Warm and inviting, the four-story, 3,000 square-foot Greek Revival townhouse on Stuyvesant Street in Manhattan’s historic St. Mark’s district was given a modern makeover without compromising its unique architectural character. LANG Architecture, the New York-based company commissioned for restoration, utilised a series of practical yet stylish interior elements.
“The project is located on Stuyvesant Street, one of the oldest streets in the city that once joined two farms owned by Peter Stuyvesant,” say the architects. “Built in 1845, the townhouse presented many challenges associated with older structures, including uneven walls and floors. For example, the rear wall in the kitchen was not even attached to the sidewalls, and some corners did not meet at right angles.”
Despite these obstacles, LANG successfully restored every room in the house. Renovations were made upstairs with a new layout and one new bathroom added for a total of three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. However, the primary focus of the renovation was the parlour floor comprising the kitchen, dining room, living room, and a powder room.
“A major goal was to illuminate the house with more natural light and connect the parlour floor to the balcony overlooking the garden in the rear yard,” the architects explain. “This transformation was accomplished by replacing what had been the rear kitchen wall with a window wall. We installed an expansive folding window of three panels that opens the entire wall to the outside.”
The kitchen was placed at the centre of the house to reflect the clients’ enthusiasm for cooking and entertaining. As the clients also expressed a preference for a strong colour palette, an intense translucent green was selected.
According to the architects, they wanted the cabinets to read as green and bright and to create a bold colour experience. Cabinets were prepared in a two-stage process by first bleaching the wood and then staining it. The bleaching brightened the colour and brought out the grain in the wood. Here, the natural wood grain of the cabinets reflects the white oak flooring and white oak slatted wood ceiling.
“In creating the ceiling, the team had to work around pre-existing mechanicals, setting up a screen system of wooden slats to shroud pipes and electricals while providing a modern aesthetic and sense of lightness,” the architects add. “Towards the centre, most of the stairs in the house were kept in their original form although a new section was included as a standout feature. However, a brick wall was left exposed at the owners’ request.”
The furnishings are primarily vintage Danish modern pieces from Modernlink, the New York City-based shop of dealer and furniture-maker William Lee. Margot Becker, a textile artist from Hudson, New York, was brought in to design a tapestry for the home.
