Trade Secrets | New England Home | May 2015

Celebrating Fine Design, Architecture, and Building

The Allure Of Color

Plus: secrets of Garden style and furniture as sculPture

A Cape Cod Home That’s All About Its Harbor Views May–June 2015

NEHOMEMAG.COM

A Happy Marriage of History and Comfort

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Who’s doing what, where, and how in the New England design business

The Design Olympics ///////////

By Louis PosteL

L

et’s just assume we win the XXXIII Olympiad sweeps. It’s easy to picture a freestyle swim race around the WaterFire installation at the con­ vergence of the Moshassuck and the Woonas­ quatucket rivers in Providence. Or discus throw­ ing over Fenway’s thirty­seven­foot­high Green Monster, especially now that Red Sox owner John Henry has offered to vacate his park for the occasion. And surely, one can get excited about the Olympics as a walking Olympics here in our constellation of walking and cosmopolitan cities, as out­ lined by John Fish, CEO of Suffolk Construction and chair of the Boston 2024 partnership.

But will the XXXIII Olympiad make a lasting impact on the archi­ tecture of New England? In March, the Boston Society of Architects launched a series of Olympic conver­ sations with a sold­out symposium FiSh featuring A­list architects Dennis

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of new england’s design community. Send your news to lpostel@nehomemag.com.

160 New eNglaNd Home may–june 2015

Associates in Boston and Shanghai, Gavin McMillan of Har­ greaves Associates in Cambridge and San Francisco, and Kyu Sung Woo of Cam­ bridge, moderated by BoSTon 2024’S ViSion oF an former city councilor oLYmpic STadium Mike Ross.

Excitement was high about this unique opportunity for thinking big, despite all the reservations about security, traffic, and the public­transportation meltdown this past winter: “Why attempt the Olympics when we can’t even get the subways to run in a snowstorm?” we couldn’t help asking ourselves. And beyond such reservations looms a darker question: Is there even interest in great design, or is great design no longer on the cultural priority list?

One of the big problems is that great design takes a lot of work, and always has.

True, a stylish guy today can hop over to Nordstrom, pick up a nice pair of Ferragamo Double Monk Strap shoes for $1,100, and be walking them around our cobbled streets within minutes. They’re very nice, but they’re nevertheless—at the risk of sounding snobbish—mass­ merchandise items.

A truly beautifully designed, custom pair of shoes involves wearing out some shoe leather. First, book a flight to Florence, enduring the humiliation of waddling around beltless and shoeless at check­in. Then, after much search­ ing, track down a maestro cobbler who is now semiretired and works only when in the mood, and who nevertheless

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deSign in depTh if you own a historic house (or wish you did), or simply have an interest in new england’s rich architecture and design history, historic new england offers an intensive week of lectures, behind-thescenes tours, and workshops that explore the region’s Touring The circa 1740 codman eSTaTe historic homes, museums, in LincoLn, maSSachuSeTTS and art and artifact collections. Program in New england Studies runs june 15–20 and covers design territory beginning with the seventeenth-century massachusetts Bay style and continuing on to the Federal and Georgian eras, Gothic revival, and colonial revival. a passel of experts from new england and beyond will be on hand to share their vast knowledge. For details, see the listing in our calendar, page 180.

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insists you cancel your return flight so you can come back for yet a fifth fitting.

A pain, yes, but the results can be unique and exquisite. Does the citizenry of New England have the will or desire to put in that kind of work, or will we settle for less than great design, pricey but off­ the­rack? /// deSigner

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Milton, Massachusetts, recalls interview­ ing with a kindred spirit of that maestro of an Italian cobbler: New England’s archetypal interior designer Ben Cook of Trade Winds, who passed away in 1980.

“He draped his windows so that you could see only a magnificent antique and some flowers in the win­ dows. It was prob­ ably intimidating on purpose,” says Humphrey. “I HumpHrey was young and impressionable and awestruck—walking up the stairs, seeing there wasn’t a cliché anywhere. He was a tall man with a great smile and old­fashioned, studious­looking glasses. He asked me how many fabric samples I would bring to a client. I forget my answer, but I remember his: ‘No more than three,’ he said. ‘Don’t give them too many choices!’ Whereupon he hired me.

