Design Vault Ep. 36 Best Of Brooklyn

TRANSCRIPT

00;00;00;02 - 00;00;05;13

Doug Pat (DP)

Let's go inside the vault. The design vault.

00;00;05;16 - 00;00;20;26

JW

I think what was special about this project was that the clients were able to generate a lot of input. That forced me out of my comfort zone, think about things in new ways, and take some of the systems and strategies I had in place, but to create something completely different than had been done before.

00;00;20;28 - 00;02;12;18

DP

In this special series, we're unlocking some of the most powerful conversations we've had so far. We're connecting the dots, revealing hidden gems and unearthing insights that might have slipped by. All to spark your next big idea with brick. Whether you're looking for fresh inspiration or innovative solutions, this series is designed to fuel your creativity. So let's dive in.

Hi, I'm Doug Pat and this is Design Vault.

Over the past two decades, Brooklyn has undergone a remarkable transformation, evolving from its historic roots as a commercial and civic hub into a thriving mixed use borough that supports residential, commercial, cultural and community development. Sparked in part by the 2004 rezoning of downtown Brooklyn. The neighborhood has attracted billions of dollars in investment, reshaping its urban fabric with new housing, infrastructure and public spaces.

This wave of growth has fostered a renaissance of architectural innovation, where historic preservation meets modern design and sustainability intertwines with cultural heritage. Today, we highlight three projects that we've previously discussed, which all embody the spirit of Brooklyn's redevelopment: the adaptive reuse of 50 Nevins Street, the historic restoration of 102 Bainbridge Street, and the bold reinvention of a brownstone at the Z House in Clinton Hill.

These projects reflect the dynamic interplay between Brooklyn's rich history and its vibrant future at 50 Nevins Street. John Woelfling of Dattner Architects led the effort to blend historic preservation with sustainable and equitable housing.

00;02;12;25 - 00;03;47;06

John Woelfling (JW)

It was originally designed as a YWCA, as an SRO, a single room occupancy building, so all the rooms were like single bedded rooms. There was a common cafeteria and kitchen and common bathing facilities. So it was like really stacking people in. And this was like an old model of housing people that was, you know, appropriate at a certain time in the city's history, but not really contemporary residential standards.

What we would expect today. So that was kind of the history of this building. You also mentioned the shaving off of the north end of the building, which actually we suspected that through some research, but we didn't really get it confirmed until we got into the building and started doing the demolition and saw, oh, this is where they replaced this column with a different type of steel that was in the original building, it was riveted steel. In the new portion, it was rolled sections. We'd see the back up wall or actually the composite wall in the original building was all brickwork. It was all bonded brick wall. In the new building, in the modified part that happened when they widened the street, it became a terracotta block back up within the finished brick in front.

The window details were different, so it was actually really interesting to have that kind of confirmation and see it once the demo all happened. The building has this legacy of being modified, and I think serving the greater good, the widening of the street and the shaving off of 20ft of the building was done so that there would be this greater public amenity of the subway station. That would would improve the life of all New Yorkers.

00;03;47;08 - 00;03;56;26

DP

Michelle Todd's work on 102 Bainbridge Street in Bed Sty, showcased the complexity of restoring a historic Spanish Renaissance style row house.

00;03;56;28 - 00;04;38;29

Michelle Todd (MT)

It's in the beautiful original historic district of Bedford-Stuyvesant, which is known as Stuyvesant Heights, and it was established as a landmark district in 1971. So this set of buildings, it's literally between Stuyvesant and Lewis on Bainbridge. It's about 14 series of the buildings, and it's at the end row. And there are Spanish style Renaissance buildings that was created by F McCarthy, who was an architect back in 1919.

And the unique thing about these buildings is that it's the only buildings I've ever been in with. It has two staircases inside where there's one in the back and one in the front. So I guess back in those days, they would have the servants come through the back, and then the owners come through the front.

00;04;39;01 - 00;04;41;12

DP

Roughly, what's the square footage of the project?

00;04;41;15 - 00;04;44;08

MT

It's about 1200 square feet.

00;04;44;10 - 00;04;48;03

DP

And what was the scope and the programmatic requirements from the owner?

00;04;48;05 - 00;05;47;00

MT

Well, the original scope and program was that it was in terrible need in regards to existing structure. The parapet was buckling. So on the north facade, as well as the south and west facades, it was just crumbling. They were scared that it was going to fall down in some way. So the whole idea was to fix the parapet and also to fix all of the step cracking within the facade.

