Professional Documents
Culture Documents
com
THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE OF DESIGN JUNE 2008
American
Country
Houses
8 Visit ArchitecturalDigest.com for more
R
O
B
E
R
T
R
E
C
K
American
Country Houses
118 TED TURNER
On His Armendaris Ranch Wild Animal
Preserve, the Media Magnate Builds a Lodge in
Tune with the Land
Architecture by Chris Carson, faia
Interior Design by Laura Hunt
Text by Gerald Clarke
Photography by Robert Reck
131 INVOKING AN IDEAL
Romanticized Forms Pay Homage to Southern
Architectural Traditions in a Historic Landscape
Architecture by Ike Kligerman Barkley
Interior Design by Rene OLeary
Text by Joseph Giovannini
Photography by Durston Saylor
140 DEER CABIN REVERIE
On the Wooded Shore of Flathead Lake,
a One-Room Hideaway Celebrates Authentic
Camp Living
Interior Design by Mimi London
Text by Peter Haldeman
Photography by David O. Marlow
150 SEASIDE SANCTUARY
A Cluster of Cottages on Marthas Vineyard
Defnes Simplicity and Charm
Renovation Architecture by Joseph W. Dick, aia
Text by Jean Strouse
Photography by Richard Mandelkorn
158 INNER DIRECTED
Modern Pieces Bring a Former Barn into the
21st Century
Interior Design by S. Russell Groves
Text by Michael Frank
Photography by Scott Frances
COVER: A shingled cot-
tage on Marthas Vine-
yard. Photography by
Richard Mandelkorn.
See page 150. ABOVE
RIGHT: The portale of
the lodge on Ted Tur-
ners Armendaris Ranch
in New Mexico. Archi-
tect Chris Carson de-
signed the buildings,
and Laura Hunt did the
interiors. See page 118.
JUNE 2008
continued on page 10
10 Visit ArchitecturalDigest.com for more
T
O
P
:
S
C
O
T
T
F
R
A
N
C
E
S
;
B
O
T
T
O
M
:
D
U
R
S
T
O
N
S
A
Y
L
O
R
American folk art is
displayed in the great
room of a New Jersey
house. See page 170.
170 CAPTURING TRADITIONS
Georgian Details and a Collection of Americana
Lend a Period Feel to a New Residence
Architecture by Patrick J. Burke
Interior Design by David Guilmet
of Bell-Guilmet Associates
Text by Penelope Rowlands
Photography by Durston Saylor
180 ONE FOOT IN THE PRESENT
Reshaping the Ranch Aesthetic at the Base of
the Grand Teton
Architecture by Celeste Robbins, aia
Interior Design by Berta Shapiro
Text by Jeff Turrentine
Photography by Steve Hall/Hedrich Blessing
190 PROUD HERITAGE
A 200-Year-Old Barn Is Born Again as a
Designers Own Coastal Retreat
Architectural and Interior Design
by Ellen Denisevich-Grickis
Text by Steven M. L. Aronson
Photography by Richard Mandelkorn
198 FARMHOUSE ABSTRACTION
A Recreational Outbuilding Mirrors Its
Bucolic Setting
Architecture by Paul F. Shurtleff, aia
Interior Design by Thad Hayes
Landscape Architecture by Reed Hilderbrand
Text by Joseph Giovannini
Photography by Scott Frances
In rural Connecticut,
a rebuilt barn has been
transformed into a
comfortable family re-
treat. See page 158.
continued on page 14
14
T
O
P
:
M
A
R
Y
E
.
N
IC
H
O
L
S
;
B
O
T
T
O
M
L
E
F
T
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
R
J
G
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
;
B
O
T
T
O
M
R
IG
H
T
:
J
E
S
S
E
H
IL
L
/
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
H
IL
L
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
Departments
18 THIS MONTH ON
ARCHITECTURALDIGEST.COM
26 LETTERS
34 CONTRIBUTORS
42 DESIGN NOTEBOOK:
AN ANTHOLOGY OF FOLK
In Upstate New York, a Collection Finds a Home
in a Reinvented 18th-Century Barn
Architecture by Robertson & Landers
Text by John Loring
Photography by Peter Aaron/Esto
58 ART NOTEBOOK: NATIVE BEAUTIES
Eugene V. Thaw on His Extraordinary
Compilation of North American Indian Works
By Steven M. L. Aronson
70 HOTELS: SAN YSIDRO RANCH
Charting the Remarkable Renovation of a
Storied Southern California Landmark
Restoration Architecture by Appleton & Associates
Text by Peter Haldeman
Photography by Mary E. Nichols
82 DISCOVERIES BY DESIGNERS
Architectural Digests Editors Present
Designers Sources
90 DESIGN NOTEBOOK:
A WINNING DESIGN FOR OSCAR
Architectural Digests Green Room at the
Academy Awards
Interior Design by Carleton Varney
of Dorothy Draper & Company
Text by Kelly Vencill Sanchez
Photography by Mary E. Nichols
Finds for collectors: an
1880s game board (page
149) and a life-size
wood goat of the same
vintage (page 188).
96 DESIGN NOTEBOOK:
SPREADING OUT IN SANTA FE
The Sprawling Rancho Alegre Rekindles the
Spirit of the American West in New Mexico
Architecture by Bill Tull
Text by Peter Haldeman
Photography by Robert Reck
106 ESTATES FOR SALE: EDITORS SELECT
PROPERTIES AROUND THE WORLD
California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida
208 AD DIRECTORY
A Listing of the Architects, Designers and
Hotels Featured in This Issue
JUNE 2008
Volume 65, Number 6
Architectural Digest,
6300 Wilshire Boulevard,
Los Angeles, CA 90048, and
699 Madison Avenue,
New York, NY 10065,
is published monthly by
The Cond Nast Publications,
4 Times Square,
New York, NY 10036.
To fnd Cond Nast
magazines on the
World Wide Web, visit
www.condenet.com.
The historic San Ysidro
Ranch in Southern Cal-
ifornia. See page 70.
Visit ArchitecturalDigest.com for more
editor-in-chief: Paige Rense
executive editor: Margaret Dunne
art director: Jeffrey Nemeroff
photographer director: James G. Huntington
deputy art director: Frankie Holt
senior editors: Richard Olsen, Mary Ore
copy editor: Linda Goldstein associate copy editor: Laurie Perry
research editor: Maile Pingel research associates: Christopher Rogers, Emily Zaiden
special projects manager: James Munn
associate art director: George Moscahlades
associate editors: Lisa Bingham, Linda Bowles, Paul Zemanek
photo rights coordinator: Katie Morrow
senior designer: Jaime Ferrand
junior designer: Ana Todd
photo research editor: Adam Beinash
editorial administrative coordinator: Beverley Montgomery
art assistants: Chris Morrill, Meg Perotti
editorial assistants: Rosemary Brennan, Kristen W. Terry
director of public relations: Ellen Rubin
literary editor: Howard Kaminsky
contributor: Caroline Graham (special projects)
contributing writers:
Steven M. L. Aronson, Therese Bissell, Patricia Leigh Brown, Gerald Clarke, Nancy Collins
Michael Frank, Joseph Giovannini, Peter Haldeman, John Loring, Wendy Moonan, Penelope Rowlands
Mildred F. Schmertz, Susan Sheehan, Jeffrey Simpson, Jean Strouse, Paul Theroux
Judith Thurman, Jeff Turrentine, Amanda Vaill
contributing photographers:
Peter Aaron, Harry Benson, Billy Cunningham, Marina Faust, Dan Forer, Scott Frances
David O. Marlow, Jim McHugh, Robert McLeod, Michael Moran, Mary E. Nichols, Erhard Pfeiffer
Robert Reck, Durston Saylor, Tony Soluri, Roger Wade
Published by Cond Nast Publications
chairman: S.I. Newhouse, Jr.
president and ceo: Charles H. Townsend
chief operating officer: John W. Bellando
chief marketing officer: Richard D. Beckman
chief financial officer: Debi Chirichella Sabino
group president: David Carey
executive vice president/human resources: Jill Bright
executive vice president/chief information officer: John Buese
senior vice president/operations & strategic sourcing: David Orlin
senior vice president/manufacturing & distribution: Kevin G. Hickey
managing director/real estate: Robert Bennis
senior vice president/corporate controller: David B. Chemidlin
senior vice president/chief communications officer: Maurie Perl
senior vice president/planning & development: Primalia Chang
senior vice president/market research: Scott McDonald
vice president/editorial assets & rights: Edward Klaris
vice president/editorial operations: Rick Levine
vice president/magnet: Jessica Perry
cond nast media group
senior vice president: Louis Cona
senior vice president/finance: Robert A. Silverstone
vice president/integrated marketing: Linda Mason
vice president/corporate sales, detroit: Peggy Daitch
vice president/creative marketing: Cara Deoul Perl vice president/marketing: Matt Roberts
vice president/interactive: Lisa Ryan Howard vice president/creative services: Dana Miller
vice president/corporate creative director: Gary Van Dis
cond nast consumer marketing
group president: Robert A. Sauerberg, Jr.
vice president/retail marketing: James J. Mate
vice president/business development: Julie Michalowski
vice president/database marketing: Robert Schroko
vice president/marketing director: Ilene Cohen
editorial director: Thomas J. Wallace
4 Times Square, New York, New York 10036
Published at 6300 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, California 90048
22 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
,
S
.
S
C
O
T
T
P
O
W
E
R
S
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
,
M
O
N
D
O
C
A
N
E
A
N
D
A
B
IR
D
IN
H
A
N
D
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
B
IL
L
Y
C
U
N
N
IN
G
H
A
M
Quite a Pair
New Yorks Tribeca neighborhood is home to Mondo Cane
and its well-edited array of mid-20th-century furniture and
accessories. Of particular note is a deceptively simple pair of
bentwood-and-bamboo cantilevered chairs, $18,500, attributed
to the legendary Charlotte Perriand.
Mondo Cane Inc., 174 Duane St., New York, NY 10013
212-219-9244; www.mondocane.com
Carpet of Flowers
The tree of life, a folk art motif that
recurs across cultures, appears on
a nearly three-by-fve-foot 193040
American hooked rug, $1,675, from
A Bird in Hand Antiques (www.a
birdinhand.com; 973-410-0077) in
Florham Park, New Jersey.
Found Marbles
In Brooklyn, New York, S. Scott
Powers Antiques (www.burlsnuff
.com; 718-625-1715) has a circa 1860
stoneware basket flled with 50
1.25-inch-diameter Bennington mar-
bles, $3,600 for the basket and
marbles; $3,100 for the basket only.
At Scalamandr (800-
932-4361; www.scala
mandre.com), Raj Bo-
tanica is a foral union
cloth, with background
colors of ivory, soft
blue, Indian yellow and
Madras pink (shown).
Scalamandr
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
continued on page 86
86 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
O
B
S
O
L
E
T
E
:
J
IM
M
C
H
U
G
H
;
L
E
E
J
O
F
A
:
B
IL
L
Y
C
U
N
N
IN
G
H
A
M
;
2
0
T
H
C
E
N
T
U
R
Y
O
B
J
E
C
T
S
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
W
W
W
.
2
0
T
H
C
E
N
T
U
R
Y
O
B
J
E
C
T
S
.
C
O
M
;
C
A
N
U
P
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
W
IL
L
IA
M
N
O
L
A
N
D
Big Top Memories
Tella Kitchen, an artist often compared to Grandma Moses, was born
in Vinton, Ohio, and later moved to Attica, Indiana. Sometime in
the 1960s or 70s she painted the oil Circus in Town, $8,200, based on
her memories of one that came through Attica when she was a
child. The work, at Canup Antiques, captures the excitement of
the event in the gures animated gestures.
Canup Antiques, 828-743-9435; www.canupantiques.com
Lee Jofa
Conjuring up old Eu-
ropean wall paint-
ings, Vintage Fresco is a
printed linen available
in champagne and pale
aqua from Lee Jofa
(800-453-3563; www
.leejofa.com).
How Bizarre
Torontos 20th Century Objects
(www.20thcenturyobjects.com; 416-
617-9119) has a fne example of a
1930s Clarice Cliff Bizarre vase,
$2,800. The English potters output
was typifed by imaginative interpre-
tations of the Art Dco aesthetic.
Abstract oral designs and a
striking combination of colors
distinguish a Cliff vase.
Obsolete (www.obsoleteinc.com;
310-399-0024), of Venice, Califor-
nia, has a delightfuland expres-
sive192030 American whirligig
of a man riding a bicycle, $3,800.
When the wind hits him, his legs
move the pedals.
Rider on the Wind
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
continued on page 88
88 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
H
E
L
E
N
W
A
R
R
E
N
S
P
E
C
T
O
R
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
H
E
L
E
N
W
A
R
R
E
N
S
P
E
C
T
O
R
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
S
T
A
U
B
L
E
&
C
H
A
M
B
E
R
S
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
B
R
IA
N
V
A
N
D
E
N
B
R
IN
K
Lets Bowl!
Bowling sets, such as one, $195, at Houstons Helen Warren
Spector Antiques, were popular in the United States
from the early 20th century until the 1940s. The pins measure
just under six inches tall each and were likely used indoors.
Helen Warren Spector Antiques, 713-927-6444
www.helenspector.com
Right Direction
Dating from the early 1800s, a wa-
tercolor of a mariners compass,
$2,350, at the Wiscassett, Maine, gal-
lery Stauble & Chambers Antiques
(www.staublechambersantiques
.com; 207-882-6341), is notable for
its bold primary colors.
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
continued on page 148
90 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
S
C
R
E
E
N
IM
A
G
E
S
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
G
L
O
R
IA
L
A
M
B
;
O
S
C
A
R
IM
A
G
E
:
A
.
M
.
P
.
A
.
S
.
By Firstname Lasttktkt
M
ost designers faced with the
prospect of having just five
weeks to complete a job thats
key to one of the biggest events of the year
could be forgiven if they opted to turn and
run the other way. But Carleton Varney
has never been like most designers. It can
always be done, he says simply.
The indefatigable Varney was about
to board a plane when he got a call from
Architectural Digest editor-in-chief Paige
Rense asking if he would like to design
the magazines green room for this years
Academy Awards. Paige and I, we go back
a while, and shed seen the work Id done
for Joan Crawford and other stars, he re-
calls. I told her yes, indeed, I would!
