A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman.
The Oculus Room The black olive tree is surrounded by Battle Grey Limestone tiles from Artistic Tile. The six-by-six-foot skylight is from Lamilux. “I loved the idea of bringing greenery and natural light into the middle of the house,” says Lusha Wang.
Photo: Ty Cole
The fashion designer Lusha Wang and her husband, Rodion Steshenko, a software engineer, were about to close on a brownstone in Boerum Hill when they were outbid. That may have been for the best because the place they bought instead, a 19th-century former boardinghouse in Park Slope, had an unlikely family connection that they took as a good omen. “My dad was a refugee from the Soviet Union, and he came here in ’76,” says Steshenko. “The government placed him in a boardinghouse apartment, and it is literally the house across the street from us now. You have to admit, What are the chances? ”
To modernize their home, the couple, who have two children, enlisted Themis Haralabides, whose firm reBuild Workshop specializes in architecturally respectful restorations.
“We didn’t want the house to feel completely finished on day one. We wanted to move in and let it grow with us over time,” says Wang. “One of the biggest goals was to open everything up without losing the character of the brownstone.” The renovation process took nearly two years.
Haralabides found several of the original features worth preserving, such as the millwork. But he took it apart with surgical precision and reinstalled it to make way for current amenities like central air conditioning. He put a powder room on the parlor floor and expanded the kitchen, which was as narrow as a hallway, so that it would connect with rooms across the width of the property.
“Many clients have this misconception that you cannot insert anything contemporary into historic settings or that anything new has to appear as if it always existed there,” Haralabides says. “We believe the old and the new cannot only coexist but the tension between them can be productive.”
Meanwhile, a stained-glass skylight on the top floor gave Wang an idea for a dramatic intervention. It recalled a glass-covered rooftop filled with plants she had once visited in Paris, and she wondered if it would be possible to re-create the effect in Brooklyn. Haralabides proposed replacing the skylight with a mechanical oculus. Wang chose a black olive tree to stand underneath. The build-out was a tricky undertaking that required cutting through floors and performing complicated craning operations, but the effort paid off. The result is a serene, if slightly surreal, indoor courtyard located between the main bedroom and bath.
“On a good day, you can open the skylight and get some air, hear the birds,” Haralabides says. “It really feels like you’re outside.”
The Living Room The chandelier is original. The Camaleonda sofa is by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia. The triple-glazed windows are from Bewiso. “Energy efficiency and air quality are inseparable from what it means to care for a historic building,” says architect Themis Haralabides.
Photo: Ty Cole
The Entrance “I was drawn to old European homes and wanted things to feel authentic and not overly manufactured,” says Wang. The original millwork was restored by Haralabides. The pendant is Flowerpot VP7 from Lumens.
Photo: Ty Cole
The Kitchen The original space was closed off by a wall. “It wasn’t really designed for a family,” Wang says. Haralabides tore the wall down to make a dining room. The charcoal-colored paint is limewash. Wang chose deep green for the cabinetry because of a large tree outside: “We can see it from almost every window.”
Photo: Ty Cole
The Kids’ Play Area “I wanted to create the room I wished I had when I was a child, where my daughter could be active even when she couldn’t go to the park,” says Wang, referring to her eldest child, Riley. “If she wants to put stickers on the walls, that’s fine. It should feel like her world.” The wall gym–climber is from Avenlur.
Photo: Ty Cole
Primary Bath The claw-foot tub, original to the brownstone and salvaged from a lower floor, is the centerpiece. It was reglazed for its new life here. The intact Victorian fireplace mantel was restored in place and kept as a decorative piece.
Photo: Ty Cole
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If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the July 6, 2026, issue of
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