The family wanted to stay together—literally. Bretaigne Walliser and Thom Dalmas’s clients asked the architects to reconfigure an 1899 Brooklyn townhouse for three generations—grandparents and their daughter, her wife, and their two children—to cohabitate and have space for creative pursuits.
Thom and Bretaigne run TBo, one of our favorite NYC design studios: see A One-Room Cabin in the Catskills and The Anti-White Box Development. To make the existing structure work, they came up with a plan that includes a poured concrete rear addition, which despite a remarkably small footprint, introduces light and space to all three levels. In TBo’s words, “The design weds a modest original Federal-style brick house with a generous sunlit extension framing a rediscovered rear garden.”
The top two floors are set up for the young family and include a place for practicing music. The grandparents live in the garden apartment, which, at their request, has a painting studio and a play area for the kids. Artfully linking new and old elements through the use of “natural, raw, and minimally treated materials,” the architects composed rooms that exude stillness and serenity, a cocoon for young and old. And as in all TBo projects, indoors and out are in dialogue. Join us for a tour.
Photography by Matthew Williams, styling by Brittany Albert, courtesy of TBo.
![the federal townhouse is part of a row of adjoining brick structures on a quiet 17](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-1.jpg)
![the three story rear extension has a pour in place concrete frame. \2\20 18](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-2.jpg)
“The rear addition is designed with a small 200 square foot footprint but it totals approximately 500 square feet of living space across the the floors: the build-out on the basement level added an additional 200 square feet; the parlor and second floors have L-shaped additions and total 150 square feet of extra floor area apiece.”
The Young Family’s Parlor Floor
![\2\20;previous renovations had stripped away all of the original detail 19](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-3a.jpg)
Prestige Renovation served as the project contractor, Moonlight Woodwork did all the millwork, and the structural engineering was provided by Enigma Engineering.
![the team exposed the original party wall—\2\2\1;it was cleaned an 20](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-3b.jpg)
![tbo designed a modernist mantel for the fireplace with a pour in place concrete 21](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-4.jpg)
![the l shaped parlor floor extension serves as a kitchen and dining bay with a 22](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-5.jpg)
![double doors lead to a terrace with a table overlooking the garden. the paintin 23](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-6.jpg)
“Our clients were very easy going about the design and mostly sought to have as flexible a space as possible for their family to grow into and be able to feel like they could have both separate and communal spaces,” says Bretaigne.
![the custom cabinets—a combination of flat panel overlay and full inset&# 24](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-7.jpg)
![there\2\17;s a bosch stove and a bosch 800 series induction cooktop on t 25](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-8.jpg)
![\2\20;delivering light into the house was a paramount concern for our cl 26](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-9.jpg)
Upstairs
![the extension off the main bedroom is used for playing music—in addition 27](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-10.jpg)
![the family bath has a freestanding cast iron clawfoot saxby tub from waterworks 28](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-11.jpg)
The Grandparents’ Garden-Level Quarters
![the architect \2\20;sank\2\2\1; the floor level of the studio are 29](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-12.jpg)
Re: aging-in-place livability, the architects say, “The clients requested that the apartment interior be moderately geared towards accessibility with sufficient clearance between rooms, low resistance flooring, and a roll-in shower.”
![the poured and polished cement floor here is in a speckled \2\20;salt an 30](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-13.jpg)
![\2\20;the extension acts as a transitional zone between the original hou 31](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-14.jpg)
![the poured concrete frame is left bare. 32](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-15.jpg)
![the studio opens to a tbo designed galley kitchen. here, the brick is treated w 33](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-16.jpg)
![the grandparents\2\17; bedroom has lime washed brick walls and douglas f 34](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-17.jpg)
![the pocket patio is big enough for coffee outdoors. 35](https://media.remodelista.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tbo-monroe-st-multigen-townhouse-bklyn-18.jpg)
Where TBo goes, we follow. Check out our book The Low-Impact Home for a full tour of Bretaigne and Thom’s family cabin.
Here’s more:
- A Townhouse Makeover for Modern Times
- Brooklyn’s Most Inventive, Economy-Minded, Under-the-Radar Architects [this dates from TBo’s previous incarnation as Fabr Studio]
- A World’s Apart Brooklyn Townhouse
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