The Joseph and Mary Merz House in Brooklyn Heights at 48 Willow Place was completed between 1965 and 1969—as part of the redevelopment of three lots on Willow Place the Merzes purchased.
The Merzes, both architects, moved into 48 Willow Place after its completion, and designed separate, architecturally comparable homes on the two other nearby parcels, 44 and 40 Willow Place.
Dubbed colloquially “the Merz House,” 48 Willow Place echoes Louis Kahn’s Margaret Esherick House, adding late modernist contrast to the brownstones it fronts and the stately Greek Revival colonnade it abuts.
The Merz House’s interiors were recently redesigned by Starling Architecture. (Adrian Gaut)
The Merz House sold on the market for $10.6 million in 2024 to new homeowners. Afterward, Starling Architecture was hired to carry out a top-down interior renovation of the 5,500-square-foot building.
The eponymous office of Ian Starling, featured on AN’s 2025 Twenty to Watch list, honored the home’s existing material palette—redwood, maple, stone, and glass—while adding new amenities in the courtyard.
But now, a proposed rooftop addition to 48 Willow Place has preservationists, community members, and Merz family members thinking: déjà-vu?
BWArchitects recently submitted existing and proposed elevation drawings to Brooklyn Community Board 2 for consideration.
The submittals contain drawings of a new rooftop addition that perks up from 48 Willow Place, visible from the street down below. For Katie Merz, daughter of the Merzes, this will compromise the historic home’s architectural integrity.
The new homeowners and their architects submitted a rooftop addition proposal to Brooklyn Community Board 2. (Courtesy BWArchitects via Community Board 2)
Opponents of the addition to 48 Willow Place are now appealing with the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC)—Katie Merz has started a petition, which has over 250 signatories and counting. The home sits within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District.
Merz states in the petition “the new owners have every right to personalize their home,” but the signatories are asking the LPC to uphold a previously established precedent mandating any rooftop addition to the three, landmarked homes on Willow Place “not be visible from the street.”
The petition cites a similar proposal that added a rooftop volume to 40 Willow Place. The LPC determined then “the unique sculptural design of these buildings would be severely compromised by a visible pillbox roof addition.”
An alcove in the recently renovated Merz House features a bookcase. (Adrian Gaut)
The rooftop addition to 40 Willow Place was ultimately built, albeit setback from the property line, thereby not visible from the street.
Merz wants to see a similar outcome this time around, at 48 Willow Place. “These buildings aren’t beautiful by accident,” the petition states. “Every line, every proportion was intentional.”
Merz House bathroom detail (Adrian Gaut)
“The Merzes designed these homes as complete sculptural compositions, where the roofline is as essential to the design as the facade,” the petition continues. “A visible addition doesn’t just change the top of the building—it undermines the entire architectural statement.”
The LPC will convene on November 25 and hear testimonies from those in opposition to, or in support of, the proposed rooftop addition.