Lea Cloud of CDR Studio Architects | Bushwick Townhouse in Brooklyn | Townhouses Then and Now
Courtesy of CDR Studio Architects
Designing Connectivity
In this episode, we’re exploring the history of townhouses in New York City and unpacking how this housing type relates to gentrification, a hot-button issue at the intersection of race, class, and housing. We’re revisiting a conversation that I had with Lea Cloud, co-founder and partner of CDR Studio Architects, where she walks us through a thoughtful, innovative Bushwick townhouse renovation.
Townhouses are single-family, multi-level homes that share walls with other homes on one or both sides and feature an entrance directly to the street. They’re most common in New York City neighborhoods like Harlem, Long Island City, and Park Slope, which also happen to be communities at the epicenter of gentrification.
Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents. On the surface, the new neighbors boost the local economy with restaurants, businesses, and housing. But, these upgrades are typically at the cost of longtime residents. This shift sparks feelings of resentment, frustration, and anger about who gets to own what and who gets to call a place home.
In our conversation, Lea Cloud and I touch on this issue through the lens of the townhouse renovation her firm designed for a client located in the southeast part of Bushwick. Lea describes how the neighborhood demographics have changed since it was first acquired by the Dutch in the 1600s and has now become a major hub for Central and South American immigrants.
Lea and I also discuss the ethos behind passive homes, what it’s like to work with multiple firms on a single project, and how to manipulate designs to meet the client’s vision while still complying with standard code.
“When we came to it, it had been demolished. So all we’re seeing is the wood framing within, and you’re struck. Wow. They built these houses really solid and they’re really beautifully built. So we are maintaining a lot of the framing and we will reuse a lot of the floor framing. And again, that’s sort of in the goals of passive houses to, is to keep as many materials as we can and just supplement them so we’re minimizing the waste. And so that’s, that was a really lovely component to find.”
Courtesy of CDR Studio Architects
About Lea Cloud
Lea is a co-founder and partner at CDR studio architects, a full service design firm in New York. Prior to starting the firm, she was at PK SB architects, where she had an opportunity to work on the renovation of the famous Seagram building that was designed by Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Eli Cohn and Robert Jacobs. Lee serves along with me as a city planning commissioner in Hoboken, New Jersey. She's a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design.
Courtesy of CDR Studio Architects
Episode Timestamps
2:25 – An overview of townhouses and how this housing type relates to gentrification.
8:33 – Tell us about the neighborhood in Brooklyn where the Bushwick Townhouse is located and what's around it.
10:41 – Who is the client and what did he want you to accomplish with your design?
13:48 – Walk our listeners through the townhouse, describing how it will be once it's completed.
16:48 – When you visited the building, what really stood out to you?
19:49 – Tell us about the logistics of how it works when there's two firms that are working together. Who is responsible for what? How do you share files and things like that?
22:02 – Give us a primer about the codes and the rules that dictate the use, the quantity, the layout, the dimensions, and all that minutia about the stairs in residential projects.
27:26 – Give us more about the details of what's going on with these stairs in the Bushwick Townhouse.
32:51 – Tell us about the lighting that you have chosen in terms of the light fixtures that will support this idea of continuity.
36:31 – You did another residential project that prominently features stairs, and that one is in Snowmass, Colorado. Tell us about that project.
Additional Resources
Connect with Lea Cloud:
CDR Studio Architects
LinkedIn (Lea Cloud)
LinkedIn (CDR Studio Architects)
Courtesy of CDR Studio Architects
About your host:
Atif Qadir is the Founder & CEO of Commonplace, a technology company making it easy for commercial real estate professionals to find and use the $100B of real estate incentives given out every year in the US.
His work has been covered by Technology Review, The Real Deal, Commercial Observer, and Propmodo. He’s also a frequent speaker on the future of buildings and cities on popular industry podcasts and at conferences, including this past year at the Commercial Observer National DEI Conference, Yale AREA Conference, Columbia Real Estate Symposium, Open Data Week NYC and Austin Design Week.
About Commonplace
Commonplace is a founding sponsor of American Building. It is a 100% minority-owned, real estate technology company founded in 2020 to make financing social impact development projects across the US easier. It is funded by venture capital investors Hometeam Ventures, Park West Asset Management, New York Ventures and Shadow Ventures.
About Michael Graves
The world-famous design firm Michael Graves is also a founding sponsor of American Building. Its namesake, the iconoclastic designer Michael Graves, FAIA was a fierce advocate for people-centric design. His work defines a generation of American architecture and includes the Portland Building, the Humana Building and the Denver Public Library. The 1st season of American Building was filmed live at The Warehouse, his historic home in Princeton, New Jersey:
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