Princeton Magazine, Fall 2017

By William Uhl

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alking with Quentin Kelly, founder and CEO of WorldWater & Solar Technologies, Inc., you can tell he is very enthusiastic about what he does. The walls of his office in Princeton are decorated with maps of third-world countries like the Philippines, with red dots for each solarpowered water pump and purifier installed. Low-rise cubicles have pictures of flowing water and green crops in Haiti, Afghanistan, Darfur, and other places. And the boardroom has a row of photos of solar-powered farms in San Diego and the San Joaquin Valley.

But WorldWater didn’t come into existence to fuel agriculture.

30 Feet Between LiFe and death

1,000 gallons of water a minute rise up 300 feet to irrigate this farm in San Diego, powered by solar energy alone.

And he said, ‘The first aquifer would be at about 10 meters,’ – so that’s a little over 30 feet. And I said, ‘You’re kidding me. 100,000 people are dying, standing 30 feet over water.’”

Kelly returned with the civil engineers from Princeton University and started to put together a plan. “They put me in touch with more Princeton engineers and a group of five – five of the same guys who had designed and implemented the rocket engine research for the NASA space shuttle – started working with me on my farm in Hopewell.”

Inside a barn, his team worked through a dozen iterations before they developed a solution: a solar water pump magnitudes more powerful than anything before. Due to natural fluctuations in solar power due to dimming from clouds and daytime, other pumps would be forced to repeatedly come to a complete halt before starting back up again when the light was stronger. This constant cycle of hard stopping and starting would burn out most pumps within minutes.

Kelly’s team’s pump was able to modulate its power, allowing pumps to go as slow or fast as possible without coming to an abrupt halt. Other pumps were stuck at around five horsepower of pumping strength. Their pump went up to 400 horsepower.

WorldWater & Solar started due to a foreign crisis. “I was in New York – frankly, at a cocktail party in Manhattan – and I met a gentleman who was from Sudan,” said Kelly. Representing then-president of Sudan Gaafar Nimeiry, the man asked Kelly to join a group of Princeton University civil engineers that were helping to clean the water in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital.

After his arrival, he found more issues than purification.

“I went to the outskirts of town with the director of national water resources for Sudan,” said Kelly. “There were close to 100,000 people Portable pumps and purifiers like Mobile Max enable faster response to disaster relief, water, water everywhere who had come across the desert from Ethiopia, whether the crisis is in Fukushima or Florida. and they were dying out there and they couldn’t come into Khartoum. I asked the Clean water crises are everywhere, not just overseas. After Hurricane Katrina in director, ‘Well, isn’t there anything to do?’ And he said, ‘What can we do? We 2005, WorldWater got a call from the New Jersey governor’s office – Mississippi’s don’t have diesel fuel, we don’t have diesel pumps, they’re not on the grid, there’s Governor Haley Barbour was looking for water engineers. “We not only had water nothing to be done.’ And I said, ‘What’s the ground water level where they are?’ engineers to send down…but one of our engineers had been working in the back,

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Princeton UniverSity’S Gothic Love AffAir by

Doug Wallack | photography by charles r. plohn

“Here we were taugHt by men and gotHic towers democracy and faitH and rigHteousness and love of unseen tHings tHat do not die.”

— H.E. MiErow, Class of 1914

S

o reads the inscription in the arch of Princeton University’s McCosh Hall.

It’s not entirely clear how Gothic towers inculcated such lofty virtues in students, but it is clear to anyone who visits campus how the University’s architecture could exercise a powerful influence on them.

Its palette of spires, vaults, and gargoyles is at once imposing and inviting, invoking a cozy romanticism and a timelessness that are central to the University’s sense of place. But Princeton’s castle-like architecture is far from timeless. In fact, at the time of Mierow’s graduation, the University had been home to Gothic buildings for less than two decades.

hiStory In the 1890s, Princeton University administrators were planning to expand the campus — as is their habit — and they wanted their new builds to lend the grounds a more unified aesthetic. For the first century and a half of its operation, Princeton University, then known as the College of New Jersey, had planned and sited buildings somewhat haphazardly. The modest rough-hewn stone of the Colonial-era Nassau Hall was offset by the temple-like neoclassicism of the Whig and Clio debate halls, the wild Victorian stylings of Witherspoon Hall, and the staid Renaissance architecture of Brown Hall. Ralph Adams Cram, who was hired as the University’s supervising architect in 1907, would later write that it was “the old ‘park scheme,’ each structure plumped down on its ‘squatter sovereignty’ site, quite self-contained and self-satisfied, with no suspicion of such a thing as team work.” This was fine, he explained, because the campus was so sparsely developed that there was little crowding. But further construction would require that future structures on campus interact more harmoniously.

