December 2014 WAG

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE

POWER

brokers

SHELLY TRETTER LYNCH AT HOME WITH A STELLAR CAREER

SELLING THE DREAM THE LUXURY REAL ESTATE MARKET — AND ITS PLAYERS FAROOQ KATHWARI ETHAN ALLEN’S VISIONARY WANDERS SETTLING INTO A HOME AWAY FROM HOME IN CHAMBERS HELPING COMMUNITIES THRIVE JOHN HARDY’S JEWELRY A WORLD OF INFLUENCES

DECEMBER 2014 | WAGMAG.COM

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buccellati.com

DECEMBER 2014

14 ‘Reel’ estate

40 Helping Westchester reinvent itself

16 Houlihan Lawrence’s 1 percenters

41 Gateway to tomorrow

20 Of tigers and flies

42 Greater Valley geared for growth

22 Kent Hanley’s three Rs

43 Ever forward in Greenwich

26 Home is where the horse is

44 Most comfortable surroundings

30 Small is beautiful

48 The heart of the deal

32 At Pitt, putting people first

50 Susan Stillman’s art captures the spirit of home

38 Leave it to Lever 2

The Schoolhouse at Cannondale. Story on page 74.

Photograph courtesy of the restaurant.

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DECEMBER 2014

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82 PET OF THE MONTH Socket to me!

83 WHEN & WHERE Upcoming events 86 WATCH We’re out and about 96 WIT What would be your dream house?

Lisa Cash, Anne Jordan Duffy, Barbara Hanlon, Marcia Pflug and Patrice Sullivan

On the cover: Shelly Tretter Lynch in Greenwich.

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PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN RIZZO

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WHAT IS WAG?

Some readers think WAG stands for “Westchester and Greenwich.” We certainly cover both. But mostly, a WAG is a wit and that’s how we think of ourselves, serving up piquant stories and photos to set your own tongues wagging.

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No portion of WAG may be reproduced without permission.WAG is distributed at select locations, mailed directly and is available at $24 a year for home or office delivery. To subscribe, call 914-694-3600, ext. 3020. All advertising inquiries should be directed to Anne Jordan at 914-694-3600, ext. 3032 or email anne@westfairinc.com. Advertisements are subject to review by the publisher and acceptance for WAG does not constitute an endorsement of the product or service. WAG (Issn: 1931-6364) is published monthly and is owned and published by Westfair Communications Inc. Dee DelBello, CEO, dee@westfairinc.com

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DECEMBER 2014

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WAGGERS

ANTHONY CARBONI

ROBIN COSTELLO

NIKKI DAVIDSON

RONNI DIAMONDSTEIN

JANE DOVE

BILL FALLON

MARK LUNGARIELLO

FRANK PAGANI

DOUG PAULDING

DANIELLE K. RENDA

JOHN RIZZO

BOB ROZYCKI

JACKIE RUBY

MARY SHUSTACK

LEIF SKODNICK

AUDREY TOPPING

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY Kudos to our own Audrey Ronning Topping and her husband, Seymour (“Top”), as they celebrated 65 years of wedded bliss.

Do we hear 65 more?

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EDITOR'S LETTER GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

‘Closing’ on our power year

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DECEMBER 2014

WELCOME TO THIS THE END OF WAG’S FIRST THEMED YEAR. And what a year it’s been, beginning with “Superpower” and the first-ever metro area Super Bowl in January on through “Female Power” (February), “Empowered” (March), “Horse Power” (April), “Flower Power” (May), “Power Trips” (June), “Power Foods” (July), “Power Plays” (August), “Power Suits” (September), “Brain Power” (October) and “Power Couples” (November).

We end as we began, on a high note, with “Power Brokers” – our take on high-end residential real estate, the firms that sell it and the people behind the firms.

We know what you’re thinking.

Realtors have a reputation on the big and small screens for chicanery, snobbery, buffoonery – and just about any other “ery” you might imagine. (See our “Reel Estate” story on page 14.)

But you have to be pretty darn good to sell pieces of Westchester and Fairfield counties to the likes of Glenn Close, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas, Richard Gere, Vince Camuto, Tommy Hilfiger and Harvey Weinstein, not to mention a host of Kennedys and Rockefellers. (Add to the list Bruce Willis. I love Breast Cancer Alliance executive director and Bedford resident Yonni Wattenmaker’s response’s to our WAGwit question, “What would be your dream house?” on page 96: “I think the one Bruce Willis just bought, and he’s welcome to invite me over.” ) It turns out our local Realtors are just as interesting. In these pages, you’ll read Leif’s profile of Kent Hanley, general manager and executive vice president of sales for William Raveis Real Estate in Connecticut, who’s all about the three Rs – real estate, Raveis and drag racing, a hobby he honed in his native Indiana; and our interview with Ghy Manning, owner/principal broker of Vincent & Whittemore Real Estate in Bedford, for whom real estate has always been about horses and houses.

You’ll also encounter the ghost of real estate past in the form of William Pitt, founder of what is today William Pitt/Julia B. Fee/Sotheby’s International Realty and who began as a energetic young man with a desk and a phone in the old Roger Smith Hotel in Stamford in 1949. (For good measure, the same piece by Jane also introduces you to the firm’s present and future in the form of Paul Breu-

A most flattering portrait of me by fashion illustrator Jennifer Lilya for John Hardy, courtesy Bloomingdale’s White Plains. See John Hardy story on page 58 and Jennifer’s WAGwit response on page 96.

nich, president and CEO, who continues Pitt’s tradition of putting employees and clients first.

And you’ll meet, in Bob’s charming cover story, Shelly Tretter Lynch of Sotheby’s International Realty in Greenwich, who’s as driven to end domestic violence as she is to succeed.

She and the real estate agents you’ll find in these pages may be as Frank calls them in his story on Houlihan Lawrence, “the 1 percenters,” serving the other 1 percenters, the haves and the have mores, but they are passionate about houses, people and bringing the two together. In a sense, they are the more glamorous version of George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” keeping the old Building and Loan Association going so everyone in town has a shot at a good place to live. (And isn’t the movie set in Bedford Falls, N.Y.?)

We round out our house coverage with profiles of miniaturist Darren Scala, art attorney Joel Lever, house portraitist Susan Stillman, interior designer Lisa McTernan, Ethan Allen CEO Farooq Kathwari and lots of jewelry and perfume, because what’s a house without treasures?

Home: It’s where the heart is, especially at this time of year. From our house here at WAG to yours, we wish you the best of the holiday season and a happy new year.

And we look forward to bringing you a year of passion in 2015.

Georgette Gouveia is the author of “Water Music” and the forthcoming “The Penalty for Holding,” part of her series, “The Games Men Play,” which is the name of the sports/culture blog she writes at thegamesmenplay.com.

The Bristal Assisted Living | Where Ever y Day Means More

TM

I am living a new chapter in my LifeStory “Ever since selling War Bonds during WWII, I’ve always been an activist. I

believe in standing up for your rights.

Though the story of my life has been a dream come true, when I came to The

Bristal, a whole new chapter opened up before me. Especially during elections, where I help fellow residents consider

candidates that value senior issues. I help get out the vote — our vote. Then, after

heated political debate, we cool off with a cocktail, enjoy the pool, putt a few holes,

Terry, Resident of The Bristal

play some cards... and do a little more

debating. Cause that’s what friends do.”

For more about Terry tune in at thebristal.com/truelifestories

Ask about Reflections at The Bristal an area providing secure and compassionate memory care

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PLE ON EARTH, FROM THE ARTISTS WHO DRAW STRENGTH FROM THE HUDSON RIVER TO THE MOVIE STARS WHO RIDE THE WINDING HORSE TRAILS OF NORTHERN WESTCHESTER TO THE FASHIONISTAS AND MOGULS WHO GRACE GREENWICH’S BACK COUNTRY OR WESTPORT’S SHORES. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO BUY AND SELL THEM THEIR HOMES? IT TURNS OUT THEY HAVE THEIR OWN STORIES TO TELL THAT ARE EVERY BIT AS ENGAGING AS ANY SCREEN SIREN’S. IN THESE PAGES, YOU’LL MEET A REAL ESTATE EXECUTIVE WHO WORKS TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, ONE WITH A NEED FOR SPEED, TWO WHO ARE AS EXPERT WITH HORSES AS THEY ARE WITH HOUSES AND OTHERS WHO ALSO KEEP FAITH WITH THE TRADITION OF PUTTING CLIENTS AND EMPLOYEES FIRST. WHAT DO THEY AND THEIR AGENTS HAVE IN COMMON? THEY KNOW HOW TO CLOSE THE MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR DEALS. THEY’RE DRIVEN TO SUCCEED. AND THEY’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT HOUSES, PEOPLE AND BRINGING BOTH TOGETHER. THEY ARE THE POWER BROKERS….

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DECEMBER 2014

NEW ENGLISH CLASSIC | $8,950,000 | WEB ID: 0067211 Moments from town, inspired by the classic homes of the early 20th century, this distinctive, light-filled English style home.

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IN-TOWN NEW CONSTRUCTION | $2,795,000 | WEB ID: 0067345 New construction 5-bedroom, 4.5-bathroom home located close to downtown Greenwich. Custom built with a transitional flair and high-end finishes.

Carol Zuckert | 203.618.3135

BACKCOUNTRY FARMHOUSE | $2,695,000 | WEB ID: 0067324 Starting as an 1820 farmhouse. Beautifully renovated, plus an approx. 5,000 sq. ft. addition. Very private setting with expansive flat lawn on over 5+ acres.

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INDIAN GLEN | $1,895,000 | WEB ID: 0067366 Spectacular like-new, classic Colonial located on private cul-de-sac off Glenville Road. Traditional styling, quality finishes and light-filled interiors.

Marijane Bates Hvolbeck | 203.983.3832

GREENWICH BROKERAGE | 203.869.4343 One Pickwick Plaza | Greenwich, CT 06830 Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.

REEL ESTATE Films go for broke(rs)

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

14

I

WAGMAG.COM

Amber Tamblyn with Holland Taylor, right, as Evelyn Harper, the mother of all Realtors on CBS’ “Two and a Half Men.” Sonja Flemming/CBS.

N THE NEW NOVEL “THE MINIATURIST,” JESSIE BURTON’S SUPERB EVOCATION OF 17TH-CENTURY HOLLAND, a wealthy merchant gives his bride a dollhouse that replicates their well-appointed Amsterdam home and encourages her to embellish it. She begins writing to the title character for tiny accessories that are meaningful to her – an exquisitely crafted lute and her beloved marzipan. But soon little furnishings and models of two- and fourlegged creatures begin arriving unsolicited, at first mirroring and then foreshadowing the lives of the bride and her husband, who is not what he seems.

To say more about the book, reminiscent of Tracy Chevalier’s

DECEMBER 2014

“Girl With a Pearl Earring,” would be to say too much. What you can say is that it belongs to a genre of fiction that often finds its way into films in which a house is a metaphor for the conflicted identity of its owner and the troubled relationships of those who dwell in it.

It’s a subject that’s been played for thrills (“Rebecca”), chills (“The Amityville Horror”), laughs (“Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House”), drama (“Wuthering Heights,” “Bleak House”) and romance (paging Jane Austen.) And it’s one we covered in WAG’s March 2013 “Gimme Shelter” issue.

But what about the people who sell the houses? If we are sometimes conflicted about our home, not-so-sweet home, there’s nothing

ambivalent about our feelings toward real estate brokers: We can’t stand them.

At least not on the big and small screens. There they deceive and dissemble as they connive to sell us that steal of a fi xer-upper (the 1986 film “The Money Pit”) or stab one another in the back in pursuit of the ABC mantra – “Always Be Closing.”

So says Blake, the foul-mouthed henchman sent to motivate the desperate agents in David Mamet’s searing play “Glengarry Glen Ross,” which was made into a 1992 film starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin and Kevin Spacey.

Not all agents are depicted as cutthroat. On the Fox animated comedy “King of the Hill” (1997-2010), Peggy Hill was earnest, hard working – and totally oblivious when it came to selling real estate, teaching Spanish or writing a freelance newspaper column, becoming indignant when one of her clients refused to buy a house.

But Peggy also didn’t know the meaning of the word “quit.” Or as Phil Dunphy (Emmy Award winner Ty Burrell), the hapless “cool dad” and real estate agent on the ABC hit “Modern Family,” would say: “There is no ‘done’ in Dunphy.”

“You know what?” he goes on. “You can insult a lot of things about me. … But don’t insult my selling. That crosses a line. What line? Oh, you don’t see it? That’s because I just sold it.”

Give Phil credit for being honest (sometimes a bit too much as when he notes in a speech before a gathering of agents: “I see the great Realtor Margaret Wilson is here, looking more curvaceous than ever. Talk about your balloon payments.”)

He’s certainly not like that snake-oily country bumpkin Eustace Haney (Pat Buttram) who sold city slickers Oliver Wendell Douglas (Eddie Albert) and wife Lisa (Eva Gabor) the ramshackle Old Haney Place on “Green Acres” (CBS, 1965-71). No wonder luxury-real estate agent – and bridegroom-to-be – Peter Claven (Paul Rudd) doesn’t have a best friend to stand up for him in the 2009 buddy comedy “I Love You, Man.” When it comes to going for brokers, though, it would be hard to top the mother of all Realtors, Evelyn Harper (Holland Taylor), on CBS’ “Two and a Half Men,” which concludes its 11-year run this season. From her pastel power suits with Madeleine Albright-like pins affi xed just so to her helmeted coif to her hypercritical, controlling personality that has cowed nebbishy son Alan (Jon Cryer) and even irrepressible son Charlie (played by bad-boy Charlie Sheen, supposedly killed off in the ninth-season premiere), Evelyn is the ultimate power broker.

She met her match in Lydia (Katherine LaNasa), one of Charlie’s many girlfriends, a fellow Realtor who wore pastel-colored power suits with prominent pins, had a withering way with words and, well, you get the picture.

Lydia: “I recognize you from your bus-bench ads. People all over town are sitting on your face.”

Evelyn: “Well, dear, if you work hard, someday people will be sitting on your face, too.”

Charlie didn’t see what everyone else did. But he was spared any Oedipal drama when he learned that one covers Bel Air while the other’s listings are in Beverly Hills.

Hey, you are where you sell.

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DECEMBER 2014

15

Houlihan Lawrence’s 1 percenters

BY FRANK PAGANI

4 Ashfields Lane, Armonk, 13,917 square feet. Sold for $8.7 million.

AS 2014 DRAWS TO A CLOSE, Houlihan Lawrence (HL) remains the market leader in the sale of single-family homes in Westchester, capturing nearly 38 percent of the market while in Fairfield, a market that HL entered a little over a year ago, the brokerage firm “catapulted to the number two spot, an amazing accomplishment in such a short time,” says Gay Prizio, director of project marketing.

The 900 sales associates in both counties accounted for HL’s record performance. But as in all walks of life, there were only a handful that had the distinction of being the firm’s top producers, the 1 percent of agents worthy of the title “power brokers.” Featured here are six of them – three each from Westchester and Fairfield – whose performances exceeded the norm and along the way earned them lucrative, commission-based incomes.

Looking back over their distinguished careers, none imagined that one day they would be ranked a power broker or ever gave it a thought along the way.

“When I started in the business, I was 24 years old and everyone told me I wouldn’t make it,” Nancy Kennedy recalls. “I worked diligently to learn everything and I continue to look for ways to improve myself on a daily basis.”

“I was so in awe of the dynamic top agents 28 years ago that I never imagined myself as one of them,” Barbara Wells remembers. “Helping clients 16

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DECEMBER 2014

Brian Milton

56 Clapboard Ridge Road, Greenwich, 11,004 square feet. Listed for $9.95 million.

BK Bates

find or sell their dream home gives me great satisfaction.”

“I hadn’t considered myself a power broker before,” Pollena Forsman says, adding that her success stems from a strong business background. She

previously served as one of the youngest account management partners at J. Walter Thompson Advertising. It’s where she developed strong marketing, sales, negotiating and people skills.

“There was no imagining,” Brian Milton says.

18 Perryridge Road in Greenwich, 5,300 square feet.

Listed for $3.495 million.

“But I had a passion for architecture and an eye for quality as well as a degree in business marketing.”

Both would suit him well when he perceived a need to assist buyers and sellers of luxury properties in Westchester and Fairfield.

Ellen Mosher believes that her success “was a result of actually loving what I do.”

BK Bates thinks luck played a big factor. “I have been very lucky in the friends I have made throughout my career in real estate and having very good clients and wonderful properties throughout Green-

42_westfair_v2_Layout 1 11/17/14 12:46 PM Page 1

Barbara Wells

8 Grove Avenue, Larchmont, 4,353 square feet.

Sold for $4 million.

wich to represent.”

But there is a quality all six have in common that has driven them to become power brokers – passion.

Each says it differently but it adds up to the same fire in the belly that shows no signs of abating.

Forsman: “I have always tried to approach everything I do at 110 percent. I also have a competitive drive that dates back to my swimming days.”

Bates: “Buying a home is such a big and personal event in a person’s life that I try to be as honest, friendly and as professionally thorough as possible

Pollena Forsman

Milton: “Uncompromising professionalism, working relentlessly, dogged drive for success and my gift of actively listening to clients.”

Kennedy: “I am driven and have a very strong moral compass. Nothing makes me happier than achieving my clients’ goals.”

Mosher: “I have always worked hard for my client, been honest and gone the extra mile.”

Wells: “My first mentor taught me that we need to service our clients whether we made money or not. Hard work and many years committed to help-

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ing clients find their dream home has helped me to achieve great success along with gray hair.”

Their biographies also share this common theme: They are long-term residents and pillars in their communities, members of local professional and civic organizations who know the ins and outs of their hometowns and stand out along with their families.

Mosher summed it up best when she noted, “For buyers, there is a lot of inventory to sort through, but if you have a Realtor who knows the community like the back of your hand, the process is a lot easier.”

Take a good look at the faces of these power brokers and the luxury listings they either sold or no doubt will sell soon. They are truly walking encyclopedias of Westchester and Fairfield where they have assisted thousands of homebuyers and sellers over the years:

33 Battery Place, Croton-on-Hudson, 2,814 square feet. Listed for $999,999.

Nancy Kennedy

POLLENA FORSMAN (Rye, Harrison, Purchase, New Rochelle, Mamaroneck and Larchmont) – Since 2010, she has been the number one agent in Larchmont/Mamaroneck and her recent sales volume has been $60 million-plus per year. She has sold more than 340 properties in 18 years.

NANCY KENNEDY (Yorktown, Garrison, Peekskill, Ossining, Cortlandt, Croton-on-Hudson, Briarcliff Manor) – For seven consecutive years since 2006, she has been HL’s number one associate for the most number of transactions company-wide. In a career spanning 28 years, she has sold more than 1,100 properties.

BRIAN MILTON (Katonah, Armonk, Chappaqua, Bedford, Mount Kisco, Pleasantville and Greenwich, including Old Greenwich and Riverside)– Milton enjoys the distinction of being the only agent to focus on the luxury market in both counties successfully and was HL’s number four agent in 2013. This year, he is projected to close on $90 million in transactions, including an $8.7 million property in Armonk (shown with this article) and a $15.85 million property in Greenwich. He entered the profession 10 years ago.

BK BATES (Greenwich, including Cos Cob, Old Greenwich and Riverside) – She has consistently been ranked as one of the top producing real estate agents in Greenwich and has been among the nation’s top 250 agents 18

WAGMAG.COM

DECEMBER 2014

186 Shore Road, Old Greenwich, 8,803 square feet. Listed for $7.495 million.

Ellen Mosher

ranked by The Wall Street Journal and Real Trends, the real estate consulting and communications company, for the past two years. She has sold hundreds of properties, primarily in Connecticut, over the past 38 years.

Cos Cob) – During her 28-year career, she has sold more than a billion dollars in real estate and was ranked number one within the state of Connecticut and number 10 out of 68,000 nationwide at her previous company.

BARBARA WELLS (Greenwich, in-

ELLEN MOSHER (Greenwich, in-

cluding Old Greenwich, Riverside and

cluding Old Greenwich, Cos Cob

and Riverside) – Consistently ranked among the top five producing agents in Greenwich, Mosher has also been recognized by The Wall Street Journal and Real Trends four years in a row as one of the top 250 real estate agents in the nation.

She has sold more than 200 properties to date.

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Of tigers and flies: The fall of China’s power brokers

BY AUDREY RONNING TOPPING

China’s President Xi Jingping’s ongoing anti-corruption campaign against fraudulent power brokers has persisted now for more than a year. In carrying out the most significant purge in a generation, Xi has fulfilled his promise to bring down both “tigers” and “flies” (corrupt officials, high and low).

China’s fiercest “tiger,” Zhou Yongkang, was shot down last month. He tops a long list of fallen senior politicians – beginning with Chongqing’s popular mayor and party secretary, Bo Xilai, and including Xu Caihou, China’s No. 2 military man. There is also speculation that Xi is using his high-profile anti-corruption campaign to tighten his grip by removing his political opponents and consolidating power. It was apparent that Xi Jingping felt that Bo Xilai’s faction was a challenge to his own faction for con20

WAGMAG.COM

DECEMBER 2014

Chongqing’s popular mayor and Communist Party of China secretary, Bo Xilai, was the first “tiger” to be brought down in the anti-corruption campaign. Here he is shortly before he was purged.

trol of the ultimate ruling body, the Standing Committee of the Politburo.

Zhou Yongkang was a key supporter of Bo Xilai and argued against bringing him down. The result was a serious rift in China’s highest leadership.

Zhou’s fall has been as meteoric as his rise. In the month leading up to his detention, dozens of top officials in all Zhou’s former power bases came under investigation. Since the start of the purge, more than 200,000 officials have been punished. Some have committed suicide.

In terms of sheer power, no one compared to Zhou Yongkang, who was arguably the most feared man in China. He was not only a former member of the Standing Committee but was chief of China’s police force, court system and paramilitary forces.

