A Brooklyn Brownstone Trades Restraint For Color And Character

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Brooklyn’s Barker Architecture Office renovated a four-story, landmarked 19th-century brownstone in Clinton Hill for an empty-nester couple moving from Tribeca. The design preserves surviving historic features while introducing saturated colors, contemporary materials and spaces arranged around the owners’ art collection and daily routines.

Brooklyn-based Barker Architecture Office, known as BAAO, has renovated a four-story, landmarked brownstone in Clinton Hill for a couple who left their Tribeca townhouse, combining surviving period details with strong color, contemporary materials and modern art. Design Milk’s report describes a home reorganized around the owners’ collection and family life after the 19th-century building had been divided into short-term rentals.

The owners’ aim was to make the historic house work as a setting for their collection of midcentury furniture and contemporary art, rather than simply restore it to a period appearance. Design Milk reports that the building’s previous use as short-term rentals had removed much of its original ornamentation. BAAO preserved the architectural details that remained and set them against clean-lined additions.

Color announces the approach at the entrance: deep olive doors open to a terracotta vestibule, with a yellow staircase and red runner visible beyond. On the parlor floor, diagonally laid white oak boards refer to Victorian parquet patterns. Original plaster crown molding remains in the living room, framing a fireplace faced with textured porcelain tile; a Richard Tuttle chandelier hangs from a restored plaster rosette.

The kitchen wraps around the room’s perimeter, pairing white oak cabinetry and honed soapstone with a veined lilac marble backsplash. Instead of a conventional island, BAAO placed a dining table beneath vintage aluminum pendants. Downstairs, a family room opens to the 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.

A New Use for Historic Rooms

The project offers a specific example of how a landmarked house can be adapted to present-day living without treating its history as a requirement to recreate a period interior. The reported design retains identifiable features where they survive, while changing circulation, finishes and room functions for the owners. That balance is relevant to residents and designers weighing the practical demands of older housing against the loss of original fabric.

Its layout also reflects the couple’s move from a Manhattan townhouse to a Brooklyn home with more room for family, entertaining and privacy. The dining table in place of a kitchen island, the garden-facing family room and the separate library are not just decorative choices: they define how shared and quieter activities fit within the house. The report does not provide construction costs or measurable outcomes, but it documents a renovation shaped by the occupants’ art, furniture and routines.

From Short-Term Rentals to Home

Design Milk describes the building as a landmarked 19th-century brownstone in Clinton Hill. Before the renovation, it had been divided into short-term rentals, a use that the report says stripped away much of its original ornamentation. The source does not detail when that conversion happened or identify which features were removed.

BAAO’s response was to work with what remained rather than attempt a full historical reconstruction. The studio collaborated with the couple on furniture choices and the placement of art throughout the house, including works by Alfred Stieglitz, Inez Nathaniel Walker and Amy Sillman. Design Milk’s account is the basis for the project details here; the article does not include a separate statement from the homeowners or a project budget.

Project Costs and Approvals Unreported

Design Milk’s report does not state the renovation’s cost, construction dates or approval process, including how the landmark designation shaped individual design decisions. It also does not specify which original architectural elements were lost when the building became short-term rentals, beyond saying that much of its ornamentation was stripped away.

The article describes the couple’s goals and the finished design, but it does not include direct interviews with the owners, a post-occupancy account or details about how the spaces are used day to day. Those points cannot be established from the available source material.

No Further Project Milestone Given

The available report presents the renovation as a completed project and does not identify a future construction phase, public event or follow-up from BAAO. There is no next milestone specified. Further information about the schedule, budget or the homeowners’ experience would require additional reporting or a statement from the studio or owners.

Key Questions

Where is the renovated brownstone?

It is in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and Design Milk describes it as a landmarked 19th-century building.

Who designed the renovation?

The work was carried out by Barker Architecture Office, a Brooklyn-based practice also known as BAAO.

What changed in the house?

BAAO retained surviving historic details and introduced new finishes, a reworked kitchen and circulation, and distinct family, library, bedroom and garden-level spaces. The design uses bold color alongside wood, stone, tile and contemporary art.

What is known about the renovation’s cost and timing?

Neither the project cost nor its construction dates are given in Design Milk’s report.

Source: rss