Princeton’s choice to bring architectural harmony to campus through Gothic buildings reflected a shift in the philosophy of many American university administrators, who in the late 1800s looked to Oxford and Cambridge as models. The OxBridge colleges were fully residential, and administrators at many of their U.S. counterparts began to admire the way a residential college could create a community of scholars, set apart from the world, fully devoted to the pursuit of knowledge. They also came to believe that

English collegiate architecture best facilitated this sort of serious scholarship; its enclosed courtyards and cloistered seclusion were ideal for the life of focus they desired for their students. And, of course, they were well aware of the prestige that the appearance of age lent to a university. Later, Woodrow Wilson, then president of Princeton University, would approvingly reflect that “by the very simple device of building our new buildings in the Tudor Gothic Style, we seem to have added to Princeton the age of Oxford and Cambridge; we have added a thousand years to Princeton by merely putting those lines in our buildings which point every man’s imagination to the historic traditions of learning in the English-speaking race.”

Princeton commissioned the Philadelphia-based architectural firm Cope and Stewardson to build Blair Hall and Little Hall, which would set the tone for construction on campus for well through the next half century. Walter Cope and John Stewardson, the firm’s partners, were a precocious young duo, neither of whom—perhaps ironically —had completed college.

While they were not the first architects to design Gothic educational facilities, their early work at Bryn Mawr College and the University of Pennsylvania established them as leaders in the field. Their buildings utilized modern construction techniques and local building materials while still maintaining the general aesthetic principles of OxBridge buildings. In Princeton, the dormitories they built engendered the desired sense of separation from the outside world, while still allowing for an openness within the campus. That is, rather than building a series of inward-facing courtyards as the English might, Cope and Stewardson built Blair and Little Halls as a long, gently meandering wall that formed the western border of campus. When students arrived at the train station at the foot of Blair Hall and headed up the steps of the arch that framed the richly decorated Alexander Hall in the near distance, it would be clear that they were leaving the rest of the world behind.

John Stewardson died in an ice skating accident in 1896, one year before the Blair and Little were completed, and though his younger brother Emlyn then became a partner in the firm, Cope and Stewardson received no further commissions from Princeton University. Even so, their impact on the subsequent development of campus, and their popularization of the Collegiate Gothic style

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GENETIC TESTING

FOR BREAST CANCER ADVANCES BRING NEW CHALLENGES B Y

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A N N E

L E V I N

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ith a mother and two paternal aunts who died of breast cancer, the two sisters knew it was important to get tested to see if they carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Should the test come back positive, their risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer would be higher than average. And preventive measures—most likely mastectomy and/or hysterectomy—could be in order.

Each breathed a sigh of relief when their results were negative. But less than a decade later, both had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The older sister was treated with a lumpectomy and radiation. The younger one needed more aggressive treatment, and had the double mastectomy and hysterectomy her doctors recommended.

Such a scenario is unusual, but it happens. Carrying BRCA1 or BRCA2 doesn’t mean a person will get cancer; and not carrying it is no guarantee that a woman— or man—will not.

These days, genetic testing is more precise. It is also much more detailed, able to detect genetic data not only related to breast and ovarian cancer, but other forms as well. And therein lies the dilemma. Doctors have the information, but don’t always know what to do with it. Treatment hasn’t necessarily caught up with what advances in testing reveal.

“Advances in the last few years have been in the ability to test a wider selection of genetic mutations responsible for breast, ovarian, and other cancers,” says Dr. Erica Linden, medical director of breast oncology and cancer genetics at Capital Health Medical Center in Hopewell. “Instead of testing just for BRCA1 and 2, we now have panels that test many at the same time. It can be a good thing and a bad thing. It has given us more information, but at the same time given us unclear information.”

