A couple on the hunt for a classic brownstone ended up with this 25-foot-wide, 60-foot-deep Cobble Hill townhouse and opted to give it an uber-contemporary makeover instead. Gary and Jessica Pollard rang up Michael Ingui of Baxt Ingui Architectswhom the Journal called "Brooklyn's go-to brownstone renovator"to do the job. And what a job he did on 305 Degraw Street: the four bedroom, four bathroom four-floor home with three outdoor spaces and a garage might have been enough, but Ingui added a two-story-high plant wall with nine species of flora kept lush by an automatic irrigation system stowed away in the basement. The rear facade is made of glass, and the home's airy modern central staircase leads up to rustic wooden beams and a giant skylight.
The Pollards picked up their Cobble Hill home in a "decrepit state" for $1.875 million in late 2006, put it on the market in April of 2013 for $8M. Since its initial listing, almost every room in the house has been redecorated-slash-restaged, with lots of new photos. Part of the push to sell, a promotional video features slow pans across sun-dappled foliage as well as its other featuresjust ignore the cheesy jazz music. Also, the PriceChopper paid a visit this month, reducing the ask by $400,000 to $7,600,000. It was once the most expensive single-family townhouse listed in Cobble Hill, but this other one usurped that superlative by asking a whopping $14M. Please note that neither of them have sold, and that the most expensive townhouse to sell in the area went for around $6 million.
· Listing: 305 Degraw Street [TOWN via StreetEasy]
· $8M Cobble Hill Townhouse Has a Two-Story Wall of Plants [Curbed]
· A Brooklyn Oasis [NYT]
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