PLUS Haute Farm Chic in the City! Stay-Cool Home Finds > Flower-Powered Furniture > Art Camp For Adults! SUMMER LIVING! Getaway-Spread Cred Rooftop Gardens Take Root Inside Chicago’s Hottest Outdoor Rooms PLUS Haute Farm Chic in the City! Stay-Cool Home Finds > Flower-Powered Furniture > Art Camp For Adults! SUMMER 2010 $5.95 200 W HUBBARD ST CHICAGO IL 60654 MODERNLUXURY.COM SUMMER LIVING! Getaway-Spread Cred Rooftop Gardens Take Root Inside Chicago’s Hottest Outdoor Rooms
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PLUS Haute Farm Chic in the City! Stay-Cool Home Finds > Flower-Powered Furniture > Art Camp For Adults!
Avant-Garde Contemporary Design to Classic Traditional Cabinetry
•Official Kitchen Supplier to the Luxury Ritz Carlton Residences, Magnificent Mile, Chicago.
•Official Supplier to the Merchandise Mart 2010 Dream Home - Kitchen
NEFF OF CHICAGO
The Merchandise Mart Plaza
Suite 144 Chicago, IL 60654
P:312.467.9585
www.Neff-of-Chicago.com
of CHICAGO
Create magnificent gardens and personal spaces with the
landscaping professionals of City Escape Garden Center
& Design Studio. As a full-service retail garden center
and a design build landscape resource, the center features
hundreds of plants, one-of-a-kind containers and fountains,
and many other garden accessories.
Expert emb
3022 W. Lake Street, Chicago773.638.2000 ∂ www.cityescape.biz
City Escape offers high quality service with the style and
flair of a boutique firm, yet has the capabilities of a large
company. Working with you, our team of talented designers
will transform your outdoor space into a natural escape —
one that reflects your desires and lifestyle, making it
functional as well as beautiful.
b ellishments.
Director’s NoteSummer
JENNIFER
POLACHEK
Advertising DirectorEvery Chicagoan waits all year for one thing: summer! It’s time to take out the patio furniture and enjoy those decks, rooftops and balconies. Entertaining is one of my biggest passions, and among my close-knit group of friends, I’m knownfor my outdoor soirées. � is year I decided to up the ante by adding customized syntheticgrass to my terrace, thanks to the vision and expertise of Rhett Downing of Rug Zoom. I’m a suburban girl at heart, and his unbelievably soft, grass-like installation has transformed my urban space. � is new issue is dedicated to all things summer, from ideas on sprucing up your own outdoor space to the best planters in the city. If you’re short on space, you’re going to love the latest gardening trend. Check out the story about vertical gardening—gardens climbingup everything from backyard walls to sky-high buildings. We’ve also got the scoop on the latest shop and showroom openings. Fabulous designers Randy Heller and Julia Edelmann have both opened namesake stores, while Kim Chapman works her magic touch on custom window treatments at the brand-new Urban Environments. If it’s glass you’re looking for, you’ve been warned: � e highly
anticipated Trainor Glass Design Center on the corner of Lake and Sagamon in the West Loop spans 5,600 square feet, carrying everything from glass tiles to fi replaces. � is issue is also packed with new designers on the scene and on the rise, from Casey Gunschel and Meghan McGuinness, who are turning out leather-tooled tables that look like fi ne art, to Studio Murmur and Felicia Ferrone, both local multidisciplinary designers who are getting their turn in the spotlight. Studio Murmur’s new line of outdoor furniture is on its way to the showroom fl oor of Room & Board, while Ferrone’s gorgeous glassware is a minimalist showpiece at the store in the Art Institute’s Modern Wing. I love how they fl ip over for wine or water, depending on your mood (I’ll take a glass of Sauvignon Blanc, thank you!). And fi nally, if you’ve ever wanted to steal the décor of your favorite restaurant or hotel, listen up: � e designers behind hotspots like the Elysian, Girl & the Goat, and Hermès dish advice on how to lift the coolest design details for your very own home. I’m loving the staircase at Epic. After all, by the end of summer, it will be time to bring the party back inside. jpolachek@ modernluxury. com
10 | | Summer 2010
For 30 years, our approach has been
the same: great design should be
beautiful, affordable and long-lasting.
Using the finest materials and expert
craftsmanship, our artisans create
furniture that fits your life and your
style. Made by hand in the U.S.,
delivered to you in three weeks or less.