The sum of money allegedly appropriated by his family is a record-breaker.

The Chinese media reported that

Zhou’s family members amassed huge fortunes through a complicated network created by those who owed their jobs to Zhou’s patronage. A Reuters report claimed that Chinese authorities had seized assets worth at least 90 billion yuan ($14.6 billion U.S.). The exposure of the business empire established by Zhou’s family reveals how close the relationship between money and power has gotten in the highest echelons of the Communist Party.

Many top executives and politicians, including President Xi Jingping, are members of the Crown Prince Party, a quasi-clique of politicians whose lineage helps them wield influence in politics and business. Ironically, these so-called “princelings” are descendants of the original revolutionaries who once fought with the Communists against Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist regime.

In a recent speech, Xi warned that

those seeking official position should not simultaneously be seeking riches.

He admitted that the party’s own lax supervision of the behavior of its own members has allowed careerists, gameplayers and would-be billionaires to dictate how the country is run.

LACK OF TRANSPARENCY IN REAL ESTATE At the same time, China’s State Council launched an initiative requiring local governments in the provinces to regulate the country’s real estate market more effectively. The guidelines demanded that local cadres work out their own “detailed rules for implementation,” while capping housing prices in their jurisdictions.

This triggered a sudden rush in real estate transactions as home buyers and owners panicked in anticipation of a massive tax hike. The State Council’s failure to hold local cadres account-

able for the implementation of its own policies lies in the lack of transparency in this fiscal chain. Both budgets and subsidies are agreed on behind closed doors. Local cadres have been lax in explaining where central (federal) funds go. Instead of being defined by law, they are subject to power negotiations.

China’s local officials are appointed, not elected, so they are not held accountable to the public. Therefore corruption is rampant. Local officials often adopt an opportunistic approach when dealing with central funding for the appropriation of land for development.

China’s rural population contributes 10 percent of the national GDP. By transferring the peasants into China’s ballooning cities, the government hoped to boost both rural productivity and the declining urban labor force. From 1990 to 2012, 250 million farmers were coerced into leaving their ancestral homes to become migrant workers in the cities. Many are still denied access to most urban public services, including schools for their children. The homesteads they leave behind are rapidly possessed by government-led land appropriation and sold to private investors so the former peasants can never go home again.

State and private companies invested in cheap apartment buildings to house

the rural migrants, but most peasants refused or could not afford to move in. Thousands of high, hulking gray buildings, with “For Sale” signs in red characters hanging from dark windows, now stand hauntingly empty in the suburbs of many cities as dismal reminders of the failure of the powerful state sector and a predatory real estate industry.

Both have reaped rich rewards from China’s state-directed distortion of the urbanization process and left thousands of migrant workers in dire straits.

CONSUMERISM VERSUS COMMUNISM Grumbling has surfaced in China’s vast bureaucracy. Some claim the major reason behind this distorted value system is the collapse of the ideologies of egalitarianism and class struggle that were required of officials during the Mao period. Others reflect on how the value system has been confused since 1980 when Deng Xiaoping coined his historic proclamation, “To get rich is glorious” and sanctioned a partial free consumer market economy. Short of effective supervision, many executives and politicians seized both power and money as their exclusive domain. The main assertion today is that too many top officials, like their ancestors in Imperial China,

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chose to become “public servants” not to “serve the people” but to become rich, with successive generations seeing the mass accumulation of wealth as an inherent feature of an official post.

Some Chinese philosophers speculate that the underlying cause of China’s distorted value system is the supplanting of communism with consumerism as the de facto belief system of the nation. Material acquisition is perceived as the sole measure of success, whether one is an official, an entrepreneur or a worker. As an editorial in a recent New China magazine warned: “For the anticorruption campaign to have a long term impact on China’s officials, the central leadership needs to re-establish some kind of value system … despite the collection of a few high-profile scalps, governing seems like business as usual to a skeptical public.”

Some intellectuals believe that Chinese leadership could draw upon the ancient value systems common to China. Traditional values are considered outmoded, except for the family clan code, “what’s your is mine,” but some core principles of archaic schools of thought continue to have relevance.

Confucius, for example, advocated governing by virtue. He argued that bureaucrats should be at a higher level

of moral conduct than ordinary people and urged civil servants to keep out of commerce, lest the pursuit of wealth blind them to their responsibilities as moral examples to the masses.

In an era of global financial crises, business performance in China falls short of expectations. In a survey by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China nearly half the multinational companies surveyed believe the “golden age” of doing business in China is already over.

The challenge for China today is getting party members to disembark en masse from a four-decade free ride on China’s gravy train. Even Xi Jingping seems to see Zhou’s arrest as a point of no return. His strategy raises many questions. Will his exposure of a quarreling, materialistic and divided leadership backfire or unify? Where this road leads will depend on whether or not the president’s professed “China Dream” of a unified, prosperous single nation under the law is a genuine legal reform, which seems to be the only solution. He recently promised that the government will strive to create a system in which government officials will be “unwilling, incapable and afraid” of becoming corrupt. This is something we could all strive for.

UKGourmet.US Summer SUNDAY 12-4 Tues-Sat 10-5 Wed & Fri till 7 WAGMAG.COM

DECEMBER 2014

21

Kent Hanley’s three Rs – RAVEIS, REAL ESTATE AND RACING

BY MARK LUNGARIELLO

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DECEMBER 2014

I

IN KENT HANLEY’S COUNTRY-CHIC OFFICE, GREEN TOY SOLDIERS DOMINATE THE LANDSCAPE. They line up strategically on the window sills.

They freeze mid-march on table tops. They stand, guns drawn, on top of desk drawers.

They are no mere hobby. Each soldier represents someone he’s recruited for the team that is William Raveis Real Estate Mortgage Insurance in Shelton.

Hanley has been with the Raveis family for 29½ years. Hired by William “Bill” Raveis himself, he now works closely with Raveis’ sons Ryan, who heads up the mortgage side of the business, and Chris, managing partner and executive vice president. What has drawn Hanley to the company and the Raveises are their family values, he says, and a competitive edge that makes those who run the company restless about staying still.

“If you don’t like change, this is not the organization for you,” says Hanley, the general manager and executive vice president of sales in Connecticut.

“Don’t ask us to sit here and maintain something.

We’d all be bored.”

It’s clear you can take the boy out of Indianapolis, but you can’t take Indianapolis – or at least the Indianapolis 500 – out of the boy. Hanley has adopted the Constitution State as his home, but he still has a

THEY ARE NO MERE HOBBY. EACH SOLDIER REPRESENTS SOMEONE HE’S RECRUITED FOR THE TEAM THAT IS WILLIAM RAVEIS REAL ESTATE, MORTGAGE AND INSURANCE IN SHELTON.

Midwesterner’s love of car racing.

When he isn’t overseeing the Raveis firm’s Connecticut sales operation, he’s in the garage of his rural Newtown home, working on drag-race cars. “My wife knows where to find me.”

Hanley’s wife, Becky, manages Raveis’ Greenwich office. They met at work, brought together by a 40-year-old company that started in Greenwich but has expanded into the ninth largest of its kind in the U.S., with 100 offices and 2,000 agents in Westchester, Putnam, Rockland and Orange counties, Manhattan, Long Island and Massachusetts, among other Northeast locals. It’s a lot of territory to cover but not for those whose motors run fast.

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23

By the time Hanley was 8, his parents were throwing him Indianapolis 500-themed parties. He was racing and working on go-karts by middle school and spent his high school days working at a gas station and learning to race cars. Today, he’s a member of a competitive league for drag racing, the form of racing where the cars are super fast and the tracks super short. He prefers drag racing, he says jokingly, because he never learned how to turn well.

His wife knows that racing gets in your blood and so she doesn’t give him much grief for spending his free time leaning over the engine of cars and tinkering with the mechanics. That he participates in drag races allows her to minimize the amount of time she has to worry about his safety. “I can hold my breath for seven seconds,” she tells him.

The couple has four children from previous relationships, now scattered across the country. Hanley says he learned the strategy of keeping a family together from his grandparents: He bought a home on Florida’s Gulf Coast in the hope of enticing the younger set to visit when they are on vacation or inbetween college semesters.

That liveliness kept Hanley moving east after he graduated from the Kelley School of Business in Bloomington, Ind. He met William Raveis through the one friend he had locally who was into the drag racing scene. (He’s since learned that there are plenty of racers in the Northeast if you know where to look for them.)

In his early days at Raveis, Hanley worked on the mortgage end in the lending division, went to the real estate side and then created a repairs and improvement company and a property management one as well. As he took on new roles at Raveis, he thrived amid the ’80s recession and adjusting to the East Coast. All the while, his admiration for his boss grew.

“I think what is impressive about Bill is he’s a forward-thinking, visionary type individual.”

When the company had a tough stretch during the market troubles of the 80s, they emerged more nimble and prepared to handle future dips. Raveis told Hanley and other executives, “We’re never going to be in that position again.”

When Raveis was in his 50s, he was making arrangements to ensure the next generation’s involvement and the company’s preparedness for future crises.

Raveis now has six grandchildren all of a young age. “He’s already looking at which ones will be involved in the company,” Hanley says.

What instills his loyalty and that of other longterm employees in the company is the understanding that the brokers and associates are its lifeblood, he says. Raveis has been named one of the best places to work for employees for several years since the designation was started. The company is able to hire people who have flexible, collegial personalities and share its innovative approach. That, Hanley says, is what makes the company successful and also a pleasure to work for.

“We don’t have a lot of red tape. We aren’t very corporate,” he says, adding that they still have a country approach to certain aspects, like marketing in newspapers.

Says the Indiana racer, “I mean we are just Connecticut Yankees.”

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DECEMBER 2014

TOPS AT RAVEIS

Al Filippone

Al N. Filippone has been cited as an expert real estate trainer and marketer of fine properties. Al’s accomplishments and market insights have been documented in numerous print media, including The New York Times’ Sunday real estate section. Al is a licensed broker in both Connecticut and New York. After a distinguished real estate career as a broker and senior vice–president for William Raveis Real Estate, Al founded Al Filippone Associates in 2003. Consisting of 30 sales specialists located in Fairfield, Westport, Darien and Greenwich, the group has been recognized by The Wall Street Journal as the most successful real estate team in Fairfield County, the state of Connecticut and all of New England. A nationally recognized boutique, Al Filippone Associates provides superb service by leveraging its array of talented sales specialists, a strong support staff, an in-house social media specialist, an in-house staging service and other technological resources.

Top property: 581 Sasco Hill Road, Fairfield, 9,661 square feet, $7.485 million

Michelle Genovesi

Always thinking outside the box, Michelle raises the standards for all in the industry and has been recognized by Forbes, The New York Times and other publications as an innovative leader. Her unique marketing technique and innovative advertising, along with her uncompromising integrity, dedication to her clients and impeccable reputation for quality and results has helped obtain top dollar for her clients in her 26 years and more than $975 million in sales. She cares about her clients and the communication channels are clear. She and her team of licensed professionals are dedicated to making the consumer’s experience the best it can be.

Top property: 35 Kettle Creek Road, Weston, 14,000 square feet, $5.85 million

Donna Beretta

For 10 consecutive years, Donna Beretta, sales vice president, has been the number one producing sales agent in the William Raveis Westport Office, representing clients throughout lower Fairfield County. William Raveis has honored Donna for being a Top Ten Producer company-wide every year since 2003. A graduate of Brown University, Donna spent 12 years in institutional sales on Wall Street before moving to Westport, her home for 18 years. A charter member of William Raveis’ Chairman’s Elite Club, Donna has closed more than $250 million in real estate transactions since 2002. She is pleased to answer any and all real estate valuation and market questions.

Top property: 19 Woods End Lane, Weston, 10,000 square feet, $1.999 million

WAGMAG.COM

DECEMBER 2014

25

HOME IS WHERE THE HORSE IS

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

12 McMorrow Lane, North Salem. List price: $3.9 million. Photographs by Thomas M. Anckner of Mystic Vision Productions. Courtesy Vincent & Whittemore Real Estate.

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DECEMBER 2014

HORSES AND HOUSES.

It’s been ever thus for Ghy Manning, owner/ principal broker of Vincent & Whittemore Real Estate in Bedford.

“We sell everything, but we’re known for our horse properties,” Ghy says of her boutique fi rm, which has 15 agents. “I can pinpoint what (horse owners) need, whether they’re buying a show barn or an entire place.”

Like “a stunning lodge” at 12 McMorrow Lane in North Salem – 8,000 square feet, six bedrooms, six and a half baths – adjacent to the 204-acre Ruth Walgreen Franklin and Winifred Fels Memorial Sanctuary. The owners had taken down the barn, rebuilt it and then built a house around it, Ghy says. There’s also a cottage and a pool, all for $3.9 million.

“Anyone can sell anything,” she adds. “It makes it easier if you understand the lingo.”

Ghy, whose company website features a fourlegged beauty on the masthead, knows horsespeak. And so does her staff. Her top agent, Carol Goldberg, was an American Horse Show Association judge. (See sidebar.) Ghy rode while she was growing up in Bedford, perhaps the heart of Westchester County’s horse coun-

try, and worked with horses when she was starting out.

“It’s a big sense of responsibility, because you’re working seven days a week.” Horses, then, prepared her for the weekend-warrior world of real estate.

But real estate was in her bones, too. Her father renovated townhouses on Manhattan’s West Side. Her French mother shared his passion for old houses and antiques. (Ghy – pronounced “gee” with a hard “g” – owes her Gallic name, Ghylaine, to her.) As a child, Ghy would pore over the classifieds in The New York Times’ real estate section.

“I was always intrigued by real estate.”

Still, horses had the first claim on her heart.

And when Ghy decided to become a broker, it was the stock market and not real estate that was on her mind. But Merrill Lynch ultimately passed on her. Advised to get experience, Ghy went to work for Houlihan Lawrence. She’s been in the real estate business for 31 years.

About six years ago, she bought the 86-yearold firm from Bill Barnett, with whom she’d grown up.

“Some things I always say are meant to be.”

Ghy is, however, a rarity. Though 90 percent of the agents are women, the firms are

Ghy Manning Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

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173 Baxter Road, a 67-acre equestrian property in North Salem. List price: $9 million. Photograph by Thomas M. Anckner of Mystic Vision Productions. Courtesy Vincent & Whittemore Real Estate.

owned mostly by men. But she hasn’t encountered any prejudice as a female owner.

“I’ve been doing this a long time and I believe I have a great reputation.”

A lot, however, has changed in those years. Gone are the days when a couple fell in love with a charming fixer-upper as George and Mary Bailey do in “It’s a Wonderful Life” or Jim and Muriel Blandings do in “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House,” which contains one of the great real estatemovie lines: “It’s a good thing there are two of you – one to love (the fixer-upper) and one to hold it up.”

“It’s not so much tug-at-your-heartstrings,” Ghy says of the contemporary attitude toward house-hunting. “People come in with a checklist of what they want.”

And that usually means all the modern conveniences and renovations complete.

Thanks to the Internet, sellers and buyers have a lot of information at their disposal. No longer do they begin by networking and phoning an agent. Now it’s tap on the iPad and begin a virtual search. The digital age may have led some buyers and sellers to think they can go it alone without the mediating presence of an agent. Ghy, of course, thinks this is a mistake.

“You need someone you can trust who knows the territory.”

And you need to develop a relationship with that person, she says.

Ghy also advises you not to judge a property too quickly based on what you see on the Net. “It’s still a hands-on business. … The reality is that looking at images is not the same as being there.”

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DECEMBER 2014

CAROL GOLDBERG – Vincent & Whittemore Real Estate

Carol Goldberg’s life has revolved around horses and the country. Discovering North Salem as a teenager ultimately led her to manage a large boarding and training stable. In 1972, she bought Artemis Farm, where she continued training adults and children. She was also a judge with the American Horse Show Association (now the United States Equestrian Foundation), judging events more than 100 days a year, including major shows in the U.S. and Canada. Her equestrian career spurred her to get a real estate license in 1989 and join Vincent & Whittemore. Later, she acquired her associate broker’s license. Goldberg was president of The North Salem Open Land Foundation for 15 years and now serves as its vice president. She was named one of Westchester County’s top Realtors by WAG’s predecessor, Westchester WAG, and has also consistently received a Westchester MLS (Multiple Listing Service) Diamond Award, the highest achievement for sales.

She’s proud of the impeccable national reputation that she brought from her horse business into her real estate career.

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Small is beautiful…

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

D

ARREN T. SCALA HAS MANY HOUSES – EIGHT TO BE EXACT. “I have a three-story English Tudor,” he says, “a glass mansion; a cedar Colonial; a very optimistic Victorian, lots of angles; a Grand Victorian; and a house that looks like something you’d see in New Orleans.”

Darren doesn’t live in any of them, though, as they are wee abodes, part of his D. Thomas Fine Miniatures shop, which just opened in Hastings-on-Hudson.

“When you see a miniature, there’s a visceral reaction like ‘Oh,’” he says, sighing. “Maybe it goes back to childhood when we played with toys, things smaller than ourselves. As adults we see (miniatures) differently, but we attach the same emotions to them.”

Partly, the appeal is about control. Your own Victorian may creak and leak. But you can perfect a 3-foot tabletop model, furnishing it with floral-shade lamps and brass appointments that can fit in the palm of your hand.

This may be the ultimate in niche marketing, but Darren – a former Revlon marketing executive whose job was to make women feel they needed that new red lipstick – knows there’s a miniaturist market out there that borders on the obsessive. There’s even a society, the International Guild of Miniature Artisans Ltd., or IGMA. (Darren’s on the board.)

What there hasn’t been are a lot of shops that cater to the miniaturist crowd.

“There’s a difference between a retail shop and online where that one-on-one is missing.”

That’s where his store comes in, nestled in the cheery blue-and-white Moviehouse Mews that was once The Hastings Theater. (Opened in 1920, it was named not for the village but for its architect, Foster L. Hastings.) There Hastings resident Billie Burke – Glinda the Good Witch in the 1939 classic “The Wizard of Oz” – and Broadway impresario Flo Ziegfeld attended performances and Douglas Fairbanks Sr. flashed across the screen in “The Mark of Zorro.” Now the Mews is home to a salon, a doctor’s office and the French Press Café, where Darren talks to WAG about the miniatures business over latte before a visit to his shop, which is located where the theater’s movie screen once was.

“There are 16-foot ceilings,” he says. “It opens up the space to show the product 30

WAGMAG.COM

DECEMBER 2014

really well. You have a lot of high houses, and you wouldn’t show the scale really well if the ceilings were lower. … There’s something really seductive when you play with size.”

The houses, which are displayed in the front of the shop with its dramatic lighting, come from estate sales and other places around the country as well as Darren’s own handiwork. Their façades are imposing or enticing. The backs, however, offer a cross-section of staircases and unfurnished rooms. Just as you want a buyer to be able to project himself into the full-size house he’s looking to purchase, so you want the shopper to imagine what goodies he’ll select to embellish his little dream palace. Hence the shadow boxes lining the walls near the gallery, filled with miniature furnishings.

The cozy shop – all woods and chocolate brown paint – also contains cabinets laden with small treasures – jewelry and other gift items – for those who’d like to dip a teeny-tiny toe into the miniaturist market.

But the display space and the houses are just two parts of D. Thomas (Darren’s first initial and middle name). The third is a workshop in the back where you can learn to craft your own miniature house and furnishings. It’s the route Darren took in 2009 amid the recession when one too many turnovers at Revlon led him to the writing on the wall. So he decided to follow a passion that’s been with him since his childhood in Brooklyn.

At 8, he asked his father, a cabinetmaker, to build him a dollhouse. And to his credit, “this macho Italian guy” did it – albeit at the behest of his mother, whom Darren describes as a superb homemaker. (Miniature houses, it should be noted, aren’t really dollhouses for children. They’re adult toys – in the nicest possible sense of that phrase.)

Though Darren pursued a degree in advertising at Emerson College in Boston and worked his way up the corporate ladder at Revlon, the love of miniatures remained. But they weren’t the only inspiration for the business. Credit must also go to the real English Tudor he once had in Yonkers.

Now living in an apartment there, Darren is shopping around for a small house.

But not a miniature.

“Right,” he says with a laugh.

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Estate at 1248 Oenoke Ridge, New Canaan, 15,242 square feet, $10. 5 million. Photograph courtesy William Pitt.

AT PITT, PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

BY JANE K. DOVE

T

HE LOCAL REAL ESTATE TITAN THAT IS NOW WILLIAM PITT/JULIA B. FEE/SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY was the brainchild of one energetic young man who started the small business in l949 at the age of 23 with a desk and one phone in rented space in the old Roger Smith Hotel in Stamford.

Paul Breunich, the firm’s current president and CEO, says Pitt left an indelible stamp on the flourishing business of today.

“He had the true entrepreneurial spirit,” Breunich says. “In addition to his selling of real estate, he sold cars and brokered tickets to Broadway plays. Long after his original place of business was torn down for the Trump Tower building, the members of the firm keep his principles of energy, inclusion and service to customers alive.”

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STRONG GROWTH

BREUNICH SAYS PITT’S APPROACH TO BUSINESS ENABLED WILLIAM PITT TO BECOME A STRONG REGIONAL REAL ESTATE COMPANY OVER THE ENSUING YEARS. “Our new headquarters were located close to New York City and suburbia was blossoming. By the time Peter Healy came on board to help steer the company from l980 through l987, William Pitt had about a dozen local offices throughout Fairfield County, including Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, Ridgefield and Westport. We were headquartered on Long Ridge Road in Stamford and employed about 200 agents.”

Pitt was still a strong presence in the company, leading by example

and keeping on top of all developments. Breunich joined William Pitt in 1988 as CFO. “I was in public accounting before that,” he says. “When Peter Healy made a switch to Prudential CT (Realty), I became president and CEO in August of l997.”

Looking around the thriving company from his new perspective, Breunich says he vowed to keep alive Pitt’s principle of customer service coming first.