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BY ELLEN GILBERT

THE PROMISE OF “LIVING DRUGS” 30

PRINCETON MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2017

T CELLS ATTACKING A CANCER CELL (CAR-T CELL THERAPY)

ecent strides in the field of genetic engineering are generating tremendous excitement. Long in the works at university and company laboratories, the implications of this treatment are far-reaching.

The rapidly emerging immunotherapy approach is called adoptive cell transfer (ACT); it collects and uses patients’ own immune cells to treat their cancer. There are several types of ACT, but the star of the show right now is CAR T-Cell therapy, which made medical history this last August when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first genetic therapy for widespread use. Called Kymriah, it is being marketed by Novartis, a global healthcare company based in Switzerland.

While genetic therapies promise to treat many types of cancer some day, Kymriah was approved for the treatment of particularly challenging type of leukemia: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The FDA called the disease “devastating and deadly,” and said the new treatment fills an “unmet need.”

“Novartis and other companies have been racing to develop gene therapies for other types of cancers, and experts expect more approvals in the near future,” noted New York Times science writer Denise Grady. “FDA Commissioner Scott Grady said that more than 550 types of experimental gene therapy are currently being studied.” Potential T-cell treatments for solid tumors like breast cancer are still on the horizon.

While FDA-approval is typically associated with specific medications, Kymriah and related gene therapies are not like drugs that can be dispensed by any physician. The process involves a proscribed sequence of procedures played out over days and weeks.

To customize Kymriah for individual patients, white blood cells called T cells are removed from a patient’s bloodstream at an approved medical center, and then frozen, shipped to Novartis in Morris Plains, N.J., for genetic engineering and multiplying, frozen again, and shipped back to the medical center to be dripped into the patient. That processing is expected to take 22 days.

Novartis said the treatment would be available at an initial network of 20 approved medical centers to be certified within a month (of pub date - October?), a number that would be expanded to 32 by the end of the year.

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profiles in healthcare |

photography courtesy of dr. eugenie brunner

profiles in healthcare |

Dr. Eugenie Brunner Offers An Artist’s Touch in Facial Plastic Surgery

rocedures take place at University Medical Center of Princeton and include face lift, mini face lift, neck lift and rejuvenation, yelid surgery, forehead lift/brow lift, cheek and chin augmentation d ear surgery. Non-surgical procedures are extensive and include r and Botox injections and wrinkle treatment, Eclipse MicroPen RP Therapy, microdermabrasion, facials, chemical peels, and ducts. All non-surgical procedures take place at the Bunn Drive ch is also home to Dr. Brunner’s Laser Center.

Skin Rejuvenation Laser Center, Dr. By Brunner is able to treat Taylor Smith to acne and acne scarring, sun damage, laser hair removal, tattoo Located in theRF, heart Princeton, at 256 Bunn and Drive, Suite 4, Dr. Eugenie tightening with Fractora andofcontour the face, jawline Brunner in cosmetic facial plastic artLipo-Precision Txspecializes laser treatments.

For this reason, shesurgery treats and much more.

Double by the ages with a variety of board-certified needs and desires.

Dr. American Brunner is Board also of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the treatment Americanplays Board hasize the important role that preventative in of Otolaryngology, Dr. received her education and training at Rutgers University, Robert Wood in and facialBrunner health and youthfulness.

Johnson Medical School – The University artist of Medicine raised in Princeton, Dr. Brunner is an accomplished and and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newrejuvenation York University Medical Center, andthe the University of Toronto. lastic surgery and skin treatments remind her of Affiliated Theemphasis University Center at Princeton at Plainsboro, Dr. g and painting, with awith strong on Medical symmetry, sculpture, Brunner has as an physician in the Department of Surgery qualities. Remember, “if served you look likeattending you’ve had work done, since 1997, when her practice was first established in Princeton. o much,” remarks Dr. Brunner. to Dr. education Brunner, programs facial rejuvenation procedures are best er participates inAccording regular continuing to ensure terms three aspects—facial plastic surgery, laser treatment, ng the latestconsidered techniques.inShe hasofbeen named a Castle Connolly Prospective can call the office to set up an initial ne years in aand rowfillers.

(2009-2017), and is apatients two-time recipient of the complimentary consultation. the latest technology and her many ice Awards as one of New Jersey’s favorite Using physicians. years of experience, works with is each her many accolades, Dr. BrunnerDr. saidBrunner her favorite reward her patient on an individual basis to when determine the bestthat course procedures. faction, especially they remark they of feel smoother, Patients will be able to examine accurate imagining to analyze before and after views of their face more confident. neck.

