BY JACQUIE MOORE
BETTING ON
BROWNSTONE Taking a page out of old New York’s storied city-building book is inspiring residential design in the New West.
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Something old, something new: Homebuilder Oldstreet’s Berkeley Block project in Calgary.
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F N AT H A N R O B B
rchitecturally speaking, our city is best described as “serially experimental.” From California pink stucco to stone-veneer faux-Tudor, each dominant design trend that has ever hit Calgary sits in stark contrast to the favoured look of the previous decade and the one that follows. While every aesthetic has its merits, few trends have achieved enduring appeal. A new surge of homebuilding in Calgary, however, is banking on a classic style that has endured for centuries in the major urban centres of the Eastern U.S. The definition of a brownstone is loose, used as it often is to describe nearly any manner of stone row-housing. Technically, a brownstone is an attached dwelling clad in a dark red-brown version of Triassic-Jurassic sandstone (a lighter version, once quarried near Calgary, comprises many of this city’s heritage buildings). On the mid 19th-century East Coast, brownstone — mostly extracted from now-defunct quarries in Connecticut — was cheaper than other
luxury building materials such as limestone and granite, and it was also easy to carve. That made new, side-by-side, single-family developments in Harlem, Brooklyn and the Upper East and West Sides of New York City, both affordable-ish and on point with the era’s obsession with Romanticism. The brownstone hit the elegant mark of natural and ornate; polished and weathered; beauty and art that only gets better over time. It’s a style that local lawyer-turned-builder Nathan Robb and his business partner (and brother-in-law) Connor Irving have recently brought to exquisite life with projects in Altadore and South Calgary. After years spent travelling widely and working abroad, Robb fell in love with the sophistication and durability of brick (sturdier cousin to brownstone) and brownstone-style houses. He sees the look as “timeless,” rather than “modern” — a term he feels is used gratuitously by many Calgary home builders. “Connor and I are drawn to what we think is beautiful and what we see has endured for centuries in other cities,” Robb says. Their company, Oldstreet, was founded four years ago on the duo’s shared philosophy that a home’s exterior should exist outside of fads. “The inside of a home is a better place for people to exhibit their personality through art and furniture that changes and gets updated,” says Robb. Their Charles Block rowhouse development on 20th Street S.W. was completed in 2020, their Berkeley Block rowhouse development on 16th Street N.W. was completed in 2021, and their Brooklyn Heights-inspired King Edward Residences (where Robb and his family reside), created in collaboration with designer Amanda Hamilton, were completed in January 2023. Built into the appeal of nouveau-brownstones is
march/april 2023