I volunteered this past week at our neighborhood association meeting to photograph houses at risk due to inappropriate zoning in our area. So today I walked around my neck of the woods in Victorian Flatbush in Brooklyn with my camera and two lenses: my standard lens, a 28-85mm zoom, and my wide angle 20mm lens.
Of course, I took some photos for my own enjoyment as well, especially because I got to walk through the landmark district of Prospect Park South. I thought I’d share this house in particular with my gardening buddies out there.
How do you like this two-story conservatory? It’s hard to see unless you look at the full size picture, but those are leaded glass sunburst fanlight windows above the regular windows on the second story, and the same with diamond-pane leaded glass windows above on the first floor.
If that’s not enough, you could always expand into the attached greenhouse in the back of the house.
Here’s a view of the facade of the house. You can see the conservatory on the right side. I think we can devise more creative plantings than clipped yews to complement the two-story fluted corinthian columns gracing the front of the house.
What do you think, readers? Does this look like an opportunity? A diamond in the rough? Or is it a gigantic, multi-thousand square foot, white elephant?
Discuss amongst yourselves …
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1510 Albemarle Road, Prospect Park South (Flickr photo set)
This is a diamond in the rough. I wonder what they are growing inside the conservatory and greenhouses? Does a gardener live there who appreciates what they have. (This certainly changes my perception of Brooklyn!)
Just like Carol I am intrigued by who lives there, and if they do have a gardener(s). What a magnificent place. I have enjoyed your pictures. Brooklyn is a lot more interesting to me since you have shown its “hidden” side. Like most I had pre-conceived notions of what is there. You have done a lot to dispel those notions.
What a beautiful old house! But the mis-matched hedge covering half of the height of the windows on the side has got to go.
I agree, diamond in the rough. And maybe a white elephant, too–the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, are they?
La gringa is right about the hedge. And frankly the house is so big that they might as well just get rid of all of the grass. It will need deep, deep mixed borders to integrate it into its site.
I believe I have an idea or two, but as I often say: 3 things are involved here,
1. the client
2. the site-house soils, climate, what stays, views, etc.
3. Designers experience
That being said, let me at it!!!!!! Great house, wonder what the heating bill is?
I believe I have an idea or two, but as I often say: 3 things are involved here,
1. the client
2. the site-house soils, climate, what stays, views, etc.
3. Designers experience
That being said, let me at it!!!!!! Great house, wonder what the heating bill is?
Looks like just my kind of place. I think though, that I might start with turning that white elephant into a more strikingly colored one. It looks like a greek temple right now. Too blah in my opinion. 😉
Much as I dislike the hedge, it does seem rather appropriate-a.k.a. BORING……I think I’d go for some flowering/fruiting trees and bushes, along with a nice pond/reflecting pool, vines over a walk-thru arbor with benches inside, and a olympic-sized swimming pool surrounded by palm trees…or a few tigers, giraffes, and a chimp….something…
Wow what a beauty mate, won’t find that style of house in OZ.