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Archaeological Art Deco Apartment
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 new connection between the formerly separated existing galley kitchen and living space. By connecting two building shaftways in the center of the unit with an efficient storage and workspace solution, custom-designed and hand-built by CO Adaptive's carpenters, pockets of use are situated around them that serve as kitchen storage, table and shelving.
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 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 1920s white tile mosaic below. The mosaic was broken in only a few locations, and COA patched those with white porcelain sample remnants from our 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.
The final design resulted in a comfortable, well-crafted space that maintains and reuses 70% of existing materials on site. Low carbon and healthy new materials were used to repair and upgrade the space where needed.
To CO Adaptive, the measure of successful architecture lies in its performance and longevity—in the attentive maintenance of existing conditions, alongside measured interventions that maximize the usable life of what already exists. This restorative apartment renovation is a wonderful acknowledgement of the well-lived life of a building, and of those who call it home.
Featured in:
- Same But Different: COA deconstructs an apartment to reuse 70 percent of its materials in its renovation, AN Interior
Carpentry: CO Adaptive
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Type: Residential
Values: Creative Reuse, Low Carbon, Healthy Materials
Finished Photos: Hanna Grankvist