On “Slow and Low,” the penultimate song of their debut album, Michael Diamond and his fellow Beastie Boys rap: “We don’t only rock the house, but we house the rock. We don’t stroll but we roll straight to the top.”

The 21-year-old bad boy once famous for fighting for your right to party probably never would have guessed that about three decades later he would be a developer of an actual house, one that is striking but not exactly rocking, in that land of strolling and strollers, brownstone Brooklyn. But with a wife and two children in private school, and his 50s not far off, Mr. Diamond, known to millions of former adolescents as Mike D., has found himself branching out into other passions.

This time, it really is Mike D. with the master plan.

Tamra Davis — who met her husband of 21 years while directing music videos for the Beasties, N.W.A. and Sonic Youth, and has since shot such features as “CB4,” “Billy Madison” and “Half Baked” — prefers another of Mr. Diamond’s lyrics to define the project.

Image The townhouse is rising on a once-vacant lot in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. Credit... Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

“It’s more like ‘Skills to Pay the Bills,’ ” she said.

The couple were standing inside the shell of a townhouse at the corner of Boerum Place and Pacific Street in Cobble Hill that they are building with Jill and John Bouratoglou, both architects. They all met four years ago on the basketball court, where Mr. Diamond and Mr. Bouratoglou coached their sons together.