But then as we went along, we started to think also, it was a beautiful building of brick in the front, and the original status was that it had stucco on the very rear portion. Once we started to do the renovation was like, you know, we don't really need the stucco. It really looks beautiful with the brick itself. So we started to expose all the stucco, and by exposing all the stucco, we wound up finding out that this particular building, it wasn't brick behind and it was actually wood.

So that therefore became more of an extensive project in which it wasn't just a renovation of the exterior facade, it was now a whole new addition and also an entire new rebuild.

00;05;47;02 - 00;05;58;19

DP

In Clinton Hill, Shane Neufeld of Light and Air Architecture transform a derelict brownstone into the Z House. Named for its dynamic switchback stair.

00;05;58;21 - 00;07;14;25

Shane Neufeld (SN)

There was this idea early on that we sketched of a kind of grand public floor on the stoop level. Basically, they knew they wanted to add to the building horizontally. We weren't yet sure about vertically, but the original building, it was wider than most townhouses, 22.5ft, but it was only 32ft deep. So the addition was necessary in order to function.

Basically. Then the idea of the living space on the parlor floor and with bedrooms above. And originally, as I've done in other projects, I thought of the adult level on the second floor with the kids above. They pushed me to invert this, which created a very interesting programmatic and spatial result. Basically, with the vertical addition on the rear, you end up having a terrace on the top floor of the master bedroom.

I think what was special about this project was that the clients were able to generate a lot of input that forced me out of my comfort zone, think about things in new ways, and take some of the systems and strategies I had in place, but to create something completely different than had been done before. So in that respect, when I first started this project, I thought about it as, you know, Switchback House 2.0.

I like this idea of the switch back as a typology that offers a multitude of spatial outcomes depending on the family's needs.

00;07;14;28 - 00;07;28;01

DP

Each project demanded a careful balance between preservation and innovation. 50 Nevins Street maintained the historical character of its prewar structure while maximizing the density of the building.

00;07;28;03 - 00;08;59;15

JW

So one of the really critical things for affordable housing in most housing, all housing is efficiency. And the efficiency was really driven by the desire to maximize the number of units that we could put here so we could serve the most people. So we looked at that rectangle and where the opportunity was to expand the building horizontally and located our cores, our elevator and our stairs in a spot that worked best for that.

And then really started to figure out where the best units would be located, where the best apartment layouts would be, and in the existing building, it was actually a challenge. We were not going to change the fenestration where the windows are located or the size of the windows. So that really dictated a lot of the apartment placements and the size. New York City has something called light and air requirements for apartments need to have a certain size window for a certain size room, and you can't go below that for both light daylight and ventilation. So the existing buildings layout was determined largely not completely, but largely by the existing fenestration layout. And then we had more flexibility in the new building portion. But that was also a challenge because it was a very limited floor plate.

And it really had to integrate with the existing building. We had corridors that we had to figure out. We placed the elevator in the inside corner where the two buildings meet, because that's a place where you can't really put apartments because there's no windows there. So I think we were pretty clever about putting all the, like, fundamentals and figuring out how the floor plan would come together.

00;08;59;18 - 00;09;10;28

DP

The integration of new structural systems with existing ones highlighted the project's technical challenges, such as underpinning foundations to support the added stories.

00;09;11;00 - 00;10;45;29

JW

So the new foundations were complicated. The existing building foundations were also complicated. When we did this vertical expansion above the existing building I mentioned earlier, the term heroic, and it really was heroic. I mean, when I look back on this, I think, oh my God, what was I thinking? And we actually convinced somebody to do this. We convinced a contractor to do this.

We convinced our client, which you know, there are great clients. I don't want to make it sound like I've deceived them, but it was a really courageous project of both undertaken by all parties. In the existing building, because we built above, there was additional load that we were superimposing on the existing superstructure in that building. We had to brace one of the columns so that we could lower the footing and increase the size of the footing.

And the way we did that was and when I say we, I mean, it's really the contractor that did this. We came up with the concept, but they executed it. There was a huge beam that was spanned from one column to another that supported this column temporarily, that we were going to lower the footing on, and they jacked that beam up and supported that column so that the existing footing that was undersized could be pulled out, excavated further down, and then a new footing could be introduced and an extension of the column.

So gutsy acrobatics to do this and the way they tested, whether that beam, that temporary beam that was put in, whether it separated the footing from the column, was I took a piece of paper and they slipped it between the footing and the base plate of the column to see if it was actually separated. So they wanted to test that, to make sure there was daylight before they pulled out that existing footing phenomenal construction, sequencing and logistics.

