It seems that 47 Park Place has gotten a bit of a make-over.
The two-story house has been modernized with a facade of slatted Siberian Larch wood, as designed by Stuart Basseches of Biproduct Architecture. The house was originally two one-story warehouses, but even before the renovation, it retained little of the historical detail we associate with historical Park Slope, and was, in Basseches’ words, “a poor ’80s (we think) version of dark glazed brick with odd arched windows.”
47 Park Place before
He spoke with Brownstoner about the project, which began in 2007:
“Without either historical precedent or the archeology of the old buildings to work from, we still wanted to save what we could of the existing brick piers, which we did, though they were in bad shape and required structural repair. Once we removed the modern face brick, we inserted large windows into the old structure (in approximately the same positions as the previous windows) to retain the airy quality of the second floor main residence.
Next, we attached the new outer facade (in the same location as the older facade, by the way) to the waterproofed brick layer of building by deploying a wood screen which reduces the exposure of the new windows so they’re more in scale with the buildings on either side. The overlap of the wood screen with the windows also creates sun shading (the facade faces south).”
Though the house still stands out pretty obviously on the block, Basseches feels that “the natural coloration of the wood is in fact in character with [the neighboring facades].”
Over at Curbed, they’ve put together a sliding photo to compare up close the before and after shots. What do you guys think of the new look? Are you pro- or anti- modernization of brownstone Brooklyn?
Photos via ny.curbed.com
