great rooms

Making an 1847 Village Brownstone Bright and New Again

In summer, there’s a “Manhattanhenge quality of the light pouring into the garden and kitchen.”

Parlor Floor Facing Street (after): The white sofa is from Restoration Hardware and the lounge chairs are by Jens Risom. Photo: ©Andy Ryan
Parlor Floor Facing Street (after): The white sofa is from Restoration Hardware and the lounge chairs are by Jens Risom. Photo: ©Andy Ryan
Parlor Floor Facing Street (after): The white sofa is from Restoration Hardware and the lounge chairs are by Jens Risom. Photo: ©Andy Ryan

The quaint, tree-shaded blocks of Greenwich Village to this day feel unchanged from the mid-19th century, when many of its houses were built. Since then, many of these historic structures, like this brownstone, dating from 1847, were cut into apartments and denuded of their architectural details in the process. The family who bought this townhouse had lived in it for three years before deciding they wanted to update it from top to bottom; they’d admired the work that architect Timothy Bade and his firm, Bade Stageberg Cox, did on another house down the street. The before and after photographs illustrate how the dramatic renovation transformed this home and let the sunlight in.

“The trick in these brownstones,” Bade says, “where you only have light at either end, is what do you do in the middle?”

The family wanted to open up the parlor floor and integrate the living area with the garden level, which had been set up as a separate apartment below. “One of the initial moves we made was we actually flipped the stair,” Bade explains. “A traditional brownstone stair you enter and you go up, but we turned it so that you enter and you go down.” Which means that, when you walk into this house on the parlor floor, the stairway leads down to the garden level, which is where they moved the kitchen and the dining room. They raised the ceilings on that lower level, too, and opened it up to the back with a big glass door. They also created an elegant outdoor area on the roof.

“Every project, we look for the opportunity for natural light,” Bade says. “And so for this project there were a lot of studies about how to bring light down the stairs and how your view from every room leads outside.” Now in the summer months, there is “this Manhattanhenge quality of the light pouring into the garden and kitchen in the evening.”

Before: The parlor floor had a dark enfilade of rooms before the renovation. Bade Stageberg Cox Architecture.
Before: The parlor floor had a dark enfilade of rooms before the renovation. Bade Stageberg Cox Architecture.
After: The parlor is now a lofty flow of space divided only by a glass wall between the living room and the library, which features a Roche Bobois Mah Jong sofa system and a Lambert & Fils Cliff Suspension light. Photo: ©Andy Ryan
Before: The stairway went up from the front door. After: The stairway, flipped, now draws you down to the lower level. The step up to the TV room allows for additional ceiling height in the kitchen area below. From left: Photo: Bade Stageberg Cox ArchitecturePhoto: ©Andy Ryan/B)Andy Ryan All Rights Reserved
Before: The stairway went up from the front door. After: The stairway, flipped, now draws you down to the lower level. The step up to the TV room allo... Before: The stairway went up from the front door. After: The stairway, flipped, now draws you down to the lower level. The step up to the TV room allows for additional ceiling height in the kitchen area below. From top: Photo: Bade Stageberg Cox ArchitecturePhoto: ©Andy Ryan/B)Andy Ryan All Rights Reserved
Before: The undistinguished rear façade. Photo: Bade Stageberg Cox Architecture
After: The dining room now opens into the backyard. The Gala dining table and Narin chairs are from Design Within Reach. Photo: ©Andy Ryan
Before: The backyard, facing what was once a garden apartment. Photo: Bade Stageberg Cox Architecture
After: The garden was designed by the architects and the plantings are by Jane Gil Gardens. Photo: ©Andy Ryan
Before: There wasn’t much reason to go up to the roof. Photo: Bade Stageberg Cox Architecture
After: The roof became a private oasis where the family work and relax. The privacy of the outdoor shower is guaranteed by the two taller buildings on either side. Photo: ©Andy Ryan
Making an 1847 Greenwich Village Brownstone Feel New Again