House of the Week: NYC's 'Convertible Brownstone' (VIDEO)

Living in New York City can leave you a little jaded when it comes to real estate. In this rich man's playground, replete with tiki bar lofts, in-house movie theaters and even penthouses with playground slides, we at AOL Real Estate have been understandably desensitized to such "luxury features."

 

And then we stumbled upon this East Village brownstone with a unique feature that's both fun and functional: a disappearing front wall. Though on the outside, it looks like any other building on the block, part of its front wall retracts like a garage door -- "like the building is falling in on itself," owner and architect Bill Peterson observes. Peterson built the retractable wall to re-imagine the traditional parlor-floor balcony, and it's as much a feat of technology as of design. With the push of a button, the living room transforms from an enclosed, four-walled space into an open-air deck that's perfect for summer. And just wait til you see the backyard.

 

See the "convertible wall" in action in the video below.