It was a gutsy project I'm very proud of.

00;10;46;01 - 00;10;56;04

DP

102 Bainbridge Street required collaboration with structural engineers and landmark authorities to address the unforeseen condition of the original wood framed construction.

00;10;56;10 - 00;11;41;04

MT

So the new wall system was still going back to what was historically done in regards to the rear facade was made out of three widths of brick, which basically is like three layers. And what we had to do was that we had to abide by what the actual once we removed the stucco, what the actual pattern was, because it was a common bond.

The pattern in the front of the house was completely different than the pattern in the back of the house. So once we established that, then we wanted to really make it structurally sound, and we incorporated steel within the wall. So basically you have the three whiffs of brick on the outside. Then you have the steel that was stainless steel that made sure it was resourced sustainably.

And then we have our insulation and then our finishes inside.

00;11;41;06 - 00;11;53;15

DP

The Z House presented an opportunity for spatial experimentation with its double height spaces and green roof, fostering connections between indoor and outdoor environments.

00;11;53;17 - 00;12;37;28

SN

We have solar panels on the roof and a green roof, 100ft² of green roof is required now of new construction in New York on residential projects. If you don't have solar panels, we kind of decided to do both. The solar panels actually came a little later on in the project, but the green roof is integrated into the addition so that actually when one descends down the stair from the second to the first floor, they look out of a window that views out upon the green roof.

And that green roof also, the intention is, over time it grows. It's exotic. It falls down the facade. And so the idea of the brick as a kind of monumental monolithic material that is a counterpoint to the organic quality of the roof itself. Our hope is that they really begin to work together in a lovely way.

00;12;38;04 - 00;12;41;11

DP

How much energy can they generate with the solar panels?

00;12;41;13 - 00;12;47;28

SN

Probably anywhere between 40 to 50%. You know, I think obviously in the winter, not so much, but in the summer a lot.

00;12;48;00 - 00;13;03;22

DP

And that's pretty cool. Across all three projects. Brick served as a cornerstone of design at 50 Nevins Street, contrasting red and light bricks, articulated the old and new sections of the building while maintaining esthetic cohesion.

00;13;03;29 - 00;14;22;23

JW

Yeah, the existing brick we had to undo some sins of the past, add lintels, the repairs that were done previously, not quite sure when they were done with, maybe a little bit less sensitivity to matching the brick and mortar. So that was some of the repair work that we did at the existing building. The existing building also has a base, a very formal base.

It's a very classical design to have that base. So we wanted to that was another one of these affinity points that we wanted with the new building. So we created this base which was a dark grounding brick. That's a Glen-Gery product. It's a Black Hills velour. The velour is the finish on the brick. So that kind of established the base of the building.

And then above that we did a much lighter, more contemporary brick. Also a Glen-Gary product, White Plains velour. Again, the velour is the finish of the texture of the face of the brick. And we did similar coursing. The mortar is very different. The mortar in the White Plains is its own mortar. The existing buildings, mortar repairs were their own mortar, so they would match that building's texture and coloration.

But through a combination of the same brick size, the same coarsening, and also picking up on that limestone detailing this in the existing building, we did kind of created this affinity between the two buildings, so they're definitely distinct from each other, but they're also kind of a family.

00;14;22;28 - 00;14;42;23

DP

Yeah, it's a nice touch. It ties the two buildings together. At 102 Bainbridge Street, the careful selection of historically accurate Glen-Gary bricks ensured the integrity of the restored facade. So I'm curious, in terms of color, you were able to find a brick that you were happy with. You said that matched on the exterior.

00;14;42;25 - 00;14;58;06

MT

The contractor had suggested. He was like, oh, this will be a perfect brick. I did research, it was a Glen-Gary Cushwa Calvert, 52-DD Middle Plantation. That was the one that was selected. And when we put it in place, it was perfect to what was there from 1919.

00;14;58;13 - 00;15;01;20

DP

So do all these row homes, they almost look the same?

00;15;01;24 - 00;16;05;19

MT

They basically all look the same. And the other fascinating thing to do with the project, when we were doing the demo for the wood infill, all the bricks, I learned this like recently from my practice, that the bricks that we were removing that were there, all had the names of the brick companies on there, and you don't see that anymore in which they were actually etched into the brick.