There was no question about the design
concept. We wanted to give it the early
Hollywood look, Varney notes, when
movie stars were movie stars.
The president and owner of Dorothy
Draper & Company didnt have to look far
for inspiration. His green room pays exu-
berant homage to four of Drapers most
notable projectsCalifornias Arrowhead
Springs Hotel, the Quitandinha Palace
& Casino Resort in Brazil, the Camellia
House at Chicagos Drake Hotel and New
Yorks Hampshire House.
No one did glamour quite like Doro-
thy Draper. The legendary decorator, who
once pronounced, the Drab Age is over,
LEFT: Backstage at the
Kodak Theatre in Los
Angeles, Carleton Var-
ney, of Dorothy Draper
& Company, evoked
Old Hollywood glam-
our in the Architectural
Digest Green Room,
which he created for
the 80th annual Acad-
emy Awards. The ped-
estal table, foreground,
is an original Draper
design, as is the sconce;
the doors and chande-
lier are Draper replicas.
BELOW: A life-size Os-
car is at the entrance.
Nourison carpet.
continued on page 92
Interior Design by Carleton Varney of Dorothy Draper & Company
Text by Kelly Vencill Sanchez/Photography by Mary E. Nichols
Design Notebook
A Winning Design for Oscar
92 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
ABOVE: Varney. LEFT: The
bar was inspired by a
Draper design. Lamps,
banquette, slipper chair
and leather on bar,
Kravet. Carleton Varney
by the Yard foral fabric;
Carleton V green silk.
This was a fantasy space, notes Varney. ABOVE:
A seating area. The mirror and lamps are also
vintage Draper pieces. He adapted the dishes and
glassware from Draper designs. LG televisions,
at Abt.com. White satin, red Ultrasuede, sofa
fringe, sofa and tufted chairs, Kravet. Low table
and rattan chairs from Ficks Reed. ABOVE
RIGHT: The entrance. Table and benches, Kravet.
was never one for the modest gesture.
Rococo-style moldings, black-and-white-
marble foors and overscale foral prints in
vivid huesall were part of her stylishly
dramatic vocabulary.
The Architectural Digest Green Room,
which Varney likens to a set from a 20th-
Century Fox musical, is crisply theatrical
and marked by bold colors and patterns.
There are lacquered double doors and a
foor stenciled in a checkerboard design.
Mottled aubergine walls are offset by a
glossy white wainscoting and oversize
crown moldings. Theres a tufted-black-
leather bar and luxurious fabrics: white
satin, lipstick-red Ultrasuede and a bright
green banana-leaf damask. A Dorothy
Draper print adds a vibrant foral note.
While many of the furnishings are re-
productions, others are original Draper
pieces, such as the baroque sconce and the
palm-tree lamps.
The room was to sit just offstage at Hol-
lywoods Kodak Theatre and needed to
continued from page 90
accommodate between 25 and 30 people.
Measuring approximately 40 by 20 feet,
it was more or less the size of a New York
City living room.
But most living rooms have things like
walls, a ceiling, electrical outlets. The green
room had to be constructed in its entirety
at the ABC television studios before it was
dismantled and rebuilt at the Kodak.
It took the set builders about four days
to create the bones of the space, and then
the carpentry, electrical, painting and
drapery departments performed their du-
ties. The move to the Kodak proved a bit
more complicated. The room was a foot
and a half over the fre exit doors and had
to be tweaked to ft. In the end, the various
departments worked feverishly to pull the
room together on time.
By all accounts, the green room was an
enormous success, and Varney is pleased
that he can bring back glamour to interior
design. We live in a beige-and-gray world.
We need a sparkle, a way to make people
smile again. Thats what its all about. l
Visit www.ArchitecturalDigest.com to see
more Oscar-related features.
Design Notebook
96 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
H
e was raised in the relatively
civilized environs of Westhamp-
ton Beach, on Long Island, em-
barked upon an auspicious career on
Madison Avenue and, in 1983, launched
the Independent Television Network,
which would become the largest supplier
of non-network prime-time advertising
in the country. But R. Michael Kam-
merer, Jr., who died last year at the age of
67, was probably closer in spirit to John
Wayne than to Donald Trump. He was
defnitely more comfortable in jeans and
a cowboy hat than a business suit, says
his son, Rudy Kammerer. My dad fell in
love with the West through Hollywood
movies and reading western writers like
Zane Grey and Louis LAmour. He was
just fascinated with those tales of heroism
and adventure.
For a while R. Michael Kammerer suc-
cessfully juggled his communications em-
Spreading Out in Santa Fe
The Sprawling Rancho Alegre Rekindles the Spirit of the American West in New Mexico
Architecture by Bill Tull/Text by Peter Haldeman/Photography by Robert Reck
ABOVE: The compound that architect Bill Tull designed for the late R. Mi-
chael Kammerer, Jr., in Santa Fe refects the owners love of southwestern
art and architecture. BELOW: The sunroom, originally intended to be a pa-
tio, was enclosed with a bveda ceiling and doubles as a gallery space. A
feather motif by potter Maria Martinez inspired the granite foor detail.
continued on page 98
Design Notebook
98 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
pire and cowpoke enthusiasms. Around
the time he started ITN, he bought a
200-acre property in upstate New York,
where he built a log cabin and ran one of
the largest beef cattle operations in the
area. In 1991 he retired from managing
ITN, moved with his wife to Carefree,
Arizona, and indulged his inner Slim Pick-
ens by learning the art of competitive
team roping. Three years laterafter di-
vorcing his first wife and meeting his
secondhe purchased 175 acres of pas-
tureland between the Ortiz and Sangre de
Cristo mountain ranges in Santa Fe and
hired the Scottsdale, Arizonabased archi-
tect Bill Tull to build Rancho Alegre, his
western Shangri-la.
They made an intense study of Santa
Fe architecture and who the best crafts-
people and practitioners were, says Rudy
Kammerer. Siting the house against the
backdrop of the Ortiz Mountains, Tull de-
signed a sprawling pueblo-style compound
that, while grand in scale, speaks the local
vernacular. Its most prominent features are
a stone torron, or tower, and a santuario,
or chapel, around which the architect built
a Mexican-style plaza. Tull was exacting
LEFT: Paintings by Roy Anderson and saddles by
Edward H. Bohlin are displayed in the saddle
room. BELOW: Native American weavings line
a wall of the second-foor stairwell. Western
historythats the stuff my dad loved, says
Kammerers son, Rudy. He started with small
bronzes, but he became a more sophisticated
collector when he made the move to Santa Fe.
The house is lled with superb paintings by Taos
School artists, Native American rugs and pottery, and
western collectibles, from chaps to bridles to ries.
continued from page 96
ABOVE: In the dining room, a custom-made
chandelier hangs from wood beams that
were smoked to give them a dark patina. The
lighted niche is a Tull signature. The bronz-
es on the windowsill are by Dave McGary.
Design Notebook
continued on page 100
100 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
that the former adman championed. One
proceeds under the vaulted ceiling of the
entrance to the living room, an impres-
sive space with 20-foot ceilings and hand-
carved beams that Rudy Kammerer says
craftsmen spent half a year on their backs
completing. Off one end of the room, a
sunroom has travertine-and-black-granite
LEFT: Cowboy chaps
dating to the early
1900s and fags deco-
rate the walls of the
offce. The safe door,
covered in leather, was
hand-carved with a
Code of the West de-
sign. The bronzes are
by Herb Mignery.
ABOVE: Replicas of Plains Indian chiefs clothing are displayed in the confer-
ence room. Cathy A. Smith, who designed the costumes for Dances with
Wolves, spent three years creating the collection, says Kammerer. Every
detail is authentic. LEFT: Turquoise pieces in a stone jewelry case.
when it came to building methods and ma-
terials, whether he was using three layers
of adobe bricks in the walls or retaining
master stonemason John Morris to lay the
Arizona fagstone foors.
R. Michael Kammerer had started col-
lecting small bronzes by western artist
Herb Mignery back in Albany, and by the
time Rancho Alegre was completed, he had
assembled museum-quality collections
of western paintings, Native American
art and artifacts, and pioneer memora-
bilia. Visitors to the house are greeted
outside by Mignerys bronze sculpture of
two cowboys shaking hands, along with a
plaque titled Code of the West, describ-
ing the commonsense frontier values
continued from page 98
continued on page 102
Design Notebook
102 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
continued from page 100
Siting the house against the backdrop of the Ortiz
Mountains, Tull designed a pueblo-style compound that,
while grand in scale, speaks the local vernacular.
ABOVE: Its the kind of room that makes peoples
jaws drop, Kammerer says of the master bath.
Stonemason John Morris modeled the space af-
ter the pueblos at Chaco Canyon. The layering
of rocks and the vigas and latillas are what the
Anasazi used. An archaeologist took photos and
enlarged them so the design could be replicated.
TOP: The cantina was dubbed La Tinaja de Mi-
guel, or Michaels Watering Hole, says Kammer-
er. RIGHT: To further Rancho Alegres authentic
look, Tull anchored the compound with a stone
tower. Black-walnut doors mark the entrance.
foors featuring an American eagle-feath-
er motif. A cantina situated off the other
end of the room, where things tended
to end up late at night, was inspired by a
300-year-old Spanish cowboy bar.
But the jewel of the house, according
to Rudy Kammerer, is the master bath.
Here John Morris has fashioned a tribute
to Chaco Canyonthe Anasazi ruins in
New Mexicos San Juan Basin. The baths
banded sandstone walls, viga-and-latilla
ceiling and petroglyph-like etchings all re-
call the astonishing skills of the Puebloans.
Of course, the Anasazi didnt enjoy free-
standing pedestal showers or Roman tubs,
but then the Anasazi didnt revolutionize
television advertising.
R. Michael Kammerer continued to
develop his collections at Rancho Alegre.
The house is flled with superb paintings
by Taos School artists, Native American
rugs and pottery, and western collect-
ibles, from chaps to bridles to rifes. The
saddle room exhibits the workmanship of
masters like Edward H. Bohlin (he made
Roy Rogerss saddles), while the confer-
ence room showcases quotations from Na-
tive American chiefs and precise replicas
of their dress by Cathy A. Smith (she did
the costumes for Dances with Wolves).
People will say things like, This is
the second-best holster collection in the
country, and the holsters were a small
part of my dads collection, says Rudy
Kammerer. It was sort of the way it all
ft together that made the collection spe-
cial. This spring Sothebys auctioned off
a good share of the paintings and Native
American crafts. And Rancho Alegre itself
will probably be sold. Whatever the fate of
the ranch, however, its a safe bet the Code
of the West will endure. l
Design Notebook
106 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
S
O
U
T
H
C
A
R
O
L
IN
A
:
B
R
IA
N
V
A
N
D
E
N
B
R
IN
K
/
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
T
H
E
O
C
E
A
N
B
R
O
K
E
R
;
C
O
L
O
R
A
D
O
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
C
H
R
IS
T
IE
S
G
R
E
A
T
E
S
T
A
T
E
S
COLORADO A Historic Home in the Heart of Downtown Aspen
A
fve-bedroom, 7.5-bath
Caribbean colonialstyle
house in Sea Pines Resort was
designed by Michael Ruegamer,
of Group 3. The oceanfront
residence has geometrically
patterned railings, custom ma-
hogany doors and windows,
I
n 1892 businessman John
Atkinson built what is now
known as the Sardy House.
Despite several renovations,
the six-bedroom Victorian, with
stained-glass windows, has
held on to its period charm.
The property, which includes
a neoQueen Anne carriage
house with an eight-bedroom
wing and a one-bedroom suite,
operates as a bed-and-break-
fast. $21.5 million.
Call 970-925-8810.
SOUTH CAROLINA
Hilton Head Gem with a Rened Yet Relaxed Ambience
heart-pine foors and 14-foot
ceilings. A gym and a wine cel-
lar are among its amenities.
Two decks and a 500-square-
foot veranda look out on the
pool and the Atlantic Ocean
beyond. $8.25 million.
Call 843-785-7215.
Estates for Sale
continued on page 108
Editors Select Properties Around the World
California, Massachusetts, Colorado, Florida
108 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
F
L
O
R
ID
A
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
C
O
R
C
O
R
A
N
G
R
O
U
P
R
E
A
L
E
S
T
A
T
E
;
M
E
X
IC
O
:
M
IC
H
A
E
L
C
A
L
D
E
R
W
O
O
D
A
recent reconfguration of
the four-bedroom, six-
bath Casa Tortuga (AD, April
2006) by owner and interior
designer Alison Palevsky saw
many changes, among them the
installation of foor-to-ceiling
windows in the living and din-
ing areas (the oceanfront house
MEXICO Ocean View on the Rocks in Cabo San Lucas
looks out to Cabos famous stone
arches), expansions of the hot
tub and pool, the reimagining
of the third foor as a media
room and guest quarters, and a
renovation of the upper terrace,
now a comfortable gathering
spot. $5.495 million.
Call 52-624-144-2848.
FLORIDA Barrier Island Opulence Among the Palm Trees
T
he frst impression one
gets of a nine-bedroom,
7.5-bath Georgian-inspired
residence on Jupiter Island is
a suitably grand one: The ap-
proach to the house is defned
by a plethora of palm trees,
which add to the regal but
welcoming feel of the structure
itself. Its a building that could
have been here since the 1920s
but was in fact completed more
recently, in 2000, as evidenced
by the hurricane-resistant
windows, the open plan of the
kitchen/family room and the
inclusion of two state-of-the-art
amenitiesa home theater
and a wine cellar. A sweeping
lawn leads from the triangular
pool down to the shore of the
barrier island. $16.95 million.
Call 561-818-6351.
Estates for Sale
continued on page 110
110 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
A
N
D
Y
C
A
R
L
S
O
N
/
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
M
A
C
A
R
T
H
U
R
&
C
O
M
P
A
N
Y
A
9,000-square-foot, six-
suite compound strikes
the right chord for its location
along the Kohala Coast, on Ha-
waiis sleepier Big Island. The
1.19-acre property is a tranquil
oasis of exotic plants, fowers
and trees, koi ponds and antique
sculptures. Architectural fea-
tures include carved Indonesian
doorways and clerestory win-
dows. A pool and spa overlook
the ocean, as does one of two
outdoor sleeping areas (the oth-
er is in a garden setting). The
residence, which also has a gym
and a sauna, as well as access
to the Mauna Lani Resort,
comes furnished. $24 million.
