This historic brick townhouse, originally constructed in 1883 for a well-known soap powder manufacturer, went through a series of renovations that subdivided the building into a ground floor restaurant, a second-floor office, and an apartment on floors 3-5.

In an effort to rehabilitate the building both functionally and aesthetically, we worked with the owners to combine the two upper units while maintaining the ground floor restaurant, tying the four upper floors together with a new stair and an open, flexible layout, designed to accommodate either residential or office uses for future rental tenants.

Care was taken to expose original finishes wherever possible, including uncovering the original solid timber beams at key locations and exposing the original masonry walls. After stripping away paint from previous renovations, testing was done of different treatments to arrive at a lightly washed finish over the historic brick walls. Unvarnished, clear-coated white oak stairs are used throughout, with textured Italian ceramic tiles at the kitchen floor.

A new rear patio and upper roof patio were added, with a new, generous stair bulkhead to allow for easy roof access.