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Brooklyn-based Barker Architecture Office renovated a four-story, landmarked 19th-century brownstone in Clinton Hill for an empty-nester couple. The design preserves surviving architectural features while adding a saturated color palette, custom furnishings and spaces arranged around the owners’ art collection and daily life.
Brooklyn-based Barker Architecture Office (BAAO) has renovated a four-story, landmarked 19th-century brownstone in Clinton Hill for an empty-nester couple, setting vivid colors and contemporary finishes against the home’s surviving historic details. The project reconfigures a building that had been divided into short-term rentals as a private residence shaped around the owners’ art collection, midcentury furniture and everyday routines, according to Design Milk’s report.
The couple moved from a Tribeca townhouse to the Brooklyn house and asked BAAO to do more than update an old interior. Their brief called for a setting that could accommodate contemporary art and midcentury furniture while feeling warmer and more personal than a restrained modern renovation. The source report says the previous rental conversion had removed much of the building’s original ornamentation. BAAO preserved the architectural elements that remained and paired them with clean-lined additions.
Color appears from the entrance onward: deep olive doors open to a terracotta vestibule, while the central staircase is painted yellow and finished with a red runner. On the parlor floor, diagonal white-oak boards recall older parquet patterns. In the living room, surviving plaster crown molding surrounds a fireplace finished in textured porcelain tile; a Richard Tuttle chandelier hangs from a restored plaster rosette. The room displays works by artists including Alfred Stieglitz, Inez Nathaniel Walker and Amy Sillman.
The kitchen wraps around the room’s perimeter, with white-oak cabinetry, honed soapstone and a veined lilac-marble backsplash. Rather than a conventional island, the architects placed a dining table beneath vintage aluminum pendants. Downstairs, a family room opens onto a landscaped garden, while a dark-paneled library offers a contrasting, quieter space. The upper floors include a primary suite in russet, ochre and moss green, and three bedrooms for the couple’s adult children around a skylit lounge. BAAO collaborated with the homeowners on furniture selection and art placement, Design Milk reported.
A Historic Shell, Reworked for Daily Life
The renovation illustrates a specific challenge in adapting a historic city home: how to create a functional contemporary layout when earlier alterations have removed much of the original detail. BAAO’s approach, as described in the report, does not attempt to reconstruct a complete period interior. Instead, it uses surviving plasterwork and historic proportions alongside new finishes, lighting and circulation changes.
For the homeowners, the result is organized around a household’s changing needs: communal rooms connect to the garden, a library provides a retreat, and the upper floor accommodates visiting or resident adult children. The project also treats the couple’s art and furniture as part of the design brief rather than as additions to an already finished interior. Its reported details offer readers a concrete example of how color, custom materials and spatial planning can distinguish a renovation from a purely cosmetic update.
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From Rental Conversion to Family Home
The property is described as a landmarked brownstone in Clinton Hill, a Brooklyn neighborhood where historic residential buildings sit within New York City’s tightly constrained housing market. Before the renovation, the house had been divided into short-term rentals. According to Design Milk, that use had stripped away much of its original ornamentation, leaving BAAO with only a limited set of historic features to retain.
The project’s design response is based on contrast rather than a full recreation of the past: original plaster details remain visible where they survived, while new oak, stone, tile, wallpaper and lighting establish a contemporary character. The article attributes the project to BAAO and identifies Gieves Anderson as the photographer. It does not provide a construction timeline, budget or detailed account of the building’s condition before work began.
Project Details Not Reported
The source is a design report, not a project filing or detailed construction account. It does not state when the renovation was completed, its cost, the length of construction or which specific approvals were required. It also does not identify the homeowners by name or provide direct statements from them or the architects.
Design Milk describes the building as landmarked and outlines the design choices, but the report does not document how individual interventions were reviewed or whether any historic details were reconstructed. Those points cannot be confirmed from the material provided. The project’s effects on property value, energy use or the surrounding neighborhood are also not quantified.
No Further Milestone Specified
The source material reports on the completed design but gives no upcoming project milestone, public presentation or follow-up announcement. It does not say whether BAAO plans to publish additional construction details or whether the owners intend to make the home available for tours.
For now, the reported work can be assessed through its described layout and finishes: preserving the surviving historic fabric, reorganizing rooms for the household and integrating the owners’ collection throughout the house. Any further claims about performance, cost or the renovation process would require information from the architects, owners or relevant project records.
Key Questions
Where is the renovated brownstone?
The house is a landmarked 19th-century brownstone in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, according to Design Milk.
Who designed the renovation?
The renovation was carried out by Barker Architecture Office, also known as BAAO, a Brooklyn-based architecture practice.
What was the homeowners’ design brief?
The empty-nester couple wanted the house to accommodate their midcentury furniture and contemporary art while using a warmer, more expressive palette. BAAO worked with them on furniture choices and the placement of art, the report says.
What historic features remain?
Design Milk reports that BAAO preserved the surviving architectural elements, including original plaster crown molding and a plaster ceiling rosette in the living room. The report says much of the building’s earlier ornamentation had been removed during its use as short-term rentals.
When was the renovation completed, and what did it cost?
The source material does not state the completion date or project budget. It also provides no construction timeline.
Source: rss
