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Archaeological Art Deco Apartment Renovation
In the leafy residential neighbourhood of Prospect Lefferts Gardens, a writer’s three bedroom apartment in a 1924 Art Deco building received a careful and surgical renovation. The owner—a journalist of architecture and urbanism, with a degree in Architectural Conservation—envisioned opening up the space to bring light from the perimeter into the social center, and saw an opportunity to highlight the rich layers of history through its materiality. He wanted to uncover original features hidden over the past 100 years, while also ensuring that the previous owners’ efforts did not go to waste, and any new elements added were distinctly contemporary.
With the goal to create a relaxing and cozy haven for the writer to live and work, CO Adaptive’s proposed floorplan for the 1200 ft2 space emphasized a connection between the existing galley kitchen and the living space, which had been entirely separated in the original configuration. By connecting two building shaftways in the center of the unit with an efficient storage and workspace cabinetry/solution, custom-designed and hand-built by CO Adaptive's carpenters to better organize the apartment, it situates pockets of use around them that serve as kitchen storage, table and shelving—thereby eliminating the sense of a long hallway.
As Architect and Builder, CO Adaptive’s charge was an archaeological process of iterative design and deconstruction—to design with the layers of history discovered while unbuilding.
Hung ceilings were removed throughout these spaces, uncovering an additional eighteen inches of ceiling height, and exposing loft-like 12-foot high beautifully-textured concrete decking that were lightly patched and painted to celebrate the character of the surface. All kitchen appliances were reused, as were the kitchen cabinets from the previous owner. Careful documentation of the existing cabinetry boxes allowed CO Adaptive to lay them out in the new kitchen configuration, complementing these with new fronts and a couple of new bases at the island.
In the bathroom, tile flooring was carefully removed to uncover the beautiful original 1920’s white tile mosaic below. The mosaic was broken in only a few locations, and as such CO Adaptive proposed patching those with white porcelain sample remnants from their material sample collection. In the end, the repaired original flooring adds a beautiful patina to the bathroom that celebrates the building's history and honors the blemishes time leaves behind.
Carpentry: CO Adaptive
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Type: Residential
Values: Creative Reuse, Low Carbon, Healthy Materials