“He was ahead of his time in this regard,” Breunich says. “He always listened to his agents. Back then there was no technology in place. He did it the old-fashioned way but still had a vision of what to do to make the company even more successful as the suburbs were exploding around him. Everything he touched turned to gold.”

Breunich says Pitt continued to be a big influence on him, even after his passing in September of 2000 in his mid-70s.

“I mean this as a high compliment when I say he was a silver-tongued salesman. Smart and savvy, he made many deals on the back of a napkin in a restaurant and sealed them with a handshake. He has been a tremendous influence on me. He did things the right way and taught all of us that good business is all about relationships.”

TURNING POINTS

BREUNICH JOINED FORCES WITH A BUSINESS PARTNER, CASEY JONES, TO BUY THE COMPANY FROM THE WILLIAM PITT FOUNDATION. “We branded the company with our now-iconic red and gold pineapple logo in 2001,” he says.

At this point in time William Pitt was still growing in size and was up to 300 agents, with a push towards recruitment.

“We saw a good uptick in business from 2002 through 2004. Then in

Paul Breunich

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Stone and shingle house at 241 Milton Road, Rye. 6,100 square feet, $5.9 million. Photograph courtesy of Julia B. Fee.

2004, Sotheby’s International Realty decided it wanted a big East Coast presence and in January of 2005 we got the Sotheby’s affiliation for the state of Connecticut. This was the single biggest event in the company’s history. We were always upper-end and now became the upper-end brand in our area.

Our homes realize 30 percent to 40 percent higher sale prices, and we market magnificent properties in the shoreline area. This grew organically over the years, flowing from the lovely homes we were selling away from the shore.”

To further bolster the company’s position, Breunich brought in Building and Land Technology as an equity partner to propel future growth.

Breunich says the second biggest event in the firm’s history, now known as William Pitt/Sotheby’s International Realty, was moving into Westchester County in 2009 with the acquisition of the Sotheby’s arm that had purchased Julia B. Fee Realty in 2005.

“This got us into upscale communities like Rye, Scarsdale and Larchmont,” Breunich says. “We opened another office in Bronxville three years ago.”

As things stand now, the agency is the 27th largest real estate company in America, with 1,000 agents, 26 offices and the single largest affiliation with Sotheby’s.

“We did $3.5 billion in home sales in 2013 and have extended our marketing efforts to Mystic and Litchfield, Conn., and Great Barrington, Mass.,” Breunich says.

GROUP WISDOM

ON A DAY-TO-DAY BASIS, BREUNICH SAYS HE RUNS THE OPERATION AS AN “INVERTED PYRAMID.” “I am a big proponent of the wisdom of the group,” he says. “Everyone’s opinion is heard. This is how you get the best input and the best ideas. You want to surround yourself with smart people and then listen to what they have to say. I think of our agents as being at the top of the pyramid, followed by management, department heads and then me. It’s a team effort and I don’t take the credit for what we have accomplished over the past few decades. It’s all of us.”

Looking to the future, Breunich says he is bullish on real estate.

“Consumer confidence is up. Interest rates are remaining historically

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DECEMBER 2014

Country estate at 7 Sky Meadow Farm, Purchase, 12,800 square feet, $11.796 million.

Photograph courtesy of Julia B. Fee.

low. The stock market is doing great. And there is an uptick in employment.

Banks are easing their lending requirements somewhat, which will make it easier for people to trade up. After several years of turmoil, the market has normalized and I see the next few years in a very positive light.”

Just as important, founder William Pitt’s vision lives on.

“We take all of our customers seriously,” Breunich says. “They get the Pitt/Sotheby’s upscale experience across all price ranges. We are still listening to the wisdom of William Pitt.”

Joseph Barbieri Presents

ROUND HILL LAKEFRONT | $15,950,000 | WEB ID: 0067272 Sprawling over 27 serene acres on 9-acre Topping Pond, right off Round Hill Road. This rare and significant offering encompasses 3 separate deeded parcels.

FLAGLER DRIVE | $11,250,000 | WEB ID: 0067365 On 4.42± acres of park-like grounds, this property features main house, pool, tennis court, 2 bedroom pool house and guest house with 4 bedrooms.

CAPTIVATING MID-COUNTRY | $7,750,000 | WEB ID: 0067325 Embraced in 4± acres of park-like tranquility, this extraordinary English country house with incredible art studio/attached 2 bedroom guest house.

DISTINGUISHED GEORGIAN | $6,595,000 | WEB ID: 0065622 Sited on 4 park-like acres, features a 7 bedroom home, with 2 bedroom guest house, pool and lighted tennis court.

BURYING HILL FARM | $5,995,000 | WEB ID: 0067268 Just off Round Hill Road, historic Burying Hill Farm captures a timeless ambiance on 8.14± developable/pastoral acres nestled on 9-acre Topping Pond with riparian rights.

CLASSIC DEER PARK | $5,795,000 | WEB ID: 0067316 This understated, elegant home sits on 2.32± park-like acres in a private Mid-Country association.

GREENWICH BROKERAGE | 203.869.4343

Joseph Barbieri | 203.618.3112

One Pickwick Plaza | Greenwich, CT 06830 Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered (or unregistered) service marks used with permission. Operated by Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc.

A select list for those on the move in WAG country LISTS COMPILED BY DANIELLE RENDA

REAL ESTATE FIRMS

MOVING COMPANIES

ARCHITECTS

BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY HOMESERVICES 455 Post Road, Darien 203-744-5544 bhhsneproperties.com

ARNOFF MOVING & STORAGE 1282 Dutchess Turnpike, Poughkeepsie 888-430-9542 arnoff.com Areas served: Hudson Valley; western Connecticut, including Fairfield County, western Massachusetts and Port St. Lucie, Fla.

ANDREW NUZZI ARCHITECTS LLC Stamford 203-327-7950 nuzziarchitects.com Services: specializes in residential architecture, including new residences, alterations and additions, small projects, work-inprogress, on the board and wine rooms

COLDWELL BANK RESIDENTIAL BROKERAGE 1331A North Ave., New Rochelle 914-633-5540 coldwellbanker.com DAVID OGILVY & ASSOCIATES Exclusive affiliate of Christie’s International Real Estate 75 Arch St., Greenwich 203-869-9866 davidogilvy.com DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE 402 Main St., Suite 1, Armonk 914-273-1510 elliman.com HOULIHAN LAWRENCE 800 Westchester Ave., Suite N505 Rye Brook 914-220-7000 houlihanlawrence.com KELLER WILLIAMS REALTY 120 Bloomingdale Road, Suite 101, White Plains 914-437-6100 whiteplains.yourkwoffice.com PETER J. RIOLO 30 Main St., Hastings-On-Hudson 914-478-1400 peterriolo.com Luxury listings through luxuryrealestate.com REALTY SEVEN 250 Danbury Road, Wilton 203-762-5548 realtyseven.com WILLIAM PITT/JULIA B. FEE/ SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY Greenwich Brokerage 1 Pickwick Plaza, Greenwich 203-869-4343 sothebysrealty.com WILLIAM RAVEIS REAL ESTATE MORTGAGE INSURANCE 1022 Long Ridge Road, Stamford 203-322-0200 37 Main St., Tarrytown 10591 914-332-6300 raveis.com VINCENT & WHITTEMORE On the Green, Bedford 914-234-3642 vinwhit.com

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DECEMBER 2014

CELEBRITY MOVING 718-347-2200 celebritymoving.com Areas served: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania ELITE 555 W. 25 St., New York City 212-966-2288 flatrateelite.com Areas served: Westchester County and New York City FINDLAY MOVING 326 S. Fulton Ave., Mount Vernon 800-431-1527 findlayinternational.com Areas served: local, interstate, long-distance and international moves GENTLE GIANT 28 S. Depot Plaza, Tarrytown 914-997-0019 gentlegiant.com Areas served: Westchester County and select locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Illinois, Washington and California JB MOVING 222A Selleck St., Stamford 203-602-7979 movejb.com Areas served: local, long-distance, national and international moving MORGAN MANHATTAN 11 Labriola Court, Armonk, 914-205-6233 morganmanhattan.com Areas served: New York tri-state area, including select locations in lower Westchester County and select locations in Fairfield County NOUVELLEVIEW 45 E. 89 St., Suite 19C, New York City 212-876-6008 nouvelleview.com Areas served: Fairfield County, Westchester County, New York City, national and international moves SCANIO MOVING AND STORAGE 222 W. 37 St., Third floor, New York City 646-863-8183 scaniomoving.com Areas served: New York metro area, residential, long distance and international moves

Additional company listings are available at westfaironline.com.

AUSTIN PATTERSON DISSTON ARCHITECTS 376 Pequot Ave., Southport 203-255-4031 apdarchitects.com Services: specializes in country homes, waterfront homes, renovations, contemporary, hospitality, including field and beach clubs; and amenities, including kitchens, bathrooms, pools/pool houses and small buildings/follies DAVID SCOTT PARKER ARCHITECTS LLC 170 Pequot Ave., Southport 203-259-3373 dsparker.com Services: residential, office and preservation projects EARL EVERETT FERGUSON ARCHITECT 1 Bridge St., Suite 29, Irvington 914-591-5066 earlfergusonarchitect.com Services: residential, commercial, interior design; planning, including site selection and real estate consulting and preservation, including assessment of historic features and detailing GALLIN BEELER DESIGN STUDIO 828 S. Broadway, Tarrytown 914-683-4004 gb-ds.com Services: commercial, residential and institutional architecture GRANOFF ARCHITECTS PC 30 W. Putnam Ave., Greenwich 203-625-9460 granoffarchitects.com Services: residential, landscape architecture including, private estates and pool houses and interior design STUDIO RAI ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN PC 290 Salem Road, Pound Ridge 914-273-6842 studiorai.com Services: specializes in new residences, renovations, kitchens, multi-family and furniture/objects PAGLIARO BARTELS SAJDA ARCHITECTS LLC 3 Pine St., Second floor, South Norwalk 203-838-5517 pbs-archs.com Services: specializes in waterfront homes; inland homes; renovations; vacation homes; and unique designs, including car barn, car wash, pool house, gardens and at-home vacation PETER A. COLE ARCHITECT 75 S.Greeley Ave., Chappaqua 914-238-6152 petercolearchitect.com Services: specializes in residential architecture with designs, including colonial, modern, shingle, stone, Tudor and Victorian

P

HIDDEN PARADISE ² POUND RIDGE, NY

rivacy and tranquility await you in this tucked away contemporary built by Vuko Tashkovitch. This 4 bedroom 3.1 bath home provides 3,931 sq. ft. of sun filled rooms and beautiful views that give way to an easy flow and carefree style of living. Dramatic floor to ceiling windows and stone fireplace enhance the spacious living room with large glass doors that lead to a generous sized deck. A heated Gunite salt water pool provides the perfect place to relax and entertain. Surrounded by 100 state acres, this gem is ideal for full time or weekend living. It is a beautiful retreat that is just minutes from town. MLS#4436476

Price: $1,625,000

U

INCOME PRODUCER ² NORTH SALEM, NY

nique opportunity to own income producing property or relocate your small business in pastoral North Salem. The main residence is a 2,000+ sq. ft. contemporary with 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. The first floor open plan has vaulted ceilings, with walls of glass, skylights and sliding glass doors access the deck which wraps around 3 sides of the house. Above the detached 2 car garage is a 1,200 sq. ft. 2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment also with an open floor plan, vaulted ceilings, and skylights. Located on the opposite side of the 3.24 acre property is a commercial zoned 2,340 sq. ft. Office building with a large 2 bay garage, offices and bath. An additional gravel drive provides ample parking for multiple vehicles. MLS#4433128

Price: $1,175,000

A

GRANT’S FIELDS ² NORTH SALEM, NY

pproached through stone pillars is this 3,447 square foot, Arts and Crafts style home sited on 3.7 open, level acres. This lovely four bedroom, three and a half bath home is a place of light and airy interiors.

Built for comfortable family living and entertaining, the high ceilings, traditional moldings and open rooms combine elegant formality and country ambiance! MLS# 3403978

Price: $799,000

F

THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE ² NORTH SALEM, NY

rom 19th century schoolhouse to a 3,463 sq. ft. 4 bedroom, 4 bath modern home! The first floor flows from the entry foyer through the formal living room with coffered ceiling and dining room to the open kitchen / family room. A 1st floor master suite w/ French doors opens to a private deck. Upstairs are two family bedrooms, a study, a hall bath, a private guest suite and a 3rd floor playroom. Expansive windows, vaulted ceilings and skylights create a bright, airy space. Family friendly backyard with in ground pool is set on 2.32 ac bordered by 9 acres of preserved land/walking trails.

MLS #: 4432966

Price: $815,000

ONTHEGREEN•BEDFORD•NEWYORK•914.234.3642•VINWHIT.COM

WAGMAG.COM

DECEMBER 2014

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LEAVE IT TO LEVER

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB ROZYCKI

J

Art attorney Joel Lever with one of his Chagall prints before a Robert Natkin abstraction in his White Plains office.

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JOEL S. LEVER IS AN ART LOVER LIKE YOU OR ME. “I buy art the way most people do – to fit over the couch or because it has great colors or because it makes me feel good.”

One wall of his White Plains office is lined with biblical prints by Marc Chagall – hand-colored by the artist. Across from his desk is a bright yellow floor-to-ceiling painting by the Abstract Expressionist Robert Natkin. Lever points to the various faces you can find in the work with such enthusiasm that you would swear he’s a curator.

But he’s an attorney, a founding partner in the firm of Kurzman Eisenberg Corbin & Lever LLP, one whose specialties include art law. And as an art attorney, he knows that a painting or sculpture is about more than how it is displayed in the home or how it makes you feel.

Art, he says, is an asset class, just like a house or a car – only more complicated in part because high-end art is not highly regulated.

Lever got into the field 30 years ago when he represented a multinational corporation whose assets included artworks. Since then, he’s represent-

ed brokers, dealers and collectors who leverage their multimillion-dollar collections to buy more art in what is today a hot market, particularly for Impressionist and contemporary works. It turns out that banks are willing to lend money to big-time collectors – any art worth less than $50,000, forget about it, Lever says – although don’t look for the bank to fork over the collection’s entire value. If your collection is appraised at $50 million – and you’ll be paying for that appraisal to satisfy the bank – you’ll get 25 to 50 percent of the collection’s “loan to value.”

So $12.5 million to $25 million – a nice chunk of change for you to spend on that Damien Hirst you had your eye on.

Most high-end collectors have established relationships with dealers, galleries and auction houses.

But even the savviest collector can be what Lever calls an “emotional buyer,” because art is subjective.

Remain cool-headed, however, “and make sure you know who owns (the work),” Lever says.

This can be easier said than done, because buying art is not like buying a car or a house, he adds. Cars and houses have titles. Artworks have titles, too, and provenances – histories of ownership that can contain gaps, particularly when works are stolen as in the case of Nazi-looted art.

“There’s a saying,” Lever adds. “‘You can’t get title from a thief.’”

He points to a recent case in which a client purchased a work at an American art fair. (About 40 percent of the roughly $66 billion in annual gallery

art sales are made at art fairs like Basel in Miami or in London, Switzerland and Hong Kong.)

No sooner did Lever’s client have the $500,000 painting in his possession than he received a letter from The Art Loss Register, created by The International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR), stating that the work had been stolen and demanding its return. It turns out it had been consigned some 10 years earlier to a gallery. The gallery owner sold it and took the money and ran to South America.

The original owner of the painting was ultimately paid off by the insurance company. Now the insurer, through the registry, was looking either for the artwork or it monetary value. Needless to say, the provenance of this painting was far from exact.

Lever argued “voidable title.” The original owner, having placed the work into commerce, had no more claim on it. Lever also went after the German gallery that had sold the work to his client at the art fair. That gallery argued that the U.S. had no jurisdiction over a foreign gallery. But Lever countered that the gallery was operating under the rules established by the American art fair and U.S. laws of jurisdiction. After seven months the issue was resolved out of court and his client’s title to the work was confirmed.

Sometimes the perils of art ownership lie inside the home. That’s what one client found out when his $10 million painting – carefully hung and

L

watched over by a security camera – fell off the wall, incurring a tiny hole. (Hey, stuff happens. Las Vegas casino impresario Steve Wynn was all set to part with “Le Rêve” (“The Dream”), a painting of Pablo Picasso’s mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, to Steven A. Cohen, founding chairman of Stamfordbased SAC Capital, for $139 million in 2006 when he accidentally elbowed it, putting a silver dollarsize hole in the canvas and ending the deal. Was it an emotional farewell or Freudian slip of that elbow? Seven years later, Wynn sold the restored painting at a Christie’s auction to Cohen for $155 million – or an extra $16 million.)

Back to Lever’s client. Lever put together a crisis management team that included an insurance expert, a restorer and an appraiser. The insurance offer came in at $100,000. Lever was able to get his client $1 million. Actual cost of the restoration – $3,500.

(Recounting of this story, Lever says – priceless.)

Such clients are deliberate investors or collectors.

Then there are the accidental investors or collectors, who may inherit an artwork like the one another client bought for $25 and kept in his basement. When he died, his heirs had it appraised.

It was worth about $500,000.

Here it gets tricky, Lever says, because the accidental collector/investor may not be familiar with the for-profit world of auction houses and the fees and taxes they’ll have to pay on selling a work.

What can you do?

One choice: You can leave it to Lever.

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FA M I LY

Helping WESTCHESTER reinvent itself

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BY LEIF SKODNICK

When Marissa Brett was fresh out of Westchester Community College in 1997, the woman who is now president of the Westchester County Association – and the driving force behind The Blueprint for Westchester – may have booked your ticket from JFK to Amsterdam-Schiphol.

But Brett’s first job out of college, as a reservation agent for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, didn’t really excite her in the six months she was there.

“They merged with Northwest, so it was time to find something new anyway,” Brett says of her brief time with KLM. She quickly landed in the real estate industry at Albert B. Ashforth Inc., a commercial real estate firm based in Stamford.

“I started as a receptionist, I moved into an assistant service administrator position, and from there I started to be a part of some of the marketing. It really interested me,” Brett says of her stint with Ashforth, which at the time managed a portfolio with 1.4 million square feet of commercial office space. “I went back to school nights and weekends and got my degree in marketing.”

Leadership at Ashforth gave her opportunities to get involved in the marketing aspects of the business.

By the time she left in 2005, she was managing the marketing of the entire portfolio. Brett oversaw a marketing budget of $350,000 and, in light of her accomplishments, was named to The Business Council of Westchester’s Rising Stars. It was that early exposure that stoked Brett’s passion for marketing and launched her career on an arc that continues to curve upward.

From Ashforth, Brett joined the Hudson Valley Economic Development Corp., where the marketing focus was different.

“The transition was from marketing the real estate of one specific portfolio to marketing the buildings and sites and development opportunities of a whole entire region,” Brett says. “It was taking what I was doing onto a much bigger scale. Then I got into the development of ‘shovel-ready’ sites and municipalities.”

After almost six years with the Hudson Valley Economic Development 40

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DECEMBER 2014

Corp., Brett came to the Westchester County Association. Her initial role, as executive director of economic development, put her behind the wheel of the Blueprint for Westchester, a multimillion-dollar, multiyear initiative to revitalize Westchester’s economy.

“Coming on board with the county association, that’s where my role really expanded beyond just marketing properties into getting involved in and creating communities where you can work, live, and play, and repurposing sites and the need to do that in order to create ratables (properties on the tax rolls) and attract talent,” Brett says.

The challenge for Brett and the Westchester County Association is to keep Westchester moving forward and reinventing itself. The results are start-

ing to follow. Brett points to the multibillion-dollar health care industry presence in the county as a driving force behind the county’s economic future.

“If you look at where the growth is, it’s in that sector. Memorial Sloan Kettering (West Harrison) is a good example. It’s a building that has been transformed into a health sciences use,” Brett says of the multimillion dollar campus, which recently opened on Westchester Avenue. “We’re seeing more and more, whether it’s tech companies developing software for this sector, or research and development.

We’ve planted the flag saying, ‘We are going to capitalize on this and really create an identity for ourselves.’”

This is what, Brett says, sets Westchester County apart from other plac-

Marissa Brett. Photograph courtesy Westchester County Association.

es. Often, cities that see a loss of an industry or market segment struggle to reinvent themselves, drifting for years in an economic stupor.

“We’re not so stuck in what we do next. We’ve found what we do next in Westchester,” Brett says. “It’s just a matter of execution, and some of it is already starting to happen. One of the huge opportunities we have in this county is in capitalizing on an infrastructure we already have in place.”

Part of the reinvention – the revitalization of the Interstate 287 corridor in Harrison and White Plains – is moving forward, which Brett sees as a positive step.

“Among the most exciting news on the I-287 corridor is that the Harrison Town Board moved on to the planning board a proposal for multifamily residential on Corporate Park Drive,” Brett says.

Millions of square feet of office space along I-287 have been lying fallow, forcing property owners and developers to find creative solutions and adaptive reuses.

“A million square feet (of space) has been occupied, and we’ve really seen our advocacy efforts pan out. We’ve been advocating for the repurposing of existing sites and rezoning,” Brett says.

“White Plains has allowed new uses along the I-287 corridor, and the town of Harrison has updated their master plan, so they’re going to be allowing laboratory and retail and residential use, and that’s all critical to the development of the 287 corridor.”

When the workweek finally ends, Brett takes a break from shaping the future of Westchester and works on shaping the future of her two sons.

“A typical weekend in our house is a Friday night movie night. The three of us make popcorn, sit on the couch and watch movies,” says Brett. “Then Saturday and Sunday, it’s soccer practice, soccer games, that’s what they do.”

Brett told WAG that she coached last year but is sticking to cheering from the sidelines this season.

“They’re 6 and 9 years old, and they keep me on my toes and extremely happy. They light up my life,” says Brett.

