Trade Secrets | New England Home | July 2015

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News from and musings about the New England design community

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The WellDesigned Life ///////////

By Louis PosteL

I

f you, as a design professional, were designing your own life, what might it look like as you approach your fifties, sixties, or seventies?

Even if you’re just out of design school, and you’ve found a week off this summer, a few moments may be dedicated to scenarios for the future.

Might you picture yourself strolling on some New England shore years from now, amused by the hitherthither of the sandpipers and your own reflections on a wonderful career?

Or, would you choose to keep working in your field, while maybe cutting back? Or will it be time to try something completely new? One could walk all the beaches of Cape Cod, the coast of Maine, and even take a turn around Lake Winnipesaukee without arriving at the answer to what constitutes the well-designed life. Quitting altogether in favor of grandchildren may be attractive, but giving up

on the connections and creativity of the design world could be a deal-breaker.

As Bob Grossman of Wolfers Lighting confessed at a recent IFDA/New England Home cocktail party at the Wolfers showroom in Brighton, Massachusetts, contemplating retirement is tough for him—especially now, as design, lighting technology, and the economy have combined to create the perfect wave.

What’s more, if you’re a designer, architect, builder, vendor, artist, or craftsperson who has dedicated your life to instilling timelessness in everything you touch, is there any real cutoff point that doesn’t seem totally arbitrary?

Timelessness, after all, is a virtue that can follow generation after generation, quite literally. William Hodgins once remarked, as he approached the conventional retirement age, “When you’ve done the houses of the parents and their children, and now the children of those children want help, I can’t see turning them away.”

Perhaps the well-designed life is one in which there’s space and time to contemplate what it all means—space as tranquil as New England’s shores along cape, coast, and lake. /// Public arT mighT be Seen aS a meTa-

phorical shore that offers the chance to contemplate the trajectory of one’s life. In that spirit, we rose to the seventh floor of Mass Art for a discussion entitled “Public by Design” sponsored by the Fenway Alliance and IFDA in conjunction with last spring’s Design dewarT Week. Panelist Murray Dewart of the Boston Sculpture Group remarked on how Augustus SaintGaudens’s bronze bas-relief of Civil War colonel Robert Gould Shaw leading the 54th Regiment of African-Americans spoke to him at an early age, awakening a passion to do public art. He also mentioned Robert Lowell’s 1960 poem For the Union Dead, about the unstoppable march of progress and its impact on Boston’s noble past.

roberT gould Shaw memorial, by auguSTuS SainT-gaudenS

keeP in Touch Help us keep our fingers on the pulse of new England’s design community. send your news to lpostel@nehomemag.com.

144 New eNglaNd Home july–august 2015

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“My clients trust me, being able to be here with them and decide on what works is so important.”

Ann-Marie Filles Studio A Design Boston, NewYork, San Francisco

. . . A girdle of orange, Puritan-pumpkin colored girders braces the tingling Statehouse, shaking over the excavations, as it faces Colonel Shaw and his bell-cheeked Negro infantry on St. Gaudens’ shaking Civil War relief, propped by a plank splint against the garage’s earthquake. . .

“My clients are so comfortable here. I’m getting an incredibly educated customer experience.”

Urit Chaimovitz Urit Chaimovitz Design Boston, MA

“I’ll send clients in beforehand to get them excited about the choices, then I help them narrow it down. The new showroom is fantastic.”

Cassia Winer CW Design Brookline, MA

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/// TimeleSSneSS, Then, can be caPTured

in bronze, or in a few lines of a poem, or—more recently—in the series of temporary installations by Boston designers in the Fenway Alliance Public

By Design initiative.

