358 Tompkins Ave

An existing brownstone building for a single family, lived in by that family for generations. The
floors slanted, the stairs falling, the facade crumbling, the walls leaking. It was purchased in May
2022 with the idea of converting it into a four-family home. The interior would be gutted, the top
vertically extended, and the outside renovated.
An existing front door on the left of the building led directly to a stair on the same side. This stair
connected every floor in the building, much as in any other brownstone layout in Brooklyn. It
blocks off a large portion of the floor area, and typically throws you out into the center of the
apartment where kitchen, living, and bedroom intersect.
In rebuilding the interior layouts, this stair was moved from its original positioning. A simple
move, the stair turns from the front door at the side to the center of the building as it climbs up.
On the upper floors, the center stair opens up both parti walls in their entirety. Windows connect
from the back to the front on either side of the stair, illuminating the rooms in between. Kitchen
lines one side of the stair, entryway closets on the other, bathroom on a third, and possibly a
couch on the fourth. The stair disappears in between each, compressing all utilities together to
open up the floor space.