Bresnan/Versel Residence
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The reconstruction of a historic rowhouse in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill, fully contemporary in spirit and style, but deeply informed by the residential traditions of New York.
For a New York family, the reconstruction of a landmark five-story rowhouse in Manhattan’s Carnegie Hill historic district. The project included the restoration of the 1892 Romanesque Revival façade, a newly designed rear facade, new landscaped outdoor spaces, and a full interior rebuilding, adapting a much-altered 19th century rowhouse to the needs of a 21st century couple with children.
Joseph Giovannini, Architectural Digest
Dan Hill, City of Sound
#Design Across Time
The house’s unusually narrow interiors (fourteen feet, wall to wall) called for a strategy of differentiating living areas from circulation not through partitions—which would further constrict the layout—but in the variation of ceiling planes, allowing the flow of space to remain as open as possible.
While contemporary in style, the project was grounded in the spirit of a 19th century New York townhouse, from its front-to-rear procession of public rooms to its rich variety of interior finishes—which, as in older townhouses, provided each space with a distinctive character and feel. A traditional dining room is evoked through panelized rosewood walls, a stainless-steel “wainscot” shelf for artwork, and a glowing “cornice” of light created by a dropped ceiling panel.
The interpretation of classic rowhouse elements is evident in the music room, overlooking the rear garden (above, left), whose paneled pearwood walls integrated shelving for the owner’s extensive LP collection, and whose articulated, light-filled ceiling suggested that of a formal parlor. A new stair design (above, right) counterpointed wood and stainless steel, along with a contemporary “wainscot,” to suggest the kind of well-turned staircase associated with Manhattan’s older rowhouses.
The house’s second level was given over to a full-floor suite for the husband and wife, linking the front bedroom, whose tall bay windows overlooked the side-street.
The suite’s large bathroom featured a shaped ceiling whose gentle, reflected wash of illumination suggested that of a skylight (above, left). On the fifth floor, an entertainment and family room also serves as a guest bedroom (above, right).
For the client, a film producer, the existing fifth-floor penthouse addition was reconceived to provide a light-filled office whose high French doors looked out on a landscaped front terrace.
An earlier, unsympathetic addition to the rear and top floor of the house (below, left) was reconfigured to a simpler, more strongly articulated design, whose extensive glass-and-steel windows, French doors, and “Juliet” balcony all overlook the greenery of the newly landscaped rear garden (below, right).
In the best tradition of New York rowhouses, the project offered an abundance of indoor-outdoor relationships, including an expansive rear garden—redesigned and relandscaped by Elysian Landscapes—which provided a rich green counterpoint to the reimagined interiors.