Call 808-987-4218.
HAWAII
Black-Sand Beach
House with
Elemental Focus
Estates for Sale
continued on page 112
112 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
C
H
R
IS
T
IE
S
G
R
E
A
T
E
S
T
A
T
E
S
V
iews abound for a contem-
porary house on a quiet
cul-de-sac along a Sausalito
ridgeline fve minutes from the
hiking and biking trails of
Golden Gate National Recre-
ation Area. The four-bedroom,
four-bath residences large
windows and open foor plan
maximize vistas to the north,
east and southof downtown
San Francisco, the Bay Bridge,
Treasure Island, Richardson
CALIFORNIA
Bay Area Panoramic Pleasure
Bay, Tiburon, Belvedere, Mount
Tamalpais and Sausalito harbor.
(Even the laundry/storage
room has a view.) The baths and
kitchen feature Italian glass
tiles, and the cherrywood foors
throughout have radiant heat.
Floating stairs and a barrel-
vaulted Douglas fr ceiling in
the family room and dining
area lend the spaces additional
drama. $3.995 million.
Call 415-464-3741.
continued on page 116
Estates for Sale
116 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
F
R
E
D
C
H
R
IS
T
IA
N
S
E
N
/
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
L
A
N
D
V
E
S
T
(
A
E
R
IA
L
)
,
G
R
E
G
P
R
E
M
R
U
/
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
L
A
N
D
V
E
S
T
(
IN
T
E
R
IO
R
)
MASSACHUSETTS
On the Edge of a Peninsula
Northeast of Boston
A
more than two-acre water-
front property in Nahant is
where the daughter of fnancier
F. Haven Clark, for whom the
residence was built in 1938,
married the youngest son of
Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
The seven-bedroom, 8.5-bath
house, which has since been
converted into a Mediterranean-
style villa, features a wine cellar
and a mahogany-paneled media
room, not to mention sweeping
views that take in the Atlantic
Ocean, the Harbor Islands and
the Boston skyline. The grounds
include a one-bedroom apart-
ment, a pool and cabana, a vine-
yard, an orchard and a private
beach. $4.95 million.
Call 617-357-8996. l
Estates for Sale
I learned about New Mexico when
I frst started dating Jane Fonda,
remarks Ted Turner (right), who
built a private desert lodge on Ar-
mendaris Ranch, his 350,000-acre
wild animal preserve along the
dramatic Fra Cristobal Mountains.
I come out here in the winter.
SPECIAL ISSUE
AMERICAN
COUNTRY HOUSES
ON HIS ARMENDARIS RANCH WILD ANIMAL PRESERVE, THE MEDIA
MAGNATE BUILDS A LODGE IN TUNE WITH THE LAND
Architecture by Chris Carson, faia/Interior Design by Laura Hunt/Text by Gerald Clarke/Photography by Robert Reck
Ted Turner
AMERICAN
COUNTRY HOUSES
New Mexico
120 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
I wanted a hacienda-type house,
says Turner. I like Mexican archi-
tecture. ABOVE: He staked the site
of the entrance early on. RIGHT:
The portale is open to a courtyard.
Mirror and Navajo rug, Christies.
Ralph Lauren Home pillow plaid.
O
h, give me a home where the
buffalo roam is the open-
ing line of one of Americas
most famous folk songs. But
Ted Turner might be excused if he thinks
it was written especially for him. As the
largest individual landholder in the United
Stateshe has title to nearly two million
acres in 11 stateshe has not one but many
homes where the buffalo roam. And he
lays claim to about 50,000 of those ma-
jestic, if sometimes ornery, crittersthe
largest land animal, he proudly observes,
in all of North America.
Turners main residence is near Talla-
hassee, Florida (see Architectural Digest,
July 2004). On visits to his many west-
ern and midwestern ranches, he usually
stays in the house, however humble, that
was already there. I just want someplace
where I can close the door to keep the fies
out, he says.
When his friends visited his Armendaris
Ranch in New Mexico, for instance, they
stayed in what had been the cowboys
bunkhouse: one room for everybody, a
bath with open showers and nothing for
entertainment but the sound of the wind,
which sometimes reaches 50 miles an hour
during the winter. The girls had to wait
until the boys were done in the bathroom,
he says of that spartan desert dormitory.
It was rudimentary.
It was too rudimentary, in fact, to be the
center of such a vast property350,000
acres. In 2006 he decided it was time for a
proper house, beautiful yet simple, and in
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 123
Its a nice house, but its not fancy, says Turner, who hired San Antonio architect Chris Car-
son and Dallas interior designer Laura Hunt to carry out the design. LEFT: For the great room, as
throughout, Hunt wanted European overtones, she says. Paintings by Albert Bierstadt fank
the freplace, and a side table displays circa 191040 Navajo copper boxes. Vigas, typical of Spanish
colonial architecture, were stained dark brown. John Rosselli lamps. ABOVE: Ted said, Lots of
windows, and he got them, says Hunt, who hung prints by George Catlin in the dining area.
was doing. It was a brilliant choice, Hunt
now admits, and Ive had to eat my words.
When youre in the house, youre part
of the desertand you still have beauti-
ful landscapes.
On one thing everyone agreed: The
house should be a partner to its surround-
ings. I didnt want people to drive up and
say, Oh, wow! Look at that house! ex-
plains Hunt. Everyone also agreed that it
be built in the Territorial style, the look
and form 19th-century settlers in New
Mexico found so appropriate to that arid
and often inhospitable land. It was not for
nothing that the Spanish conquistadors
gave the name the Jornada del Muerto
the Journey of the Dead Manto a trail
that runs through the ranch.
The purpose of the houseit was to
be a desert lodgewas foremost in the
designers minds. Carson placed the front
no sense wasteful. I dont believe in wast-
ing anything, he says. Im fairly wealthy,
but I even save paper clips. A hacienda-
style house with four bedrooms is what
he wanted, and when Laura Hunt, the
Dallas designer who was in charge of the
project, and Chris Carson, a San Antonio
architect, inspected the site, they found
two stakes frmly embedded in the Ar-
mendariss dusty soil. One was where Tur-
ner wanted his front door; the other was
where he wanted his bedroom windows to
look out on the Fra Cristobal Mountains.
Hunt thought he should have chosen a
site in the Fra Cristobals themselves, one
that would look down at the desert, rather
than one on the desert that would look
up at the mountains. But Turner, the man
who irrevocably altered television broad-
casting with the introduction of CNN
and 24-hour cable news, knew what he
124 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
door where Turner had planted his stake,
but the door opens not to an entrance hall
but to a walled courtyard. The courtyard
provides a sense of enclosure from the wild
desert, says Carson. The outdoors is as
much a part of the house as the indoors,
and the three guest rooms are entered
from a wide, open-to-the-air corridor.
To reach the main part of the house from
their rooms, guests must thus walk briefy
through the open air.
The designers were also keenly aware
that their client was a passionate environ-
mentalist. Whatever they built had to meet
his stiff standards. What Hunt and Carson
discovered was that the old way of build-
ing, which was their intention all along,
is also best for the environment. Masonry
walls 18 inches thick keep out the cold in
the winter and the heat in the summer, and,
in New Mexico anyway, old-fashioned tile
and clay, made from the earth itself, are
ideal for both roofs and foors.
Both designers made several trips to the
historic Mexican town of San Miguel de
Allende, returning with 14,000 tiles for the
roof, red-painted tiles for the baths, stones
for the freplaces and antique doors for
the courtyard entrance. The more natural
materials are used, says Carson, the more
interesting they look. Most people think
of mesquite, another natural material, as
a fuel for cooking. Hunt put it to a better
use as the foor of the great room, a long
ABOVE: Antique Native American
baskets decorate the walls of the in-
formal dining room. RIGHT: The
kitchen was based on historic kitch-
ens of Spanish colonial homes in
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico,
explains Hunt. Wolf range and Sub-
Zero refrigerator, at Abt.com. Fau-
cet from Kohler.
Ted doesnt require luxurious accommodations, says Hunt.
Hes very cool that way. He just needs a pillow and a bed, and
hes happy. THESE PAGES: The master bedroom. The paint-
ings over the walnut writing table and the console in the hall
are by Bierstadt; the print is by Catlin. Stark carpet. John Ros-
selli bench. Schumacher lamp.
128 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
space that combines the living and din-
ing areas. Beyond beautiful, is how she
describes foor colors that vary from a rich
brown to a brown so dark that it could be
mistaken for black.
I envisioned the house blending into
the landscape, says Hunt, and I wanted it
to be painted the color of the grass around
it. I worked for I dont know how many
months to get that color for the stucco.
The inside is a shade lighter. Though she
wanted the interior to suggest a European
hunting lodge, Hunt was not shy about
using items from the American West
Native American artifacts, for example,
and bison hide for the master bedrooms
headboard and bed skirt. Its like suede,
she says, but a little rougher.
Turner and Hunt share a grandson
her daughter Gannon was married to his
son Beauand she was designing not just
for Turner but also for her grandson, Beau
Jr., as well as future generations of Turners.
I built it for family, she says, so that my
grandson will say, Grandma did this.
Turner is also thinking of future gen-
erations. Through his Turner Endangered
Species Fund he is trying, on all his prop-
erties, to save and reintroduce endangered
species. On the Armendaris these include
bighorn sheep, Aplomado falcons and Bol-
son tortoises. The largest tortoise in North
America, the Bolsonla tortuga grande del
desierto, or the big turtle of the deserthas
probably not been seen in those parts in
several thousand years. Im trying to save
life on Earth, says Turner. We have an
obligation and a privilege to preserve and
maintain our planet and the species we
share the planet with. If we destroy the
environment, were committing suicide.
A hundred years ago the bison was also
in danger of extinction. Now Turner him-
self owns so many that some of his herds
stretch as far as the eye can see. For Hunt,
it seemed only right that the emblem of
his new house should be that shaggy beast
he is so devoted to, and she has put the bi-
son logo on just about everything but the
lightbulbsfrom towels and T-shirts to
poker chips and M&Ms. Not only has Ted
Turner found a home, or homes, on the
range. So, on the Armendaris and on his
many other ranches, have the buffalo. l
Half my land holdings are in New
Mexico, says Turner (left), who
founded the Turner Endangered
Species Fund in 1997. He developed
the property to raise buffalo (below
left) as well as to provide a sanctu-
ary for imperiled animals, such
as pronghorn antelope (below), big-
horn sheep and Bolson tortoises.
Im trying to save
life on Earth. We have
an obligation and a
privilege to preserve our
planet and the species
we share the planet with.
Im not buying land now, Turner says. Ive got enough,
though I may buy adjacent pieces of property for bison. OP-
POSITE: The latilla-covered porch shades the great room. THIS
IMAGE: People gather on the west patio to watch the sunsets.
Landscape architect Jennifer Bear used native plants, includ-
ing soaptree yucca, black grama grass and tobosa grass.
I
n some circles, having multiple per-
sonalities may be viewed as a psycho-
logical disorder, but in architecture,
it can be a good thing.
When the New York frm Ike Kliger-
man Barkley was commissioned to design
a house in the Virginia horse country, sev-
eral considerations pulled the architects
in complex and contradictory directions.
Thomas Jefferson, Monticello and the Pal-
ladian tradition of plantation houses still
weigh heavily on the collective architec-
tural psyche. Yet in the more specifc con-
text of the Green Springs Historic District,
a protected agricultural landscape, most
buildings are modest farmhouses. While
the house had to hold its own on a 1,000-
acre site within the historic-land trust, it
couldnt overwhelm empty nesters who
were retiring from New York to live in a
landscape they had no intention of domi-
nating. We wanted something that would
ft in with the area, says Rene OLeary,
the client, a professional designer who did
the interiors. She and her husband had
worked previously with the architects on
their home in Connecticut (see Architec-
tural Digest, August 1999).
The land, then, with rolling hills, pas-
turage, native cedars and a 10-acre lake,
looked innocentand large enough to
handle just about anythingbut it was
actually a multivalent site charged with
conficting expectations. Fitting it into
a context polarized between manor and
farmhouse meant multiplying its architec-
tural personality. The big house had to be
small, underbuilt for a very large piece of
land, and it had to be signifcant yet dis-
creet. We wanted to do something appro-
priate, something that would sit lightly on
the land, says Thomas Kligerman, one of
the frms three partners. The clients need-
ed a horse barn, one that could also shelter
the cats and dogs the couple foster.
It was the frst house of any size in that
LEFT AND RIGHT: Ike Kligerman Barkley em-
ployed Neoclassical and English precedents in
creating a Virginia residence for interior design-
er Rene OLeary and her husband. Notes Joel
Barkley, The white, almost Greek severity of
the architecture produces a miragelike effect in
the warm, earthy verdure. Marvin windows.
Chadsworths columns. Weatherend benches.
Architecture by Ike Kligerman Barkley
Interior Design by Rene OLeary
Text by Joseph Giovannini
Photography by Durston Saylor
Virginia
Invoking an Ideal
ROMANTICIZED FORMS PAY HOMAGE TO SOUTHERN ARCHITECTURAL
TRADITIONS IN A HISTORIC LANDSCAPE
I wanted to build on the classical ideal of taking
refuge in the landscape. Southern architecture is like a
white mirage in a green world, says Barkley.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 135
area since the 1880s, so we felt a lot of
pressure to build something worthy of the
setting, says partner-in-charge Joel Bark-
ley, who was born and raised in the South
and who seemed to breathe a southern
accent into the project. Complicating
and enrichingthe task was the ruin of
Hawkwood, a preCivil War Tuscan-style
house designed by the eminent New York
architect Alexander Jackson Davis. Its
just across the road, so theres a direct vi-
sual connection, Barkley adds. Since its a
ruin, theres a kind of romantic sense here,
a nostalgia, that I wanted to pursue.
Barkley brought other extrinsic con-
cerns to weigh on the character of the
design: Escaping to the country from
city living makes me think of Virgil and
his Bucolica, he says. I wanted to build on
the classical ideal of taking refuge in the
pastoral landscape, a civilized retreat that
would contrast with the brutal reality of
the great heat here and the hard clay soil.