“That’s my life, work and my boys.”

BY RONNI DIAMONDSTEIN

UCCEEDING IN BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT CONNECTIONS,” ENTREPRENEUR EXTRAORDINAIRE RICHARD BRANSON HAS SAID. This certainly is true for Deborah Milone, executive director of the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce.

Part of the chamber since 1992, Milone was the chairman of the board of directors from 2005 to 2007, so when the executive director’s job opened in 2010, she saw it as a great opportunity.

“I’ve always had a passion for the chambers and what they do for the community.”

Milone has years of experience in the River towns. Her résumé includes vice president of marketing for The Guide and district sales manager at Yellowbook. “I have a huge database of contacts. I connect. I know where to get the answers.”

The Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce is a community resource that provides services to businesses, residents and tourists. Most of the businesses are located in Buchanan, Croton-on-Hudson, Cortlandt Manor, Peekskill and Putnam Valley. The 450 members range from small family-run businesses like Arthur Weeks and Son Jewelers in Peekskill to Entergy Nuclear Northeast, which employs more than 1,200. With its office in the heart of historic downtown Peekskill, well known for its Artists’ District, the chamber also serves as a regional tourism information center for the thousands of visitors who come to the Hudson Valley each year.

“We wear a lot of hats. I sometimes say we are like Google. People call us for the answers like they would search on the Internet.”

Milone acknowledges that the economy is still sluggish and that people are careful about spending on luxuries. “Businesses need to be more creative about finding more customers. They need an Internet presence and marketing is important.” That’s some-

thing the chamber can help with. It has monthly networking breakfasts for members and meetings after hours for those who can’t make the morning meetings. “We offer seminars and workshops in an attempt to help our businesses be more successful. Networking is important for building relationships. People build trust and comfort levels.

My personal business needs have been met by people I have met through networking.”

“Opening Opportunities” is the mantra for this dynamic chamber, which distributes a membership directory to 10,000 homes, held a Consumer Expo with more than 100 vendors in May and sponsored the Hudson Valley Gateway Tommy Bertoline Scholarship Golf Outing at Mahopac Golf Club in late summer.

Milone takes pride in one of the groups that sets them apart from other chambers: “We have a strong Latino committee in our chamber. ...We try to serve the needs of the Latino community and bring together the Latino and non-Latino businesses in our community.”

The key to success for entrepreneurs, she says, is to have a plan. “There are a variety of resources available to people who want to start a business that are free,” she adds, including the Small Business Association, the Westchester County Office of Economic Development and the New York Business Development Corp.

Next year, the chamber will celebrate its 100th anniversary. There are many special events and activities planned, including a gala on Jan. 24. “We will be recognizing 20 businesses and organizations that have been in existence for 100 years or more.”

As the chamber looks to its next century, Milone says she could not have found a better job than being at its helm. “I love what I do and have some fun at it as well.”

The Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce is at 1 S. Division St., Peekskill. For more, call 914-737-3600 or visit hvgatewaychamber.com.

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Deborah Milone

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BY RONNI DIAMONDSTEIN

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HE GREATER VALLEY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE’S MOTTO IS “ADVANCING THE REGIONAL AGENDA THROUGH BUSINESS LEADERSHIP,” and it could not have found a better leader and voice than its president, William E. “Bill” Purcell. With a strong background in urban studies and an MBA, Purcell has great enthusiasm and passion for chambers of commerce and how members come together voluntarily to share the best business practices and

improve the quality of life.

“I’m proud to put people to work and see myself as a social worker in disguise.”

Chambers of commerce have a long history dating from the first one established in Marseille, France in 1599.

“The chamber movement is as old as the country is young, and represents the very best of the voluntary business associations that have helped to shape the free enterprise system we enjoy today,” Purcell says.

He came to the Greater Valley in 2000 after 18 years at the chamber of commerce in his hometown of Worcester, Mass. Marking its 50th anniversary, the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce represents the Naugatuck River Valley of Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton and the surrounding area. It has 500 members who represent a cross section of the area’s businesses – manufacturing, retail, service and biotech. These range from home-based sole proprietors to large corporations with multiple branches, including BIC, Thule USA, PerkinElmer, Sikorsky, the DiMatteo Group and David M. Grant Caterers.

The valley, situated among three urban areas – Bridgeport, Waterbury and New Haven – has experienced considerable growth along Route 8.

“Thanks to forward-thinking folks, the highway has become a leading economic center in the state with great office space and modern manufacturing,” Purcell says. “There’s lots of new construction, lots of office space and new construction of rental apartments, especially in the Canal Street (Shelton) revitalization. The valley has become a destination of choice for residents. People are discovering its beauty.”

Purcell sees a parallel between the triangulation of the valley and the chamber’s three constituents. “Chamber professionals occupy a unique space at the intersection of business, government and the general community. We are the voice of business at all levels and support our community.”

Networking is key. “While the adage for the real estate industry is ‘Location, location, location,’ effective chambers are expert at helping their members to make connections through a variety of networking events.”

The chamber has a Health Care Council, Technology Council, Hotel Council and hosts two major business expos each year, including the

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Bill Purcell, president of the Greater Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Photograph by Fred Ortoli.

“Come Together for Business Expo,” which was held recently in partnership with the Bridgeport, Stratford and Trumbull chambers of commerce.

“Helping to make our member businesses stronger through educational seminars and the sharing of best practices is a core function of our chamber,” says Purcell about its professional development seminars. “Our ‘Success in 60’ seminar series, our OSHA training seminars and our Greater Valley human resources forums are just three examples where best practices are shared.”

As a voice of business at local, state and federal levels of government, the chamber is active in legislative affairs. “This past year, the chamber hosted a manufacturing roundtable with our U.S. senator, a forum on trade with Canada with our congressman and a discussion with our state legislative leaders on issues impacting Connecticut’s competitive position in attracting and retaining business.”

Above all, the chamber is an advocate for business and startups.

“I am very proud of our Women In Networking Group (WIN) and our Young Emerging Professionals (YEP) for the impact they are making as philanthropists.” WIN established an entrepreneurial grant program for women-owned businesses in the region that has awarded more than $40,000 in $1,500 to $2,000 grants. YEP members are 20- to 30-year-olds who have also become philanthropists. For the past five years, YEP has hosted a fund-raising event to support The Center for Cancer Care at Griffin Hospital in Derby.

Purcell, a Woodbridge resident, serves on the steering committee of CT20x17, an initiative to make Connecticut one of top 20 states to do business in by 2017.

“The goal is to increase desirability for businesses to come to Connecticut. I’m proud to work with colleagues across the state in a nonpartisan way to move us forward as a state and as a nation. Elected officials may come and go, but the chamber will always be there.”

The Greater Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce is at 10 Progress Drive in Shelton. For more, call 203-925-4981 or visit greatervalleychamber.com.

Ever forward in Greenwich

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

HE GREENWICH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: It’s not your grandpa’s chamber anymore.

“Our chamber has reinvented itself beyond the boys’ club,” Executive Director Marcia O’Kane says of the 542-member organization.

“In the last three years, we’ve added 100 members per year.”

But the evidence of growth isn’t merely statistical. You can see it in the “After Six” chamber networking events that draw 120 people to the Delamar Greenwich Harbor. You can see it in the increased area visibility for members like Paul Lowe, a medical doctor turned school admissions and career adviser based in Woodbridge, Conn., and PID, hardwood flooring specialists just down the street from the chamber on Putnam Avenue.

You can see it in the members who approach O’Kane with excitement.

“I’m getting good vibes from people who say, ‘This isn’t the old chamber I remember.’”

That may be in large part because of the vibrant woman who has led the organization since Sept. 12, 2011. O’Kane’s also an MBA with Wall Street cred.

“I try to use all the skills I’ve acquired,” she says. “I’m happy to be that conduit to get new business.”

One of the ways she and the chamber do this is through outreach to sister chambers like the Greater Norwalk, Darien and Stamford chambers of commerce. The fab four recently held their “Quad Chamber Expo & Business Networking Tabletop Expo” at the University of Connecticut at Stamford.

Similarly, the sleekly handsome Greenwich Chamber of Commerce Resource

Guide is geared not only to members but visitors looking to avail themselves of the 50-square-mile town’s many attractions – from Rodeo Drive-style shopping and dining on Greenwich Avenue to Old Masters exhibits at the Bruce Museum to sailing, teeing off at any of eight country clubs or stomping the divots at the Greenwich Polo Club.

“Getting listed in the chamber guide is like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” O’Kane says.

Ever mindful of the chamber’s more than $300,000 operating budget, she conducted a brief survey and discovered that 70 percent of the members – which include businesses and individuals from Westchester and Rockland counties and as far away as Long Island – wanted an e-book guide. This keeps down the cost of printing. The chamber also recycles its name badges, one of the ways in which it is both economical and environmental.

With three part-time staffers, O’Kane says she knows she’s going to have to grow the staff. But she wants to do it smartly.

In some ways, though, this modern chamber adheres to tradition. From Dec. 1 through 5, chamber judges will once again be going around to the various merchants to select the best holiday storefront and window. The winner will be announced Dec. 10 at a holiday party at the Bruce Museum that will feature food from the Little Pub in Cos Cob, wine from the Cos Cob Liquor Store, the pianistic stylings of John Goldschmid, shopping in the museum store and a grand raffle prize courtesy of Geiger’s.

So some things never change. And yet, O’Kane says, “we have to be aware of how the world is changing.”

The Greenwich Chamber of Commerce is at 45 E. Putnam Ave. For more, call 203 869-3500 or visit greenwichchamber.com.

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Marcia O’Kane

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© 2014 THE ART OF SHAVING

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Farooq Kathwari in Ethan Allen’s Danbury headquarters.

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MOST COMFORTABLE SURROUNDINGS Farooq Kathwari leads Ethan Allen with classic style

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI AND COURTESY ETHAN ALLEN

IT’S PERHAPS NATURAL TO IMAGINE THAT MEETING THE CEO OF AN INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION AT ITS GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS MIGHT BE A STIFF AFFAIR FILLED WITH POMP, PROTOCOL AND PRETENTIOUSNESS. But that is far from the case on a recent afternoon when WAG is spending time with Farooq Kathwari of Ethan Allen Global Inc., in Danbury.

In fact, in a generous hour-plus visit, we get a glimpse into the singular way this longtime CEO operates.

Sure, there are impressively decorated surroundings – no surprise – and assistants and associates on call. While the atmosphere is unwaveringly professional, it’s also disarmingly friendly and pleasantly relaxed.

And it all seems to begin with Kathwari, low-key and attentive, warm and welcoming.

Kathwari’s power seems tied to a style that reflects the furniture company’s approach – classic with a modern twist. It’s much like the way his vibrant magenta tie enlivens his understated business attire.

Within moments of meeting, Kathwari’s launched into a captivating tale that takes us through his earliest days in the business and by the end of the visit, he’s taken us on a tour of the place, a sprawling complex that includes corporate headquarters, a flagship Design Center and an adjacent hotel. He’s also talked us through most every step of what the staff does and caps it off by sending us home with a handful of fresh apples from his country retreat.

The fruits of the previous day’s employee apple-picking excursion to his Columbia County, N.Y., farm are evidenced not only in the executive suite but also in bushels of apples dotting the campus. From the top down, one thing is clear.

“My philosophy is the captains have to play with the team. They have to be a part of the team,” Kathwari says.

And Ethan Allen is quite the team, an 82-year-old company that designs, manufactures and sells furniture, accents, textiles and other home fashions through a network of nearly 300 Design Centers in North

America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Its stylish goods can be found from Hartsdale to San Diego, Belgium to Romania, Dubai to Tokyo and as a particular point of pride for Kathwari, in China where American-made products take center stage.

FROM THE START

Kathwari has been both team player – and leader – from the start.

He arrived in New York in the 1960s and would begin graduate work at New York University’s business school, studying marketing.

“I was born in Kashmir, which is quite known for art and accessories and wool,” he says. A surprise delivery of goods from his grandfather back home – “He said ‘Sell them and send us the money’” – found Kathwari suddenly also working in the import business.

During a stint on Wall Street – he rose to CFO of Rothschild Inc. by age 27 – Kathwari met one of Ethan Allen’s founders and was soon selling his imported goods to the furniture company. A relationship grew, based in a bowling alley-turned-warehouse in Larchmont.

In time, Kathwari would become an official – and integral – part of the company that traces its roots back to the 1930s. It was 1932 when brothers-in-law Nathan Ancell and Theodore Baumritter founded the Baumritter Corp. to sell small housewares. They would go on to purchase a Vermont furniture factory four years later and begin manufacturing a line of Early American-style home furnishings, renaming the company in honor of the Revolutionary War hero Ethan Allen.

“They then pioneered what was called the gallery concept,” Kathwari says of room settings featured in department stores. “Furniture was sold at that time like a commodity … lined up.”

Sourcing accessories for Ethan Allen, Kathwari says, had a start as unexpected as his entry into the import business. The company wondered, upon seeing his small operation, if it could work with him on a larger scale, importing goods from around the world.

“I said ‘Absolutely’ … and I had no idea,” he says with a laugh. “That’s

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It’s all part of the “the Ethan Allen DNA,” which he says will be summed up in a 300-page book, its proposed pages devoted to muses, from art to history, filling the walls of another room.

“This is not a catalog,” Kathwari says. “It’s a question of inspiration.”

As Kathwari continues the tour, he quietly observes a social media meeting, catches up with the chief architect and talks to those styling vignettes with the next generation of designs.

These latest pieces would soon get reviewed, as a week after our visit the headquarters would host an annual conference and awards ceremony for hundreds of the company’s top interior designers. Their sneak peek would serve more than one purpose, Kathwari says.

“For us we get the input and they get the excitement.”

DESIGN, FRONT AND CENTER

A vignette featuring some of Ethan Allen’s latest designs.

how I got my start.”

Kathwari’s confidence, backed by his innate skills, saw him succeed.

“I traveled all over the world,” he says, including Italy, Portugal, China and India.

That early joint venture with Ethan Allen ended with Kathwari coming on board. Kathwari would become the company’s president in 1985 and CEO in 1988. In 1989 he was involved in purchasing Ethan Allen and taking it private. In 1993, it went public again. Today, it’s featured on the New York Stock Exchange.

A key strength, Kathwari notes, is that the company is “vertically integrated,” taking care of every aspect of the product from concept to manufacturing to retail and delivery.

Throughout, he says, there has been an awareness that fuels his every move.

“You have to be relevant,” he says.

From the start, he saw ways to make that happen.

“Ethan Allen stores were run by independent dealers. I thought that didn’t make sense. We had the opportunity of creating a national network.”

Throughout, there have also been constants.

“One of the major challenges in our business is logistics,” he says. “Delivering furniture is not easy.”

Constantly streamlining delivery and updating the product line and the look of the design centers have all contributed to Ethan Allen’s longevity, Kathwari says.

EVER FORWARD

“We are known for classics but classics for today,” he says of the company’s reputation.

This autumn, for example, the company unveiled 600 new designs – arriving through the year’s end and billed as “The Next Classics.” The website has also been redesigned.

Kathwari’s walk through the facility reveals just how much is done by the company itself. There are in-house real-estate developers and architects, graphic designers and social media experts, a television studio, customer-service center and classrooms.

A printing press, for example, isn’t there on a whim but serves a very specific purpose.

“What it gives us is the flexibility of doing things fast,” he says, checking over a stack of in-store promotional materials.

Kathwari might burst into a closed-door conference room with a “Hey there.

What’s happening?” at one moment, chat with a security guard the next. He’ll ask for a progress report from a design team soon headed overseas.

So does Kathwari vet every single product or design?

“I do,” he says. “I do at the beginning, the middle and the end. Three phases.”

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Kathwari eventually guides the tour to the flagship Design Center where all new products debut. The latest include artwork from The Ethan Allen Modern Masters Collection, an introduction of limited-edition lithographs hand-framed in Ethan Allen’s workshops.

At every turn in this oversize showroom, there are interactive elements – customization stations and rows and rows of more than 1,000 fabric swatches. A new Sleep by Design mattress program is featured, as well. The playground for design fans is staffed by interior designers rather than sales clerks.

Kathwari pauses to check in with interior designer Manuella Moreira, asking what project she’s working on and how a recent large effort turned out. Designers here could be working on everything from a beach house in the Hamptons to a local hospice.

Throughout, the space shows off how the majority of the collections are made in North America and also spotlights the eco-friendly initiatives incorporated into much of the work.

It’s also where the latest simply shines – literally and figuratively. Kathwari points to a new retro-glam bedroom vignette anchored by a bed with a metallicfinished headboard.

“This is a very classic design but we changed the finish,” he says. Throughout, Kathwari says, “We focused on what we would call fashionably casual.”

And of course, there are trends.

“People want color,” he says, adding that the “mixing of styles is also important.”

But, he says, “it’s got to be done in a way that works together.”

Today, shoppers know what they want, influenced by constant exposure to shelter magazines and design shows on television.

“The consumer has become much better informed,” he says. The shift, he adds, puts Ethan Allen “in the fashion business.”

AT HOME WITH STYLE

While clearly cultivating thoughtful relationships with his employees, Kathwari is not one to boast of his personal achievements, though he is a member of the American Furniture Hall of Fame and has been honored by the National Retail Federation, among many accolades. He’s also widely recognized for his philanthropic and humanitarian efforts, having received the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal and served as a member of President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from 2010 to 2014.

At work, Kathwari simply seems devoted to Ethan Allen’s continued growth.

“Our advantage is the fact that Ethan Allen is an iconic brand,” he says. “When we look at it, we just don’t look at it as an item. We look at it all put together. It has to be livable.”

So in the New Rochelle home he shares with his wife, does Kathwari live with Ethan Allen designs?

“We do, of course,” he says. And just like the homes his customers would have, “the objective is relaxed.”

After all, he notes, “We’ve got four grandkids.”

Kathwari speaks of his adult children, a son and a daughter, proudly detailing their business success.

“They’re both entrepreneurs,” he says with a smile.

And, it seems clear, influenced by something Kathwari has said earlier, “If you don’t take initiative, nothing happens.”

For more, visit ethanallen.com.

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THE HEART OF THE DEAL

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BY BOB ROZYCKI PHOTOGRAPH BY JOHN RIZZO

SHELLY TRETTER LYNCH LIGHTS UP THE GREAT ROOM AT THE INDIAN HARBOR YACHT CLUB ON AN OVERCAST, LATE AUTUMN DAY. Her smile, sparkling eyes and warm demeanor disarm you.

But it’s more than her manner that has carried her to the top ranks of real estate professionals nationwide.

It’s discretion, honesty and innovation – not just mere words but rather the standard by which she abides. It has helped propel and sustain her career for 25 years.

Lynch is considered one of the top brokers with Sotheby’s International Realty in Greenwich as well as in the U.S. (She was among the top 50 agents in the nation for dollar volume in 2007 as noted by The Wall Street Journal.)

A gracious hostess, she politely asks if I had been at this stately Greenwich Harbor club before. No, I reply. She asks the maitre d’ to seat us by a window in the dining room so I can take in the sailboats plying the gray waters.

In a conversation over golden sole served on a bed of orzo and spinach, Tretter Lynch speaks softly and soothingly with no hint of braggadocio as she recounts the mostly highs of working in the financially rarefied, intensely competitive Greenwich real estate market.

The Darien native attended the University of North Carolina at Wilmington where she thought communications would be her future. Then a stint writing ads at radio station “B100” made her think about a career in advertising. But she found advertising cutthroat and decided to pursue real estate. Her father, Gene Simms, was a commercial developer who created condominium complexes in New York City, Westchester County and Florida. She initially entered the development end of the business in the late ’80s, but the market changed dramatically due to the economy. So she decided on selling residential real estate.

She obtained a great amount of knowledge at the firm of Sammis & Chadsey in Greenwich. Jesse Sammis told her, “‘It’s not who you know, it’s what you know.

It’s not what you wear, it’s what you know.’ He pounded that into my head,” Tretter Lynch says, along with the many facets and components – law, finance – that make up real estate.

“I worked hard on being innovative. Being in your early 20s in this business, you’re in the minority.” (The average age for a real estate broker today is 57.)

So she had to work harder than everyone else. Tretter Lynch sought out bankowned properties she might be able to sell. That was no easy task in the precomputerized world. She went to Greenwich Town Hall and went through the paper files researching land records.

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She acknowledges that the entry level to real estate is relatively easy. But to make a career, “that takes a tremendous amount of time and integrity and you learn that early on.”

She prefers working independently, except for her valued assistant, Anne Franscioni.

At the Sotheby’s Global Networking Event (offices in 53 countries) in Miami in September, Tretter Lynch was asked by another real estate agent what her total sales were so far this year. She replied $80 million. The woman asked, “How many people are in your group? You’re looking at her,” Tretter Lynch says with a laugh. (If sales progress as they have, she could end the year at the $90 million mark. (And keep in mind, that’s a lot of trades – not like Manhattan with its high-priced real estate.)

Stirring her cappuccino with a demitasse rock candy stick, Tretter Lynch switches from real estate to talk about some personally fulfilling work with the Greenwich YWCA. This year she was asked to join the executive board of directors of the Y as vice chair of development.

Tretter Lynch can’t say enough about the YWCA’s campaign against domestic violence with counselors available 24/7, emergency housing, crisis intervention and a host of other services.

“The statistics nationally are very high,” she says. “One in every three people are affected by domestic violence.”

She says that while Greenwich is a vibrant community, there’s a lot of stress and a lot of lost business deals that add up to a high-octane environment. Domestic violence is prevalent, but it’s not an issue a lot of people are aware of, she says.

One of the events that she has co-chaired to raise money for a safe house for victims of domestic violence as well as preventative programs is The Persimmon Ball, a blacktie dinner dance that 600 people attended earlier this year. In addition to anti-domestic violence programs, the money raised is used for YWCA scholarships, seminars and subsidies for various programs not covered by dues.

