PERSPECTIVES
What I’m Looking At Inspiration can be found in history or in child’s play, in far-flung destinations or in one’s own backyard, as architect John Meyer tells us. PETER VANDERWARKER
LYNNE DAMIANOS
“For a kids’ playhouse, I wanted ‘animatronic’ handrails—one going in one direction around the patio, the other going inside and coming out the back. I playfully based them on the parallel Dueling Dragons roller coasters at Disney World.”
The Agassiz Bridge in Boston’s Back Bay Fens inspired the design of a house in Brookline, Massachusetts. “The bridge is elegant, and it has an authentic Boston pedigree. The house has the look of a park entry, as opposed to a look that says, ‘This is a fancy house on Clyde Street.’”
“My father was an architect, and I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, in a house based on this one by Frank Lloyd Wright. When a client asked for a Wright-influenced house, I went to Chicago to look at Wright’s houses. Walking through them I was unexpectedly transported to the homes designed by my father and his colleagues. It was a fluke that I went to do research for a client and discovered my buried past.” FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S 1943 HANNA HOUSE IN STANFORD, CALIFORNIA, SERVED AS THE MODEL FOR MEYERS’S CHILDHOOD HOME.
“A client in California who has spectacular ocean and mountain views is a very spiritual person and is quite fond of the Ramanathaswamy Temple in India. A long hallway where the rooms spill different types of light and activity into the center space is a strong reference to his life view.”
Meyer & Meyer Architecture and Interiors, Boston, (617) 266-0555, meyerandmeyerarchitects.com 136 NEW ENGLAND HOME JANUARY–FEBRUARY 2015
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