I think southern architecture can be so
powerful because its like a white mirage
in a green world.
The architects were essentially min-
ing the spirit of the place to shape the
design, but sensing the subtleties of the
land, weather and near and distant history
meant that no single form could embody
all considerations. Barkley chose several
forms rather than one, creating an episodic
structure with a narrative instead of cast-
ing the building as a single image built
at a single point in time. The centerpiece
of the house is a stuccoed, templelike en-
trance pavilion with an august portico of
four columns. The roof slopes down to
a clapboard appendage, which looks as
though it was added by subsequent own-
ers in more humble circumstances. On the
OPPOSITE: Inspired by architect Harrie T. Lindeberg, John Ike turned the
houses Greek pediment on its side to create the silhouette for the 28-
stall barn. ABOVE: OLeary chose a bold hue to offset the trim in the vaulted
living room. A Nobilis fabric covers the love seat. The chairs near the fre-
place are done in a Bergamo fabric. Odegard orange rug. Holly Hunt lamp.
other side of the portico, theres a slightly
grander wing with tall, aristocratic, tri-
ple-hung windows, which in turn abuts a
two-story clapboard building that reads
as a farmhouse. The rear side opens to a
second-story porch over a gallery paved
in brick. An arched porte cochere springs
to a pure, pointedly simple two-story,
Greek Revivalstyle structure that recalls
small country churches.
The house may be large at 6,500 square
feet, but it is modestly rather than proudly
large, and it appears even smaller because
the architects have broken the whole
into a rambling, charming concatenation
of sections expressing different histori-
cal periods and social conditions. Barkley
purposely made the house unsymmetri-
cal, but he explains that it is composed
of locally symmetrical objects that form
a kind of jumble outside any normal hi-
136 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
ABOVE: Just over the porte cochere is a book-lined, shiplike space outftted
with two bunks. The dogs are among those the couple foster for a shelter.
RIGHT: Barkley calls the library a perfect idealized cube. The moldings are
lyrical and as fancy as we get. An oil by Susan Sales hangs above the fre-
place. At left is a work by Suki Bergeron. Sofa from Donghia. Stark carpet.
The house may be large at 6,500 square feet, but it
is modestly large. The architects have broken the whole
into a charming concatenation of sections.
138 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
erarchy. Each segment is only one room
deep, without corridors. I maximized the
outside surface area to get lots of win-
dows, breezes, views and sunlight, he says,
noting, Its not the cheapest way of build-
ing a house.
To add more diversity to the diversity,
partner John Ike designed the nearby barn
as a steeplelike building, inspired by en-
tirely different sources. We heisted the
idea from an early-20th-century architect
named Harrie T. Lindeberg, who himself
probably took it from English structures,
explains Ike. We wanted to create a sim-
ple, iconic form.
ABOVE: The vaulted master bedroom is lit by windows on three sides. The pastel is by Ted Larsen. Cow-
tan & Tout drapery fabric; Ralph Lauren Home hardware. Grass-cloth wallcovering from Decorators
Walk. BELOW: Porches along the pasture side of the house allow for dining and relaxing. RIGHT: The
1,000-acre farm includes a lake and an old wheat barn. The property is in a protected historic district.
When Im away, I cant wait to get back to Virginia, says Rene OLeary. Its a wonderful area.
The stable adds another chapter to the
narrative on the property. The geometri-
cally abstract, acutely triangular structure
houses the tack and feed rooms and 28
stalls for Renee OLearys horses, as well as
a spiral staircase that leads up to an apart-
ment for the groom, in the gable, where
theres a steep, 60-degree pitch. The ar-
chitect ties the barn visually to the main
house via the standing-seam Galvalume
roof and the spanking-white paint.
Despite the ramble of exterior shapes
in the main house, its interior flows
with ease and logic. A tall, impressive
continued on page 205
A
ccording to the Small House
Society, an Iowa-based or-
ganization dedicated to the
promotion of humbler hous-
ing alternatives, living small can free up
your mind, your wallet, and your soul.
Consider, if you will, Deer Cabin, a one-
room, 300-square-foot log cabin that, its
owners, creators and loyal visitors swear,
is the last word in soulful comfort.
The Stone family knows from comfort.
For years Martin Stonewho developed
the manufacturing conglomerate Mono-
gram Industries in the 1960s and once
owned the Phoenix Firebirdshis wife,
Connie, and their fve now-grown chil-
dren split their time between a modern
adobe-and-glass house in Tucson, Arizona,
designed by the Austin, Texas, architect
Arthur Andersson, and a 200-plus-acre
ranch in Lake Placid, New York. But they
eventually tired of the high maintenance
that the ranch demanded and began to
investigate alternative summer getaways.
We traveled for four or fve years, re-
ABOVE: On Flathead Lake in Mon-
tana, Mimi London transformed a
funny little shack from the 1930s
into a rustic refuge for Connie and
Martin Stone. I did it in about two
weeksit was as if I were possessed,
says the designer, whose own line
shack across the lake was inspiration.
LEFT: Firewood is stacked in the
screen porch of Deer Cabin, which
serves as an on-site pied--terre
while the couples main house on
the property is being built. OPPO-
SITE: London removed plastic fn-
ishes from the foors and painted
everything that needed it, she says.
Deer Cabin Reverie
Montana
ON THE WOODED SHORE OF FLATHEAD LAKE, A ONE
-
ROOM
HIDEAWAY CELEBRATES AUTHENTIC CAMP LIVING
Interior Design by Mimi London/Text by Peter Haldeman/Photography by David O. Marlow
140 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
142 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
ports Connie Stone. We went up and
down the East Coast, to Hawaii, around
the Pacifc Northwest, all over Califor-
nia, Aspen, Santa Feeverywhereand
we just couldnt fnd any place where we
felt at home. Finally, at the suggestion of
their friends Meredith and Tom Brokaw,
who have a ranch in Montana, they looked
into the area around Flathead Lake. The
couple checked into a dude ranch near the
lakeand the very next day purchased a
15-acre site supporting a lot of pine trees
and one 1930s-era fshing shack.
If it was an impulse buy, their deci-
sion was ratifed by two neighbors in the
know. One was Arthur Andersson, who,
the Stones discovered, had been vacation-
ing on the lake for years. The other was
the designer Mimi London, who owns a
house directly across the lake from the
couples property (see Architectural Digest,
June 1987), has spent her summers in the
area since she was a girl and manufactures
a line of eco-friendly furniture there. The
three met at a party one evening, and
London was impressed enough with the
Stones idea of building an unassuming
Adirondack-style compound on their land
that she issued a rare invitation to visit
her line shacka very humble mountain
abode that once served cowboys riding the
fence line (see Architectural Digest, June
1992). For Connie Stone, the line shack
was something of a revelation. We sat on
her rickety, falling-down porch and put
our feet up, she sighs. Mimi pulls out
some ripe Brie from an old cooler and
grabs some basil out of a tub with birds
kind of hovering over it. Her horses are
walking around trying to take food from
her. I kind of expected a unicorn to come
walking through.
It was, according to perhaps the most
outdoorsy interior designer in America, a
beginning point for what we were going to
do, for the attitude. More introductions
were madeLondon to Andersson, An-
dersson to the line shack, London to the
Stones fshing shack. The conversation
turned to how they could make the cabin
function as a venue for project meetings,
entertaining and sleepovers while build-
ings Andersson designed for the property
were under construction. Mimi made a
little drawing and said, How does that
look? recalls Connie Stone. Two and a
half weeks later the cabin was done.
Everything in this cabin must
func tionthere are no extras
and everything is used frequently.
ABOVE: An armoire holds dishes,
linens and candles. Theres mini-
mal electric light, London notes.
OPPOSITE: A daybed is covered in
old Swiss Army blankets.
LEFT: The foreman built simple
shelves for the indoor serving
area, which is used during winter.
Theyre designed to allow your
shoulders to drop, your neck to re-
lax, explains London. This is a
place where chores are slow, quiet
and therapeutic.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 145
OPPOSITE: I modifed the concept of a wilderness camp cook tent with
mouseproof containers, a propane stove and kerosene lanterns, says
London (left). There are no walls, and the view is beautiful. Connie and
I have done the dishes more than once in the snow. BELOW: The fre pit
is the site of cocktails or after-dinner coffee. FOLLOWING PAGES: Logs
replace the original railings in the dining room. Janus et Cie lanterns.
Among other things, London replaced
the old structures porch railings, gave it
a fresh coat of paint, stripped the plastic
surfaces and added shelving inside and
built a cook tent, made of log posts and
Plexiglas, off one end of the cabin. Not
a square inch was wasted: A mini-refrig-
erator and shelves put up by the Stones
foreman make up the kitchen area; a bed
covered in old Swiss Army blankets and
Navajo rugs serves as the bedroom; a table
and captains chairs out on the porch act
as the dining room; a weathered armoire
from Nova Scotia provides storage. Did
you see the powder room? London asks,
referring to a mirror hung on a pine tree
above a wire trashcan holding a water
pitcher and bowl. Nice, doncha think?
To furnish the place, the designer relied
on rustic pieces from the Stones for-
mer house on Lake Placid and rounded
these out with eBay purchases and local
findsdumpy calico curtains, 1920s
light fxtures, period hickory chairs and
Amish rockers.
Mimis talent is that she creates an
intimate and nurturing environment just
instinctively, says Connie Stone. When
I walked into that space, it felt like some-
Even people you wouldnt
think would respond to it want
to be there washing the
dishes and heating the water.
continued on page 205
148 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
Outlaw Ephemera
On March 2, 1882, just a month before he
was shot and killed by a member of his
own gang, Jesse James, using the alias Tho.
Howard, responded to a newspaper ad
placed by J. D. Calhoun for a 160-acre plot
of land in Franklin County, Nebraska. The
two-page letter and the ad, along with a
pamphlet and a dime novel, both also
from 1882, detailing the notorious outlaws
exploits, are available for $350,000 at
The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery.
The Kenneth W. Rendell Gallery Inc., 46 Eliot St.
South Natick, MA 01760; 508-647-1776
www.kwrendell.com
The legend of
Jesse James
continues to
capture the
nations popular
imagination.
Little Tent
Made for a child, a circa 1890 Plains
tepee, $10,500, at Denvers David
Cook Fine American Art (www.da
vidcookfneamericanart.com; 303-
623-8181), is just over a foot tall. Un-
like similar pieces of the era, it has
quill, rather than bead, decoration.
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 149
T
H
E
K
E
N
N
E
T
H
W
.
R
E
N
D
E
L
L
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
:
R
IC
H
A
R
D
M
A
N
D
E
L
K
O
R
N
;
D
A
V
ID
C
O
O
K
F
IN
E
A
M
E
R
IC
A
N
A
R
T
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
D
A
V
ID
C
O
O
K
G
A
L
L
E
R
IE
S
M
O
R
N
IN
G
S
T
A
R
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
M
O
R
N
IN
G
S
T
A
R
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
;
R
J
G
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
R
J
G
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
;
V
A
L
L
E
J
O
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
:
J
IM
M
C
H
U
G
H
Arrowing In
Geometric designs in strong colors
defne a parfeche, $4,500, at Morn-
ing Star Gallery (www.morning
stargallery.com; 505-982-8187) in
Santa Fe. The envelope was fash-
ioned by a member of one of the Pla-
teau tribes around 1900.
Sail Away
A full dockyard builders model from
circa 1894 of the Union Castle liner
RMS Carisbrook Castle, $120,000,
is at Vallejo Gallery (www.vallejogal
lery.com; 949-642-7945) in New-
port Beach, California. The model
measures over fve feet in length.
Fun and Games
From RJG Antiques (www.rjgan
tiques.com; 603-433-1770), Russ and
Karen Goldbergers Rye, New
Hampshire, gallery, is a circa 1880
American game board, $2,500.
On one side is a Parcheesi board; on
the other is a checkerboard.
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
continued on page 168
150
We knew we would have lots of
work to do, but we didnt care,
because we fell in love with its shape,
the land, the view, Roseline Glazer
says of the shingled cottage on
Mar thas Vineyard, built by Roger Al-
len in 1930, that she shares with
her husband, Bill. Architect Joseph
W. Dick helped renovate the struc-
ture, one of several on the property.
L
ong before Roseline
Glazer bought a small
house overlooking
the sea on Marthas
Vineyard, she fell in love with
a painting by Claude Monet
of a small house overlooking
the sea on the northwest coast
of France, Fishermans Cottage
on the Cliffs at Varengeville.
She acquired a print of the
picturethe original belongs
to the Museum of Fine Arts,
Bostonand had it framed for
her husband, Bill, who hung it
on a wall in his offce.
Fast-forward to 1988. The
Glazers are living in New
Haven, Connecticut, where
he works as a psychiatrist, she
in real estate, and they spend
every August at a cottage they
own on the Vineyard. They
are content there, but one
day a friend takes them to see
property on a hilltop near the
shore. They drive through
thick woods, park in the brush
and walk along a path till they
come to a cottage surrounded
by trees, facing a fshing village
and Vineyard Sound. Roseline
Glazer recalls, The place was
in shambles. Large pines ob-
structed the views; the cedar
shingles had curled with age.
Still, I saw the bones of a small,
delicate house that was falling-
apart perfect. It just grabbed
me. It turned out, however,
not to be for sale.
A year later the property
was on the marketcottage
Renovation Architecture
by Joseph W. Dick, aia
Text by Jean Strouse
Photography by
Richard Mandelkorn
Massachusetts
Seaside Sanctuary
A CLUSTER OF COTTAGES ON MARTHAS VINEYARD
DEFINES SIMPLICITY AND CHARM
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 153
OPPOSITE: A brick courtyard wraps
around the entrance to the kitch-
en, at the rear of the house. Gla zer
(left) searched for 15 years before
she found the railings. The choke-
cherry tree over the cottage is
natures umbrella, she remarks.
ABOVE: A corner of the living room.
Vintage fabrics cover the pillows.
Theres little art on the walls. We
mostly enjoy looking out the win-
dows, says Glazer, who kept the
window treatments to a minimum.
Marvin windows throughout.
and outbuildings, on 3.3 acres
bounded by 24 acres of con-
servation land sloping down
to the fishing village and a
beachand Roseline Glazer
had a real estate license in
Massachusetts. She showed
the place to friends, hoping
no one would buy it. No one
did. Then, in 1990, she and
her husband took the plunge.
