After a decade working for New York City firm Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, Brent Allen Buck was ready for a change of pace. In 2015, Buck struck out on his own to launch Buck Projects, headquartered in the Brooklyn brownstone he renovated on nights and weekends over the course of two years. That home, whose renovation process Buck has outlined this summer for Curbed's Renovation Diary series, serves as his home base and design laboratory, as well as a backdrop to a complete set of teak pepper mills by Danish modernist Jens Quistgaard (which you'll finally see this week!). We've taken an incisive look at the highs, lows, joys, and travails of home renovation, and now, Buck and his wife Katie take us through the finished project.
Brent, how do you separate your professional project management side with your goals for your own house? And Katie, was there any point where it just became too much?
Katie: In my job I have some experience with larger building projects. The difference there is that we don't drill down to the 1/8" or zero in so much on minute detail. For our own house, we wanted it to be perfect. But at least I had an idea of what I was getting into before we started, which was helpful. I think toward the end of the project, the anticipation of moving in… That became the hardest part.
Brent: For me the most difficult thing of the house was—and this is kind of the whole story of the design of this house—that I am a modernist architect trained in a modern method, trained at Tod and Billie's office, in way that everything looked a lot like this kitchen. Trim and historic detail were pretty foreign—
Katie: It was not in your vocabulary.