In addition to The Persimmon Ball, Tretter Lynch has been a co-chair of the Old Bags Luncheon, which also raises funds for the YWCA’s domestic violence programs.

Founded in 1961 in Palm Beach, the Old Bags concept was adopted by the Greenwich Y in 2006. It has been a sellout ever since, Tretter Lynch says. Designer bags, whether new from the manufacturers or gently used and donated by individuals, are auctioned off at a luncheon at the Belle Haven Club.

Listening to Tretter Lynch about her nonstop days, you wonder when she rests.

Short answer: She doesn’t.

A few years ago, Tretter Lynch put the finishing touches on a deal in Greenwich while in Africa with her sister, Holly Simms, who was on a medical mission there.

Sometimes working hard can land you not only a deal but a life partner.

A senior managing director of Credit Suisse was moving from London to Greenwich and was in need of a home. Five years later, Ralph Lynch and Shelly would be sharing a home and family.

As far as advice, Tretter Lynch says, “I never take anything for granted. Whatever success I’ve had… you’re only as good as your last deal.”

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Susan Stillman’s portrait of a Greenwich home.

Susan Stillman’s art captures the spirit of home

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BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF SUSAN STILLMAN

SUSAN STILLMAN KNOWS THE MEANING OF HOME. After all, the White Plains artist has spent the last 25 years creating keepsakes of the subject.

And through Home Portraits by Susan Stillman, she works closely with her clients to immortalize something far greater than simply the place you go to sleep.

Whether it’s a sprawling estate on the Sound, a country home nestled in the woods or a straightforward Victorian on a quiet street, Stillman pays close attention to architectural and natural details. But she also knows there is a more telling – and very personal – thread running through the bricks and wood beams, pristine lawns and lush gardens.

The homes, she shares, are also filled with memories – and it is that aspect of home that connects most deeply with her clients.

“Our homes are a part of us,” Stillman says.

Stillman nurtured an appreciation of homes, architecture and design from her earliest days.

“I grew up just driving with my parents, just looking at homes,” she says.

Art, too, was a part of those years, formalized with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from the Rhode Island School of Design and then a master’s degree, also in fine arts, from The City University of New York-Brooklyn College.

Stillman would spend the next 15 years as an illustrator, her work appearing in books, magazines and national newspapers, and would also begin teaching at Parsons The New School for Design in 1983, something she continues today.

The home-portrait business was launched in 1989 and complements Stillman’s fine-art work. In the latter, she explores

Susan Stillman with her work. Photograph by Eve Prime, Poppy Studio.

Another Greenwich property, as painted by Susan Stillman.

subjects ranging from the tranquility of a picnic table covered in snow to the delicate play of shadows cast on a neighborhood home’s façade. She exhibits both locally and in the city.

The portrait work, though, is her mainstay and most commissions are based in the region, though she has ventured beyond. Particularly memorable was working with a Mississippi family, their memories and a couple of photographs to pay tribute to their longtime home lost to Hurricane Katrina.

Over the years, Stillman has perfected her process. Ideally, it begins with a visit to the property and talking to the clients in detail.

What season will be featured? Will their children, perhaps in earlier days, be depicted? Is there a tree that once held a swing that must be shown?

Stillman will then take countless reference photographs, from varying angles and in varying lights.

“Most of these, especially the big houses, they’re by nature impossible to photograph in one piece,” Stillman says. She uses multiple images to create an overall impression. “It’s like putting together a puzzle.”

She will then get to work in her cozy attic studio, drafting a proposal that details the project. Once finalized, she progresses to creating a “full-scale sketch.”

Of course, there’s always room for a bit of interpretation, whether it’s forcing a few flowers into an early bloom or adding a pet that has long passed on.

“We can throw everything in that’s important to them,” she says.

Stillman says it’s also a learning process for her. She has worked with many a gardener who shares his or her secrets and sometimes collectors, like the one who invited her inside to see his Civil War memorabilia, for example.

Such encounters, she says, add a depth to the project and enhance her connection.

“It’s really personal and the people are really collaborative,” Stillman says.

Finally, she begins to work with acrylics on canvas. When a project is about 70 percent done, Stillman then begins sending progress reports, via email, all leading up to the big reveal.

“The process is so much fun, for both of us,” Stillman says.

Her work is often created to commemorate milestones, from a couple’s anniversary to the purchase of a new home to the relocation from a longtime home where a family was raised.

While Stillman can’t rush the process to create a work in time for this holiday season, she can certainly be secured for a commission that will play out over the coming months.

“I give them a beautiful folder with articles, postcards,” she says, offering the recipient a glimpse into what is to come.

And just what that is, Stillman says, is something that resonates far beyond the holiday season.

“It’s really a forever gift.”

For more, visit susanstillman.com or susanstillmanfineart.com.

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PRESENTED BY HOULIHAN LAWRENCE

NEOCLASSICAL

SPLENDOR A TRANQUIL CHAPPAQUA ESTATE OFFERS TASTEFULLY GRAND LIVING STORY BY HOULIHAN LAWRENCE PHOTOGRAPHS BY TIM LEE, COURTESY HOULIHAN LAWRENCE

One of Westchester’s last grand estates, King’s Way is a majestic neoclassical home built in 1904. From its impressive columned façade to its beautifully scaled and richly ornamental interiors, the home exhibits the unrivaled quality and immense character of its period roots. Richly hued woodwork, refined moldings and plasterwork, deep tray ceilings and stately fireplaces grace all the main rooms and reflect the classic European design that is incorporated throughout the home.

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Among the many noteworthy spaces are a palatial entrance hall with ornate moldings, grand living and dining rooms, and a richly finished mahogany library.

Warm and inviting informal living spaces complement the exquisite formal rooms, including a large dine-in kitchen with a butler’s pantry, a cozy study and an expansive master suite with a screened porch and sundeck.

This magnificent property overlooks sparkling Tertia Lake, offering a tranquil and totally private setting with a lakeside pool, breathtaking grounds and outbuildings that include a carriage house, pool house and barn.

The grounds are introduced by classical pillars and a winding drive that weaves gracefully through the beautifully tended landscape. In the spring, the grounds come alive with a tapestry of color and texture from flowering cherry trees, banks of rhododendrons, azaleas and Japanese split-leaf maples that create a magical display.

Located in one of Westchester’s most sought-after communities, just minutes from the center of Chappaqua and the Metro-North rail station, King’s Way is a 45-minute commute to Manhattan.

For more information, contact Joanne Georgiou of Houlihan Lawrence’s Chappaqua brokerage at 914-238-4766, ext. 313, 914-584-9408, or JGeorgiou@houlihanlawrence.com.

KING’S WAY AT A GLANCE • Chappaqua • 7,223 square feet • 9.68 acres • Bedrooms: 7 • Baths: 6 full, 2 half • Price: $2.895 million

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A home of one’s own Lisa McTernan specializes in personalized décor

BY MARY SHUSTACK PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB ROZYCKI

WHEN IT COMES TO HOME DÉCOR AND HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING, EVEN THE MOST CURSORY GLANCE AROUND LIFESTYLES & INTERIORS BY LISA IN CROTON-ON-HUDSON PROVIDES A WEALTH OF INSPIRATION.

Stylish options at Lifestyles & Interiors by Lisa.

Stylish accents for the home abound, ideal for those settling into a new home for their first holiday season or longtime homeowners sprucing up their surroundings for seasonal gatherings.

Champagne flutes and ice buckets invite a holiday toast, while locally sourced artwork and distinctive lighting set a welcoming backdrop. You’re tempted to settle into an oversize couch artfully decked with an assortment of pillows, seemingly disparate styles subtly tied together by shades of blue.

Throughout the three-floor showroom within steps of the Metro-North station, owner Lisa McTernan not only offers full interior-design services but a collection of well-curated furniture, accessories, art and gift items.

WAG paid a recent visit to pick up a few tips that will not only come in handy this month but can be applied to your surroundings no matter the season.

sonal matter” that should “reflect the personality of those that live within the walls of the space.”

There needs to be a “master plan,” summing up an approach – McTernan likes clients to work on a look book – and making sure the elements mesh with the homeowner’s sensibility for “a home, not a staged house.”

That personal touch makes all the difference, she says.

“I’ve done a lot of show houses and in each one, I always leave a pair of shoes someplace, to show someone really lives here.”

THROUGH THE YEARS McTernan, who can be tapped for everything from ground-up construction to room renovations to the perfect hostess gift, has a keen perspective on trends in design. She opened her shop in 2006 as an outgrowth of the interior-design firm she founded in 1988. She’s a veteran of not only New York trade shows and design events, but also attends the prestigious High Point Market, the furniture showcase in North Carolina, twice a year.

These days, she’s also sharing her knowledge, teaching interior design in the continuing education certificate program at Purchase College.

McTernan has watched times change. One year a color’s in, the next it’s out. Styles come and go in popularity. But, McTernan says, there are constants.

A home remains, she says, a “perLisa McTernan 56

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TREND TALK McTernan has seen a growing move to de-clutter.

“Paring down means really choosing more wisely.”

Sure, you can still display collectibles, but instead of dozens of figurines cramming a shelf, set a few prime examples on an ornate silver tray for maximum impact.

Throughout, the overall approach to both living and entertaining has shifted.

“It’s not really about those very fancy china patterns anymore,” she says. “It’s how they set the table.”

Mod meets traditional. Classic patterns are interpreted on new pieces. McTernan, for example, points to a side table with a twig-inspired base topped with a sleek circle of glass, a “modern twist on an organic piece.”

No matter the ingredients of a room, she says all must come together and function as a whole – within the room and beyond.

“It’s all about cohesiveness from one room to the next.”

All, she says, needs to reflect the homeowner.

“You put your name on your mailbox outside, so how do you put your name – and your personality – on the inside?”

For McTernan, there are signature ways to add a subtle sophistication.

“It’s very important for me to have a continuous thread throughout a space,” she says. It might be the doorknobs or the baseboards, almost-imperceptible elements that subtly tie the look together.

She says not everyone should be doing the same thing, but “it’s valuable to know what trends in color and style are out there for inspiration, if nothing else.”

For McTernan, artwork is another way to leave a personal stamp.

“Art has become very important in a home,” she says. The choice of black-and-white photographs or vibrant abstracts gives a sense of the homeowners’ interests, personality and style.

From there, take the color of a flower in a painting, for example, and echo it in accents from vases to pillows to throws.

PARTY TIME McTernan says while the holidays are filled with opportunities to entertain, the approach should be the same no matter the season.

“In entertaining, the main thing is making people feel welcome,” she says.

And a drink, served from a bar cart topped with old-school decanters, can’t hurt.

Lisa McTernan also offers hostess gifts.

“Ever since ‘Mad Men’ came out, the barware has gone viral,” McTernan says. “It’s very nice when people come in to set up a claimed empty nesters who raised four sons – host a tree-lighting party at which little bar area.” friends old and new gather with family members.

Add candles and low lighting to further enhance the sparkling atmosphere.

Candles lining the walkway set the mood, which continues inside with touches These days, entertaining often heads outdoors, even in winter months when fire that might range from sprigs of greenery to acorns strewn about. pits and heaters keep things toasty. Again, pay attention to décor.

It’s a festive setting that’s become as memorable for its nature-inspired decora“The house is extending into the yard, so you want that cohesiveness, too,” tive accents as for the way it encourages reconnecting with those held dear.

McTernan adds.

It continues, McTernan says, the story of her family and their beloved home.

Her philosophy, as you’d expect, is exemplified in her own home, tucked amid It also reflects, McTernan likes to share, the way Mark Twain once wrote of his the Cortlandt Manor woods. own home, as a place that had “a heart & a soul… it was of us.”

Each year during the holiday season, McTernan and her husband – self-proFor more, visit lifestylesandinteriors.com.

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Guy Bedarida

Hale ’n’ Hardy STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

REAL ESTATE HAS PRIDE OF PLACE IN JOHN HARDY’S JEWELRY COLLECTIONS. Specifically a 30-year-old compound in Ubud, Bali. There amid lush, terraced rice paddies and banyan trees, creative director/head designer Guy Bedarida and his team of 650 native artisans sit down each day at a long table covered in bright yellow or orange tablecloths and set with white dishes to savor a lunch prepared by chef Pak Ngurah with ingredients from the Hardy organic gardens.

Such is the hospitality and magic of the place that they’re often joined by clients who’ve accepted Guy’s gracious invitation to visit the compound, dine with its craftsmen and then tour the workshop and showroom.

At the moment, Guy (pronounced “gee” with a hard “g”) is far from that bucolic setting – visiting Bloomingdale’s White Plains as part of a whirlwind American tour but still having fun, and why not? A throng of customers rings a rectangle of dazzling John Hardy display counters. Brooklyn fashion illustrator Jennifer Lilya charmingly sketches Hardy clients and their richly textured metallic treasures, studded with precious and semiprecious gems. Raspberry-kissed Champagne flows.

Dressed in a velveteen black blazer, white shirt, black pants and shiny black shoes, Guy looks natty and at home amid the chic black-and-white palette of the store’s main floor. Taking a rare breather, he explains that Bali is not only home to his designs, it’s their inspiration. With 17,000 islands, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim country in the world. But Bali remains Hindu. And the serene aspect of the Hindu faith meant that the eight rival kingdoms of long ago chose to compete in art rather than war, Guy says. Today that choice expresses

itself in John Hardy’s ropey, woven, chain-link, filigree styles for men and women that embrace everything from a bamboo fishing rod to Balinese river stones to dragon mythology.

Guy points to a number of stunning silver designs on his own wrist, including a dragon bracelet that is part of the Naga Collection.

“The dragon (Naga) brings love, protection, strength and power to the people who wear it,” Guy says, depending on how you wear it. For instance, turn the 18-karat gold and silver dragon’s-head clasp – with its fiery ruby eyes or black sapphire scales – outward if you want protection.

But it’s not just the Naga Collection that has shoppers jockeying for position.

Hardy’s Cinta Collection is so exclusive that it only travels with Bedarida. Think spessartite garnet and purple and pink spinel rings crusted with pavé pink sapphires and spinels, orange spessartites and brown and white diamonds all set in bands of 18-karat pink or yellow gold.

The sparkling abstraction of these designs – a complement to the folkloric flavor of the Naga Collection – reflects Guy’s time as head designer at Van Cleef & Arpels, something he only modestly mentions as an aside. It was while he was at Van Cleef some 15 years ago that Hardy spirited him away for his Balinese company. And though Guy travels to Europe – where he had a childhood foothold in both France and Italy thanks to a Parisian father and a Florentine mother– he wouldn’t have it any other way.

For more on John Hardy, visit johnhardy.com and Bloomingdales.com.

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THE SCENT OF ROYALTY The House of Houbigant creates historically inspired perfumes – four centuries later

BY DANIELLE RENDA

“IT ALL BEGAN WITH JUST A BASKET OF FLOWERS,” SAYS THE HOUSE OF HOUBIGANT. The company dates from 1775, when Jean-François Houbigant first advertised flowers above his small shop in Paris. And the rest is history.

At the time – the age of revolution – fragrance sales were skyrocketing, an effort to mask the stench of French streets, along with questionable hygiene.

Houbigant’s business would quickly evolve from flowers to perfumes, attracting a clientele that included the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette – who carried three vials of the perfume with her in a corsage on her way to the guillotine to give her strength – Napoleon and Queen Victoria. During the 1800s, the house unveiled two fragrances – Quelques Fleurs for women and Fougere Royale for men – that were so popular they remain in stores today.

The Houbigant and the Perris families crossed paths in 1973, when Michele Perris met the last member of the Houbigant line. A close friendship was formed, so close that the pair worked together until the owner sold his company, due to illness. The Perris family fought for years to win control of the Houbigant name and in 2005, they succeeded.

Today, the Perrises remain the powerhouse behind Houbigant and the founder of their own line, Perris Monte Carlo Perfume.

At Neiman Marcus Westchester, the classic Quelques Fleurs Royale joins two new Houbigant fragrances – Orangers en Fleurs and Iris des Champs. What they share is a medley of florals, musk and woodiness, leaving a trace of musk and vanilla.

QUELQUES FLEURS ROYALE Advertised as a “spellbinding elixir,” this fragrance was inspired by perfumes produced for Princess Louise Marie Adélaïde Eugénie d’Orléans, one of the twin daughters of Louis Philippe II d’Orléans during the early 1800s.

The top notes are blackcurrant and grapefruit, with middle notes of jasmine, rose, tuberose and beeswax absolute as well as violet, with the bottom notes leaving traces of sandalwood, cedar, vanilla and musk.

ORANGERS EN FLEURS This scent celebrates the orange tree, the symbol of fertility, wealth, virtue and love, according to Houbigant. Quite the romantic blend, the fragrance uses traces from the orange peel, along with flowers, leaves and branches of the tree.

The top note is a mixture of orange blossom, rose and Egyptian absolute, with a middle of tuberose, eau de brouts, ylang comores and nutmeg, with the bottom leaving hints of cedar and musk.

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Quelques Fleurs Royale, $190-$600.

Orangers en Fleurs, $190-$600.

Poudre Parfumée pour le Corps, $300.

Iris des Champs, $190-$600.

IRIS DES CHAMPS As Houbigant’s newest addition, this scent is nonetheless a blast from the past, combining flowers, woodiness and musk – Houbigant’s signature scents.

The top note is that of bergamot, pink pepper, rose and lily-of-thevalley, followed by iris, jasmine and ylang-ylang, with the bottom of sandalwood, amber, woodiness, vanilla and musk.

POUDRE PARFUMÉE POUR LE CORPS For those who prefer powder to perfume, Houbigant has an alternative.

As part of the Quelques Fleurs l’Original collection, this silk-like powder kept in a frosted glass container cradles the fragrances of its mother perfume, Quelques Fleurs.

Houbigant’s Limited Edition 2014 features bottles hand-painted, numbered and signed by creative director Elisabetta Perris, using 18-karat gold. Only a few bottles are created annually. The perfume is accompanied by a funnel to transfer the delicate fragrances into their porcelain vessels.

For more, visit houbigant-parfum.com or neimanmarcus.com

ON HER MAJESTY’S JEWELRY SERVICE HARRODS – CHECK. SELFRIDGES – CHECK. LIBERTY LONDON – CHECK, CHECK AND CHECK. Could Neiman Marcus be far behind?

It couldn’t and it isn’t. Fine jewelry brand Astley Clarke – whose founding chairman, Bec Astley Clarke, was awarded an MBE (a Member of the Order of the British Empire)

by Queen Elizabeth II for Services to Jewelry – recently arrived at 11 Neiman Marcus stores, including Atlanta, Boston, flagship Dallas, Los Angeles and, of course, Neiman Marcus Westchester in White Plains.

“Neiman Marcus has long been renowned for its portfolio of highly unique and intelligent fine jewelry brands,” says Clarke, who founded the line in 2006. “As a celebrated British luxury brand, we are thrilled to sit

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alongside their current edit and to be able to offer their customer the chance to shop some of Astley Clarke’s most iconic pieces.

I am utterly delighted to be partnering with them and other key stores within the USA.” The selections – from the Muse and Biography collections – are created at the London design studio.

Muse marries 14-karat rose, white and yellow gold with diamond pavé for a mosaic evocation. Inspired by the Indian festival of Rakhi, Biography uses diamond pavé again and gemstones for a beaded, fringed effect.

Astley Clarke pieces are also available in the U.S. at Saks Fifth Avenue and Ylang23.

For more, visit neimanmarcus.com and astleyclarke.com.

timeless GALLERY

Frans Snyders (1579—1657) Still Life with Fruit, Dead Game, Vegetables, a live Monkey, Squirrel and Cat Oil on canvas.

HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION, on Permanent Loan to LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna

DESIGNER VINTAGE HANDBAGS & ACCESSORIES

Northern Baroque

Splendor

The HOHENBUCHAU COLLECTION from: LIECHTENSTEIN. The Princely Collections, Vienna September 20, 2014–April 12, 2015

BRUCE MUSEUM

Greenwich, Connecticut 203.869.0376 | brucemuseum.org

PRE-OWNED C SSIC & CONTEMPORARY WATCHES

112 Mason Street • Greenwich, CT 203-769-1300 • timelessgallery.com WAGMAG.COM

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HEAVENLY HAIR FOR THE HOLIDAYS

A SAMPLING OF SALONS AND DAY SPAS TO HAVE YOU SPARKLING COMPILED BY DANIELLE RENDA

ADAM BRODERICK

FREDERIC FEKKAI

PAULO’S ATELIER

STATIC HAIR SALON

89 Danbury Road, Ridgefield 203-431-3994 adambroderick.com

2 Lewis Court, Greenwich 203-861-6700 fekkai.com

725 Bedford Road, Bedford Hills 914-666-2800 paulosatelier.com

SPECIAL SERVICES: hair textures; special events, including bridal and prom; spa includes massage, body, face, nails, makeup and waxing treatments

SERVICES: nail treatments, makeup application and eyebrows

SERVICES: hair extensions, waxing, makeup application and off-site bridal

180 Mamaroneck Ave., North Loft, White Plains 914-997-2600 statichair.com

LA BOTTEGA SALON

RICHARD SCOTT

520 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains 914-948-7227 salonlabottega.com

15-17 S. Moger Ave., Mount Kisco 914-242-1700 richardscottsalon.com

CHERYLYN SALON 430 Bedford Road, Route 22, Armonk 914-273-7900 cherylynsalon.com SPECIAL SERVICES: hair conditioning; makeup application; eyebrow; events, including bar/bat mitzvah, Sweet 16, prom and wedding parties

CHRISTOPHER NOLAND 124 Greenwich Ave., Second floor, Greenwich 203-622-4247 christophernoland.com

SERVICES: hair extensions and straightening, makeup application, nail treatment and waxing

NOBLE SALON 848 High Ridge Road, Stamford 203-322-8483 noblesalon.com SERVICES: hair textures and conditioning and makeup application

SPECIAL SERVICES: events, including bridal, facials, masks and peels

NUMI & CO.

