting instead of taking one that should have been preserved for future owners and destroying its unique character. I live in an 1890s Victorian and appreciate, indeed love, it for all its quirkiness and for the fact that, thanks to previous owners, it retains all its original architectural details. This makes me sad.
259
The article poses an interesting question: “How do you embrace the future without destroying the past?” Unfortunately, in this case the answer is: “You don’t”. The past was clearly destroyed, yanked out, and renovated over without nearly enough sensitivity towards preservation of details nor the context of this home’s place in the neighborhood.
On one hand it looks like it was a large undertaking and I salute them for embracing energy efficient changes - particularly the fresh air exchangers, which would be something I would want to incorporate in a future renovation of my own loft. But I see a very Euro-style interior that, to my eyes, looks very wrong and out of place - particularly given that neighborhood and the gentrification at work there.
It’s a much more challenging endeavor to remake a place while working around details that attracted you in the first place or provided charm and a sense of history. As a demonstration of how to retrofit to passive house standards, I find this fails for me because it seems to be essentially a new build. (Also, why cap off the gas? A NYC buyer would be put off by the lack of gas burners).
180
There is no way that the following holds true in general: "Those electric components are powered by a photovoltaic system on the roof, which also provides more than enough power for the home’s appliances and lights, as well as an electric-car charging station in the front yard." I live in a house in the Black Forest with solar panels on the roof, and in winter when there is little light and much snow often covering the solar panels, we draw more electricity from the grid than we supply and to such an extent that we owe the grid big at the end of the year. I assume the couple never use their car.
47
At least some of the beautiful woodwork was donated and is (I hope) now gracing the interior of another home. I do wish they had found the unsalvageable mess they had originally hoped to buy and renovate. I appreciate the aesthetic and functionality of the new but I can’t stop seeing what was there before.
112
It's too bad this house didn't go to someone who would appreciate the beautiful woodwork and historical details that had been preserved over generations. Instead the buyers destroyed what made this house special in order to achieve a plain, all-white look which just doesn't fit the property. A very bland look that probably won't even be trendy for much longer. It's a sad thing to see the heart and soul of this home ripped out.
360
It's not green or energy-efficient to gut and renovate a house in good shape, period.
385
@A. That's what I was thinking. The most sustainable thing is totouch as little as possible. How much new material went into this?
90
It's hard for me to appreciate this remodel. They took a completely preserved 19th century gem and stripped it of it's character and soul. I gasped when I saw the before pictures: they destroyed a gorgeous home, a piece of history.
436
I am not a fan of Victorian/brown woodwork even tho my grandfather build a whole row of Bed-Sty townhouses back then. Even as a fan of white and light, this renovation doesn't seem to work for me compared to ones I have seen in Europe. It feels cramped and like it wants to be something else somewhere else. Trying to hard for the space and floor plan with no warmth.
78
I don't understand how the house is heated. There are solar panels on the roof and mini- splits give a boost when needed implying that something else is the main source. The ventilator captures heated air but how is it heated in the first place? Regardless, it's a totally cool idea, and the kid is a cutie. Best of luck!
7
@John - very little heating is needed because of the extra insulation, air tightness and triple pane windows. Internal heat from lights, cooking and appliances do the trick, which is the heat that is captured and recovered in the heat recovery units. The spilt system provides heat or cooling on the very cold or very warm days.
14
@John
As it is an interior house it also gets heat and protection from wind through its neighbors. It would be much more difficult on a free standing hoise.
14
@Sandi What is the maintained average indoor temperature?
2
I agree with other comments, the soul of this house was removed.
The article also fails on another level. It does not address the question of the incremental cost of the passive construction. Some sort of estimate would be very useful.
150
I wish they had skipped this beautiful gem of a home and chosen a different one/way to preach about passive homes. Sure, we get the environmental significance of passive homes, but at what expense in this case? They couldn’t have made their point in a home in less-stellar condition?
This home clearly had been well preserved, longingly care for over many, many years. To see its integrity stripped away and only what appear to be token nods to its previous architecture (there are, what, three details from the past?) does a disservice to the message they’re trying to preach.
Would they have dismantled an old painting, so that it could have been reframed?
Why couldn’t their office have become their showplace, and this beauty left to continue its stately presence for many years to come?
306
The daughter's room is cute, especially the artwork and furnishings, but the rest of the house looks like a brochure for a gentle insane asylum. I think if they would have kept the "heavy" woodwork and added the lightness they so enjoy it would have given the place depth and quality of heightened pleasure. But, it is their home. I just hope they treat their neighbors as neighbors and as human beings. And when you meet your neighbors on the street, look them in the eyes and say hello. Treat them with dignity and respect, visit your yearly block party.
60
I don’t understand why these new owners picked this house as they had said they they wanted to find something in poorer condition - one more in need of a total renovation.
It’s so hard for me to see all this beautiful wood work, that had been appreciated over so many years to be hastily painted over to achieve the current modernistic trend.
I really would like to hear from the previous owners, those who “had loved it through its entire life, and taken good care of it,” I’m sure their options would be similar to mine.
Contentment and appreciation of things as they are can bring so much happiness in live, not to mention save a lot of money and environmental harm.
258
I live in an 1880s brownstone too and this saddens me to see how much of the original character they have obliterated. This is exactly what I would not want if I were looking for a similar home.
326
I am not a preservationist by any stretch, but I did not see any of the gorgeous, intricate woodwork from the before photo im the slide show. Yes it is a beautiful. airy home now But the arched door seems to be the only original element that survived the reinvention (not renovation) of this home.
71
@common sense advocate From the "One of these Bed-Stuy homes is not like the others" and the exterior photo, it was obvious which one was not like the others. It was a gut renovation of an interior and white paint, and it is really. But it shows how over decades (or maybe at least a century) that interior design and architecture don't have a relationship. Rather than work with the period they obliterated the period. The arched door is the "yuck" for me (before and after) -- I suspect it was itself a remodel from way before (and an awful one).
89