There was not one thing on
the property that didnt need
care, she says. Anyone else
would have torn the house
down. But I loved it.
The renovation took 10
yearsduring which time the
Glazers became grandparents
and moved from Connecticut
to downtown Manhattan to
Key Westand it is still a work
in progress. With a local con-
tractor, the new owners tore
down trees to open up views
and create space for gardens.
(I apologized to the trees,
says Roseline Glazer, a pas-
sionate, gifted gardener. We
really had no choice.) They
built a garden shed and refur-
bished the one-bedroom guest
cottagelaying wide-plank fr
over a concrete foor, install-
ing bead-board on the interior
walls and new cedar shingles
outside, replacing windows and
adding new kitchen appliances,
insulation and heating. Glazer
furnished each space with an-
tiquesin the fully renovated
bunkhouse, a croquet set from
the Antique Garden Furniture
Show at the New York Botani-
cal Garden, a lamp from the
market in Brimfield, Mas-
sachusetts, and a dresser and
wicker chair (both had to be
stripped) that she found on
the Vineyard.
Bill Glazer, who now runs
a medical consulting business,
left most of the project to his
wife. I trusted Roz, he says.
My instinct was that her in-
stincts were right. They built
an offce for him on the hill-
side above the main house,
with a small gym downstairs,
a deck, its own gardens and
wide views of the sound. I
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 155
needed a separate space for
work, but the grandchildren
have fgured out how to fnd
me, he says without a trace
of regret.
Nature, in Roseline Gla-
zers hands, is a key element of
design. She created gardens for
every building: gardens banked
above walls, gardens lining
stone steps, spreading out un-
der trees, spilling from pots
on a brick terrace. Clumps of
daffodils wake the property
up in the spring; lilies of the
valley follow, thriving in the
shade, then peonies, irises and
columbine. Clematis climbs
cedar-shingle walls. Down the
hill toward the beach, a fence
keeps deer out of the veg-
etable garden. Full summer
brings a perennial abundance
that includes roses, helenium,
euphorbia, dahlias, asters, hy-
drangeas, hostas, astilbe, Rus-
sian sage, lavender, phlox and
a raspberry patch.
Parking behind the offce,
a visitor crosses a lawn to a
stone path and steps that lead
to the kitchen at the rear of
the main cottagethe door
everyone uses. The Cape Cod
style house, built in the 1930s
by Roger Allen, has gone from
falling-apart perfect to sim-
ply perfect. And thanks to the
combined efforts of Roseline
Glazer and Joseph W. Dick,
it feels larger than its 1,450
square feet. Owner and archi-
tect opened it up to the light
and its glorious setting, rais-
ing the ceiling, widening and
deepening porches that face
north and west. We dont have
much art, Glazer says. The
ABOVE: The addition of a dining room to the main house took place years
after we thought we were fnished renovating, she explains. Its small,
in keeping with the proportions of all the cottages. Bead-board lends a
textural quality to the walls and ceiling. Bentwood chairs surround the
farm table. OPPOSITE: The kitchen. Kohler sink. RIGHT: In the attic, two
small bedrooms were combined to create a larger master bedroom.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 157
landscape and sea are all the art
we need.
Still, she collects vintage
fabrics, buttonhooks, hatboxes,
antique lace and linens, pin-
cushions, pottery and porce-
lainall of which are on dis-
play in the house. A few years
ago she added a dining room
adjacent to the kitchena
clean-lined, shed-roof struc-
ture that looks as if it has been
there forever, with 11 windows,
a bead-board ceiling and walls,
a round oak table she found in
LEFT: Glazer relocated a parking area to provide a gar-
den spot. The couples dog, Murray, is on the offces
terrace. An avid gardener, Glazer massed plantings, in-
cluding hydrangeas and salvia, around the perimeter.
From the chairs, theres a 180-degree view, she notes.
ABOVE: The bunkhouse, left, and the guesthouse are
exactly where we found them, says Glazer. They installed
new windows, white-cedar shingle siding and shingle
roofs. A potting shed is now between the two structures.
TOP: Ocean breezes billow curtains in the bunkhouse.
Oregon, bentwood chairs and
an old Hoosier cabinet.
Upstairs, a former attic with
two small bedrooms and no
views is now a loftlike master
bedroom, with a full bath and
a shed dormer that has five
windows facing the sea. The
Glazers kept the houses origi-
nal wide-plank floorboards,
even in the baths and kitchen.
They use no shades on the win-
dows, preferring to see the
steady flash of a lighthouse
beam on nights with no fog. In
I saw the bones of a
small, delicate
house that was falling-
apart perfect.
It just grabbed me.
calm weather, the sound of a
bell buoy announces the chang-
ing of the tide.
Roseline Glazer had for-
gotten all about the Monet
painting when she fell for a
ramshackle cottage by the sea
in 1988. She remembered the
image only after she and her
husband had bought the prop-
erty they now live on half the
year and consider their true
home. I think we dont nec-
essarily fnd houses, she says.
They fnd us. l
Inner Directed
MODERN PIECES BRING A FORMER BARN INTO THE 21ST CENTURY
Interior Design by S. Russell Groves/Text by Michael Frank/Photography by Scott Frances
Connecticut
They are modernists who have ended up living in old struc-
tures, designer Russell Groves says of longtime clientsa
hedge-fund manager and his wife, parents of three-year-old
twin daughterswho asked him to reimagine the interiors of
a 19th-century barn that had been moved from Canada to Con-
necticut and subsequently converted into a 15-room house.
We chose modern pieces that had a sense of warmth, a tac-
tile quality, says Groves, whose challenge was to fnd a way
to bring a breath of modernism to the rustic spaces. Idelle
Webers Across the Meadow, left, and Jardin de Paris, an 1897
poster by Jules Chret, hang in the living room. Sofa fabric,
Robert Allen. Stool fabric from Dedar.
162 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
collecting and know how to
read an old house as a genu-
ine antique or a hybrid that
has been tinkered with over
the decades. The key question
is, How does all this mold the
way a design project unfolds?
Its surprising, says Groves.
Sometimes the more educat-
ed client will give you the most
leeway. In the beginning you
talk about the central ideas.
You agree on the use, sensi-
bility, general ambience and
level of formality of a house,
and then, if youre lucky, youll
be free to design.
Now hear it from the clients
side: Russell worked on our
Brooklyn Heights town house
and my Manhattan offces. He
knows my wife and me pretty
well by now, but I remember
when we frst sat down, with
our clippings and notes. He
sifted through them and said,
Some of these translate into
practical solutions; some are
ABOVE: The kitchens modern ap-
pliances contrast with the barns
original wood beams, posts and
fooring. What we did here, basi-
cally, was revise what we found,
says Groves (top). We used zinc
and marble countertops. Theyre
materials that get better with time.
It fell to Groves
to get all the pieces to
cohere, as the
husband puts it, and
make the place feel
fresh, young and alive.
I
n designing the inte-
riors of a Connecticut
house for a family with
whom he had collabo-
rated on two earlier projects,
Russell Groves once again
found himself in the position
of working with an unusually
discerning and knowledge-
able client. There cannot be
too many hedge-fund manag-
ers out there who majored in
art history at Harvard, won a
prize as an undergraduate for
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 163
There was a lot of texture already
present here, the designer says of
the dining room. So we chose a
very simple table and chairswood
themselves, in order to relate to the
surroundingsand a customized
chandelier. The fagstone freplace
dominates the space.
inspirational. He has a way
of getting to the essence of a
project. By now weve learned
that the best way for him to
work, and for us, too, is simply
to lay out all the goalsthen
cut him loose.
The goals for the clients
Washington Depot house were
very different from those in
town. In Brooklyn, the couple
and their three-year-old twin
daughters live in an 1830 town
house. Grovess task there was
to infuse the intricate pe-
riod interiors with a sense of
refined modernity that still
maintained a connection to
the architecture. Modern sofas
and antique chairs coexist with
sleek contemporary lighting
and a lively collection of ab-
stract or Conceptual art made
in the 1960s and 1970s and
work by younger contempo-
rary artists.
From the beginning, the
house in rural Connecticut was
intended to be a markedly, but
not entirely, different experi-
ence. Where the city house
was stately, urbane and in-
ward-turning, the place in the
country was open, relaxed and
bathed in abundant light. This
is a house for bare feet, long
summer dinners, unbridled
childrens play. Yet it is also a
place of workthe husband
maintains a home offce here
and, like the city house, it is an
environment that deliberately
164 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
forsakes the rote for the rule-
bending and the vibrant.
The structure itself, a Ca-
nadian barn that was rescued
and rebuilt in Connecticut, has
elements that go back to the
1850s. In its residential incar-
nation, as a spec house, it was
moved to its present site and
fnished with fairly standard-
issue fittings and materials.
The previous owner added
a handsome poolhouse and
made several improvements to
the main building, but it fell to
Groves to get all the pieces to
cohere, as the husband puts it,
and make the place feel fresh,
young and alive.
As with the city house, the
goal was to bring a modern
sensibility to a period build-
ing. In this case, however, the
approach was to be more rus-
tic and informal. Groves be-
gan with what he calls some
widespread tweaking. In the
kitchen, he changed the count-
ertops, the lighting and the
position of the appliances. In
the great room, he installed
new audiovisual and com-
munications systems. There
was some clever childproof-
ing, such as the introduction
of acrylic panels to a dramatic
open staircase and the wrapping
of thick rope around splintery
columns. But Groves speaks
frankly about the intrinsic ap-
peal of the house as he found
it: There are these wonderful
beams, mellow foors, dramatic
fagstones. The light is spectac-
ular. And the big open room
is a welcome distinction from
more compact city living.
When it came to detailing
the interiors, Groves sought,
as in the city, to design by
setting down different layers
of time. The barns frame cast
an anchor into the 19th centu-
ry; the couples artwork pushed
the chronology forward into
the 20th and 21st. Grovess
job was to bridge the distance.
He did this, as he likes to, by
combining the right kinds of
furniture from different mod-
OPPOSITE: The custom walnut four-poster in the master bedroom was de-
signed by Groves. A Bakelite-and-chrome side table is fanked by a pair of
rocking chairs, which he produced in collaboration with Connecticut-based
furniture maker Ian Ingersoll. Grovess plan was to make the house com-
fortable for the family and also take the design up in quality several notches.
In town, we live in a house in Brooklyn Heights, says the husband. In the
country, we wanted a more open plan, with lots of light and a relaxed atmo-
sphere. Russell understood how we wanted to use and live in the house bet-
ter than we did ourselves. ABOVE: A Noguchi foor lamp and side table are
next to a pair of woven-leather chairs in a seating area in the guesthouse.
167
ern moments. In the central
room, matched pairs of Arts
and Crafts armchairs, Paul
McCobb stools and whimsical
contemporary childrens rock-
ers are grouped around a low
table, while on the other side
of a row of rustic pillars, an
Edward Wormley daybed and
chairs are drawn up to a sub-
stantial fagstone freplace.
What you find here is
a formal arrangement, yes,
but its made up of more ca-
sual pieces, says the designer,
with fabrics that are durable
and child-friendly and a pal-
ette that is light enough to
brighten the rough timbers
and the wood foor. Punches
of color come from pillows and
the artwork, which, in addition
to the contemporary pictures
acquired by the husband, in-
cludes a generous selection of
vintage movie posters from a
large collection assembled by
the wifes father.
Grovess combining in-
stincts extend to the library
nook, where Harvey Probber
games chairs are matched to a
Dunbar games table; the mas-
ter bedroom, with its sleek
Groves-designed walnut bed
and night tables and Shaker
rocking chairs; and the pool-
house, where a Noguchi foor
lamp shares the space with a
glass lamp from Pottery Barn.
What does it take to know
how to bring together objects
from such disparate sources,
new and old, high and low,
simple and more polished?
Our work is all about mixing
elements together to create a
warm sense of modernism,
Groves said. When the period
is hard to pinpoint, the house
seems to have more life. Ideally,
it will be timeless, too. l
Groves also laid out the landscap-
ing around the pool. The architec-
ture of the barn relates to the
landscape and the surrounding
structures, says the husband, but
the interiors make it a modern
house with the charm, feeling and
materials of something thats older.
The structure itself, a Canadian
barn that was rebuilt
in Connecticut, has elements
that go back to the 1850s.
168 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
F
R
Y
L
IN
G
S
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
A
L
E
C
M
A
R
S
H
A
L
L
;
A
M
E
R
IC
A
N
G
A
R
A
G
E
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
A
M
E
R
IC
A
N
G
A
R
A
G
E
S
T
A
R
K
F
A
B
R
IC
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
S
T
A
R
K
F
A
B
R
IC
;
T
H
E
S
P
L
E
N
D
ID
P
E
A
S
A
N
T
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
T
H
E
S
P
L
E
N
D
ID
P
E
A
S
A
N
T
L
T
D
.
;
A
D
R
IA
N
M
O
R
R
IS
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
A
D
R
IA
N
M
O
R
R
IS
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
Birds of a Feather
Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, artist James Christian Seagraves was
known for his interpretations of Pennsylvania German symbols.
Frylings Antiques has a selection of his work, including a redware
bird, left, available for $400, signed JCS and made between 1985
and 1990. It also bears the initials VAS, for his wife, Verna. It is
unusual to have both sets of initials on Seagravess pieces. Another
piecea bird whistle, $400is signed JCS and is from 198085.
Frylings Antiques, 1717 Becker Rd.
Green Lane, PA 18054; 215-234-0596
www.frylingsantiques.com
Dime Store Detail
At Los Angeless American Garage
(www.americangarageantiques
.com; 323-658-8100) is a nearly fve-
by-four-foot late-19th-century sign
advertising Ed Farrs 5 and 10 Cent
Store. Thought to be from the Bos-
ton area, it has its original paint.
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 169
Stark Fabric
Old World Weavers,
from Stark (877-746-
7699), has new indoor-
outdoor fabrics in its
Elements III Collec-
tion. They are, from
top to bottom, Shore-
line, Catamaran, Mari-
na and Veracruz.
Take a Village
Consisting of 17 buildings, a card-
board village, $475, was a Victorian
toy. Available at Adrian Morris An-
tiques (www.adrianmorrisantiques
.com; 716-655-3374) in East Aurora,
New York, it has its original map
marking the structures locations.
