Some houses are renovated once and left alone. This Brooklyn townhouse, however, has been tweaked, rethought, refined, and lovingly obsessed over six separate times over two decades.
The residence, tucked onto a quiet, tree-lined block in Carroll Gardens, is the longtime home of architect James Biber, a former partner at the storied global design firm Pentagram and now a partner at Biber Architects. Biber and his late wife, graphic designer Carin Goldberg—best known for designing Madonna’s debut album cover—methodically transformed the 19th-century house into a deeply personal, design-forward family home.
“My wife found the house and told me not to bother to go see it—it was such a wreck,” Biber says. “But it was the kind of wreck that, because it was never renovated, still had all the original details: stairs, railings, doors, moldings, flooring, trim—the things that usually are stripped away in cheap renovations. I knew we could make it into a perfect home, and did.”
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The parlor-level living room balances restored moldings with midcentury furnishings.
Nina Poon for The Corcoran Group
The updates unfolded gradually, beginning with a gut renovation. Later came a top-floor conversion to an open-plan living space, updates to the façade, and landscaping of the front and rear gardens. The couple undertook an extensive refresh in 2020, and a final round of polishing completed in 2025. “It is now as nearly perfect as it can be,” Biber says.
Built in 1901, the 20-foot-wide townhouse spans roughly 3,200 square feet across four floors plus a cellar. Depending on how rooms are used, there are up to five bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths. While Biber meticulously restored the original pine floors, plasterwork, trim, and central stair, nearly everything else was modernized behind the scenes. There are all-new plumbing and electrical systems, custom windows, updated roofing and skylights, added steel structural supports, zoned climate control, and a discreetly integrated lighting and home technology system—all carefully threaded into the historic shell.
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The dining room overlooks the garden through tall rear windows.
Nina Poon for The Corcoran Group
The layout is classic but flexible, with a gracious parlor floor holding adjoining living and dining rooms, plus a service pantry. The chef’s kitchen is downstairs with a stone-topped island, a Bertazzoni range, and a walk-in pantry. Looking onto the tiny front garden is a family room, and out back, outside the kitchen, a south-facing ornamental garden designed in a French-inspired parterre style adds a peaceful escape with bluestone paving, mature plantings, and custom trellising.
Upstairs, the full-floor primary suite includes a private study that’s convertible to another bedroom, a windowed dressing room, and a spa-like bath with a mosaic-tiled shower. The top floor reads more like a loft, with an open layout, large skylights, custom shelving, a dramatic pivoting wall, and a bathroom. The space is easily divided into one or two bedrooms. Should the next owner feel compelled to keep evolving and growing the house, there are air rights for future expansion.
The townhouse is on the market for $5.5 million with Dana Power and Falcon Griffith at Corcoran.
Click here to see more photos of the Brooklyn home.
Nina Poon for The Corcoran Group
Authors
Abby Montanez
Abigail Montanez is a staff writer at Robb Report. She has worked in both print and digital publishing for over half a decade, covering everything from real estate, entertainment, dining, travel to…