The Insider: Bauhaus Ideas Inform PLG Townhouse Update

A three-story limestone row house with preserved period details was renovated for a couple drawn to Bauhaus design and abstract art. Bathrooms were fully redone, while the basement was transformed into an oak-paneled media room and guest space. Heating and cooling were updated with mini-splits throughout, and new lighting was installed. Three skylights were restored, and custom furnishings and decorative pieces were commissioned from local artisans. Existing moldings and intact parquet floors were preserved. Design choices were guided by Bauhaus references, including Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Hilma af Klint, and aesthetic changes began with the fireplaces on the parlor level.

"Except for bathrooms in dire need of updating, the early 20th century house was in pretty decent shape when architect Francis Aguillard's clients bought the place. It had some fine period detail, including coffered ceilings in the back parlor and doors with leaded glass panels. "The house was midway through updates," said Aguillard, whose Brooklyn-based firm, One With_ Architecture, collaborated with O-N, an architecture studio also of Brooklyn, on the project. "The former owners had freshly painted, renovated the kitchen, made improvements here and there, and then decamped for LA.""

"The architects redid three bathrooms in their entirety, transformed the basement into an atmospheric oak-paneled media room and guest space, updated heating and cooling with mini-splits throughout, installed new lighting, and restored three skylights, as well as commissioning unusual custom furnishings and decorative pieces from local artisans. Existing moldings were preserved, as were the intact parquet floors."

"Aguillard said he and his clients had the Bauhaus, the short-lived (1919 to 1933) but influential German design school, in mind throughout the process. "The home was built around the time the Bauhaus was getting started, and one of the clients grew up in a Bauhaus home in Germany," he said. "We were thinking about Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Hilma af Klint," the former an avant garde painter, photographer, and Bauhaus professor, the latter an early pioneer of abstract painting."

"Aesthetic changes "began with the fireplaces," Aguillard said. There were two old fireplaces on the parlor level. The one in the front room had what he called "a mail order mantel, like from the Sears & Roebuck ca"

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