She used tabletops and doors,
or any other at surfaces,
as canvases for her paintings.
Panel Discussion
Mid-20th-century painted wood
panels, $2,900 each, are by an artist
known only as Lucy from Sikeston,
Missouri. Theyre now for sale at
The Splendid Peasant (www.splen
didpeasant.com; 401-396-9255) in
Bristol, Rhode Island.
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
continued on page 188
Capturing Traditions
GEORGIAN DETAILS AND A COLLECTION OF
AMERICANA LEND A PERIOD FEEL TO A NEW RESIDENCE
Architecture by Patrick J. Burke/Interior Design by David Guilmet of Bell-Guilmet Associates
Text by Penelope Rowlands/Photography by Durston Saylor
New Jersey
For a couple with a wide-ranging collec-
tion of American antiques and folk art,
architect Patrick J. Burke and interior
designer David Guilmet created an 18th-
century-style house on farmland in New
Jersey. The feldstone barn, which serves as
the guesthouse, is supposed to look like
an addition to a period house, says Guil-
met, who contributed to the architecture.
I really love molding and paneling.
Im crazy about depth; its the layers upon
layers that make things interesting.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 173
O
ne of his frst gifts
to the woman he
would later marry
she was 16 or 17
at the timewas a Saratoga
trunk, metal, with a dome
top, she recalls. Their ro-
mance evolved along with their
growing collection of antique
objects and furnishings. We
love attending antiques shows,
she says. For the two of us its
a hobby.
How better to memorialize a
long and successful union than
through a house that showcas-
es this shared passion? Even
its name, Weathervane Farm,
refers to a beloved collection.
But it doesnt stop there: Its
residents also collect early
American furniture, hooked
rugs and folk art.
The pair had lived in this
corner of northern New Jer-
sey for decades and had raised
their children there. When
they wanted a new space in
which to live and collect, they
turned to a local architect,
Patrick J. Burke, and interior
designer David Guilmet, of the
Solebury, Pennsylvania, frm
Bell-Guilmet Associates.
Favoring Americana in their
collecting lives, the couple
wanted a residence to match.
They asked for classic early
American, Burke says. He
responded with an expansive,
18th-century-style clapboard
house and a feldstone, gam-
brel-roofed guest barn, which,
placed just to the front of the
house, gave it a true farm feel-
ing, Burke notes.
Together, the two buildings
resemble a compound that was
built up over time. The illusion
of age was important to the
clients, who, while desiring a
new residence, also wanted it
to look period, says the wife.
They took steps to tie the
buildings together to make it
a working whole, Burke says,
by, for example, echoing the
stone of the barns faade in a
gable end of the residence.
Entering the house is like
stepping into a pool of light:
A Palladian window on the
second foorcopied from a
house in Morristown, New Jer-
sey, where George Washington
was headquartered during the
Revolutionary Warsends
the sunlight down to the frst
OPPOSITE: A gallery off the entrance hall displays a circa 1840 theorem painting and a
circa 1835 portrait. ABOVE: In the living room, as throughout, paneled walls add period
detail, says Guilmet. He did extensive research into 18th-century American interiors
to ensure architectural authenticity. The New Hampshire highboy is 18th century. The
painting of the O. M. Pettit is by James Bard. Schumacher sofa and drapery damask, with
Scalamandr trim. Brunschwig & Fils wing chair and sofa fabrics. Lee Jofa pillow crewel.
174 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
The approach in every room was to provide a backdrop for
the antiques and art, Guilmet says. Even the palette was
kept simple. ABOVE: A late-19th-century heart-in-hand staff
is in the paneled library. Avery Boardman sofa, with Manuel
Canovas fabric. RIGHT: The formal dining room has a portrait
by Sturtevant J. Hamblin. Lee Jofa chair fabric. Brunschwig &
Fils drapery fabric, with Scalamandr trim.
foor. The entrance hall was
conceived with a gallery open-
ing on either side. You walk in
and see arches, says the wife,
who had done years of research
into period architecture before
embarking on the project. I
really love molding and panel-
ing, she says. Im crazy about
depth; its the layers upon lay-
ers that make things interest-
ing. To the right, a gracious
staircase, shallow-stepped and
gracefully wide, seems to foat
up to the second foor.
Guilmet, who designed the
interior architecture as well as
several exterior details, also
pored over historical plans, then
replicated his fndings in such
elements as the houses mill-
work and its classic Colonial
front door surround. We were
going for an authentic look,
he says. I wanted it to have a
sophisticated feel. The quest
extended to the nails. Peo-
ple often use rosehead nails
to get an old-looking foor,
says Guilmets partner, Patrick
Bell, but these foors were laid
with cut nails that are fush with
the wood. Theyre not as dra-
matic visually, but theyre more
appropriate historically.
In the spacious, light-flled
living room, a Serapi carpet,
from the couples impressive
rug collection, literally sets the
tone; the muted crimson of its
backgroundwhat the wife
calls a very Colonial redis
picked up in upholstery fabrics
and draperies. Here Guilmet
opted for simplicity. I wanted
a harmonious palette with sub-
tle changes. I wanted to keep
it quiet and serene but to still
give it a sense of color.
As they have for years, the
The rest of the house is high-style country, says Guilmet,
who worked closely with the wife on the design, but the
great room is a bit more casual. The hand-hewn beams are
18th century; the tin chandelier, the bench table and the
horse-and-plow weathervane are all mid19th century. Ralph
Lauren Home sofas, with Scalamandr fabric.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 179
couple worked with Bell, an
antiques dealer, to acquire pe-
riod art and furnishings for the
residence. Such pursuits are in
the wifes blood: My parents
collected antiques, and they
took me around to dealers, she
says. The couple favor painted
surfaces, and some of the living
rooms more important pieces,
including an 18th-century tea
table and a pair of circa 1800
Windsor bowback chairs, with
their original white paint, fall
into this category.
The dining room is centered
around a mahogany Federal ta-
blea piece said to have once
belonged to Benjamin Lincoln,
a general in the Revolutionary
Warthat, along with a side-
board and six of the mahogany
dining chairs, had long been in
the familys possession. Guil-
met had the chairs copied,
increasing their number to a
dozen, and claims that even he
cant tell the new from the old.
The twin chandeliers, redolent
of 18th-century New England,
are among the few other re-
productions to be found.
An evocative circa 1845
portrait of Sarah North, by
Sturtevant Hamblin, is one
of a number of folk paint-
ings in the residence. On the
same wall, a circa 1850 banner
weathervane seems to point
out the window, past a pristine
parterre with boxwood borders
and brick walkways, by En-
glish-born landscape architect
Peter Cummin, to the country-
side beyond.
The house remains a work
in progressas, perhaps, any
antiques lovers residence must
be. Its an evolving project to
put together a collection of this
caliber, Guilmet says. You
have to have people who are
willing to spend time looking
for the right pieces. Hap-
pily, for this couple, waiting
for perfection poses no prob-
lem at all. l
The wallcovering in the master bedroom makes it feel cozy
without making it dark. The cherry corner cabinet, circa 1820,
holds a collection of mid-19th-century Pennsylvanian tinware.
The New England hooked rug on the wall is also 19th century.
Schumacher sofa, bed hanging and drapery fabrics. Ralph Lauren
Home bed ticking. Brunschwig & Fils plaid. ABOVE: The pool
pavilion is a copy of an outbuilding in Williamsburg, Virginia.
We were going for an authentic look.
I wanted it to have a very sophisticated feel.
Wyoming
One Foot in
the Present
RESHAPING THE RANCH
AESTHETIC AT
THE BASE OF THE GRAND TETON
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 181
Celeste Robbins designed a 9,000-square-foot ranch-inspired residence with modern lines (above) for
a family of four in Wyomings Grand Teton valley. Its a challenge to ft a house into a context and
make it look like its always been there, notes the Winnetka, Illinoisbased architect, who collaborated
on the project with interior designer Berta Shapiro. OPPOSITE: A seating area in the great room. FOL-
LOWING PAGES: The clients entertain a lot and wanted a casual open area, and that sort of drove the
architecture, Robbins says of the 52-foot-long great room. Odegard rug. Lounge chair, Sutherland.
concerned with what the vo-
cabulary would be. My back-
ground is as a modernist, and
I wasnt sure how this house
would turn out. You dont fnd
a lot of classically modern
houses in the Jackson area.
Most people here are looking
to build homes with a more ob-
vious western theme. Whats
more, the site was really fat,
and there were very few trees.
Putting any new home in the
middle of ranchland like that,
with no trees and no topo-
A
rchitect Celeste
Robbins had plen-
ty of experience
renovating homes.
She had just never built one,
thats all.
For comforts sake, she
might have started out on
more familiar turfmaybe in
Winnetka, Illinois, where her
office is located and where
shes completely fuent in the
local architectural vernacular;
or in nearby Chicago, a city
that offers endless opportuni-
ties for an architect to test out
big ideas on tiny lots.
But you dont always get to
choose your own destiny. And
for Robbins, destiny came in the
form of a rather daunting com-
mission: a 9,000-square-foot
vacation residence in a place
where the only skyscrapers to
be found are actual mountains
and where the moose outnum-
ber the taxis 20 to one: Jack-
son, Wyoming.
She realized just how far
away she was from the big city
when she and one of the clients
took an early trip to view the
land on which she would build.
The snow was packed so high
that snowshoes were in order;
as they approached the fence
that surrounded the property,
there was no need to unlock
any gate. We just walked right
over it, she recalls.
The site, with its views of
the majestic Tetons in nearly
all directions, was inspiring
but also, Robbins says, a little
intimidating. I was mainly
Architecture by Celeste Robbins, aia/Interior Design by Berta Shapiro
Text by Jef Turrentine/Photography by Steve Hall/Hedrich Blessing
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 185
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
R
O
B
B
IN
S
A
R
C
H
IT
E
C
T
U
R
E
IN
C
.
graphical grade change, can
be challenging. Its just right
there; you can see it from the
road, far away.
The clients, with whom
Robbins had worked before,
shared the architects modern
sensibility but were sensitive to
the context. A log cabin, or any-
thing else too self-consciously
western, was out of the ques-
tion. Better to have the house
just blend in to the landscape
as much as possible. They
wanted something that was
quiet and timeless, she says.
Quickly a plan came into
focus: two buildings, a main
house and a guesthouse, framed
in rich, dark cedar, with a roof-
line that cleverly references the
modern and the traditional.
Gables honor past architec-
tural styles that have retained
their currency in this quadrant
of the American West; but they
share their duty with modern,
fat roofs extending into dra-
OPPOSITE: Many of the public spac-
es, including the dining area, have
views of the Teton Range. Sentimen-
to lamp. RIGHT: The kitchen. Larsen
fabric on Borge Mgensen chairs.
Barstools, BDDW. Sub-Zero refrig-
erator and Wolf range, at Abt.com.
Rocky Mountain hardware. BELOW:
The main-foor plan. A separate
guesthouse has an attached garage.
1 ENTRANCE HALL
2 LIBRARY
3 GREAT ROOM
4 KITCHEN
5 PLAYROOM
6 WINE ROOM
7 MASTER BEDROOM
8 MASTER BATH
9 GYM
10 GUESTHOUSE
11 MOTOR COURT
matic eaves that nod to Frank
Lloyd Wrights Prairie style.
Robbins also likes how the
gabled/flat dichotomy mir-
rors the relationship between
the surrounding Teton moun-
tains and the broad, fat valley
in which the house sits.
An open-plan interior, natu-
rally, would reinforce the idea
of this house as a spot for fam-
ily vacations and entertaining.
And since there was really no
such thing as a bad view on
any side of the house, windows
would be everywhere, facing all
directions. Robbins enlisted
Chicago-based lighting design-
er Anne Kustner Haser and the
Jackson-based landscape archi-
tectural frm Hershberger De-
3
4
1
2
6
5
8
7
10
9
11
When a residence
is as open to the
landscape as this
one is, you have to
be thinking about
the outside as
much as the inside.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 187
OPPOSITE: French doors open to
the master bedroom. Blanche La-
zelles 1935 watercolor Vase of Flow-
ers hangs above a 1930s terra-cotta
fgure and a 1950s Finn Juhl arm-
chair. Drapery fabric, Rogers &
Goffgon. Stark carpet. ABOVE: A
wraparound sandstone terrace. Ban-
quette cushion fabric, Perennials.
sign to help fll out her vision.
(There arent as many contrac-
tors to choose from in Jackson as
there are in Chicago, she says,
but the quality of their work
is remarkable.) Interior de-
signer Berta Shapiro, who had
worked with Robbins on the
clients house back in Illinois,
was again called into service.
On that frst snowy recon-
naissance mission, Robbins
and her client agreed that the
houses great room would have
to look out onto Grand Teton.
The glass in this room is 10 feet
high and 40 feet long, framing
the peak like an IMAX screen in
an unusually luxurious theater.
Shapiro placed identical sofas
back to back in order to give
the clients two separate seating
areas, in addition to a dining
area at one end; she knew that
this room, more than any other
in the house, would be where
the family and their guests
would spend most of their
waking hours.
When a residence is as
open to the landscape as this
one is, you have to be thinking
continued on page 206
188 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
H
IL
L
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
:
J
E
S
S
E
H
IL
L
/
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
H
IL
L
G
A
L
L
E
R
Y
;
A
U
S
T
IN
T
.
M
IL
L
E
R
A
M
E
R
IC
A
N
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
:
C
O
U
R
T
E
S
Y
A
U
S
T
IN
T
.
M
IL
L
E
R
A
M
E
R
IC
A
N
A
N
T
IQ
U
E
S
IN
C
.
A
D
R
IA
N
S
A
S
S
O
O
N
:
J
A
M
E
S
M
O
R
T
IM
E
R
;
B
R
U
N
S
C
H
W
IG
&
F
IL
S
:
B
IL
L
Y
C
U
N
N
IN
G
H
A
M
Going for the Goat
A circa 1890 life-size goat, $22,000, at Hill
Gallery was made for the initiation rites of a
lodge outside South Bend, Indiana. During the
ceremony, a potential member sat blindfolded
on the goat. The wheels are not perfectly
round, resulting in a bumpy ride; the rider had
to trust his fellows in order to stay on.
Hill Gallery, 407 W. Brown St.