Also, factors suchyour as recovery time will eady to learnand which procedures may suit needs? Schedule a be held in the highest regard, ensuring patient comfort and convenience. by calling 609.

921.9497 or visit www.brunnermd.com. fall 2017 PRINCETON MaGaZINE

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Surgical procedures take place at University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, and include face lift, mini face lift, neck lift and rejuvenation, rhinoplasty, eyelid surgery, forehead lift/brow lift, cheek and chin augmentation (implants), and ear surgery. Non-surgical procedures are extensive and include the latest filler and Botox injections and wrinkle treatment, Eclipse MicroPen Elite with PRP Therapy, microdermabrasion, facials, chemical peels, and skin care products. All non-surgical procedures take place at the Bunn Drive location, which is also home to Dr. Brunner’s Laser Center.

With her Skin Rejuvenation Laser Center, Dr. Brunner is able to treat issues related to acne and acne scarring, sun damage, laser hair removal, tattoo removal, skin tightening with Fractora RF, and contour the face, jawline and neck with SmartLipo-Precision Tx laser treatments. For this reason, she treats people of all ages with a variety of needs and desires. Dr. Brunner is also quick to emphasize the important role that preventative treatment plays in preserving skin and facial health and youthfulness.

Born and raised in Princeton, Dr. Brunner is an accomplished artist and said that her plastic surgery and skin rejuvenation treatments remind her of the act of drawing and painting, with a strong emphasis on symmetry, sculpture, and organic qualities. Remember, “if you look like you’ve had work done, you’ve had too much,” remarks Dr. Brunner.

Dr. Brunner participates in regular continuing education programs to ensure that she is using the latest techniques. She has been named a Castle Connolly Top Doctor nine years in a row (2009-2017), and is a two-time recipient of the Patients’ Choice Awards as one of New Jersey’s favorite physicians.

In spite of her many accolades, Dr. Brunner said her favorite reward is her patients’ satisfaction, especially when they remark that they feel smoother, fresher, and more confident.

Are you ready to learn which procedures may suit your needs? Schedule a consultation by calling 609. 921.9497 or visit www.brunnermd.com. fall 2017 PRINCETON MaGaZINE

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profiles in healthcare |

Q&A with Dr. Jennifer Montes of Hunterdon Healthcare Breast Care Program photography courtesy of hunterdon healthcare

By Taylor Smith What do you specialize in and what is your educational background?

I am board certified in general surgery by the American Board of Surgery specializing in malignant and benign diseases of the breast. I am a current and active member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. I received my undergraduate education at Cornell University and earned a master of public health from Columbia University prior to graduating from Temple University School of Medicine. I then proceeded to complete my general surgery residency at New York City’s Lenox Hill Hospital, followed by a fellowship in breast surgical oncology at NYU Langone Medical Center.

My interest in breast surgery began very early in my career, during my surgical rotation as a third year medical student. During that time I worked closely with a female general surgeon who ran the breast clinic at the hospital where I was training.

It wasn’t long before I realized that breast surgery was my true calling. In addition to performing life-saving operations, I loved being able to form meaningful and longlasting relationships with my patients that reached far beyond the operating room. The field combined my love of surgery and women’s health. It was a perfect fit.

What is the Hunterdon Regional Breast Care Program?

The Hunterdon Regional Breast Care Program (HRBCP) combines a comfortable, supportive environment with state-of-the-art, comprehensive diagnostic and treatment resources, all conveniently close to home. At HRBCP, we take a coordinated approach to breast care, for both well care and cancer care. A highly-skilled team of breast specialists from different medical disciplines provides diagnostic testing, genetic risk assessment, treatment, surgery, psychosocial support, education, and rehabilitation. We focus on empowering women of all ages and meeting the needs of each patient from before diagnosis, throughout their treatment, and well after recovery.

The HRBCP is accredited as a nationally-approved Breast Center by The National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC), the only national accreditation program specifically for breast disease. We were also awarded the Women’s Choice Award in 2014 for America’s Best Breast Center.

Describe Hunterdon Breast Surgery Center’s relationship with Hunterdon Women’s Imaging Center.