I was like, wow, it's like fascinating. So it was like an archeological project in the same way of doing something better for the building for another hundred years. We basically had to do a whole reconstruction. And that's where Glen-Gary came into play, because what happened too is that on the back of the facade, all the bricks in the building weren't the same.

The bricks in the front of the building were made out of Belden, and it was a different type of color scheme. But then when we removed the stucco in the back, it was a beautiful match with the Glen-Gary Cushwa Calvert Plantation, Middle Plantation, 52-DD. It was a perfect match to it. Again, we had to go back to landmarks to make sure that they were proof of that brick to match what was in the rear facade that was being used.

00;16;05;22 - 00;16;14;23

DP

So what's interesting about the photographs that you sent is that the building looks as though some of these walls were completely taken down.

00;16;14;26 - 00;16;44;21

MT

It was because due to the fact that it was stucco and I'm an architect, is very conscious about the environment, and stucco is something like concrete, and it adds to the carbon footprint. So the whole idea was that this project specifically was to eliminate that process in really being more progressive and more enhancing to the environment. So that's why we didn't use stucco.

We wanted to just expose the beautiful masonry itself. And therefore, by eliminating the stucco, we saw, the building was in need of much deeper repair than we expected.

00;16;44;23 - 00;16;53;28

DP

At the Z House. Brick brought warmth and texture to both the exterior and interior, reinforcing the home's connection to its urban context.

00;16;54;00 - 00;18;23;04

SN

The client had this dream of a masonry rear facade. I did too, I mean, it's what made sense. I mean, masonry is a East Coast material. It is something we see a lot here. The beautiful old buildings, you know, of the northeast are made of brick, many of them red brick. And so that was a theme that came up as well.

The client did have a bit of a dream of this red brick facade, but knowing that this brick would live on the inside as well, esthetically, I felt that a red brick spoke too much of exterior use and would be a kind of too much of a contrast to the type of mood and space we were trying to create on the inside.

A lighter brick reflects light. It bounces light around. It doesn't present itself as a color so much as an opportunity for variations in tone throughout a space. There's so much light in this house that we kind of after some time and looking at many, many different products and many Glen-Gary products, we decided that a white Lightish cream colored brick was the right choice.

And then it came to question, well, how do we get a white brick that has the texture that works both on the outside and on the inside, and doesn't force someone to see that as an issue in one way or the other. And so we went with, in the end, the white velour, which we felt was this perfect middle ground of cream colored was not too white, was not two beige.

It's not too reflective, not too matte, and had a wonderful kind of authentic handed texture to it that I think really helped the house out a lot.

00;18;23;06 - 00;18;26;23

DP

And use a slightly darker mortar right, so we didn't know it's brick. Correct?

00;18;27;00 - 00;18;44;00

SN

We tested it out. So that was the sense do we want the lines to go away? That's always a question you know architects deal with. I think we found something that wasn't too much of a contrast, but very clearly spoke to the manual craft that goes into putting brick walls together.

00;18;44;03 - 00;18;46;24

DP

You guys used masonry on the interior as well.

00;18;46;26 - 00;18;49;28

SN

We did. And those are full masonry bricks on the inside.

00;18;50;00 - 00;18;50;29

DP

So it's load bearing.

00;18;51;06 - 00;19;24;25

SN

Well, we're not using the bricks for load bearing purposes. It is a CMU wall in the addition. But the bricks take up the three and 5/8 inch width, which is I think, really interesting. I think this is again speaks the kind of work that we do is that we looked at tile products. I think Glen-Gary makes tile products too, of some of those bricks, but we wanted it to turn corners.

We wanted it to move. We wanted it to appear fully authentic. And in the end, I think once we had reflected on all the products available, that using the same brick, the same finish was the right move.

00;19;24;28 - 00;19;57;22

DP

These projects reflect the importance of collaboration among architects, clients, engineers and builders. Whether it was addressing structural complexities, navigating regulatory processes, or fine tuning details like window placement and masonry coursing. Each team overcame unique obstacles to realize their vision through their work. John, Michelle and Shane demonstrate how architecture can preserve history, innovate for the future, and create meaningful spaces for contemporary living.

Brick as a material unites these projects, offering timeless beauty, environmental adaptability, and a tangible link to their urban and historic contexts. If you'd like to hear more about each individual project, you can find links to the full conversations in the show notes. If you haven't done so already, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss the rest of this series where we revisit some of the most powerful conversations and unearth insights that might have slipped by all to spark your next big idea with brick.