83 BROOKLYN PEOPLE
The home of the Richter family in SouthWilliamsburg keep well away from all those clichés of the industrial style. In place of bare brick there’s wood panelling, full-colour furniture, and exotic accents
About twenty years ago, people began calling Williamsburg “Little Berlin”. Hipsters, penniless artists and musicians flocked in droves to the part of the
city facing the East River, drawn to a neighbourhood that was quickly on the up and up, a new epicentre that moved to the beat of indie rock and electroclash bands. The gentrification never really stopped, transforming Brooklyn into a trendy district, complete with skyrocketing property prices. Originally from San Francisco, Keren Richter has lived here since the 1990s. Since then, she’s inhabited numerous apartments, attended Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and got married, without ever moving to the other side of the bridge. In 2011, Richter and her husband Thomas, a German designer who by chance had the same last name, founded White Arrow, a creative agency specialising in graphic design, art direction and interior decoration. They tend to work on places with a bit of history, like the one they just completed in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district that reinterprets Bauhaus-style geometries. Their creative philosophy could be summed up as American concreteness, European bon ton and small doses of extravagance. They also teamed up to fashion the interiors of their home, a topfloor flat in a four-storey, nineteenth-century schoolhouse in SouthWilliamsburg, completed just in time for the arrival of little Mira last year. The seven-year conservation/remodel was guided by Space Exploration Design, an American studio which helped them stay as authentic as possible, obsessively seeking out period-appropriate faucets and fittings, doors, fixtures and flooring: «We wanted everything to look like it had always been here», Keren explained. Outside the large windows, Williamsburg expands in all its cinematic splendour, with fire escapes along the facades of buildings and wooden water tanks perched on rooftops. Yet inside, we could be in Paris or London. The couple did away with every last New York cliché, from exposed brick walls to the industrial elements often found in the area, then started fresh from a giant palm in the living room: «It breaks up the space, plus it emphasises the height of the ceiling», explained Keren. Next to this exotic specimen are white sofas by Tobia Scarpa that have been personalised by the homeowners, blush pink armchairs edged in brass and a rug by Swedish designer Josef Frank that Keren won at an auction a few years ago. The boho-chic ensemble is lit up by the unmistakeable blue of the Yves Klein coffee table: «the best deal I ever got on eBay», she said beamingly. But the real dramatic turn is in the guest bedroom. After all that European composure, the marbled walls by textile designer Calico are a jolt of golden energy, lighting up the room. But the surprises don’t stop there. A closer look and the ceiling reveals its relief decorations, a bit like a sumptuous wedding cake. «The only truly American element in the entire house», Keren confessed.