CHANNELING
HEMINGWAY For designer Tim Campbell, creating an overnight retreat for artists and creatives in Sun Valley’s restored Hemingway House afforded an unexpected opportunity to reflect on his own personal and professional journey.
a project by
TIM CAMPBELL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARYN MILLET
KETCHUM,
IDAHO
CHANNELING
HEMINGWAY For designer Tim Campbell, creating an overnight retreat for artists and creatives in Sun Valley’s restored Hemingway House afforded an unexpected opportunity to reflect on his own personal and professional journey.
a project by
TIM CAMPBELL
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KARYN MILLET
KETCHUM,
IDAHO
A view from Hemingway House toward Sun Valley.
Though the ghost of Ernest Hemingway looms large
time with Mariel and learning more about what she wanted
in Ketchum, Idaho, there’s nothing remotely haunted or
to achieve, he knew that being a part of the project and
haunting about the midcentury homestead where he spent
designing the apartment was something he was uniquely
his final years after leaving Cuba. Recently restored and
qualified to do. “In so many ways, the house is a testament
invigorated with purpose after decades of near dormancy,
to the power of transforming beauty and pain into healing
the estate—known as Hemingway House—is filled with
and creativity—and to what happens when you don’t do
fresh insights into Hemingway’s life and legacy in the
that since, obviously, this is the place where he died. So
American West.
it really dovetailed perfectly with my philosophy of beauty
and nature as a framework for design.”
It’s also the site of The Hemingway Initiative, an
innovative artist-in-residence program that hosts a rotating
band of visiting artists, educators, writers and thinkers
Bob Topping to resemble the nearby Sun Valley Lodge
from a range of disciplines in a newly minted apartment
(which, legend has it, he loved but had partied in one too
designed by Tim Campbell. It’s a fitting transformation.
many times to be asked back). It’s a sprawling, two-story
For Papa, as Hemingway was affectionately known, life
structure, bigger than it initially appears, and a stunning
was one big adventure, and his zealous commitment
example of midcentury architecture. But the real genius
to pursuing his craft was outpaced only by the demons
of the design is the way it connects the indoors with the
chasing him. How better to pay tribute to the iconic and
outdoor landscape beyond—from nearly every angle, the
complicated life of this 20th-century giant than to channel
peaks of the Pioneer and Smoky Mountains feel close
the creative drive that fueled him as a force for good—a
enough to touch. Hemingway bought it from Topping in
sentiment Tim tapped into for inspiration throughout
1959 and spent his final years there with his fourth wife,
his involvement in the project. “Ultimately, that’s what
Mary, hunting and fishing and, ultimately, becoming a
creativity is in many ways,” he says, “taking the things that
significant presence in the local community. When he
are unseen and then making them known.”
took his life there on July 2, 1961, the long line of mourners
from the area was a testament to his impact.
A native of West Virginia who decamped to New York
The house itself was built in 1953 by tin-plate heir
to launch his interior design career, Tim found his calling early and never looked back. “Some of us just end up with this thing we’re put here to do, and we discover it quickly,” he says. “I needed to create a sense of home and comfort
"TO ME, MOUNTAINS ARE A
that was missing in my life. On paper, sketching, I could
METAPHOR FOR STRENGTH
escape into a world that was different than the one I lived in, a place of intended beauty.”
AND HISTORY. THROUGH THE
Today, he splits time between the East and West
PROCESS OF THEIR FORMATION,
Coasts, where he also maintains a Los Angeles studio. But,
THE SUPERFLUOUS STUFF ALL
he says, he’s always open to the kind of detour of destiny that led him to Hemingway.
FALLS AWAY AND WHAT YOU’RE
“I was at a signing for my book, Intentional Beauty,
LEFT WITH IS EXPOSED AND
and Mariel Hemingway came,” he says. “She had seen
ENDURING."
a short documentary I made about the book, and the approach that I take, and she came to ask if I’d be a part of the work they were doing in Ketchum.” After spending
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Tim Campbell at Hemingway House.
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New and historical inspiration, including Urban Electric lights, inside the artist-in-residence apartment at Hemingway House.
T i m C a m p b e l l re f l e c t s o n h i s work in Hemingway House.
Mary passed away in 1986 and bequeathed the estate
to the Nature Conservancy to be used as a nature library and reference facility. Over the ensuing three decades, the house served many purposes for the organization, even functioning as its offices for a time. By 2014, however, Hemingway House was sitting empty for months on end
“IN SO MANY WAYS, THE HOUSE IS
and in desperate need of repairs that the Conservancy
A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF
was ill-equipped to undertake. Three years later, with the blessing of the Hemingway family, the Nature Conservancy
TRANSFORMING BEAUTY AND PAIN
transferred ownership to the Community Library, a
INTO HEALING AND CREATIVITY—
privately-funded local institution that had been founded
AND TO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN
in 1955 by a group of seventeen women, including Clara
YOU DON’T DO THAT.”
Spiegel and Anita Gray, two of Ernest’s closest friends in Idaho. Restoration soon commenced on the property and the Hemingway Legacy Initiative began taking shape.
“As part of the program,” Tim explains, “the Library
and the family decided to open up a portion of the house, this apartment, to artists from a lot of different backgrounds to come and make work that speaks to this place and the healing, cathartic energy of its landscape. And that’s why I’m here.”
Of course, that approach to preservation extended to
To create a space that is universally inspiring for
keeping the connection between the indoor and outdoor
artistic-minded visitors requires a strong commitment to
spaces fluid, as well—something Tim intuited from his own
neutrality. “Color and materials become important, as does
experience growing up among the ridges of West Virginia.
putting those into historical context,” Tim says. He relied
“To me, mountains are a metaphor for strength and
on a soft palette of earth tones, along with materials that
history,” he says. “Through the process of their formation,
maximize comfort, such as cotton and linen textiles and
the superfluous stuff all falls away and what you’re left
cork floors that could be easily heated when temperatures
with is exposed and enduring.”
drop. The apartment was originally part of a garage, so
he preserved the exposed concrete walls and finishes—
Matthew Barney would no doubt agree, there is something
paint splatters and all. He replicated the pine cabinets
inherently powerful and refreshing about entering this
found throughout the rest of the house for continuity, and
kind of creative world, shaping and being shaped by the
added a beautiful yet subtle hunting-inspired wallpaper by
landscape and legacy of the location. Here in Ketchum,
Timorous Beasties, an English company, in two spots for
surrounded by Idaho’s celebrated natural beauty and
atmosphere. “Someone once told me that ‘background is
rich history, tomorrow is another day, another source of
foreground’ and that’s how I approached this project,” he
inspiration and another moment for another artist, upon
says, “so as not to distract from the creative energy that
whom the sun will also rise, to make his or her mark on
the inhabitants need."
the world.
As recent residents such as the contemporary artist
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FOLIE FLUSHMOUNT P O W D E R C O AT W H I T E F I N I S H INTERIORS BY TIM CAMPBELL P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y K A RY N M I L L E T
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