PROGRAM: Townhouse

STATUS: in progress

SIZE: 3,000 SF

1st place, 2024 aia queens design awards for sustainable design

COMING SOON

Built for a family of four, this 2-story 2-family brick row house in Ridgewood Queens, NYC was typical for the neighborhood: a deep and narrow footprint with one apartment per floor over an English Basement. We stripped the house down to the brick and studs. This house had the added and rare benefit of an unattached side so that bedrooms and living spaces could get sunlight. So that the owner could use the majority of the house and still retain a rental, we stacked two rooms at the front of the building and introduced a new stair to create a duplex micro-apartment. 

The main living space on the ground floor of the owner’s space consists of three distinct rooms for kitchen, dining, and living with wide openings onto each other which allows a view of the backyard from all. Outside, where there had been a paved driveway and 3-car parking garage in the back, we made a garden and outdoor living space for native plants, with a new bluestone stair to the basement level and the first floor. Reclaimed wide long leaf pine boards were used as flooring throughout the house, lightened with lye and finished with oil. The back facade was in terrible disrepair, so we had the bricks repointed and added a hydrated lime stucco to it to unify and stabilize the brick facade with a breathable finish. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms are upstairs. Skylights were installed to bring natural light into the middle of the house. The roof was replaced and sealed with new insulation. There is new electrical, plumbing and heating throughout.