ELIZABETH ARDEN RED DOOR SPAS

69 Harney Road, Scarsdale 914-574-6402 numihair.com

125 Westchester Ave., White Plains 914-840-8880 reddoorspas.com SERVICES: scalp treatments; events including bridal; massage, body, face, makeup, nails, wax and medi-spa services

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SERVICES: cutting, styling, color and textures

SERVICES: hair textures and extensions, nail treatments, waxing, and events including bridal; makeup application, eyelashes and airbrush tanning

SALON 228 26 S. Greeley Ave., Chappaqua 914-238-3172

SERVICES: hair extensions and straightening; on-call, seven-day service provided to client residences, special events and weddings

VASKEN SALON 12 City Place, White Plains 914-285-0800 vaskendemirjian.com SERVICES: Keratin treatments, makeup application and events, including bridal

VINCENT PALUMBO SALON

SERVICES: hair textures, facial, waxing, events, including prom and weddings

616 Post Road East, Westport 203-454-8600 vincentpalumbosalon.com

SALON D’LUXE

SERVICES: cutting, styling, extensions and texture treatments

145 Kisco Ave., Mount Kisco 914-666-2226 salondmtkisco.com SERVICES: hair textures and extensions, makeup application, bridal services, Botox, fillers and medical grade peels

WARREN TRICOMI 1 E. Putnam Ave., Greenwich 212-262-8899 ext. 4 warrentricomi.com SERVICES: hair extensions and straightening, nail treatment, eyebrow and waxing, makeup application, bridal services in-house or on-site

430 BEDFORD ROAD 路 ARMONK, NY 10504 路 914.273.7900

TRENDS

Indulge, enjoy, and cherish!

This Year, Give A Few Years Back With a Younger You Gift Certificate

A Gift Certificate from The Greenwich Medical Skincare and Laser Spa makes it possible to take a few years off the face by rejuvenating skin with the most advanced procedures currently available.

There’s a Younger You inside each of us. The Greenwich Medical Skincare and Laser Spa Gift Certificate makes it easy to bring out. Available in any amount.

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TRENDS

la bottega salon IT’S MORE THAN A HAIRSTYLE, IT’S A LIFE STYLE

Sparkle under the mistletoe this year !

To our valued clients,

we give our heartfelt thanks and wishes for a wonderful holiday season and for 2015 to bring you only the best of everything!

263 S. Ridge Street Rye Brook, New York

914-937-5333

520 Mamaroneck Ave. White Plains, New York

914-948-7227

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Pamper yourself and those you love this holiday season!

WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE

CONDOLA RASHAD

RUBIN SINGER’S

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND

EMPOWERS HERSELF

ASYMMETRIC STYLING

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INTELLIGENT CHOICES

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TENNIS TODAY: John McEnroe’s juniors, plus racket power Getting a kick out of soccer Mount Kisco Country Club’s links to history Pilates, swimming, equestrian sports and more Our annual Back to School list Chic Choices

AUGUST 2014 | WAGMAG.COM

POWER

PLAY

WESTCHESTER&FAIRFIELD LIFE

AU NATUREL

À LA ARTIST CATHERINE LATSON

INVENTIVE POWERS IN OUR OWN BACKYARD

LIFE IS A HIGHWAY

DOCTORS MAKING WAVES IN NEUROSCIENCE

SILVERY TOUCH

JUDITH ECONOMOS EVOLUTION OF A SCULPTURE THE POETIC MIND OF JUDY COLLINS YOGA THAT LIFTS YOU UP VINCE CAMUTO SOLE MAN

OCTOBER 2014 | WAGMAG.COM WESTCHESTER & FAIRFIELD LIFE

A LUXE SOLUTION FOR WANDERLUST

brain

POWER

CHRISTOFLE HAS IT

FAMILIAR FACES RETURN TO HELM NEIMAN, SAKS ARMED, BUT NOT DANGEROUS, AT THE FRICK CHIC CHOICES

POWER SUITS

SEPTEMBER 2014 | WAGMAG.COM

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Award-winning Massages, Facials, Body Therapy featuring European Vichy Showers, and much more Extensive Spa Boutique with full range of skincare products, including Eminence Organics & GM Collin, plus gifts for everyone on your list Follow us on Social Media for our fabulous sales!

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11/12/14 11:23 AM

chic CHOICES COMPILED BY MARY SHUSTACK

WARM AND TOASTY The holiday season is the perfect time to wrap yourself in something cozy. We checked in with April Bukofser and Marin Milio, the fashion designers and entrepreneurs behind AprilMarin in Armonk, for suggestions. They share that their best sellers for the holiday season include the Carnegie poncho ($298), right, in winter-weight fine Merino wool and, below, the Boulder infinity scarf ($56) that comes in hunter, grey, taupe and purple. What a fashionable way to bundle up.

For more, visit aprilmarin.com.

Photographs courtesy AprilMarin.

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Gifts and new products ideal for any occasion

Photograph courtesy Tequila Herradura.

A LITTLE SOMETHING EXTRA When it’s time for holiday entertaining, you want to go that extra mile. Your guests will certainly notice if your bar features Tequila Herradura’s latest installment in the limited-edition Colección de la Casa series. The Reserva 2014 Scotch Cask Finish Reposado ($89.99) has undergone a double maturation process, aged first in charred American oak casks for 11 months and then transferred to single malt scotch casks from Scotland for three additional months of aging. The special attention imparts both a desirable taste and a finish sure to impress. Cheers!

For more, visit herradura.com.

FROM ONE HOUSE TO ANOTHER There’s no denying the inherent style and design of The Glass House in New Canaan, architect Philip Johnson’s longtime home and now a National Trust Historic Site. As you’d expect, its Design Store is a treasure trove of stylish home furnishings, accessories, books and more. Need ideas for the kitchen? Options range from the Fruit Bowl and Colander (designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1995 for Alessi, $255) to the Cake Knife (Matali Crasset for Pierre Hermé, manufactured by Forge de Laguiole in France, $352) and from the Geo Thermos (designed by Nicholai Wiig Hansen for Normann Copenhagen, $90) to the Cast Iron Casserole (designed by Timo Sarpaneva for iittala 1960, $295).

For more, visit designstore.theglasshouse.org.

Photographs courtesy The Glass House.

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chicCHOICES LINKED IN

Samantha Levine of Auburn Jewelry puts gentlemen in the spotlight this holiday season. The Mount Kiscobased designer’s handcrafted cufflinks make an ideal gift for the well-dressed man. Every piece is created on a made-to-order basis, with options ranging from the oldstandby monogram to a company logo to images reflecting personal interests. Available in sterling silver or 14k gold, the cufflinks ($125 to $195) can be crafted in one of 18 standard colors, with custom hues on request.

For more, visit auburn-jewelry.com.

Photograph courtesy Auburn Jewelry.

Photograph by Bob Rozycki.

THE GLAMOROUS LIFE It’s all about that little something extra, those touches that make you stand out from the crowd. And Love, Leeann provides the perfect hunting ground for exactly those kinds of fashions, accessories and gifts for the young – and the young at heart. Leeann Cerrito brought more than 25 years of experience as a stylist and merchandiser with her when she opened the Irvington boutique earlier this year. Shoppers can take advantage of her well-tested advice, while also feeling great about their purchases (Cerrito donates 5 percent of all proceeds of sales to The Abbott House, a human services agency). Slip into something glam for the holiday season with, from top left, Donna Salyers’ Fabulous Furs’ faux-fur jacket ($148), the 525 America rabbit-fur vest ($198) or for the fashionable young lady, Kiddos’ studded-pleather jacket ($44).

For more, visit facebook.com/LoveLeeannNY.

STAY GOLDEN

Fine pieces inspired by nature are the specialty of Golden Sands Jewelry, which has just launched a website having also recently expanded into retail stores across America and Asia. Popular picks in sterling silver and micron-gold plating include the Spring Collection earrings ($160) and ring ($100) and the Weave collection earrings ($90) and statement cuff ($560). Shine on.

For more, visit goldensandsjewelry.com.

Photograph courtesy Architect At Home.

THAT HOLIDAY GLOW Everyone knows how flattering candlelight can be. Add heady scents, savvy design and a great backstory, and you’ve got all the makings of a winning home accent.

Architect At Home, David Tsui’s London-based company that specializes in bespoke furniture and interior accessories, has introduced the Deco Collection Scented Candles. The signature line of soy wax-and-botanical oil candles is simply intoxicating. We are charmed by the design and packaging inspired by the Art Deco era. The scents are also unique, ranging from Fruity & Gourmand to Woody & Spicy to Floral & Tea, a lovely blend with notes of roses, tuberose, rosewater, Earl Grey, Darjeeling, chamomile and rosewood. Reach out across the pond ($100, including shipping) for a one-of-a-kind gift.

For more, visit architectathomelondon.com/on-lineshop/.

Photographs courtesy Golden Sands Jewelry.

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WANDERS

VACATION RENTALS with all the

TRIMMINGS

BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

All photographs copyright/courtesy Villas of Distinction.

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LAS VEGAS

A

ANYONE CAN RENT A VACATION HOME, STEVE LASSMAN SAYS. “Call a real estate agent and they’ll find you a home. But we create a full-service experience.”

The “we” being Villas of Distinction, part of World Travel Holdings, which is No. 19 on Travel Weekly’s Power List and the world’s largest cruise distributor.

What Villas of Distinction does, however, is find you a vacation house or apartment throughout the world that belongs to a third party you never deal with. Instead, Villas of Distinction assigns you an agent and then a concierge who is there to cater to your every need or whim.

“It’s a highly specialized team,” Lassman, vice president and general manager, says of the company’s mostly home-based workforce, “because the more knowledge you have, the better it is.”

Lassman is not only a Villas executive, he’s also a client.

“I go to Jamaica every other year with my wife and friends.

I love the house we stay in, and every night there’s a gorgeous sunset.”

And he has the time to savor that sunset, because every Villa of Distinction comes with a full staff, so there’s a butler to anticipate when you’re thirsty and a cook to serve up the catch that the fishermen haul in daily. That leaves Lassman free to indulge his passion for golf, zip-lining and horseback riding.

Or maybe you’re more of a foodie, he says. Villas of Distinction can not only get you a place in St. Maarten in the Caribbean but will put together an eclectic dining experience for you at the island’s eateries.

Villas had one client, celebrating her 50th birthday, who rented Casa Aramara in Punta Mita, Mexico for a week. (The cost of the rental – $150,000. Rentals start at $5,000.) But that was just the beginning. For her special day, she wanted fire-

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COLORADO

GREECE

THAILAND

CROATIA

ITALY

works and a mariachi band. Villas of Distinction made sure she had them.

It’s a world away from renting a vacation home and being left to fend for yourself. And it’s certainly different from being in a hotel environment, particularly when it comes to family travel, which is trending now.

“If a family goes to a resort, they have their individual rooms. Where are they going to meet?

The lobby? The pool?”

In a villa, there are many common areas. And should a family have a special needs child or an elderly relative, Villas of Distinction can easily prepare for him or her as well, Lassman says, adding, “It’s very comforting.”

Besides Mexico and the Caribbean, Villas of Distinction offers houses in France, Spain, Croatia, Italy, Greece, Belize, Costa Rica, the Tahitian island of Motu Teta and Thailand as well as apartments in London and Paris. The company – which also has rentals in Miami’s South Beach, Colorado, Utah, Jackson Hole, Wyo., Las Vegas and Hawaii – is looking to add to its domestic listings.

Whether you’re on Mykonos or Maui, though, you’ll receive the same service.

“Whatever is going to make you happy, we’ll do it,” Lassman says, adding with a laugh, “as long as it’s legal, we’ll do it.”

For more, visit villasofdistinction.com.

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WONDERFUL

DINING

Seared lamb chops and creamed corn.

Photographs courtesy of the restaurant.

Food is the only subject at this Schoolhouse

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BY GEORGETTE GOUVEIA

TIM LABANT, CHEF/OWNER OF THE SCHOOLHOUSE AT CANNONDALE IN WILTON FOR THE LAST EIGHT YEARS, LIVES IN A HOUSE TWO MILES FROM THE RESTAURANT, WHICH IS ONLY OPEN WEDNESDAYS TO SUNDAYS. AND THAT IS ALL BY DESIGN. LABANT HAS A WIFE, CO-OWNER JULIE, AND FOUR CHILDREN, WHOM HE ENJOYS SPENDING TIME WITH. SO PERHAPS THE FIRST RULE OF THE SCHOOLHOUSE IS BALANCE FAMILY AND WORK. The restaurant is actually in a former one-room schoolhouse that dates from 1872. A kitchen was added to the back in 1980.

“It’s been a restaurant from 1980 to 2004, but it was a casual hot dog-hamburger kind of place,” says LaBant, who leased the building in 2006 and gutted it for a nine-month renovation

DECEMBER 2014

that preserved the molding and the blacksmith’s nails, among other 19th-century details.

“It’s modern but reflective of the time period,” LaBant says of the Shaker-style wainscoting, slate bar and white, darkchocolate brown and salmon palette. “It’s a bit of a mix but comes off pretty well.”

As for the palate, well, LaBant thinks of that in terms of a palette as well.

“It’s my personal palette – the mood of the season, the creativity of myself and the staff.” The menu may feature chestnut soup, Portuguese octopus, lamb sausage, Painted Hills short ribs, Berkshire Pork loin, dark chocolate soufflé and spiced

Fennel–Parmesan fritters with greens in buttermilk–bacon dressing Serves 6

FOR THE DRESSING - Yields about 1 cup

The Schoolhouse in winter.

3 slices thick-cut bacon (4 ounces), cut into 1/4-inch-thick pieces 1/2 cup buttermilk, well-shaken 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1 medium clove garlic, minced and mashed to a paste with a pinch of salt 1 small whole scallion, trimmed and finely chopped Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE FRITTERS AND GREENS Kosher salt 1 pound fennel bulbs (about 2 large), stalks and fronds removed; bulbs halved and cored 6-inch length baguette, cut into 1-inch pieces 3 ounces Parmigiano Reggiano, cut in pieces and finely ground in a food processor (about 3/4 cup) 2 large eggs, lightly beaten 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped Freshly ground black pepper 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus more if needed 6 ounces mixed greens (6 cups packed)

Strawberry rhubarb.

bread pudding.

It changes frequently with no one item generally appearing for more than two months.

“We support sustainable Connecticut farmers,” he says, “but it’s winter in New England and the leaves are off the trees. Nothing’s growing.”

LaBant orders from different purveyors, making the most of winter vegetables like Brussels sprouts, squash and parsnips. He also uses a root cellar and the different food-preservation techniques that New Englanders have relied on for centuries, like pickling and curing.

“We’re not cooking for a family though, but for a restaurant,” he adds, “and our amount of storage is limited.”

LaBant grew up in Wilton with a mother who was a “fantastic cook.”

But it wasn’t until he was nearing the end of college (Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio) that he got in front of a stove. He cooked out in Boulder, Colo., and got a job at IBM in IT sales. By then cooking had taken hold and he completed his culinary training at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where he earned high honors and numerous awards. This son of New England went on to sharpen his skills in Boston under Frank McClelland, chef/owner of L’Espalier on Boylston Street, and Ming Tsai, perhaps best-known for the PBS series “Simply Ming.”

LaBant was shopping around for real estate for the catering business he had started when he saw The Schoolhouse and realized the space deserved a restaurant. Tim LeBant Catering & Events is still going strong. Perhaps another reason that The Schoolhouse is in session Wednesdays through Sundays.

As LaBant says, “Never bite off more than you can chew.”

The Schoolhouse at Cannondale is at 34 Cannon Road in Wilton. For more information, call 203-834-9816 or visit schoolhouseatcannondale.com.

TO MAKE THE DRESSING In a 10- to 12-inch heavy frying pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, stirring occasionally, about six minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to drain.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, mayonnaise, garlic, scallion, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Whisk in the bacon. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour and up to 8 hours.

TO MAKE THE FRITTERS Bring 5 cups of water to a boil in a 3-quart saucepan. Add 1 teaspoon of salt.

Using the large holes of a box grater, coarsely grate the fennel. Add the fennel to the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Drain in a fine mesh strainer and rinse under cold running water until completely cool. Using a large spoon, press out as much water as possible from the fennel while in the strainer, and then transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Place another paper towel over the fennel and press to remove more excess water.

Put the bread in a food processor and process until you have coarse crumbs.

(You should have about 2 cups). Transfer the crumbs to a large bowl. Add the fennel, Parmesan, eggs, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Mix gently to combine.

Heat the oil in a 12-inch cast-iron (or nonstick) skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Drop heaping tablespoonfuls of the batter into the oil.

Press down lightly on the each fritter to form a 2-inch patty. Cook the fritters in batches until golden and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain briefly.

Arrange the greens on six serving plates. Place 2 fritters over each and drizzle with some of the dressing. Serve immediately with the remaining dressing on the side.

— Tim LaBant

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WINE & DINE

SAY IT WITH CHAMPAGNE STORY AND PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG PAULDING

I

n my world, little else compares to the pop of a bottle of sparkling wine being opened. In one glorious pop, Hervé Deschamps, Perrier-Jouët’s cellar master, with its iconic flower bottle line. or more properly, a gently eased-out “pfffttt,” your day changes. This sound alone makes people giddy with anticipation. It tells everyone present your work day is done and it’s Disgorgement is the process of removing the sediment by dipping the neck of the time to chillax. It’s time to enjoy the playful bubbles and connect with bottle in a very cold liquid that immediately freezes the sediment into an ice plug. someone – or everyone.

The cap is taken off the bottle, and the ice plug is forcibly ejected by pressure. The Champagne has done an amazing PR job over the years linking itself to celebrabottle is then topped off with more wine and re-corked and caged. tion. What wedding, anniversary, birthday or graduation would be complete withThere are so many good producers of traditional method sparkling wines. Virout something sparkling to kick things off? Well-made sparkling wines are a wontually all the wine regions of the world are making sparkling wines. Some of the derful house-warming gift, or dinner gift or any-other-time gift. Even before your regions are dedicated almost exclusively to sparkling wines, such as Franciacorta in first taste, I don’t know if it’s the bubbles that look like micro dancing balloons in north-central Italy. Others make sparklers as an adjunct to their portfolio. Look for the glass, but something gives you the feeling of being elevated, of being raised above Crémant sparklers. These are delicious bubblies made in Burgundy, Alsace or the your worldly troubles, of being transported to a place of relaxation and communion Loire Valley among other places. They are made in the traditional method and are and connection. It’s true: Bubbly implies “party,” in a classy and sophisticated way. considerably less expensive than Champagne.

With the dot-com economy howling in the ’90s, dinner guests would often California, New Mexico, Virginia and Massachusetts are but a few of the many appear at my home with a bottle of Champagne. We would “pop” and toast and states that produce lovely sparkling wines. I have just opened an inexpensive Gloria clink glasses and settle into an afternoon and/or an evening of spirited conversation Ferrer Blanc de Noirs from Carneros in Napa, Calif. for inspiration for this story. It’s and fun. dry with a frothy citrusy component and a background flavor of toast. Retailing at Then the economy tanked and teetered on the precipice of worldwide depresunder $20, it is refreshing and worthy. sion. And what happened next? Guests no longer brought Champagne to my house.

Sparkling wines can be bone-dry, quite sweet or anything in between. They are They brought Prosecco. Talk about depression. I savor traditional and well-made usually white but can also be Rosé or even red. Smaller wine stores are likely only to bubblies. I love exploring the crisp citrus component or the yeasty “freshly-madehave a few options in different price points. I like to buy sparklers at mega-stores like croissant” component. I won’t open a bottle of Prosecco unless there are at least six Total Wine (totalwine.com) in Norwalk, just off the Merritt Parkway on old Route people, because one pour is enough for me. The bubbles tend to be seafoam froth 7 (Main Avenue). It offers hundreds of sparkling wines from all over the world and and don’t linger. But well-made bubbly? Now that’s something to investigate. from all over the pricing spectrum. There are also inexpensive wine classes someThe difference between the two is the production method. Most Proseccos and times featuring sparklers. other industrial sparkling wines employ the Charmat method. They ferment the As the holidays approach and the invitations appear in your mailbox and on your grape juice turning it into wine. Then it’s put in bulk tanks with more sugar and computer and you’re wanting to bring something that goes with everything and yeasts to create a second fermentation, which is then bottled. something that is enjoyed by most everyone, find some well-made bubbly. The tradiIn Champagne and other sparkling wine areas, they use the Méthode Champetional method of production is obviously more expensive than the bulk-made Charnoise or Méthode Traditionnelle. In this technique, the juice is fermented in tanks mat method, so expect to pay a few more bucks for it. Online wine sites like wtso. or barrels. Then this still wine is bottled, some sugar and yeasts are added and a com often offer up heavily discounted bubblies. secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle.

Oh, and glassware is important. Narrow flutes concentrate the bubbles but the flaBut this method creates dead yeast cells and sediment in the bottle that need to vors remain somewhat constricted. Bowl-shaped glasses will dilute both the bubbles be removed without diluting the bubbles. The bottles are placed in riddling racks and flavors. Look for a typical white wine glass, vertically walled. Bubbles and exand turned a quarter of a turn and tipped slightly more vertically and upside-down pression: Now we’re talking! each day. A good riddler can turn 50,000 bottles in a day. When the bottle is almost Write me at doug@dougpaulding.com. vertical, the sediment all collects in the neck.

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WHETTING THE APPETTITE

TUSCAN CHICKEN stuffed with sage, lemon and garlic

BY JACKIE RUBY, THE COOKING REALTOR From left, Laura Hoffman, Phil Risi (holding a platter of Tuscan chicken), Lisa White, Jackie Ruby and Valentino, Katy Monteleone and Barbara Plunkett. Photograph courtesy Jackie Ruby.

Hi, my saucy readers: On my travels to Tuscany, I had numerous chicken dishes, which inspired this recipe — Tuscan chicken stuffed with sage, garlic and lemon.

