Promenade Apartment
Old New York apartments contain layers of decisions made by different owners in different eras. When taking on a new renovation, the design process must re-evaluate these decisions to craft a new space that embraces the good decisions and discards those that no longer work.
The Promenade Apartment sits atop a magnificent land-marked mansion along the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. Originally used as the servant's quarters, the home is an amalgam of two apartments that each had their own particular configurations. The new design consolidates and re-formulates the circulation to create a more effective use of under-utilized rooms. Historic windows, new storage, and a new set of consistent wood details unify the previously disparate spaces as one home.
A few years after the two apartments were renovated, Studio Modh fully redesigned the kitchen to improve its functionality and match the aesthetics of the first phase of renovation.
Brooklyn, NY
Phase 1 Completion 2014 / Phase 2 Completion 2018
Long, over-sized window sills extend corner to corner in each room serving as a unifying design element the minimalist renovation. These long, low shelves are for the display of family photos and artifacts and add a touch of warmth to the home.
Natural light is limited to a series of windows located within the cornice of the original mansion that occur at the low point of the building’s roof. As a consequence, the design transfers natural light through rooms through full height, acid-etched planes of glass.
The kitchen, situated adjacent to the living room, is designed to be visually open and unobtrusive. As the kitchen lies at the low point of the roof slope, overhead cabinets are avoided in favor of closet height storage units tucked around the corner from the living room (at right).
While much of the open kitchen is devoted to enclosed storage, a collection of vibrantly colored plates, bowls, and cups are displayed on open oak shelves.
The palette of materials in the kitchen is light and reflective to feel consistent with the rest of the apartment. White oak details punctuate drawer pulls, toe kicks, and shelving. Folded planes of granite echo the over-sized window sill elements repeated in other rooms. In this room, the sill provides a comfortable seat for someone to perch while another cooks.
Existing skylights were maximized by opening up the ceiling to spread the light as far as possible. This skylight, situated over the entrance to the apartment, serves not only the corridor but also the bedrooms through full height glass planes (as depicted below).
From the skylight, natural light was re-directed into the bedrooms via etched glass walls that afforded privacy and abundant natural light.
A guest bathroom has been added off the entry door and designed around an existing skylight. Following a similar theme in the other rooms in the house, a small etched glass window to the kitchen draws light between the two spaces.
Photography by Devon Banks Photography
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