Project Details
- Project Name
- Wythe Townhouse
- Architect
- Young Projects
- Project Types
- Single Family
- Size
- 3,250 sq. feet
- Year Completed
- 2016
- Project Status
- Built
Project Description
The Wythe Corner House is a gut renovation to an aging 1900's townhouse and contemporary addition on a corner lot in Williamsburg. The addition's massing proposes a radical break from Brooklyn townhouse typology. Rather than equally divide FAR at each floor, or prioritize a larger lower floor addition, our design distributes all available area on the second and third floors. In fact, the available area was even increased by removing/cutting through the existing townhouse to create a double height living room and the new mass "unhinged" from the townhouse with the introduction of a hidden void/gap at the third floor. This distribution of FAR allows parking under the new hovering addition and integrates unique exterior landscapes at three distinct levels of the section. The surface of the addition(s) is clad in a perforated and corrugated zinc, subtly playing off the scale, proportion, texture and fenestration of the existing townhouse. New and old are ultimately unified as black. At the interior, the boundary between the existing structure and the new addition is expressed as both a line of connection and a line of dissonance. It is a conceptual fault line that bisects the living space and sets the stage for a variety of smaller zones. A curtain meanders throughout the new addition providing opportunities for temporary subdivisions within the larger space. The path of the curtain is reflected across the fault line in the sinuous curve of the main stair which is wrapped in industrial felt.