At a busy corner in Brooklyn’s dynamic Williamsburg neighborhood, a striking new residential building has risen from a narrow 25-foot-wide site, successfully bridging the area’s storied industrial past and its bustling contemporary present, brick by meticulous brick.
Completed earlier this year, the six-unit boutique building nods directly to the neighborhood’s richly layered heritage while extending it into a new architectural chapter, explains Sara Ianniciello, the project’s lead interior designer and the founder of Makers Collective Design. The guiding philosophy behind the development was rooted in creating a lasting contribution to the urban fabric. The overarching goal was to introduce something contemporary yet enduring to the block, acknowledging the site’s historical evolution while remaining firmly grounded in the distinctive architectural character that defines Williamsburg.
To the west, Union Street zips past in a blur of activity, functioning as a vibrant palimpsest of commercial spaces, active workshops, and mainstay neighborhood diners complete with their glowing neon signs still intact. To the south, a steady run of hard-working, classic Brooklyn row houses shares the streetscape with mature street trees jockeying for sunlight against the urban backdrop. The new building acts as a vital pivot point between these two distinct environments. It is anchored firmly in the gritty realities of its urban place, yet it simultaneously offers a quiet respite, featuring rich interior finishes that evoke both understated luxury and an enveloping sense of calm.
To achieve this nuanced balance, Ianniciello looked closely at the nearby factories and workshops that have long defined the district, using their industrial proportions and raw materials as a kind of borrowed language for the residential project. Blackened metal—so prevalent historically in neighborhood factory windows, commercial signage, and heavy doorways—directly informed the design of the divided-light steel windows. These architectural elements create a dynamic, shifting interplay of natural light and sharp shadows within the residences throughout the course of the day.
Classic, time-tested finishes such as rich walnut wood, unlacquered brass, traditional wall paneling, and warm oak herringbone floors were chosen deliberately for their enduring character and ability to weather gracefully. Everything about the material palette is deeply connected to the identity of Brooklyn, yet it avoids ever feeling overly thematic or heavy-handed, Ianniciello notes.
The site’s own unconventional history is worth a pause in the narrative. Before the new residential structure took shape, the plot was occupied by a tumbledown, single-family house that had sat vacant for so long that a mature oak tree had literally grown up through the exact center of it, pushing the warped wood structure and old vinyl siding out of its path over years of neglect. Prior to breaking ground, the development team undertook the careful process of relocating the tree, clearing the way for the new build while paying silent homage to the relentless nature of the borough.
Inside the fifth-floor duplex, the entry hall opens dramatically into an expansive living space featuring soaring 20-foot ceilings that draw clear inspiration from the historic artist lofts that still dot the surrounding blocks. A graceful archway leads naturally from this voluminous space into the kitchen, where the ceiling height shifts down to a more intimate 13 feet. This transition is visually demarcated by exposed walnut beams that beautifully complement the classic shaker millwork installed below. In a nod to functional industrial spaces, a rolling ladder is enlisted by residents to easily reach the double-stacked glass cabinetry situated at the very top.
For the kitchen’s primary surfaces, swirling Calacatta Viola marble was selected for the countertops and matching backsplash, injecting deep, dramatic purple and pink hues into the room. These rich tones strike a harmonious balance with the patinated blackened steel used to clad the custom rangehood—serving as yet another subtle hat tip to the neighborhood’s legacy of welding shops and heavy industry. Outside, lush, permanent planters wrap the unit’s expansive window sills, generating the visual effect of a thriving living wall cascading into the bustling streetscape below.
Traveling up the slim, sculptural oak staircase to the second level, Ianniciello’s professional background in high-end hospitality design comes clearly to the fore. Each of the three bedrooms is intentionally compact, yet they are meticulously planned for maximum comfort and quiet acoustic isolation, evoking the intimate feel of a small boutique hotel. The accompanying bathrooms maintain the same disciplined restraint, utilizing the same Nordic grey marble cut in various formats—intricate mosaic tiles inside the shower enclosure, paired with large-format slabs on the surrounding walls and floors—to minimize visual disruption and cultivate a moody, deeply spa-like ambiance.
Spread out over a comfortable 1,400 square feet—and swiftly sold upon hitting the market—the completed building stands as a testament to both the neighborhood’s constant state of evolution and its designer’s personal career trajectory. The residential project marked the very first commission for her firm, which is now three years old, and it continues to serve as a vital touchstone for her broader body of work.
After spending two decades working extensively in hospitality and high-end residential design, primarily based in San Francisco and New York, Ianniciello ultimately struck out on her own to get back to the core of hands-on design work and stay intimately close to the narrative of her projects. Continuing that story-driven path, her team of four is moving its offices to spaces located within a former pencil factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn—a fitting, industrial backdrop for a practice deeply rooted in the physical and historical context of the borough.
