Hugh Dancy and Claire Danes, actors, are selling the townhouse in New York City that they have lived in for more than ten years.
The West Village house, located on Downing Street, which is a quiet and narrow street, was listed by Tamer Howard of Corcoran as a listing agent and went up for $9.75 million on Wednesday. According to property records, the couple paid $6.88 million for the property in November 2012.
Under the couple’s possession, the Greek Revival townhouse had a significant renovation, facilitated by Joan Krevlin, a founding partner of BKSK Architects. Having worked with Danes for a long time, Krevlin renovated the 1880s townhouse’s interior to include a mud room and entryway, a new powder room on the main floor, and a home office that can be closed off.
It was important to Danes, 45, a native New Yorker, that the townhouse mimic a loft-like feel.
“Claire grew up in lofts, and her heart was in loft living,” Krevlin told The New York Times, which first reported the listing. “The home they were choosing to make was a townhouse, intentionally, but there were characteristics of a loft that were very important to her.”
That meant streamlining the flow of the townhouse’s main floor by moving the kitchen from the front of the house to the rear and creating a connectedness between the social spaces of the home.
The interiors are also filled with natural light, including from the kitchen’s glass-block ceiling that doubles as the floor of an upstairs terrace, according to the listing. There’s also a glass wall on one side of the kitchen that overlooks a small patio where the family could dine al fresco. It’s one of three outdoor spaces the townhouse flaunts.
“The home beautifully marries modern living with original West Village charm,” Howard told Mansion Global. She said the rooftop terrace is the home’s gem. It’s “designed for exceptional outdoor living and entertaining with spaces for lounging, dining with the outdoor kitchen with a fridge, ice maker and propane-fueled Ooni Koda pizza oven, all amidst a rooftop garden. Plus, it offers classic views of West Village rooftops and One World Trade Center.”
Between the main floor and rooftop deck are three floors of bedrooms, plus a cozy family room with a fireplace and a wet bar that opens onto the terrace atop the kitchen. Also on the second floor is a bedroom facing the treetops of Downing Street as well as a full bathroom. Up one flight are two additional bedrooms, each with en suite bathrooms. The top floor houses a primary suite with a deep walk-in closet and a spacious primary bath with a standalone tub and a fireplace. The house has five fireplaces in total.
The finished basement gives way to a laundry room, a thermo-regulated wine cellar and a cedar-lined closet for garment storage.
Howard told the Times that Danes, who notably played CIA operative Carrie Mathison on “Homeland,” and Dancy, 49, who played FBI profiler Will Graham on “Hannibal,” are choosing to move on from the property to give their three children more space to grow and to have more space for visiting family. They aren’t going far, Howard said, and plan to stay downtown.