Three days later, Ben was taken to the hospital, where he died.” /// in anY caSe, iF You happen To Be enTer-

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taining beach­volleyball queens Misty May­Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jen­ nings at the 2024 Fergus Olympics, think chenille upholstery.

“Microfibers like Ultrasuede drive me crazy,” says designer Julie Fergus of Wolfe­ boro Falls, New Hampshire. “You see all these hand swirls and butt prints in the cushions. I’m using double­rub, heavy­duty chenille now—in fun colors like teal, olive, and caramel, with a very soft feel—for a lot of vacation homes. I happen to like Kravet and Fab­ ricut fabrics on Century furniture, which hold up particularly well.”

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/// among ThingS ThaT haVen’T heLd up par-

ticularly well are super­tight structures that were supposed to create an energy­ saving envelope, according to architect Jeremy Coleman of Brattleboro, Ver­ mont. “There were all kinds of problems with rot and mildew,” he says. “The old loosely built homes turned out to be inef­ ficient, but at least self­ventilating.” Cole­ man says there’s now a better option in a wall sheathing overlay: the ZIP System. “It protects against water intrusion while pro­ viding an optimal vapor permeability level, which in turn allows panels to properly dry out,” he explains. “They can breathe, stay dry, and conserve energy. With this new insulation technology we are freer to design double­height spaces, cathedral ceilings, and north­facing windows.” /// archiTecT Helen Sides of Salem, Massachusetts, focuses

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164 New eNglaNd Home may–june 2015

on bringing those old New England homes Coleman sides referred to as “self­ ventilating” into the twenty­first century. We have to ask, in light of the coming Olympics, is newer simply more comfortable, while old may be quaint but is overvalued? Not necessarily, accord­ ing to Sides. Comfort comes more from getting the proportions within a space and the relationships between spaces right than from the thread count of a duvet cover. “When architects design from the outside in, it often results in awkward, residual spaces. I design from the inside, based on how people use the space, moving from one sunny spot to the next throughout the day,” she says. “Old houses are often more beautifully proportioned than new ones.” For instance, a window’s size should relate to the interior space and the exterior elevation. “The standard six­ over­six double­hung window that’s five feet tall and two feet, six inches wide is a wonderfully proportioned window when set at a head height of six feet, ten inches,” Sides says. For more about mantels, moldings, stair railings, roof pitches, and foundation heights, Sides refers to no less an authority than The American Builder’s Companion, by the nineteenth­century New England architect Asher Benjamin.

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/// JuST aS oLYmpic recordS are inVariaBLY

shattered, so are myths about men and interior design. To get us up to date, the IFDA sponsored “Modern Interiors for Men” as part of Boston’s Design Week back in March. Exploring ways for men to bring more of themselves to their homes, elaine Fredrick

Left to right: christine Tuttle, eddie Lee, antonino Buzzetta, dennis duffy, and Taniya nayak

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New York–based designers Antonino Buzzetta and Eddie Lee joined Boston­ based designers Dennis Duffy, Christine Tuttle, and Taniya Nayak at the Boston offices of Woodmeister Master Builders.

“I’ve certainly noticed men being more active in the design process over the past five years,” remarked Woodmeister’s Ted Goodnow. “Take closets. It was an inside joke that the guy would always get the three­foot closet and the woman would get the twenty­by­twenty with an island.

Now he’s getting one, too. Perhaps goodnow because of an awak­ ened interest in men’s fashion.” Are we talking Ferragamo or custom? In either case, the closet is custom. /// a cuSTom oLYmpicS here in new engLand

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will take up many acres of closet­size spaces, but each one of those must undergo the same rigors of creation.

Recall the five fittings required by that maestro cobbler in the hills of Florence.

It’s hard work, but it’s the only way to obtain a unique pair of shoes that fit to a T. The Official Olympic Design Com­ mittee can sprinkle some “starchitect” solutions here and there, but it will risk taking the off­the­rack approach and losing a great opportunity to achieve something great and lasting. •