Some of the projects were reviewed at the Design Week panel discussion, including 2014’s Sparkle and Chime by Kim architect Jean Kim of Shepley Bulfinch, an installation that did much to help define the Fenway Cultural District last year. Fellow panelPoliquin ist, architect, and director of the public design initiative SHIFT/Boston Kim Poliquin described Jean Kim’s piece as a “Milky Way of tiny dancing stars.” /// aT every STage in one’S career, a TruSTed

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person to delegate tasks to can make a critical difference. Part of Justin Zeller’s success at Red House Custom Building in Barrington, Rhode Island, rests on his ability to delegate tasks to employees such as Eric Marchand, who just became a CLC, or Certified Lead Carpenter. “I have found that project managers aren’t in a position to take ownership, while a lead carpenter assigned permanently to a single project is invaluable,” Zeller says.

“He goes home thinking about my client’s project and that’s it. A CLC like Eric can do everything I used to do. This includes scheduling, collecting payment, fielding questions, managing subs. There are just so many moving parts, which explains why so many contractors have earned the reputation for not returning calls. They just don’t have the time.” ///

146 New eNglaNd Home july–august 2015

As we wAlk the beAch

contemplating our next chapter, we do know we want the design field to flourish, no matter our role in it. Designer hAyDel Eric Haydel, the incoming president of ASID/NE, considers mentorship a key goal in ensuring that design in New England not only survives but thrives. “We can’t just sit back and say to emerging professionals, ‘Well, you just have to earn your stripes,’” Haydel says.

“While celebrating the accomplishments of established professionals is a good thing, we need to focus on developing a platform for people coming along.”

inspired DesigN froM eVery ANgle

///

Christa O’Leary, based in

Designer

sullivan + associates A R C H I T E C T S

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Hingham, Massachusetts, finds herself mentoring clients as well. Trained in psyO’Leary chology, O’Leary— whose recently published book is called Home in Harmony: Designing an Inspired Life—brings that background to bear in her work. A home should be, in her words, “a recharging station—a space that nurtures as well as supports.” The good news is that not only women, but men, too, are becoming open to this notion of supportive space. “They are no longer happy being relegated to the man cave,” says O’Leary.

“They want a voice. This can express itself in a more industrial look, heavy canvas, nailheads, and so on.” /// Men’s increAsing involveMent in Design

decisions is one shift in the field. So are issues such as aging in place, healthy design, and sustainable design. With so many emerging challenges to address, it’s hard to imagine a design professional feeling anything but energized. One can picture how tempting it would be to keep working till the sands of time run out for real. On the other hand, if there is one thing that can get people to retire early, it’s working in a state of constant contentiousness. “The build community and the design community don’t always play nice together,” says Charlie Allen of the design-build firm Charlie Allen Renovations, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Allen avoids stress by involving professionals

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a static state in which nothing ever happens can send us running to retirement equally fast. Architect Michael T. Gray of Carpenter & MacNeille, based in Essex, Massachusetts, reminds us not to worry, because there is a new and welcome culture of clients offering their own ideas and feedback.

“There’s definitely some pushback for smaller, more efficient design in the gray 2,500-square-foot range, as opposed to the 4,000-to-6,000 square feet of not long ago” Gray says.

“Whatever the size, they’re insisting that what we do is people-friendly and personal.” One of Gray’s clients just bought a 1740 colonial in Newbury, Massachusetts.

There was considerable back and forth in the renovation process, a dance between historical accuracy and modern building codes. But the dialogue also proved fruitful in unexpected ways that make design dynamic and worth staying in as long as possible. The client had bought two leaded glass, decorative windows in the UK that she loved but had no idea how to use.

Gray took a second look at a windowless water closet, and had an “aha!” moment.

“We were able to use her windows to dramatic effect,” he reports. /// now aS we gaTher SToneS along The

beach, we can skip them to represent every option. How much will we miss engaging with clients if we retire? How much will we miss our hard-won skills, unless we take on some mentoring or volunteer work?

And, if we are just starting out, how important to the well-designed life is making a lasting imprint, a unique statement, via the creation of public art, the authoring of a book, or helping to redefine the idea of home itself? Or is a well-designed life more about a series of relationships configured of small, but significant gestures, constellations of design inspirations and implementations, and a profound connecting to all things built and all things human? Either way, success is imminent. •

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/// JuST aS oLYmpic recordS are inVariaBLY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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