It’s so delicious and relatively easy to make.

You can serve it with mushrooms, rice, roasted potatoes or sautéed spinach. I would recommend accompanying it with a good Sauvignon Blanc or dry Pinot Grigio.

Any questions, please contact me at jacquelineruby@hotmail.com.

Yours in sauciness, Jackie

INGREDIENTS: 6 chicken breasts or thighs 2 lemons, one cut in half and then in quarters 4 cloves of garlic, cut into quarters

DIRECTIONS: Lift up the skin and make two 1-inch slits in the chicken (about 3 inches apart).

When chicken is done, turn oven to broil and broil the chicken for 1 minute.

Stuff one-half piece of sage leaf and a piece of lemon into one slit.

Let chicken rest 10 minutes after taking it out of the oven.

Stuff a piece of garlic into the other slit.

Add chopped parsley and mint to sauce drippings and then pour the sauce from the pan over the chicken.

You can zest nutmeg and a half teaspoon of ground fennel seeds as well and add it to the sauce.

Season chicken with salt and pepper.

In a shallow dish, mix the flour, the zest of one lemon and the oregano.

Coat chicken pieces on both sides in the mixture, shaking off any loose flakes.

Heat about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan.

6 to 8 sage leaves

Sauté chicken on both sides (brown evenly) and set aside.

1 cup of flour

Add the wine to frying pan and loosen

2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1 cup chicken broth ½ cup dry white wine 1 tablespoon chopped mint 2 teaspoons oregano Salt and pepper 3 tablespoons olive oil 78

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up all the brown bits. Reduce wine for about 3 minutes.

Add chicken broth and the juice of one lemon and cook for an additional 4 minutes.

Preheat convection oven at 350 degrees.

Arrange chicken in a roasting pan and cook for 30 to 35 minutes.

LETTER TO THE COOKING REALTOR Hi Jackie, I made the sauce last night — only used one 28-ounce can of plum tomatoes that I briefly blitzed in the Cuisinart before adding the meat. My whole family loved it — even the picky eaters. I didn’t add the cheese, because we are kosher, but it was still delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe. I have already forwarded it to friends.

Best, Rebecca For the Bolognese recipe, visit wagmag.com/ tag/bolognese-sauce/.

nd

Elegance and Modern Luxury

This home, one of Westchester's majestic manors, is a retreat of solitude and beauty with spectacular distant views of the country side. The shingle style Colonial residence is offered on 15+ acres, and is surrounded by additional 150 acres of nature conservancy, making it one of the most private properties in the area.

6,800 square feet include custom designed interiors amidst the highest standard of aesthetics and craftsmanship. A beautifully appointed first floor master suite is only one of the many features that makes this home the ultimate environment for gracious living and entertaining.

For more information about this South Salem, NY masterpiece,please call Lia Grasso at 914-584-8440 or email her at lia@liagrasso.com

WHAT’S UP

The REAL ESTATE of a newlywed

BY MARK LUNGARIELLO

W

hen couples married in the olden days – the 1970s – the first post-wedding task was finding the perfect house to move into together.

By the time I was married, on Nov. 1 of this year, my wife, Julie, and I had already lived together for almost two years. We weren’t house hunting, because she and her cat Ella had already invaded my one-bedroom condominium in White Plains like some imperial force. Julie and Ella, a cat so big she has her own gravitational pull, gobbled up all of my closet, drawer and even bed space.

They left a trail of blonde hair – human and feline – in every crevice and corner and on every piece of clothing in the condo. And just when they had finished rearranging all of my furniture and taking down all my decorative touches – like the signed Mariano Rivera jersey – they decided to pluck me from the New York mainland and take me to north Brooklyn, that far-off place I had read so much about in The New York Times’ real estate and feature sections.

I rented out the condo to a young woman who had moved to White Plains from Staten Island, that not-so-exotic place I had barely seen mentioned in The Times’ real estate and feature sections. Instead of moving into a new, white picket-fenced home with a yard, we went the opposite way, back to renting this year. We chose the neighborhood of Greenpoint, a tucked away, hard-toaccess area off the dreaded G subway line with nonetheless great views of the Manhattan skyline that will soon be blocked by luxury residential towers, part of the overdevelopment of Brooklyn’s waterfront.

Greenpoint, we said, was mutually inconvenient, for me commuting by car up to White Plains and for Julie, commuting by subway and PATH to Jersey City, where she is a creative director. In the ancient times of the 1980s and 1990s, you might seek out a neighborhood for its school districts, access to public transportation or aesthetics. Our goal was to make life equally hellish for each other, one of the bedrocks of a good marriage I’m told.

Torture is part of any romantic relationship, but it’s important that both parties feel equally victimized, Julie tells me. What she doesn’t mention is that she lived in Greenpoint prior to moving in with me in White Plains. And when I say we chose the neighborhood for its mutual inconvenience, what I really mean was she decided it was where she and Ella wished to live. She assured me our rent and expenses, elevated by the word “Brooklyn,” would be offset by the luxuries of having a washer-dryer, central air and even a working garbage disposal. (Eat your heart out and pluck its bits out of the drain, Manhattanites).

There is also the has-to-be-seen-to-be-believed roof-deck we have, where we can host barbecues and plant tomatoes when it’s warm while looking across the river at the city’s most iconic skyscrapers.

Julie and Ella used the move from White Plains as an opportunity to rid themselves of even more of my stuff. All of the things that had been taken off the walls or off the shelves were put into boxes and shipped not to our new destination but to storage. Once we got to the new place, Julie decided to celebrate with some new pieces of furniture. We discussed and planned what was best

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TORTURE IS PART OF ANY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP, BUT IT’S IMPORTANT THAT BOTH PARTIES FEEL EQUALLY VICTIMIZED, JULES TELLS ME.

for the apartment. By discussed and planned, I mean she told me what to do.

When I disagreed with adding a second bookcase, she took the strategy of revisiting the topic every single night, restating her case for the new piece of furniture. This conversation continued over and over until one day I said, “Fine.”

A similar conversation is going on these days, with Julie wanting to remove the second television in the bedroom. Like my impending male pattern baldness, I know it is only a question of when, not if, Julie will win.

We are under contract for the apartment until September. It’s a one-bedroom and we know it may not be large enough if babies arrive or if Ella continues to eat at her current pace and grows so large that the walk-up is no longer able to contain her. (Julie says Ella isn’t fat, just big-boned. She often comments that the cat looks skinny and wonders if Ella is emotionally fulfilled.)

We have talked about buying something back up in Westchester, where the property taxes are five digits long and people argue less over if their school district is good or bad but more over if it is elite or really elite enough. We’ve looked at real estate listings in other equally mutually inconvenient places in north Brooklyn, where the spillover from the Williamsburg phenomenon is encroaching on the neighborhood, overcrowding the streets and pushing buildings higher and higher – to say nothing of the rents. We get to pay New York City an income tax for the pleasure of dishing out these rents. Meanwhile, everything from car insurance to a gallon of milk seems to be more expensive the deeper we venture into the urban jungle.

With the cost of home maintenance and all the property taxes and fees, we – and many others in our generation, mid-30s – haven’t ruled out continuing to rent. “I want to buy,” Julie says, “but real estate in New York City seems daunting.” She chooses the word “daunting” carefully and I notice she says “New York City.”

We have a lot to discuss and plan. By that I mean wherever Julie decides to go with Ella, I’ll drive them.

Happy holidays FOR GOUR-MUTTS

BY DR. JAN BELLOWS

Dr. Jan Bellows with his dogs. Photograph courtesy Dr. Jan Bellows.

Every year, countless dogs head to the vet after the holidays suffering from digestive problems and canine pancreatitis, because they’ve eaten things they really shouldn’t.

So how can you say “Bone Appetit” to Fido while still keeping your hungry hound happy and healthy?

Dog parents can start by avoiding these top three doggy health hazards: 1. Left out leftovers – Many dogs get sick not from being fed directly, but because they climb up on the table and eat huge quantities of food when humans aren’t there.

2. Food no-nos – Don’t give your dog turkey skin, turkey and poultry bones, onions, grapes, raisins, fatty foods and other holiday items that are harmful to dogs.

3. Dental damagers – Avoid plastic bones, ice cubes, antlers and bully sticks, all of which can cause painful doggy tooth fractures.

So when Fido is begging for a treat under the holiday table with big puppy-dog eyes, what can you safely give your gour-mutt instead?

I recommend a Milk-Bone Brushing Chew – a bone that tastes like a treat and cleans like a toothbrush. Instead of the hazards of human holiday foods, Milk-Bone Brushing Chews taste great to dogs, remove tartar buildup, improve doggy breath and keep pooches happily occupied during the holiday meal.

Dr. Jan Bellows, DVM, is one of 70 board-certified veterinary dentists in the United States. For more, visit allpetsdental.com.

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Socket to me!

PET OF THE MONTH

SOCKET IS ONE AMAZING PETITE LABRADOR MIX. He is about 2 years old and loves everyone, including other animals and kids. He is a perfect family dog. Socket was rescued from a high-kill shelter, which is hard to imagine. We just don’t understand how anyone could give up this dog when he’s such a loving, happy guy.

To meet Socket, visit the SPCA of Westchester at 590 N. State Road in Briarcliff Manor.

PLEASE NOTE: The SPCA does not accept deposits, make appointments or reserve animals for adoption even if it has spoken about a particular dog or cat with you. It’s always first-come, first-served among applicants, pending approval. The SPCA is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays. To learn more, call 914-941-2896 or visit spca914.org.

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WHEN & WHERE

THROUGH DEC. 24 DreamWorks Animation has chosen Westchester’s Ridge Hill shopping center to host its only “DreamPlace” in the Northeast, the completely reimagined “Mall Santa” experience.

Free to the public. Westchester’s Ridge Hill, 1 Ridge Hill Blvd., Yonkers; 914-207-2900, westchestersridgehill. com.

THROUGH JAN. 3

George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker,” presented by the New York City Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza; nycballet.com.

A DARLENE LOVE CHRISTMAS DEC. 13

THROUGH JAN. 4

follow talk. 7 p.m., Chappaqua Library, 195 S. Greeley Ave.; 914-238-4779, chappaqualibrary.org.

The first-ever “Westchester’s Winter Wonderland” transforms the Kensico Dam Plaza into a holiday festival with more than 2.5 million LED lights in an hourlong continuous show choreographed to holiday music. Kensico Dam Plaza, Park Drive West, Valhalla; wwinterwonderland.com.

NOW THROUGH MARCH 29

A special exhibition showcasing Native American Pottery, including pieces by legendary potter Maria Martinez. Bruce Museum, 1 Museum Drive, Greenwich; 203-869-0376, brucemuseum.org.

DEC. 5-6, 12-13 and 19-20

GEORGE BALANCHINE’S “THE NUTCRACKER” THROUGH JAN. 3

DEC. 3 Hospice Care in Westchester and Putnam hosts its 26th annual “Tree of Life” event, an opportunity to honor the memory of a loved one during a special and meaningful time of year. 6 p.m., Holiday Inn, 1 Holiday Inn Drive, Mount Kisco; 914-666-7616, vnahv. org.

7-foot sand tiger and lemon sharks.

Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, 10 N. Water St.; 203-852-0700, maritimeaquarium.org.

DEC. 5

David Baldacci, one of the world’s most popular storytellers, talks about his newest book, “The Escape,” at the Chappaqua Library. Book signing to

Boscobel presents “Sparkle 2014,” showcasing the gardens and grounds of this Federalist estate with lighting displays and twilight tours. Includes ice carving demonstrations, The Taghkanic Chorale and food for purchase by Ladle of Love. 5-9 p.m., Boscobel, 1601 Route 9D, Garrison; 845-265-3638, boscobel.org.

DEC. 6 Trinity Presbyterian Church presents its annual concert, “A Westchester Christmas,” featuring traditional music, jazz, pop and classical. 4 p.m., School of the Holy Child, 2225 Westchester Ave. East, Rye; 914-967-6247, trinitychurch.org.

DEC. 4

“Christmas with the Celts” – A group of Irish-born and Irish-American musicians performs a mix of fiery Scotch/ Irish folk songs and original pop music with Celtic instrumentation. 8 p.m., The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield; 203-4385795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

DEC. 4-28

NATIVE AMERICAN POTTERY THROUGH MARCH 29

Santa Dives at the Maritime Aquarium – Santa Claus will strap on scuba gear and enter the aquarium’s 110,000-gallon “Ocean Beyond the Sound” exhibit, which is home to a

CHARLES DICKENS’ “A CHRISTMAS CAROL” DEC. 6,-7 and 11-14 WAGMAG.COM

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DEC. 6

Michael McDonald of the Doobie Brothers comes to town for “This Christmas, An Evening of Holiday and Hits.” 7 p.m., The Capitol Theatre, 149 Westchester Ave., Port Chester; 914-937-4126, thecapitioltheatre.com.

DEC. 6-7 and 11-14 It may seem counterintuitive but The Armonk Players present William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Hey, it’s summer in Australia. Whippoorwill Hall, 19 Whippoorwill Road East, Armonk; armonkplayers.org.

DEC. 6, 7 and 13 Ballet Etudes Company’s full-length production of “The Nutcracker” returns to the Westport Country Playhouse, featuring guest artists Georgina Pazcoguin, Adrian DanchigWaring and Sterling Baca. 1 and 6 p.m., 29 Powers Court; 888-927-7529, westportcountryplayhouse.org.

DEC. 6-7, 13-14 and 20-21

Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” gets a makeover as acclaimed storyteller Jonathan Kruk brings the tale to life in the Old Dutch Church. 3:30, 4:45 and 6 p.m., 381 N. Broadway, Sleepy Hollow; 914-631-8200, hudsonvalley.org.

DEC. 7

SANTA DIVES AT THE MARITIME AQUARIUM DEC. 4-28

DEC. 7-22

Hanukkah Wonderland – Enjoy an exclusive gift store stocked with Judaica, gifts and Hanukkah merchandise as well as an array of events and activities featuring cooking classes, children’s story times and special events at night for adults. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays, 2 to 6 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays. Hanukkah Wonderland, 64 Main St., Irvington; 914-523-9779, chabadrt.org/wonderland

Dec. 12

The Westport Historical Society presents “Rooms with a View” for its 28th annual Holiday House Tour and Twilight Soirée. This year the five-house lineup in Westport and Weston will showcase homes either owned or designed by well-known local interior designers and architects. 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., 25 Avery Place; 203-222-1424, www. westporthistory.org.

“It’s a Wonderful Life:” Live From WVL Radio Theatre. This live-action 1940s “broadcast” of Frank Capra’s beloved film takes us back to the Golden Age of Radio. 8 p.m., Fairfield University Quick Center for the Arts, 1073 North Benson Road; 203-254-4010.

DEC. 13

“A Darlene Love Christmas” – Celebrate the season with this Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. 8 p.m. The Ridgefield Playhouse, 80 East Ridge Road, Ridgefield; 203-438-5795, ridgefieldplayhouse.org.

Ossining’s Breakfast with Santa – The village of Ossining invites youngsters to meet St. Nick. Free, but reservations required. 10 and 11:00 a.m. seatings. G. Caputo Community Center, 95 Broadway, Ossining; 914-9413189, villageofossining.org.

DEC. 16

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights begins at sundown.

DEC. 20 Purchase College will once again reverberate with the sounds of Handel’s “Messiah,” courtesy of Musica Sacra.

2 p.m., The Performing Arts Center Concert Hall, 735 Anderson Hill Road; 914-251-6200, ticketsartscenter.org.

DEC. 21

CHRISTMAS WITH THE CELTS DEC. 4 84

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See the Winter Solstice, Live! Astronomer Bob Berman and engineer Paul Cox of the robotic telescope service Slooh host this live, televised viewing of the winter solstice as it occurs from various international partners. Learn about the solstice and the Slooh orbital mission. 5:30 p.m., McManus Room, The Westport Library, 20 Jessup Road; 203-291-4800, westportlibrary.org.

SPARKLE 2014 DEC. 5-6, 12-13 and 19-20

DEC. 24-26 Over the next few days, millions around the world will gather to celebrate the start or end of the holidays of Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. We here at WAG wish all our readers safe and happy holidays as well as peace and prosperity for the coming year.

DEC. 31

Check out the New Year’s Eve Family Spectacular in White Plains, Westchester’s answer to the ball drop in Times Square. Main Street between Court Street and Renaissance Square in White Plains.

New Year’s Eve 2015 Murder Mystery Celebration. Enjoy an evening of mystery in which costumed characters from The Killing Kompany enact a crime and the audience has to solve it. In addition to the show, the package includes cocktail hour, a buffet dinner, complimentary open bar, DJ and dancing, Champagne toast at midnight, overnight guest room accommodations and a breakfast buffet on New Year’s Day. DoubleTree by Hilton, 455 S. Broadway, Tarrytown; 914-6315700, doubletree3.hilton.com.

HAPPY NEW YEAR — WELCOME 2015!

GREAT GIRLS NIGHT O UT!

80 East Ridge, Ridgefield, CT • (203) 438-5795 • www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org

JENNY MCCARTHY’S Dirty, Sexy, Funny

Sat, December 6 @ 8PM

Featuring comedy by Tammy Pescatelli, Lynne Koplitz, Paula Bel & April Macie!

Meet & Greet tickets available!

KIM RUSSO

Sat, January 24 @ 7:30pm Join Psychic-Medium and Star of Lifetime Movie Network's Hit Show "The Haunting of" as she makes undeniable connections with her audience members!

GREAT HOLIDAY SHOWS!

Christmas with the Celts Thurs, December 4 @ 8PM

Traditional and popular Christmas songs with a Celtic twist!

Darlene Love Holiday Show Sat, December 13 @ 8PM

It’s a rock and roll Christmas! Performing her #1 Holiday Classic “Christmas Baby Please Come Home” and rock and roll hits “He’s A rebel,” “Da Doo ron ron,” and more!

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy’s Wild & Swingin’ Holiday Party

Wed, December 18 @ 8PM

Add some sizzle to your yuletide with “Blue Christmas” and “Jingle Bells,” or tunes like “Mr. Heatmiser” and “rock-A-Billy Christmas!”

Matisyahu… Unplugged Sun, December 28 @ 8PM

An annual Hannukah event, Matisyahu's Festival of Light is a unique collection of tour dates celebrating the Jewish holiday during the winter months.

PALM BAY INTERNATIONAL WORLD BEAT SERIES

Zap Mama

Fri, January 9 @ 8PM

ZAP MAMA, the Afro-European vocal quartet, and ANTIBALAS, the pioneers of Afrobeat, will come together to celebrate the evolution of contemporary Afro music.

DOYLE COFFIN ArCHITECTurE SINGEr SONGWrITEr SErIES

Phil Vassar

Fri, January 16 @ 8PM

Best known for the chart toppers “In A real Love” and “Just Another Day In Paradise,” “Carlene,” “American Child,” "Six-Pack Summer," "That's When I love You" & "Love Is A Beautiful Thing."

Sarah Lee Guthrie & John Irion Thurs, January 22 @ 7:30PM

A new twist on happy hour! Join us in the lobby at 6:45pm every ticket holder gets a free glass of wine or beer. Come meet friends, have fun and hear great music with this fok-rock duo!

ROCK SERIES

The Marshall Tucker Band

Thurs, December 12 @ 8PM

One of the greatest Southern rock bands of all time, changing the sound of ’70s music with hits such as ‘Heard It in a Love Song,’ ‘Can’t You See’ and ‘Fire on the Mountain.”

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes

Sat, January 10 @ 8PM

The Jersey Boys are back with a great night of the hits including “Its Been a Long Time”, “I Don’t Want to Go Home”, and “Love on the Wrong Side of Town”.

The Machine Performs Pink Floyd

Fri, January 23 @ 8PM

America’s top Pink Floyd show!

Alan Parsons Live Project Wed, January 28 @ 8PM

Performing his Greatest Hits including 'Sirius,' 'Eye In The Sky,' 'Time,' 'Damned If I Do,' 'Don't Answer Me,' 'I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You,' 'Games People Play,' 'Dr. Tarr & Professor Fether' & more!

Felix Cavaliere’s Rascals

Fri, January 30 @ 8PM

With hits “Good Lovin',” “Groovin',” “A Girl Like You,” “A Beautiful Morning,” and “People Got to Be Free” – don’t miss a night with this 60s legend!

Herman's Hermits Starring Peter Noone

Thurs, February 5 @ 8PM

Over 60 million records sold! 20 top 40 hits including "I'm Henry VIII, I am", "Mrs. Brown You've got a Lovely Daughter", "There's a Kind of Hush", and "I'm into Something Good".

Edgar Winter and Rick Derringer Fri, February 6 @ 8PM

Legendary rockers Edgar Winter & rick Derringer return to the Playhouse! Edgar Winter is well-known for his selling record, “Frankenstein”, and hits “Free ride” & “Tobacco road”. rick Derringer, 85 WAGMAG.COM DECEMBER 2014 as a member of the The McCoys had the hit "Hang On Sloopy".

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BACK TO NATURE The Greenburgh Nature Center hosted its second annual Golf Outing & Reception recently at the Scardale Golf Club. The event raised more than $60,000 to help support the center’s mission, which is to offer inspiring, hands-on environmental experiences, to foster an appreciation of nature and to promote sustainable practices. Golfers and guests enjoyed a picture-perfect day and an evening dinner reception that included a raffle and silent auction.

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1. Jamie Karia, Lori Rothman Kaplan, Michael Kaplan, Jared Rothstein, Alex Dal Piaz, David Cautin, Tag and Megan Garson, Alison Yaffie and Juliana Dal Piaz 2. Lisa Salvadorini 3. Eric Rothenberg, Cathy Ludden and Bill Morrissey

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GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE…

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The New York March of Dimes held its “Signature Chefs Auction” at Westchester Country Club recently. Kris Ruby, CEO of the Ruby Media Group, and Jeremy Schaap, on-air commentator, served as emcees. Besides sampling signature dishes by Westchester’s top chefs, guests bid on many auction items donated by Westchester businesses.

