A postcard of Fort Greene might show row after row of tightly packed brownstones, dating back to the 1850s, with views over leafy avenues. On Vanderbilt, No. 208 is only four blocks off the park, near the corner at Willoughby — a closed street that’s a summer paradise for cycling. But the house doesn’t fit the neighborhood stereotype. Covered in silvery industrial panels, with a door that closes flush against the façade, the four-story building stands out for its museumlike minimalism.
Built in 2006 as a live-work studio for two artists — James Casebere and Lorna Simpson — it was listed at $6.5 million last July. This week, the price was reduced to $5 million, a 23 percent cut. That’s closer to the $4 million median for a single-family townhouse in Fort Greene, per John Walkup of the real-estate data-analytics company UrbanDigs. He says the pricing likely accounted for “a significant premium for a product with niche appeal.” Niche because the pool of buyers going after modern, minimalist spaces here might be smaller, and even those buyers may be wary of No. 208. It was the first project in the U.S. by David Adjaye, the starchitect who went on to design the National Museum of African American History but was accused in 2023 of sexual assault, harassment, and a “toxic work culture.” Adjaye has denied the allegations, but there’s been a drop in interest in his work. (The listing says the home is an “architectural gem” but leaves out his name.)