The Imaging Center and Breast Surgery Center work hand in hand and have the added luxury of working door to door. This makes it easy for our surgeons and radiologists to collaborate and consult with each other at any given time.

Often, if a patient has a finding highly concerning for a malignancy, they will be taken next door for a consultation and biopsy by a breast surgeon that same day. This unique set up gives our patients the advantage of meeting their surgeon well before a diagnosis is made and reduces the added stress of waiting for a biopsy appointment.

Hunterdon Women’s Imaging Center is accredited by the American College of Radiology as a nationally-approved mammography and ultrasound center. All of our diagnostic testing is performed with the most advanced, state-of-the-art technology in a relaxing spa-like atmosphere.

Talk about breast cancer prevention and early detection through educational offerings and cancer screenings.

The best way to prevent breast cancer is to reduce the risk factors that we can

control, for example, being overweight, lack of exercise, and alcohol consumption.

Research shows that exercising four to seven hours a week lowers the risk of breast cancer by 15 percent. In contrast, having more than three alcoholic beverages in a week increases the risk of breast cancer by 15 percent. By making small, empowering lifestyle modifications, women can decrease their risk of breast cancer.

Our most powerful tool for early detection of breast cancer is consistent yearly breast screening with mammogram.

Annual mammograms can detect changes in the breast up to two years before a patient or doctor can feel them. Early detection prevents the need for extensive treatment for more advanced cancer and improves the chances of breast conservation and survival. Here at HRBCP we continue to follow the current guidelines from the American College of Radiology and Society of Breast Imaging, which is for women to receive annual mammograms starting at age 40.

As part of our commitment to the health and well-being of the community, Hunterdon Medical Center offers our expert clinicians to come and speak to your group, business, school, synagogue, church, or organization on a variety of cancerrelated topics. This free service is designed to educate the community on early detection and cancer screening programs as well as information on how individuals can make lifestyle changes to reduce their risk of developing cancer.

In what ways do you integrate holistic modalities within your treatment?

I recognize that breast cancer is a disease that affects much more than the mere biology of a human being, but the very fiber, psyche, and self image of a person. I believe in treating the patient as a whole on a physical, emotional, and spiritual level. I embrace the integration of holistic modalities with traditional Western medicine to do so. I work closely with the Hunterdon Integrative Medicine Program which offers acupuncture, massage, Reiki energy work, aromatherapy, and integrative nutrition among other services. We are currently working together to assemble programs specifically for breast cancer patients and strategizing how to make these services more accessible to patients whose health care benefits may not cover them. I strongly believe that holistic treatments should be integrated into every patient’s treatment plan to reduce the stress and anxiety of this difficult time in a woman’s life, and I am working to make that a reality for my patients.

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Providing the ingredients for Building Better lives by

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PRINCETON MaGaZINE fall 2017

Wendy Greenberg

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scher Street in Trenton, 10am on a weekday: The line forms to the right of the double doors at the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen (TASK).

Some of Trenton’s neediest individuals arrive by foot or by bicycle.

A few push strollers, a few carry a bag of belongings. On rainy days, they huddle under a small awning.

The doors open at 10:30am. Once inside, the patrons sit down to a served meal. One day it might be brunch with waffles and eggs; on another, tuna fish and macaroni. More meals are served at the end of the month when personal resources are running low.

But TASK is about more than food, although that is its most-used service, with some 6,000 meals served each week — 357,000 during last year. TASK blends the essential nutrient of food with the additional ingredients needed for personal self-sufficiency.

“We are more than a soup kitchen,” emphasizes Joyce Campbell, director since June 2016. “It is great to feed bodies, but our patrons need more.”

Offering more is Campbell’s goal, and that goal will be buoyed by a $1.3 million expansion. A capital campaign is underway to fund the project, with construction scheduled to start toward the end of November. A not so small detail: the outside awning will expand to four feet.

Another patron, who at one point had been suspended from TASK for being disruptive, returned from rehab and got a job next door at Capital City Farm. To work there, he needed sturdy work boots, which TASK was able to purchase. He became so interested in agriculture that he enrolled in courses at Mercer County Community College.