In all, the chapter raised more than $90,000 for the March of Dimes.

4. Kris Ruby 5. Harry Freedman and Sharon Masciovecchio 6. Ronald Sylvestri and Carl Petrillo 7. Cindy Lopane and Greg Petrillo

SUPPORTING NONPROFITS The Westchester Community Foundation recently kicked off 40 years of connecting philanthropists and local nonprofits at the Science Barge in Yonkers. Those attending were able to learn more about this organization that has helped fund many of Westchester’s nonprofits and to learn about the organization’s history.

8. Catherine Marsh and Anahaita Kotval 9. Dale Akinla, Karen Walsh, Kathy N. Rosenthal and Harry Waizer 10. Bob Walters and Marguerite Pitts 11. Matthew McCrosson, Kathy Shea and James Sutton 12.Susan Edwards and James Ausili

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MULTICULTURAL MORSELS MTK Tavern in Mount Kisco celebrated its latest renovations and additions with a “Welcome Back Party.” Guests were able to sample MTK Tavern’s new “Ameriterrasian” menu, which combines American, Mediterranean and Asian tastes. Dishes were presented by the newly appointed chef de cuisine, Vincenzo DeRaco.

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Photographs by Matthew Brotmann.

1. Shah Krish,Jeff Rosen, Vincenzo DeRaco and Alejandro Torres 2. Natasha Caputo 3. Ralph and Carmela Carfagno 4. Christina Rae

COUTURE FOR A CURE

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Recently, Westchester ladies lunched and shopped to benefit children with cancer. The Pediatric Cancer Foundation celebrated its 44th anniversary at its Opening Fall Luncheon at Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor.

Highlights of the luncheon included keynote speaker Dr. Andrew Kung, two pediatric cancer survivors who told their stories of hope and courage and a fall fashion show by Intermix.

Photographs by Ruth Rosenberg.

5. Cheryl Rosen, Dr. Andrew Kung and Bonnie Shyer 6. Toni Ann Marraccini and Amanda Luiso

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FROM A(MERICAN CANCER SOCIETY) TO Z(UMBA) Recently, more than 40 women attended Ladimax Sports and Fitness to participate in a ZUMBAthon to benefit the American Cancer Society’s signature event, “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.” Amy Olin, host instructor and 14-year survivor, together with fellow Ladimax instructors and guest instructors, created a high-energy morning with ZUMBA while raising more than $700 for the cause.

IRISH EYES SMILING The American Irish Association (AIA) of Westchester County honored two members of Congress, Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey, at its 40th annual gala dinner recently. Both received the Irish Advocacy Public Service Award for their years of service to the Irish American community in Westchester and throughout the state.

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8. Center: Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey, flanked by AIA members.

7. Diane Capurso, Amy Olin, Donna Fox, Suhdeena Bey Mason, Leslie Schor, ToniMichelle Rubio, Laura Solow and Maria Torres

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HELPING VETS TAKE WING At a recent fundraiser, Westchester Broadway Theatre donated a portion of all ticket sales from the opening night of “South Pacific” to Hudson Valley Honor Flight. This nonprofit honors veterans by transporting them to Washington, D.C. to visit and reflect at the memorials. The donation of $10,000 helped sponsor the inaugural flight from Westchester County.

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Photograph by Pia Haas.

9. Bob Foster, Bob Funking, Bill Stutler, Fred Abatangelo, Vito Pinto, Bill Skennion and Frank Kimler

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WATCH

FULFILLING DREAMS Recently, the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors held its “Just a Wish Away” cocktail party at the Clubhouse at Patriot Hills in Stony Point, raising more than $15,000 through sponsorships, raffles tickets, ticket sales and personal donations for the Make-AWish Foundation. Make-A-Wish Hudson Valley is a Tarrytown-based nonprofit that grants the wishes of children suffering with life-threatening medical conditions.

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1. Tom Conklin, Lauren Shields and Jeanne Shields 2. Dorothy Botsoe and Yolanda Gorman 3. Richard Haggerty and Deb and Lou Budetti 4. Roseann Paggiotta, Barry Kramer, John Crittenden and Terri Crozier 5. Dave Moore, Gail Fattizzi and Marcene Hedayati 6

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‘OH, WHAT A NIGHT’ More than 125 of UJA-Federation of New York’s most generous donors, or “ Pacesetters,” in Westchester gathered at the home of Lois Kohn-Claar and Gary Claar of Scarsdale to celebrate community and the organization’s life-changing work. Broadway star Jarrod Spector, who rose to fame with a record 1,500 performances as Frankie Valli in “Jersey Boys,” entertained the group.

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WINE, CANINES AND SONG Guiding Eyes for the Blind, which provides the visually impaired and the autistic with guide dogs, recently welcomed wine enthusiasts from across the region to its fifth annual benefit, “Wine, Music & Puppies.” About 115 attendees gathered for the sold-out event, which raises money for the nonprofit’s programs and services.

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10. Thomas Panek with Gus, Amy Dixon with Elvis, Blessing Offor with Jordan and Peter Cole with Madison

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6. Seth and Linda Plattus, Joy Zelin, Richard and Debbie Yoken and Lois Kohn-Claar 7. Gary Claar, Pam Wexler, Mark Medin, Laura and David Kleinhandler and Eric S. Goldstein 8. Wayne Goldstein and Martine Fleishman 9. Randi Kreisler and Caryl Orlando

CULTIVATING YONKERS Recently, 300 guests from northern Westchester to Manhattan converged on the 17th-century Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site in Yonkers for a white-tented “Urban Garden Party,” which benefitted Groundwork Hudson Valley. The event raised more than $240,000, which will aid Groundwork in its quest to improve the neighborhoods of Yonkers with innovative environmental projects that involve local residents, especially youth.

11. Robert Baron, Peter Kelly, Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Steve Cutler 12. Charles Casimiro, Jim and Barbara Casey and Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky 13. Henriette Suhr, Christine Yeres, Steve Brosnahan (background) and Lisina Hoch 14. Laura Fahrenthold, Patricia Mulqueen and Rick Magder

CMS OF LINCOLN CENTER

EDGAR MEYER

ROB MATHES

KENT TRITLE / MUSIC A SACRA

DECEMBER at The Center The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: The Four Seasons Baroque treasures, including Vivaldi’s masterwork performed in its entirety.

December 6 • 5pm

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet

Ballanchine choreographies, including the one-act classic, Swan Lake.

December 7 • 3pm

Edgar Meyer, double bass

Unique. Compelling. Brilliant.

December 14 • 3pm

The Rob Mathes Holiday Concert

A seasonal favorite, featuring original tunes and holiday favorites.

December 19 & 20 • 8pm

Musica Sacra: Handel’s Messiah

Rejoice in the soaring voices of this renowned choir, conducted by Ken Tritle.

December 20 • 8pm

TICKETS

914.251.6200 WWW.ARTSCENTER.ORG or in person at the box office 735 Anderson Hill Road Purchase, NY Box office hours: Tues-Fri noon to 6pm

SUZANNE FARREL BALLET

| photo © Rosalie O’Connor

Major sponsorship of The Performing Arts Center’s 2014-15 Season is provided by THE VIVIAN AND SEYMOUR MILSTEIN ENDOWED FUND The Performing Arts Center’s programs are also made possible by ArtsWestchester with support from Westchester County Government . The Orchestras and Chamber Music Series are made possible in part by support from the Tanaka Memorial Foundation. Special thanks to our corporate sponsor Steinway & Sons and media sponsor WNYC.

PAC_WAG_Dec2014.indd 1

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WHAT’S UP, DOCS IN FAIR The inaugural Fairfield County Doctors of Distinction Awards drew a crowd of 150 to Norwalk recently, including U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and the founding dean of the Quinnipiac University School of Medicine, Dr. Bruce Koeppen, who related how he was told to throw away the book to make the now year-old Hamden school.

The event founders are the Fairfield County Business Journal, accounting, consulting and assurance firm Citrin Cooperman and the state-chartered Fairfield County Medical Association.

Bridgeport Hospital sponsored the evening at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum. The event marked the first time in the medical association’s 222-year history that it had collaborated with a newspaper on an event.

The Doctors of Distinction categories and winners include the Humanitarian Award to Dr. Richard J. Garvey, general surgery, Bridgeport; the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Jeanne M. Marconi, pediatrics, Norwalk; the Leadership in Medical Advocacy Award to Dr. Edward Volpintesta, family physician, Bethel; the Excellence in Medical Research Award to Dr. Beverly J. Drucker (also a Ph.D. in molecular biology), medical oncology, Greenwich; and the Community Service Award to Dr. Darcy I. Lowell, pediatrics and founder of the national Child First program in Bridgeport, whose son, third-year Yale School of Medicine student Matthew Meizlish, stood in for her.

“I’m also on a Ph.D. track,” Meizlish said while accepting the award, “so I’ll be in medical school forever.”

– Bill Fallon

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Photographs by Anthony Carboni.

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1. Dr. Beverly Drucker, Dr. Edward Volpintesta, Dr. Jeanne Marconi, Dr. Richard Garvey, Matthew Meizlish and Richard Blumenthal.

2. John Bryan 3. Dr. Bruce Koeppen 4. Dr. Robin Oshman 5. Dr. Randy Trowbridge

Photographs by Bill Fallon.

6. Shannon Klenk 7. Dr. David Zolov 8. Dr. David Beck 9. Dr. Charles Halasz and nurse practitioner Denise Gallo 10. Nicole Marconi and Howard Mirchin

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WHAT’S UP, DOCS? IN WEST

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Westfair Communications, parent company of WAG and the Westchester County Business Journal, along with Citrin Cooperman, the Westchester County Medical Society, Simone Healthcare Development, and Danziger & Markhoff LLP, presented its second annual Doctors of Distinction Awards Oct. 30 at The Bristal at Armonk. Edward C. Halperin, MD, chancellor and CEO at New York Medical College, was the evening’s opening guest speaker. The awards recognized those selected for their “dedication, expertise, accomplishments and compassionate care.” The Doctors of Distinction categories and winners included the Humanitarian Award to Dr. Martin Lederman of Lederman & Lederman; the Lifetime Achievement Awards to Dr. Kira Geraci-Ciardullo of Westchester Health and Dr. Mary Beth Walsh of Burke Rehabilitation Hospital; the Excellence in Medical Research Award to Dr. William Bauman of the VA Hospital; the Community Service Award to Dr. Augustine Moscatello of Westchester Medical Center; and the Leadership in Medical Advocacy Award to Dr. Thomas Lee of New York Neurological Surgery, P.C. The honorees spoke about the experiences that led them to their medical professions.

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Photographs by John Rizzo.

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1. Thomas Lee, Philip Schuh and Brian Foy 2. Michael Spencer, Patrick Trask and Theresa Viti-Finck 3. Jeff Gallari 4. Dorothy Levine and Kathy Epstein 5. Sandra Alexandrou and Douglas Pasquale Fonzetti 6. Alana Grady and Charlotte Grady 7. Ivan Dressner, Lillian Sherman, Martin Lederman, Carolyn Lederman, Jeffrey Sherman, Gennifer Greebel and Sandra Goldberg 8. Marina Harmon, Steven Tisser and Richard Sgaglio 9. Christina Ciardullo and Mary Ellen Pilkington 10. Timothy McGowan and Peter Mercurio 11. Bento Mascarenhas, Elaine Healy, Karen Pechman and Mary Beth Walsh 12. Robert Goldstein and Alan Zverin 13. Louis McIntyre, Stephanie McGowan and Augustine Moscatello 14. Joseph Tartaglia, Kira Geraci-Ciardullo, Robert Ciardullo and Timothy Walsh 15. Jeremy Bauman, Lisa Ruggiero, Caroline Bauman, William Bauman and Amy Heumann 16. Alan Badey, Louis Gallo, Bill Brenner and Robert Wilson

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WATCH

ROB THOMAS OPENS THE DOOR The Open Door Foundation’s Benefit, featuring an intimate solo concert with Grammy Award-winner Rob Thomas, was held recently at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College. More than 900 ticket buyers raised more than $300,000 to support Open Door Family Medical Centers, the largest federally qualified community health center in Westchester and Putnam Counties.

The evening began with cocktails and a live auction and ended with a beautiful acoustic set by Thomas who played a mix of his own songs and several Matchbox Twenty hits.

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Photographs by Lynda Shenkman Curtis.

1. Rob Thomas 2. Girish Navani, Lindsay Farrell, and Ken Ford 3. John Ment, Bob Vivolo and Ted Herman 4. Suzi Oppenheimer, Sandy Galef and Karen D’Attore 5. Mike Curry, Laura Mogil and Barry Stopler

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TOP DOGS Recently, more than 300 guests attended the 12th Annual “Top Hat and Cocktails Gala,” a fundraiser held at The Ritz-Carlton, Westchester in White Plains to benefit the SPCA of Westchester animal shelter in Briarcliff Manor. Honored at the event were longtime NHL hockey coach John Tortorella and wife Christine; Rick Joseph, DVM, and wife Nuda Sarcone; and Olivia Segal.

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6. Susan Beer 7. Rick Joseph and Nuda Sarcone 8. Olivia and Emily Segal and Rachel Gumina 9. Bonnie Trotta 10. Christine and John Tortorella 11. Matt and Mia Gibson 12. Deborah Mehne, Barbara Kobren and Shannon Laukhuf 13. Ellen and Andrew Tung

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The 2014 Breast Cancer Alliance Benefit Luncheon & Fashion Show was “a celebration of our efforts and a reminder of our continuing journey to find a cure for breast cancer,” said Jieun Wax, co-chair with breast cancer survivor Lisa Fischer. The lunch was all that and more as some 800 women strong (along with a few good men) gathered at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich to raise in excess of $1.2 million for research, education and outreach grants and breast surgery fellowships.

Guests enjoyed live and silent auctions, a fashion show by lead sponsor Richards/Mitchells department stores that featured the sleek styles of Brunello Cucinelli and jock-ular humor by keynote speaker Mike Greenberg, host of “MIKE AND MIKE” on ESPN Radio and ESPN2. Greenberg turned serious when he read a passage from his debut novel, “All You Could Ask For,” inspired by family friend Heidi Armitage, who succumbed to breast cancer in 2009. (He and wife Stacy donate all the proceeds from the novel to the V Foundation for Cancer Research.)

Photographs by Robin Costello.

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1. Marilyn Juan 2. Pinky Markey 3. Susan Skelsey and Annie Amato 4. Sue Rogers, Livvy Floren, Donna Brydson and Alessandra Long 5. Anna and Mia Van Munching

Photographs by Elaine and ChiChi Ubiña.

6. Fashion show finale 7. Sharon Phillips and Frank Corvino 8. Alease Fisher Tallman, Linda Munger and Tiffany Burnette 9. Nat and Lucy Day 10. Joan Whipple and Trish Shannon 11. Natasha and Massimo Caronna, Jieun Wax, Lisa Fischer and Andrew MitchellNamdar 12. Susan Bevan and Barbara Miller 13. Elizabeth and Loren Taufield 14. Barbara Ward and Mike Greenberg

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EASY WRITERS

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More than 150 guests celebrated the opening of the 2014 fall season at the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum, with a “Young Writers’ Competition Awards Ceremony” followed by a black-tie gala and exhibit preview.

Guests attending both events received a sneak peek of the museum’s new exhibit, “Hidden Treasures: Artifacts From the LMMM Collections.” The evening event raised more than $70,000, which will benefit the mansion’s educational and cultural programs.

Photographs by Sarah Grote Photography.

1. Steve and Elizabeth Berry 2. Joseph K. Passero and Gus and Lauren Fay Pappajohn 3. Barbara Cafero and Allison Passero 4. Gavin X. McLeod and Susan Gilgore and Naiden and Daniela Stoyanov 5. Richard Blumenthal and Patsy Brescia

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THAT’S MY BABY! More than 300 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) “alumni” and their families attended the White Plains Hospital’s 18th annual NICU reunion recently at the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown. This free celebration included brunch, children’s activities, and remarks from hospital President Susan Fox and Director of Neonatology Dr. Jesus Jaile-Marti. The Hospital’s Charles A. Mastronardi NICU has earned a level III designation, the highest level of accreditation available for a community hospital.

6. Andrew and Rebecca Schmidt 7. Dr. Jesus Jaile-Marti and Anthony Forgione

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THEY ALSO SERVE During The College of New Rochelle’s Founder’s Day Luncheon recently, four CNR students were presented with Serviam Awards for outstanding community service. The annual awards honor those students who best embody the Ursuline philosophy of Serviam (I will serve) and support the college’s mission of education for service.

8. Marie Stephanie Gomez, Alice Melcone, Judith Huntington, Sherlyn Johnson and Claudia Benitez

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PHOTOGRAPHER: JOHN RIZZO INTERNATIONAL EVENTS WEDDINGS PHOTO TOURS TO AFRICA & ASIA PRIVATE INSTRUCTION

Rizzo in Ethiopia: “Mursi females have creative head adornments, and no two are alike.”

WAGMAG.COM DECEMBER 2014 John Rizzo Photography 10 Cedar St., Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522 (914) 231-9513 studio (646) 221-6186 worldwide mobile www.jrizzophoto.com

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WHAT WOULD BE YOUR DREAM HOUSE? WIT WONDERS:

Annie Amato

Barbara Boykin

Marilyn Juan

Abigale Levinson

Jennifer Lilya

Alessandra Long

Pinky Markey

Anna Paladini

Ana Maria Pimentel

Bill Primavera

Anna Van Munching

Yonni Wattenmaker

“I’VE BEEN BUILDING IT … NOT FAR FROM GREENWICH AVENUE. IT’S A TOWNHOUSE AND THE MAIN THING IS THAT IT CAN ACCOMMODATE MY CHILDREN AND EXTENDED FAMILY.”

– Annie Amato,

dietician/nutritionist, Greenwich resident

“MY DREAM HOME WOULD BE IN THE MIDDLE OF MANHATTAN WITH A NICE YARD AND A COMFY FEEL. I’M A CITY GIRL WITH A SUBURBAN HEART.”

– Barbara Boykin,

insurance agent, White Plains resident

“I LIVE IN MINE. IT’S JUST A COLONIAL … BUT IT SUITS US PERFECTLY. WHEN I WALKED IN, IT REMINDED ME OF THE HOUSE I GREW UP IN.”

– Marilyn Juan,

owner/calligrapher, Greenleaf Ink, Greenwich resident

“HOW ABOUT A 1930S FARMHOUSE? RENOVATED THOUGH, SO I DON’T HAVE TO DO ANY RESTORATION.”

– Abigale Levinson,

freelance fashion stylist, Westport resident

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“MY DREAM HOME WOULD BE A CUTE LITTLE BUNGALOW OVERLOOKING ORIENT BEACH IN ST. MAARTEN.”

– Jennifer Lilya, fashion illustrator, Brooklyn resident

“PROBABLY A HOUSE ON THE WATER IN LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA.”

– Alessandra Long, attorney, Greenwich resident

“MY DREAM HOUSE IS WHALEROCK, A HOUSE ON THE WATER IN RHODE ISLAND. MY HUSBAND AND I DREAMED OF OWNING IT FOR FIVE YEARS. NOW IT’S COME TO PASS. AND IT’S A MONEY PIT.”

– Pinky Markey,

national course-rater for Golfweek magazine, Greenwich (and Rhode Island) resident

“MY DREAM HOME IS MY FATHERIN-LAW’S IN PEAPACK-GLADSTONE, NEW JERSEY. BECAUSE IT’S A BEAUTIFUL OLD HOUSE WITH AN AMAZING YARD AND A HUGE POOL WITH A SPRING DIVING BOARD.”

– Anna Paladini,

global sales director for Eddie Borgo, Hoboken, N.J. resident

“MY DREAM HOUSE IS IN LITCHFIELD COUNTY, AND IT MUST BE A MODERN GLASS HOUSE SET IN THE MOUNTAINS SURROUNDED

BY FOLIAGE,”

– Ana Maria Pimentel, fashion director of women’s accessories, Neiman Marcus Group, Manhattan resident

“MY DREAM HOME IS A CAREFREE HOME, MY WIFE’S CAREFREE HOME. FOR 42 YEARS, WE’VE LIVED IN AN 18TH-CENTURY FARMHOUSE WITH AN EXCESS OF CARE AND MAINTENANCE – AN OLD BOILER, OLD ROOF, LEAKY WINDOWS – AND WE SPENT AN INCREDIBLE AMOUNT OF MONEY ON IT. NOW WE’RE MOVING TO TRUMP PARK RESIDENCES IN YORKTOWN, WHERE WE’LL HAVE A CONCIERGE, SECURITY, HEAVEN.”

– Bill Primavera,

Realtor, William Raveis Real Estate Mortgage Insurance, Yorktown resident

“ONE ON THE BEACH. I LOVE THE BEACH, AND IF I COULD SEE A SUNSET OVER THE WATER EVERY EVENING FROM MY BEDROOM WINDOW, THAT WOULD BE A DREAM.”

– Anna Van Munching, research associate, Darien resident

“I THINK THE ONE BRUCE WILLIS JUST BOUGHT, AND HE’S WELCOME TO INVITE ME OVER.”

– Yonni Wattenmaker, executive director, Breast Cancer Alliance, Bedford resident

*Asked at Bloomingdale’s White Plains, Neiman Marcus Westchester and the Breast Cancer Alliance’s annual fundraising luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Greenwich.

He lost 85% of his blood, but never his will to live.

Billy Davis Motorcycle accident survivor / Trainer

Billy describes his motorcycle accident as if it happened in slow motion.

Fortunately, the fast thinking of a passerby and the rapid response of the trauma and surgery team at Westchester Medical Center saved his life and gave him back the greatest gift of all — a chance to see his son again.

westchestermedicalcenter.com