Birmingham, MI 48009; 248-540-9288
www.hillgallery.com
In a Nutshell
Adrian Sassoon (www.adriansassoon
.com; 44-20-7581-9888) is a Lon-
don dealer renowned for both his
collection of 18th-century Svres
porcelain and his range of contem-
porary ceramics, such as a stoneware
walnut, $13,000, by Kate Malone.
For her whimsical
ceramic pieces,
Kate Malone is inspired
by forms found in
naturebe it in the sea
or on the land.
Priors Restraint
Austin T. Miller American Antiques
(www.usfolkart.com; 614-225-
0506) features a rare signed 1849
portrait of a boy, $150,000, by Wil-
liam Matthew Prior. Also at the
Columbus, Ohio, gallery is an 1860
80 New England quilt, $30,000.
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
Brunschwig
& Fils
Inspired by Suzanni
designs, Dzhambul, a
cotton-and-linen blend
at Brunschwig & Fils
(800-538-1880), is in
six new color combina-
tions, including coral
and green (shown). l
Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources Discoveries by Designers ADs Editors Present Designers Sources
Ellen Denisevich-Grickis found an 18th-century barn in
Ontario, Canada, and had it relocated to a four-acre plot in
Rhode Island, where she renovated it for use as a summer
house for herself and her husband, Bill Grickis, and their
two daughters. THESE PAGES: A vast wildfower meadow pre-
cedes the 3,000-square-foot residences entrance.
Rhode Island
Proud Heritage
A 200
-
YEAR
-
OLD BARN IS BORN AGAIN
AS A DESIGNERS OWN COASTAL RETREAT
191
A
fter a quarter of a
centurys worth of
renting in coastal
Rhode Island for
the summer, designer Ellen
Denisevich-Grickis and her
husband, corporate lawyer Bill
Grickis, took the plunge and
bought. The propertyfour
arcadian acres bordered by
conservation land and romanti-
cally strewn with the remnants
of rude stone wallswas just
a short, lyrical bike ride from
the beach.
Theirs being still very much
a farming community, the
couple wanted a house that
was an earnest of the agricul-
tural lifein other words, a
barn. A barn, with its implicit
integrity and economy, is a
proud silhouette of the past
its proportions and materials
command respect, even rev-
erence, Denisevich-Grickis
states. For all that, she sees it
less as an antiquated throwback
than as an abiding symbol of
shelter, harvest, warmth and
honest effort. Having made
a thorough and loving study
of neighboring barns, she did
a drawing of the barn of her
hearts desire and then set out
to reify it.
The barn scouts she con-
sulted pointed her all the way
to northern Ontario, promis-
ing that barns in Canada were
generally of higher quality and
Architectural and
Interior Design by
Ellen Denisevich-Grickis
Text by
Steven M. L. Aronson
Photography by
Richard Mandelkorn
192 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
in better shape. It was the
dead of winter, and we drove
over frozen tundra, she recalls,
and then fnally we saw it
this wonderful steep-roofed
barn that had been built into a
hillside. It was 200-plus years
old and in near-perfect condi-
tionthe massive hand-hewn
oak beams, posts and purlins
were all mortised, tenoned and
pegged! And as if that werent
enough, dimensionwise it con-
formed practically to the inch
to what she had imagined and
drawn. It felt almost foreor-
dained, she says.
The dismantled barn frame
was soon wending its cumber-
some way south to Rhode Is-
land, where it was set down and
reconstructed in the Grickises
ravishing wildfower meadow.
The couple then proceeded to
make it more compatible with
the other old barns in the area
by adding a faade of local
ABOVE: Part of the barns transformation included sheathing the faade in stonean hom-
age to local farm buildings. BELOW: The designers aim for the living area was to expose
the monumental wood skeleton, keeping it simple yet powerful. On the wall behind the
leather sofa, from Natuzzi, is a 2004 oil by Theodore Tihansky. Chandeliers, Studio Steel.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 193
stone. A cupola was also added,
to bring light into the open,
soaring interior, and topped off
with a weathervane of a bronze
stylized mermaid created by
Denisevich-Grickis.
The designer was deter-
mined to employ as many
green materials as possible:
Unmilled oak trees were used
to fashion the outdoor din-
ing rooms arbor, handmade
nontoxic milk paint for the
vertical-plank interior walls,
and energy-effcient concrete
for the foors on the frst story.
Denisevich-Grickis personal-
ized the freshly poured con-
crete with pounds of sea glass
and abalone shell that she had
collected herself, as well as with
chips of mirror and mother-
of-pearl. I had on hip boots,
and I was standing on wooden
planks hand-broadcasting the
materialsover a three-day
period, no lessthrowing
them all in very carefully, be-
cause it makes a real difference
how you throw them. It was
one gigantic art project, I can
tell you.
There are precious few ma-
terials in the barn that are run-
of-the-mill. The draperies for
the big windowed barn doors
were run up out of burlap and
tailored like fne fabric, after
which they were hand-sewn
with more than 1,000 Capiz
shells, edged with feathers and
equipped with shell-bracelet
rings. I wanted something
rough, rustic and natural that
went with the barn, she points
Although the installation of a fre-
place in the dining area required
some rearranging of the barns
structural supports, most of the
posts and beams were left in their
original position, Denisevich-
Grickis says. The plank walls were
fnished with a white milk paint
one of the interiors many green
design features.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 195
TOP: The upper levels haylofts were turned into a sitting room and bedrooms, with an iron-framed
bridge in the middle to link them. What wood is not original to the barn was reclaimed from histori-
cal sources. ABOVE: Floral motifs and vibrant color brighten the master bedroom. LEFT: Intercon-
nected with the living and dining areas, the modern kitchen has foors of concrete mixed with chips
of mirror, mother-of-pearl, abalone shell and sea glass. Hanging above the Shaker-style island
is a Murano glass chandelier. Viking dishwasher, range and hood, at Abt.com.
196 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
out. The transom and interior
windows were made of hand-
blown glass; and the foor of
the downstairs powder room is
all striped stones (I call them
lucky stones) that Denisevich-
Grickis garnered from her fa-
vorite local beach over long
years and individually placed.
The barn is particularly
rich in architectural elements
and fragments18th-century-
Pennsylvania-barn pine doors
with cutouts in them called hex
signs (they were believed to
ward off evil spirits); assorted
other 18th-century doors all
with their original blue paint
and hardware; wooden arms,
fragments of Mexican santos,
wired for use as sconces; and an
antique iron gate pressed into
service as the outdoor dining
table. Both the frame and stone
foor of the covered side ter-
race were once part of a nearby
18th-century structure that the
couple bought (Denisevich-
Grickis painted the frame of
its big round window, which
had originated in a church, a
nontoxicthat is, a green
red inside).
A cavernous space 30 feet
high triples as living area,
dining area and kitchen. The
master suite nestles behind the
ABOVE: A log arborsoon to be en-
veloped in fowering vinesspans
nearly the width of the shingled rear
faade, providing shelter for an out-
door dining room. RIGHT: The de-
signer and her dog, Hope.
continued on page 196
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 197
Outside the kitchen is a large covered
terrace, the frame of which was taken
from an 18th-century house. Denisevich-
Grickis chose an antique church win-
dow for the gable end. Locally made
Adirondack chairs sit by the freplace.
A feld house in upstate New York
was imagined, in a collaborative
effort, by architect Paul F. Shurtleff,
interior designer Thad Hayes and
landscape architect Douglas Reed.
The lawn, terraced by a stone wall,
echoes the divisions of the build-
ings living and pool areas.
Farmhouse Abstraction
A RECREATIONAL OUTBUILDING MIRRORS ITS BUCOLIC SETTING
Architecture by Paul F. Shurtlef, aia/Interior Design by Thad Hayes/Landscape Architecture by Reed Hilderbrand
Text by Joseph Giovannini/Photography by Scott Frances
New York
200 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
L
ook again: Can you
be absolutely sure
this little farm build-
ing wasnt already
there, and that instead of de-
signing it, the architect just
signed it?
Freud said the ego didnt be-
lieve in its own birth, and its
hard to believe that the modest
structure that landscape archi-
tect Douglas Reed, architect
Paul F. Shurtleff and interior
designer Thad Hayes invented
together in upstate New York
hasnt stood forever in its quiet
state of bucolic grace. With a
slight bend in it, the shed roof
of the light gray outbuilding
slopes down with the terraced
yard, a seamless ft with the ver-
nacular farmhouses of the area
and the network of feldstone
walls lacing the landscape.
A house doesnt always have
to exhibit Frank Lloyd Wrights
fngerprints to look organic. If
the building the three design-
ers conceived on the footprint
of a demolished stable seems
to grow out of terraced mead-
ows, its because the designers
frst shaped the landscape, and
the house followed naturally,
taking its cue from an existing
tartan of feldstone walls and
hedgerows. We were inspired
by the traditional elements of
the farmstead, says Doug-
las Reed, of the Boston-area
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 201
landscape architecture firm
Reed Hilderbrand.
The three had collabo-
rated here before, designing
the main house on this rural
property back in 1994 (see Ar-
chitectural Digest, June 1998).
The architecture itself was
inspired by local farmhouses,
but, importantly, the landscape
architect terraced the grounds
so that the tennis court, motor
court, outdoor pool and lawns
all occupied their own levels
within the surrounding mead-
ows. Like a stone dropped in
a pond, the houses footprint
created a ripple of rectangles in
the grounds around it, rooting
the house in the land.
The media room has exposed
trusses of forest salvage Douglas
fr and oversize French doors. Ear-
ly-19th-century Italian oak work-
table and triangular stools, Amy
Perlin Antiques. Lee Jofa drapery
and plaid club chair fabrics. Edel-
man leather on sofas and ottomans.
Striped fabric on sofa seats from
Fonthill. Newel bench, foreground.
In 2001 the owners, a New
York couple with two children,
acquired a nearly three-acre
property next door, and they
asked their three designing
tenors back for an encore.
Following the lead of the land-
scape architect, the trio decid-
ed to visually connect the new
property with the old by reca-
202 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
Though the feld house is a short walk from the main residence,
the challenge, says Hayes, was to make it a dynamic and in-
teresting space for the clients to go to. RIGHT: The entrance
hall. Bench from Amy Perlin Antiques. Drapery sheer, Stark.
ABOVE: A circa 1910 iron chandelier hangs in the kitchen. Back-
splash tile, Ann Sacks. Waterworks sink and fxtures. Refriger-
ator, range and hood at Abt.com. ABOVE RIGHT: The pool area
recalls a traditional agricultural shed, notes Shurtleff. Halo-
phane lighting, Urban Archaeology. Barlow Tyrie tables and
chaise longues, with Perennials fabric.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 203
pitulating the feldstone walls
in the new phase. We drew a
major landscape wall across the
yard to extend the pattern and
join the two properties within
the larger system of retaining
walls, says Reed. The house
straddles the wall.
The program started mod-
estly: The clientsshe works
in filmwanted a screen-
ing room where family and
friends could hole up with
popcorn during weekends in
the country. The husband,
an executive, likes to swim
as does the whole family, for
that matterso an indoor pool
soon followed. The pool sug-
gested a gym, and the gym, a
spa. Then came a guest studio.
At the end of the whole wish
list, the clients and architects
were looking at a recreational
feld house that had grown to
5,000 square feet, and the size
demanded that the designers
tamp down the scale so that
the outbuilding didnt wag the
main house and dominate the
new property. If Shurtleff, who
worked as lead architect for
Jaquelin T. Robertson on the
original project, was going to
retain any sense of authenticity,
he couldnt allow the structure
to balloon: Old farmhouses
were built small to retain
heat, and infated scale gives
away the newness of a build-
The wall leading up to the house actually runs through it,
splitting the oor into two levels.
ing, despite traditional forms.
As soon as youre dealing
with a split-level floor plan,
you have an issue of roof form,
which led me to the idea of a
simple shed roof, like a tractor
shed tucked in against the side
wall of a barn, says Shurtleff.
The issue was how to make it
feel like an agrarian building.
It had to feel part of a historic
past, without being historicist
or rustic. The architect did not
design down to the principle by
applying sentimental detailing
and materials, like logs. Instead
he abstracted from tradition,
creating a straightforward
building with clean surfaces
and elemental lines within a
form that hybridizes the no-
tions of farmhouse and barn.
The stone wall that cuts
through the property leads to
the south faade of the out-
building, where big, generous,
barnlike doors open onto a
great, gabled room focused on
a feldstone freplace worthy of
a lodge. A catering kitchen fa-
cilitates entertaining. On the
downslope side, the wall lead-
ing up to the house actually
runs through it, splitting the
foor into two levels. The lap
pool is sited with the hot tub
on the lower level, which opens
onto a terrace and lawn leading
back to the main building. The
continued on page 206
The building is clad in cedar siding.
Large doors, which slide open to
reveal the media room, continue
the farmstead theme. The main
house has a formality, notes Hayes.
This one needed to feel more
outdoorsy. Twig stools, Newel.
www.ArchitecturalDigest.com l 205
entrance hall with a black-and-white
checkerboard marble foor leads straight
onto a library centered on a dignifed es-
cutcheon of white molding celebrating
the view through a tall window. To the
left lies the master suite and to the right
the living room, with the dining room
beyond. All the public rooms, along with
the master suite, are on the first floor.
The other three bedrooms are on the
second foor. When the couple have no
guests, its basically a one-bedroom house
on the frst foor.
In every job I do, I try to think of three
adjectives to describe my intentions, and
here they were stylish, comfortable and au-
thentic, says OLeary. She stressed com-
fort and informality because the couple
keep the doors wide open 10 months of
the year, and the free-range dogs drop
by on casual visits and roam through
the house. In this historical context of
Virginia, you have to look twice to real-
ize that the designer cuts the edge with
contemporary pieces, such as the dining
table with a plaster top and a patinated-
steel base. Despite the traditional chairs,
the lines overall are clean and softly up to
date, eased by natural materials.
OLeary characterizes the style as
warm modern, and her palettepump-
kin in the living room, Clydesdale brown
in the library and eucalyptus in the din-
ing roomindeed warms the interior.
Once we realized the outside was going
to have columns, that itd be a white house
with black trim, I knew wed have a lot of
color inside, she explains. I was inter-
ested in the contrast.