Feeding people is just the first step, Campbell says. “We feed the mind, body, and spirit.”

aiding thE nEEdy

TASK was founded in 1982, during a recession, when a coalition of individuals from Trenton churches and social service agencies sought to aid the needy. The first soup kitchen was at the First Methodist Church on Perry Street. By 1992, with the help of donors and Mercer County, TASK raised $600,000 to build the Escher Street headquarters.

Today TASK’s annual budget is a little more than $3 million, with only 2.3 percent coming from government.

Individual donors provide 62 percent of the budget, with the rest from corporations, foundations, and religious organizations. Its capital campaign for the $1.3 million expansion is now at $1.1 million.

TASK recently received a four-star rating and a perfect 100 ExpandEd SErvicES score from Charity Navigator, an independent nonprofit evaluator.

Jo It is the only nonprofit in New Jersey to receive a perfect score and As TASK patrons’ needs are addressed, its services have ll yc e campbe one out of 53 across the country, Campbell points out. expanded. This year, for the first time, a limited number Volunteers help, saving TASK $565,000 annually. On most days a cadre of beds for first apartments are budgeted. One homeless patron, recounts case manager Julie Janis, had been living on the of about 50 volunteers prepares donated food like rolls and cakes and purchased lunch streets for years, recently near Cadwalader Park. Janis helped the items. They weave in and out to avoid bumping one another in the small space, and serve individual with general financial assistance, and she procured the meals as well. The food is cooked by four paid staff.

Food is served during various hours at 14 satellite locations, including South Trenton, identification, a bank account, and eventually a job and housing. “Apartments come completely empty,” she notes. Yorkville, and Hightstown, and in Princeton at Cornerstone Community Kitchen at “Not a lamp, not a fork.” She was able to purchase a bed. Princeton United Methodist Church, St. James AME Church, and a take-out operation The patron then came to see her and said through tears, “I at First Baptist Church. haven’t slept in a bed in 30 years.” fall 2017 PRINCETON MaGaZINE

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FIELDS OF DREAMS, AND SANDS, AND STARS byWendy Plump

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a dramatic re-interpretation of the notion “If you build it, they will come,” New Jersey resident and contractor Jalsa Urubshurow built a base for his adventure expedition company in Mongolia. He chose the South Gobi Province on the edge of the Gobi Desert—where the Altai Mountains rim the horizon—and put up forty Ger, the traditional felt yurts of Mongolia’s indigenous nomadic tribes. He designed the main lodge in the style of an ancient temple. He quarried local stone and installed local staffers – herders, guides, cooks – because he wanted authenticity in a world greatly in need of it, and, if truth be told, because he demanded the most breathtaking gateway for those visiting his beloved Mongolia, the home of his Kalmyk ancestors.

Today, the Three Camel Lodge is one of the world’s top hotels, frequented by archaeologists, filmmakers, National Geographic photographers, Buddhist scholars, luxury travelers, and, Urubshurow is quick to add, “techfree enthusiasts.” In the summer, 700 wild horses come to drink at the lake nearby. In the winter, an ice pack builds to 100 feet high within walking distance, and you can hike on it. At any time of year, the skies are smeared with more stars than human beings are likely to witness than at any other point on the planet.

“My goal was to create luxury travel to Mongolia,” says Urubshurow.

“It’s more than a three-star hotel. It’s a five-billion-star hotel.”

It is also the base for his firm, Nomadic Expeditions, which runs guided luxury trips to Mongolia and eight other distant countries, including Myanmar

and Bhutan. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, Nomadic Expeditions has the distinction of taking clients to some of the world’s last truly wild spaces.

Urubshurow describes Mongolia as having “more horses than people,” and a culture that has changed little since the last Ice Age. “Mongolia encompasses a vast territory, with four major mountain ranges, some of them up to 15,000 feet high,” he says from an airport in Mongolia. “We can still drive 1,500 miles across this country and not see a fence. The eastern grasslands of Mongolia are nine times the size of the Serengeti. I like to tell Texans it’s twice the size of Texas, with just three million people. And 30 percent of them still live a nomadic existence. It’s probably the most sparsely populated country in the world.

“There is no land ownership out in the country,” Urubshurow adds. “It’s all free range. The families have been grazing the same valleys for five generations. We have an astrophysicist who comes in the summers and gives a 3-D presentation during the day, and then at night we’ll go out into the Gobi and look at some of the darkest skies in the world. I think people will see a code of hospitality in Mongolia unseen in any other place.”

