How to Build in a Landmark District
New York YIMBY just posted some renderings of an infill project in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill Historic District.
The four-story townhouse is designed by Ramona Albert a Brooklyn-based architect whose bio includes experience at Front Inc, a facade consultancy with many big-name projects in its portfolio.
Perhaps her experience at Front influenced the exterior of the townhouse, which is elegant, unique, yet entirely appropriate to its setting. Per YIMBY, the "massive front arch [is] meant to evoke the many carriage houses in the neighborhood, including those just up the street."
The design makes me think immediately of a Philip Johnson house, though the articulation of the faux-travertine front facade is rooted in contemporary fabrication techniques, most likely gleaned from Albert's experience at Front. The rear facade, below, is understandable tamer, though it does make the modern design underlying the whole townhouse more apparent.
Although"Brooklyn Community Board 2 voted to disapprove the house, saying it diverges too far from existing structures," per YIMBY, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the design. I can see why.
The four-story townhouse is designed by Ramona Albert a Brooklyn-based architect whose bio includes experience at Front Inc, a facade consultancy with many big-name projects in its portfolio.
Perhaps her experience at Front influenced the exterior of the townhouse, which is elegant, unique, yet entirely appropriate to its setting. Per YIMBY, the "massive front arch [is] meant to evoke the many carriage houses in the neighborhood, including those just up the street."
The design makes me think immediately of a Philip Johnson house, though the articulation of the faux-travertine front facade is rooted in contemporary fabrication techniques, most likely gleaned from Albert's experience at Front. The rear facade, below, is understandable tamer, though it does make the modern design underlying the whole townhouse more apparent.
Although"Brooklyn Community Board 2 voted to disapprove the house, saying it diverges too far from existing structures," per YIMBY, the Landmarks Preservation Commission approved the design. I can see why.
your idea so brilliant...so inspiring guys...
ReplyDeleteThe house isn't bad but isn't that approach how we ended up with all that PoMo hideousness in the 70s and 80s?
ReplyDeletePerhaps, but... 1) I can't see any style coming to the fore these days, 2) This doesn't really have the irony that PoMo had, and 3) This is so abstracted/pared down compared to PoMo, part of the townhouse's appeal to me.
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