ARCHDIGEST.COM 101
hear Ulla Johnson and Zach
Miner tell it, the process
of pinning down the perfect
19th-century Brooklyn row
house is a little like dating in
the age of swipe left or right.
“There are so few properties,
and it’s so competitive,” says
Johnson, “that you have to woo people.” So when the couple
finally happened upon a home that made their heart sing, they
didn’t just put in a bid. “We met the homeowners and hung
out with their kids. We had so many shared interests—cultur-
ally, politically. We’re still in touch with them today!” the
fashion designer reveals with a satisfied smile, sitting cross-
legged on the hand-loomed cream carpet in their living room.
Johnson and her husband, director of a private
contemporary-art foundation, first settled in Fort Greene
more than two decades ago. A native New Yorker who
grew up on the Upper East Side, she describes it as being a
dynamic community, adding, “I was raised on a street that
I wasn’t able to cross until I was 10. My kids have such a
different life. They ride on scooters, there are playgrounds
on every corner, people run over to each other’s houses.”
Adds Miner, a Michigan native: “It’s as close to ‘I’m out of
sugar; can I come over and get some?’ as it gets in 2019.”
The couple knew the neighborhood so intimately they had
narrowed their search to just two streets, and from the moment
they walked into their current home, “we had a wonderful
feeling about it,” Johnson says. “The prior owners had been
here for 40 years, raised two sons here.” Miner chimes in:“Sending them to the same school we send our kids to.”
Dating to the 1850s, the four-story house had plenty of space
to comfortably fit a family of five, but not so much that it
swallowed them up. “We wanted something warm and wel-
coming—of a human scale,” Johnson says. It also possessed
a gracious, west-facing garden that is bathed in light all day
long. For flower-obsessed Johnson, this sealed the deal.
She had worked with AD100 architect Elizabeth Roberts
and Peter Marino–trained interior designer Alexis Brown
on her Bleecker Street store and continued the collaboration
here. “I like to surround myself with female teams,” she notes.
Of course, given her and Miner’s backgrounds, they were
equally hands-on. “We both have strong opinions and emo-
tional reactions to things. There wasn’t a ton of vacillating.”IN TERMS OF THE ARCHITECTURE, the couple didn’t approach
it as a preservation project. “We wanted to honor the bones
of the building but allow it to adapt to how we live today,” says
Miner. That meant painstakingly restoring the ornate lacy
plasterwork crowning the living room but juxtaposing it with
what Roberts calls “more casual detailing.” Along the back
of the parlor floor, they added a solarium wall that kicks
out two feet, “creating the illusion of more light and space,”
the architect says. Bringing the outdoors in extends to the
top of the house, where a James Turrell–esque skylight floats
above the curved staircase.
“We wanted the house to be elevated and elegant, but it
had to be a real living space that was not too precious,” Johnson
explains. The parlor floor holds the living room, open dining
area, and kitchen and exudes warmth and tactility. The sameto