弗特格林（区）褐砂石建筑丨美国纽约丨Sherman Architects

Ft. Greene Brownstone stands on a tree-lined block in Brooklyn, Kings County, NY, United States, its restored facade anchoring the row. Sherman Architects reworks the landmark house as a tall, light-filled home where a family moves between books, play, and garden. Behind the rebuilt stoop and cast-stone ornament, the interior shifts from intimate rooms to a double-height living volume that opens wide to the backyard for daily use.

Morning light grazes the brownstone stoop and cast-iron balustrade before slipping past the tall arched windows into the parlor. Inside, the entry sequence transitions from restored ornament to warm timber floors and a quiet glimpse of the double-height living room pulled toward the garden.

This house is a landmark Brooklyn brownstone reworked as a vertical family home, designed by Sherman Architects in 2020. Behind the repaired stone ledges and recreated window surrounds, the interior focuses on how reading, play, work, and retreat shape everyday routines. Rooms stack around a tall rear volume, where a retractable glass wall and generous bookshelves anchor family life.

Living Room As Library

At the heart of the house, the double-height living room reads as a soaring library, its two-story timber shelves filled with books and small objects. A slim rolling ladder tracks along the wall, turning book access into a daily ritual and giving the tall room a sense of movement. The pale sectional sofa grounds the room under a large globe light, while the brick terrace outside feels like an extension of the floor. When the rear glass wall retracts, air and garden sound reach deep into the house.

Kitchen Overlooking Daily Life

Up a level, the kitchen looks straight over the living room, so cooking stays connected with reading, conversation, and backyard play. A long island forms the working core with pendant lights above, while warm cabinetry lines the wall and hides storage around the appliances. Floorboards run through to the dining area, where tall windows and a simple round table keep family meals close to the street-side stoop. Between front and back, a slender stair and landing conceal a powder room, tucking necessary routines into the vertical flow.

Circulation As Playground

Circulation in the brownstone becomes an experience rather than just a route from room to room. A light catwalk with translucent guard panels traverses the upper volume, leading to a children’s reading nook with a deep window seat above the garden. Kids can spread books across the cushions while still hearing sounds drifting up from the living room below. Elsewhere, a folded sheet of perforated steel forms the stair down to the basement, its texture catching light and giving the descent a subtle sense of theater.

Rooms Tailored For Family

On upper levels, playroom and bedrooms respond directly to family routines. A generous playroom lines one wall with low shelving for toys and games, with a large chalkboard encouraging drawing and notes. Children’s bedrooms use bold rugs, pattern, and color against simple white walls, so bedding and toys can shift as kids grow. The primary bedroom stays quieter with arched windows, a wood ceiling, and simple built-in storage, turning the room into a calm counterpoint to active floors below.

Bath, Gym, And Roof Retreat

Daily rituals extend into the primary bath, where reclaimed heart pine flooring rises to form walls that screen the tub and frame the double vanity. Wood grain wraps the room, giving bathing and dressing the feel of a dedicated retreat without leaving the bedroom floor. Below, a walkable skylight throws daylight into the cellar, so the home gym reads as a bright spa‑like room instead of a hidden basement. Up above, a planted roof terrace and small pavilion carry everyday life outside, with pavers and greenery arranged for casual gatherings under open sky.

By night, light from the tall rear windows glows across the garden and back into the rooms that stack around it. The restored front stoop, rebuilt from original castings, ties that activity to the street, keeping the brownstone firmly in its neighborhood while its interior routines unfold around books, play, and shared rituals.