Not Too Much: AN Interior Tours Lefferts Manor House
Kelly Pau takes a detailed tour through the photos of ABA’s transformation of a landmarked corner townhouse in Prospect Lefferts Garden, Brooklyn for a young family. Approaching the historic building with a “low resolution” strategy, our firm utilized a targeted residential intervention that gestures to tradition without excessive ornamentation.
By using a restrained material palette of white oak, plaster, and terrazzo, we created fluid, light-filled interiors that unify the home. Circulation and storage are handled through custom millwork, allowing the original parquet and historic character to remain present while supporting a modern family’s daily life. This pragmatic but refined renovation balances historical context with contemporary simplicity, resulting in a purposeful, bright, and kid-friendly home.
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When is historic also hygge? Working with historic properties has long been central to our practice, and each project asks for its own balance between preservation and reinvention. Our recent renovation of a landmark townhouse—featured in the September issue of Architectural Record—explores exactly this calibration. As Matthew Marani writes, “Abruzzo Bodziak Architects (ABA) … has established a particular expertise in surmounting varied obstacles while delivering pragmatic but refined renovations.” For this home, that meant drawing from original details and translating them into a simpler, more contemporary language that could support everyday life while keeping its historic character present. As we noted when speaking with AR, “One of the challenges was figuring out the scale of intervention needed and the degree to which the original detailing should be respected,” especially since our design-professional clients wanted something “that wasn’t too precious.”