The Residence at St. Felix Street

The Saint Felix Street Townhouse is a 4-story two-family home located on a very narrow and challenging site with a view to the historic Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn. For nearly forty years, this diamond-in-the-rough remained vacant and in need of repair. Over the decades, the previous owner experienced several unfortunate and unsuccessful attempts at renovation which left the building on the verge of irreversible deterioration. As the building passed on to the next generation, hope of revival was renewed. The new owner’s vision was to revitalize the exterior and instill a vibrant modern home within. The architect was tasked with creating a pair of spacious and open dwellings. The lower unit would be specially tailored for the owner’s personality with special surf-inspired characteristics.

The clients are avid travelers and beach-goers, spending most of their leisure in different surf-communities. They wanted to create a home which evoked those places but with a modern aesthetic. The architects sought to infuse this surf culture throughout the private interiors and exterior spaces, whilst revitalizing the front facade in a character similar to the neighboring brownstones. Inspired by East Coast beach communities, access to natural light and ventilation was an critical design element when conceiving the house. The layout for home was designed to capitalize on the front and rear connection to landscape and light. The house was organized into two levels of open-plan social spaces and two levels of private intimate spaces. Each level provides a unique connection to the private landscaped yards and the public park beyond.

The ‘social’ floors are designed to be completely open from the sunken front garden to rear green-space. This openness brings natural light and fresh air deep into the house and is achieved by an efficient arrangement of spaces. The extension of house allows each space to be enlarged and makes each room feel much larger and more inviting than other houses in this typology. Large operable window walls and skylights are employed to enhance the character of each space, while specialty finishes and fixtures are used to evoke a sense of surf culture. Each room is imbued with its own texture and pattern harkening images of the ocean and driftwood. The result is a bright and modern refuge amongst the Brooklyn urban fabric.