Exotica seems to be all of a piece for Urubshurow, the founder of one of the region’s most successful construction businesses, All-Tech, based in Monroe Township. He was raised in a Howell Township community of Kalmyk Buddhist refugees who escaped Mongolia and its punishing Communist influences in the 1950s to set up an enclave here in New Jersey.

Many of his neighbors were carpenters and builders, so the profession was

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Small Houses with...

Big Personalities

by Lynn Adams Smith | photography by Jeffrey E. Tryon

Thank you to the proud owners of these small homes in Princeton for contributing to the character of our community.

You have lovingly maintained, restored, or constructed small homes with architectural distinction for us all to enjoy.

| book scene

by Stuart Mitchner

F.

Scott Fitzgerald’s famous line, “The very rich are different from you and me,” in his story “The Rich Boy,” inspired Ernest Hemingway’s sarcastic retort in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro, “Yes, they have more money.”

In The Language of Houses: How Buildings Speak to Us (Delphinium $25.95), novelist Alison Lurie begins by stating “A building is an inanimate object, but it is not an inarticulate one. Even the simplest house always makes a statement, one expressed in brick and stone and plaster, in wood and metal and glass, rather than in words—but no less loud and obvious.”

The homes built by the very rich make statements expressing what makes them “different from you and me.” Whatever your definition of “different” may be, people of means are likely to have larger, more elegant homes as well as enough wealth to maintain the allure of affluence after transitioning to smaller living spaces.

In effect this is the theme of Leslie Linsley’s Upscale Downsizing: Creating a Stylish, Elegant, Smaller Home (Sterling $24.95), published this month. In Linsley’s introduction, she liberates the term “upscale” by pointing out that “downsizing doesn’t have to mean living in a humble abode, especially if the person, couple, or family has spent a lifetime accumulating lovely things or has a sense of style.” Her synonym of choice for downsizing is “editing,” as if a home were a book, every room a chapter.

Referring to one of the primary elements of remodeling, the choice of paint color, Linsley notes that “interior designers who once favored beige and various shades of white are suddenly opting for gray.” One of her favorite shades is “Down Pipe,” from Farrow & Ball, “an upscale British paint and wallpaper company. When used on all four walls, this gray provides a rich contemporary atmosphere to a room and creates a mysteriously moody interior.”

The author of over sixty books on crafts, decorating and home-style, Linsley has written for House Beautiful, Elle Decor, Martha Stewart Living, and O.

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Dream Homes Will Jones’s lavishly illustrated The New Modern House (Princeton Architectural Press $40) features forty new houses organized around five themes—conditions, materials, environment, budget, and aesthetic.

Upscale is definitely the word for Paris-based architect Barclay & Crousse’s Casa Equis in Peru, “an architectural oasis” chosen for the book’s cover image. “A dream home for the new millennium,” in Jones’s words, Casa Equis stands atop a cliff above the Pacific Ocean as if “hewn out of its setting.”

This Peruvian vision is only the beginning of a journey that includes Rafael Viñoly’s Piano House in The Hamptons, created in the architect’s back garden; Edge Design’s Suitcase House overlooking The Great Wall of China in the Nanguo Valley near Beijing; Sean Griffith’s Blue House in London, “a clarion call for the Post-Modern revival”; and houses in San Francisco and Los Angeles, Singapore and Melbourne, among a variety of locales worldwide. London-based Will Jones’s articles have appeared in RIBA Journal, Financial Times, Blueprint and Dwell. arcHitectural affinities Published this month, also from Princeton Architectural Press, is Northern Exposure: Works of Carol A Wilson, Architect ($50). In the foreword to this intimate portrait of eight houses by the Maine architect, Enrico Pinna recalls meeting Wilson at the Casa das Canoas in Rio de Janeiro, a home that Oscar Niemeyer had designed and built for himself. Pinna describes the professional rapport he felt with Wilson in relation to Goethe’s novel, Elective Affinities: “Such natures when they come in contact, at once lay hold of each other, and mutually affect one another.”

Focusing on climate, seasons, views, local materials, the ecological history of building sites, and collaborations with local artisans, Wilson crafts “exquisitely designed and built houses that celebrate the beauty of New England and the power of architecture to combine modern forms with a traditional built landscape.” Following