In addition to the multiple architectural
personalities, there were the multiple de-
sign voices working in concert from the
beginning. We picked our focal points
and tried not to have too many things
to look at, adds OLeary. I asked Joel
whether he designed from the outside in
or the inside out, and he said that it all
came up together. Thats how we did the
whole house. The exterior, interior and the
dcor all came up together. l
The couple keep the doors
of the house wide open 10
months of the year.
body had lived in it for 30 years. The
following summer London applied her
down-home skills to the grounds sur-
rounding the cabin. I cant help it, says
the designer. When Im at a campsite, I
want to play with it. When you go horse
camping, you carry your belongings in a
mantee, which is a tarplike thing the size
of a bale of hay. So I made some man-
tees out of some old pillows they had and
some canvas, and thats what their sofas
are around the fre pit.
Deer Cabin, as the Stones call it, has
answered its multiple purposesand then
some. For one thing, the place seems to
tap into widespread Little House on the
Prairie fantasies. Every man, including
my husband, who walks in says, What
more do you need? relates Connie
Stone. Even people you wouldnt think
would respond to it want to be there wash-
ing the dishes and heating the water and
all that. With its primitive charms, the
cabin has also served as something of a
petri dish for the rest of the project. For
instance, the other buildingsthe lake
house (a master suite for the couple with
a bedroom, kitchenette and offces); the
tree house (a three-bedroom guesthouse);
and the barn (a lodgelike structure with
a big family kitchen, dining room and
living room)have all been designed
with screened sleeping porches and out-
door showers.
If all goes according to schedule, the last
of these structures should be completed
this month. Which raises the question of
what purpose the cabin will serve in the
future. Everyone still wants to spend the
night there, maintains Connie Stone.
Im just not sure Im going to want to
share it that much. You know how when
you meditate they tell you to go to a safe
place in your mind? I hate to sound woo-
woo, but I think no matter how amazing
the rest of the property is, Deer Cabin is
always going to be my safe place. l
continued from page 138
INVOKING AN IDEAL
continued from page 145
DEER CABIN REVERIE
Mimis talent is that
she creates an
intimate and nurturing
environment instinctively,
says Connie Stone.
206 l www.ArchitecturalDigest.com
sloping shed roof, as though appended to a
small barn, allowed the designers to build
down rather than up, hunkering the vol-
ume into the land. We knitted the func-
tions together into a compact volume so
the building wouldnt dominate the site,
says the architect.
To keep the large house looking small,
Shurtleff practiced a little deception, not-
ing, If you pump up the scale of the com-
ponents, you bring the scale down in size.
He increased the size of the barn doors on
the leading faade, along with the windows
and freplace inside.
Thad Hayes also practiced some adroit
deception by scaling up the apparently
modest furniture, and he kept it simple,
with several pieces of the same size that
he repeats. As in many of his interiors, the
furniture layout is geometric and struc-
tured, cued by the axial geometries of the
building. The consistent horizon line of
the sofas and chairs orders an interior al-
ready calmed by geometry. Our clients
were very easygoing, but the one require-
ment was that the room accommodate a
mix of uses, says Hayes. It needed to look
like a living room part of the time, and for
screening movies, the furniturewhich is
oriented to the view out the barn doors
and to the freplacecan be reoriented
toward the screen, he says. What feels
like a lodge becomes transformed into a
home theater.
Its not so much a summer room, be-
cause its used when its cooler, in the fall,
winter and spring, says Hayes. He employs
a warm palette of darker, richer materials
and colors, appropriate for the seasonal
use. A blue plaid on the chairs plays off
the leather sofas, which have seat cushions
in fabric panelsa two-tone mix that re-
calls 1930s and 40s automobile seating.
I designed it so they could just build
a fire, watch a movie and eat popcorn
without worrying that buttery fingers
would ruin the dcor, summarizes Hayes.
Theres nothing precious about it. l
about the outside as much as the inside,
says Shapiro. Youre dealing with so much
sky, so much landand all of it accompa-
nied by coloration thats constantly chang-
ing from dawn until theres no light left
in the day. (Robbins, who says she can
feel the muscles in my shoulders relax
every time I touch down on the airport
in Jackson, was delighted to learn that
the architecture offered views she hadnt
even counted on. There were some that I
wasnt expecting, she says. When youre
in the guesthouse and you sit down, you
can actually see over the main house to
the peaks of the mountains.)
Shapiro took her palette cues from this
protean natural canvas, emphasizing the
blues, greens and earth colors that predom-
inate in the vistas. Because the clients and
their family wanted to live comfortably,
not preciously in their house, she chose
fabrics that were durable but refined:
linen, leather, velvet, good wool rugs.
And so was born an undeniably western
house that doesnt have to rely on Navajo
rugs or cowboy-themed statuary to prove
its regional bona fdes. (No framed sets
of antlers here, though there is a striking
charcoal rendering of a moose in the en-
trance hall.) Instead, Robbins and Shapiro
have been able to translate the urbane re-
fnement that they and their clients have
always prized into a stylistic language thats
easily absorbed into the rugged moun-
tain vernacular.
If Celeste Robbinswho celebrated, if
thats the right word, her 40th birthday
dealing with the projects contractors
was wondering whether she truly knocked
it out of the park her frst time at bat, the
clients reaction put any questions to rest.
They had intended for this to be a sec-
ond home, she notes. But they ended up
moving out here full time.
Not bad for a beginner. l
living area. Stairsmade out of the sur-
plus timbers, with a handrail contrived of
twigs gathered on the propertylead to a
sitting room. From there a bridge, which
offers a birds-eye view of the barns im-
pressive wooden skeleton, connects to the
two teenage daughters bedrooms.
With the decorating, I wanted to go
modernI didnt want that hokey barn
wagon-wheel look on the inside, De-
nisevich-Grickis says. The farm spirit is
vestigially manifest in an antique apple-
picking ladder and an antique milking
benchboth, naturally, with their original
paint. But much of the rest of whats there
is a pleasant variety, the designer having
taken care that nothing disrupt the ft-
tingness of things. A contemporary Ital-
ian leather sofa and a Murano chandelier
that speaks to some of the other quirky
things in the house are at home with an
antique grain-painted blanket chest and
an old English oak turned-leg drop-leaf
dining table. The paintings and sculpture,
for their part, are contemporaryall done
by Theodore Tihansky, of Monhegan is-
land, Maine, whom Bill Grickis describes
as a pure, unvarnished, diamond-in-the-
rough kind of artist.
The couple collect Oriental rugs, and
there are a handful of these upstairs, cloth-
ing the old wide-plank pine foorboards,
lending warmth and color. When you
look at an antique Oriental carpet, Grickis
observes, you always see something you
hadnt noticed before, and its the same
story with the barnthe light that flters
through the windows and pours down
from the cupola illuminates the queen
posts and purlins and other elements of
the barns superstructure in all different
ways, depending on the time of day. l
For more features on renovated barns, go to
ArchitecturalDigest.com.
continued from page 203
FARMHOUSE
The size demanded that
the designers tamp down
the scale so the outbuilding
didnt wag the main house.
continued from page 187
IN THE PRESENT
She likes how the gabled/
at dichotomy mirrors
the relationship between
the surrounding Tetons
and the broad, at valley in
which the house sits.
continued from page 196
PROUD HERITAGE
I had on hip boots,
and I was standing on
wooden planks hand-
broadcasting the materials.
It was one gigantic
art project, I can tell you.
208 Visit ArchitecturalDigest.com for more
D
U
R
S
T
O
N
S
A
Y
L
O
R
AN ANTHOLOGY OF FOLK
Pages 4248
Malcolm Robertson
Robertson & Landers
Architects
59 Grove Street, Suite 2D
New Canaan
Connecticut 06840
203-966-2617
www.robertsonandlanders.com
SAN YSIDRO RANCH
Pages 7076
San Ysidro Ranch
900 San Ysidro Lane
Santa Barbara, California 93108
800-368-6788
www.sanysidroranch.com
Marc Appleton
Appleton & Associates, Inc.
1556 17th Street
Santa Monica, California 90404
310-828-0430
117 West Micheltorena Street
Santa Barbara, California 93101
805-965-0304
www.appleton-architects.com
JamesHyatt Studio
1530 16th Street, Third Floor
Denver, Colorado 80202
303-825-2010
Laurie Lewis Design
3935 Lyceum Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90066
310-827-4892
www.laurielewisdesign.com
Sally Paul Design
2516 Midvale Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90064
310-475-2885
A WINNING DESIGN
FOR OSCAR
Pages 9092
Carleton Varney
Dorothy Draper &
Company, Inc.
60 East 56th Street
New York, New York 10022
212-758-2810
www.dorothydraper.com
TED TURNER
Pages 118130
Chris Carson
Ford Powell & Carson
Architects and Planners, Inc.
1138 East Commerce Street
San Antonio, Texas 78205
210-226-1246
www.fpcarch.com
Laura Hunt
30 Highland Park Village
Suite 210
Dallas, Texas 75205
214-526-4868
www.laurahunt.com
Jennifer Bear
Conuence Designs
1401 Old Santa Fe Trail, Suite G
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501
505-603-4565
www.conuencedesigns.com
INVOKING AN IDEAL
Pages 131139
Ike Kligerman Barkley
Architects PC
330 West 42nd Street
New York, New York 10036
212-268-0128
Rene OLeary Interiors
1815 East Green Springs Road
Louisa, Virginia 23093
540-967-9242
oldraptorfarm@gmail.com
DEER CABIN REVERIE
Pages 140147
Mimi London
London Boone
Incorporated Design
8687 Melrose Avenue
Suite G-168
Los Angeles, California 90069
310-855-2567
www.mimilondon.com
SEASIDE SANCTUARY
Pages 150157
Joseph W. Dick
ArchitectureInc.
17 Summer Street
Yarmouthport
Massachusetts 02675
508-362-1309
www.josephwdick.com
INNER DIRECTED
Pages 158167
S. Russell Groves
210 11th Avenue, Suite 502
New York, New York 10001
212-929-5221
www.srussellgroves.com
CAPTURING TRADITIONS
Pages 170179
Patrick James Burke Architect
P.O. Box 264
New Vernon, New Jersey 07976
973-539-4777
pburkearchitect@aol.com
David Guilmet
Patrick Bell
Bell-Guilmet Associates
P.O. Box 38
Solebury, Pennsylvania 18963
215-297-8977
www.bellguilmet.com
Peter Cummin
Cummin Associates, Inc.
114 Water Street
Stonington, Connecticut 06378
860-535-4224
www.cumminassociates.com
ONE FOOT IN THE PRESENT
Pages 180187
Celeste Robbins
Robbins Architecture Inc.
894 Green Bay Road, Suite 8
Winnetka, Illinois 60093
847-446-8001
www.robbins-architecture.com
Berta Shapiro
925 West Huron Street
Suite 101
Chicago, Illinois 60622
312-492-9700
Hershberger Design
560 South Glenwood Street
Jackson Hole, Wyoming 83001
307-739-1001
www.hershbergerdesign.com
PROUD HERITAGE
Pages 190197
Ellen Denisevich-Grickis
185 Carmel Hill Road
Bethlehem, Connecticut 06751
203-266-7857
ellengrickis@charter.net
FARMHOUSE ABSTRACTION
Pages 198204
Paul Francis Shurtlef
AIA Architect
88 North Hillside Place
Ridgewood, New Jersey 07450
201-445-8283
Thad Hayes, Inc.
80 West 40th Street
New York, New York 10018
212-571-1234
www.thadhayes.com
Douglas Reed
Reed Hilderbrand
Associates Inc.
741 Mount Auburn Street
Watertown
Massachusetts 02472
617-923-2422
www.reedhilderbrand.com l
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF ADVANCE MAGAZINE PUBLISHERS INC. COPYRIGHT 2008 COND NAST PUBLICATIONS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
VOLUME 65, NO. 6. ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST (ISSN 0003 -8520) is published monthly by Cond Nast Publications, which is a division of Advance Magazine Publishers Inc. EDITORIAL OFFICE: 6300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. PRIN-
CIPAL OFFICE: The Cond Nast Building, 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036. S. I. Newhouse, Jr., Chairman; Charles H. Townsend, President/CEO; John W. Bellando, Executive Vice President/COO; Debi Chirichella Sabino, Senior Vice President/CFO; Jill
Bright, Executive Vice President/Human Resources. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing ofces. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40644503. Canadian Goods and Services Tax Registration No. 123242885-RT0001.
Canada Post: return undeliverable Canadian addresses to P.O. Box 874, Station Main, Markham, ON L3P 8L4.
POSTMASTER: SEND ADDRESS CHANGES TO ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST, P.O. Box 37641, Boone, IA 50037- 0641. FOR SUBSCRIPTIONS, ADDRESS CHANGES, ADJUSTMENTS, OR BACK ISSUE INQUIRIES: Please write to, ARCHITECTURAL
DIGEST, P.O. Box 37641, Boone, IA 50037 -0641, call 800 -365-8032, or e- mail subscriptions@archdigest.com. Please give both new and old addresses as printed on most recent label. First copy of new subscription will be mailed within eight weeks after receipt
of order. Address all editorial correspondence to ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST Magazine, 6300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90048. Address all business and production correspondence to ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST Magazine, 4 Times Square,
New York, NY 10036. For permissions and reprint requests, please call 212-630-5656 or fax requests to 212-630-5883. Visit us online at www.ArchitecturalDigest.com. To subscribe to other Cond Nast magazines on the World Wide Web, visit www.condenet.com.
Occasionally, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened companies that offer products and services that we believe would interest our readers. If you do not want to receive these offers and/or information, please advise us at P.O. Box 37641, Boone,
IA 50037- 0641 or call 800 -365- 8032.
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RETURN OR LOSS OF, OR FOR DAMAGE OR ANY OTHER INJURY TO, UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPTS, UNSOLICITED ART WORK (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
DRAWINGS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND TRANSPARENCIES), OR ANY OTHER UNSOLICITED MATERIALS. THOSE SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, ART WORK, OR OTHER MATERIALS FOR CONSIDERATION SHOULD
NOT SEND ORIGINALS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY REQUESTED TO DO SO BY ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST IN WRITING. MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND OTHER MATERIALS SUBMITTED MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SELF-
ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE.
A listing of the designers, architects and hotels featured in this issue
Directory