Brooklyn Heights Bathing Suite
A master bathing suite carved into the parlor floor of an 1840s Greek Revival brownstone — book-matched marble, a freestanding soaker, and concealed steam, all within a party-wall footprint.
The brief
The owners had spent three years returning an 1840s Greek Revival brownstone to itself — plaster cornices, pocket doors, the original stair — and arrived at the top floor with one rule: the bath could not announce that it was new. It had to feel as though the house had always held a room for bathing, even though the house never had.
The constraints were the usual brownstone constraints, only tighter. A party wall on one side that could not be touched. A single chase for all the wet services. A floor structure that had to be told, politely, that it would now carry a filled cast-marble tub. And a client who wanted steam, heated floors, and silence — in a room you reach by walking past two bedrooms.
What we made
- A freestanding soaker carved from a single cream marble block, set on a low book-matched plinth so the veining runs unbroken from floor to tub.
- A wall of book-matched marble behind the tub, the grey-and-gold veining mirrored across the seam, fed by a floor-mounted brass tub filler aged to a soft patina.
- A concealed steam shower behind a frameless low-iron glass screen, its generator and controls buried in the one available chase.
- A walnut vanity drawn as a piece of furniture — honed marble top, undermount basin, slim brass sconces, no visible hardware — so it reads as a washstand, not a cabinet.
- A heated herringbone marble floor over a decoupling membrane, calibrated to take the chill off the stone without ever feeling like a heated floor.