Holden sofa, $1999
Corbett cocktail table, $949
Assorted pillows, $119 -139
Profile frames, $79 each
Cable rug, $2299 $969 as shown
Planters $299 - 399
Visit us at three Chicago locations:
55 East Ohio at Rush Street, Chicago
2525 West 22nd Street, Oak Brook
10071 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie
Designed for life
we’re here to help
800.952.8455
roomandboard.com
MEGHAN MCEWEN
Editor-in-Chief
PH
OT
O B
Y L
IZA
BE
RK
OF
F
12 | | Summer 2010
Editor’s NoteSummer
We loaded our little ones into the car Friday morning, turning a two-day photo shoot at Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, into a weekend-long family aff air. A half-hour from the sprawling, beyond-beautiful retreat, where creative types of every stripe descended for art camp, the unthinkable happened: We got in a terrifyingly close-call car accident with a UPS truck. We were all miraculously untouched, but our vehicle was not. With a rental car (ours was not drivable) and shaky nerves, we persevered. Instead of dwelling on what could have happened, we decided to spend the weekend in full-force gratitude mode. And I cannot think of a more relaxing or welcoming place to slow down and take stock of every single little moment. Owners David Hernandez, who has been going to Camp Wandawega since he was a baby, and his wife, Tereasa Surratt, have been transforming the idyllic lake-side camp for the last few years, building the kind of backwoods-chic oasis that makes you want to skip off the grid and spend your days picking wildfl owers, baking bread, reading by lantern light, and practicing archery—in a vintage eyelet summer frock and frilly apron. But beyond the natural beauty and vintage cottage-meets-cool lodgings featured in this issue, there were other smaller—but no less important—stories unfolding behind the scenes. Sam from Post Family took my four-year-old fi shing and he caught his fi rst fi sh—a little bluegill—without even using bait. Tyler from Stone Blitzer played checkers with him when an afternoon shower brought us all indoors for a spell. He blew on the antique bugle that signals breakfast, took his fi rst ride on a tree rope swing, and marveled at the eggs of nesting turtles spread across the beach—all childhood-making moments for the
memory books. My 16-month-old toddled around the grounds, pulling grass, picking up rocks and engaging in a lengthy game of peekaboo with talented surface designer Noël Ashby, who I met for the fi rst time, even though I’ve admired her work since we ran a story about her beautiful designs last year. In a time when people are more careful with their money than ever and big-box stores are churning out mass-produceddesign on the cheap, the opportunity tospend a couple of days with some of Chicago’s most talented design minds reminded me what we’re doing here at CS Interiors matters. � ese are some of the people behind our city’s local design scene. � ey’re holding it up. � ey’re makingthings with their hands. � ey’re thinking responsibly and innovatively about materials.And they’re not only prodigiously talented, they’re also really nice folks. � e whole weekend was a working testament to getting outside your everyday. Especially in the summer—when the days are long and the pavement is hot—we all need an escape. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a vacation home in the country like the covetable modern cabins featured in this issue, but everyone can be inspired by the way these homeowners are using their spaces: to decompress and spend time with family and friends. From Jay Franke’s impeccably-appointed midcentury spread to the Eckenhoff family’s modernist prefab in the woods, we off er a peek inside two of the most striking second homes in the area. And then there’s ultimate do-it-yourselfer Dave Albin, who bought and decked out—with salvaged materials and self-made art installations—a creative Indiana retreat for less than $100,000. Now that’s inspiration. mmcewen@ modernluxury. com
kitchen
closet
wall system
upholstery
accent
dining room
office
300 West Ontario Chicago IL 60610 T 312 640 0066 70 stores world wide
NOW! � e people, places and products you need to know about now . . . . . . . . . . 24
STYLE Get ready for a whole new spin on the color wheel’s prettiest players . . . . . 32
A triple-decker Bucktown patio goes super sophisto under the agile hand of designer Lukas Machnik . . . . . . . . . . .34
TRENDS! � e next generation of plant containers brings new life to leaves . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
STYLE Looking for some one-of-a-kind interiors inspiration? We’ve snagged the ultimate decorating ideas from Chicago’s top hotspots . . . . . . . . . . 40
TRENDS! Ready to assemble a rainbow coalition? Summer’s coolest home goods channel hues of all stripes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
PEOPLE Straight from the studio of Antonio Citterio, this glassware designer brings her own version of Milan tothe local scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Saddle up! Wallpaper frontwoman Casey Gunschel teams up with a handbag designer for the latest in luxe leather surfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
TRENDS! Insider style takes on the great outdoors: Garden furniture grows (way) up . . . . . 50
PEOPLE A massive rooftop garden evolves into an out-of-this-world urban oasis. Landscape designer Patrick Henson mans the mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
DESIGN Bygone mod? An off -the-beaten-path interiors shop grafts a new breed of home cool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
TRENDS! A new take on no-frills fl oral furniture blooms into view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
HOME DIY guy Dave Albin builds a better weekend getaway. Penny-pinching required . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
HOUSE PARTY CHICAGO
All of Chicago’s hottest design parties . . 96
MARKETPLACE
Where to get sofas, lighting and glass tile? � e only listings that truly matter . . . . .106
INTERIOR MONOLOGUE
With a new take on the silent treatment, the design minds behind Studio Murmur make a big statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120
62
32
120
24
50
52
ON THE COVER
Photography: Tony SoluriStylist: D. Graham KosticHair & Makeup: Christina Culinski for Ford Artists using YSL & DavinesModel: Shara McGlinn at Ford ChicagoPhotographer’s Assistant: Al Froberg Eyelet jacket, $245, top, $125, seersucker shorts, $175, and espadrille wedges, $225, all by DKNY at Bloomingdale’s, The 900 Shops, 312.440.4460 and dkny.com. Back Bone earrings, $345, by Meredith Wendell at Chalk, Evanston, 847.424.0011 and meredithwendell.com.
14 | | Summer 2010
1901 N. Clybourn Ave., Suite 100 • Chicago, IL 60614
Tel 773.388.2900 • Fax 773.388.2916 • www.boconcept.us
Features Contents
16 | | Summer 2010
80 74
68
Cabin Fever! High-flying midcentury-meets-contempo style enters the deep boondocks of the Wisconsin woods 68
OPen Architect Walt Eckenhoff builds a prefab dream house tailor-made for communing with Mother Nature 74
nature Art camp for grown-ups? A former Latvian summer camp evolves into a low-key, high-designed colony for Chicago’s creative set 80
For a list of upcoming events that you don’t want to miss, please visit: modernluxury. com
20 | | Summer 2010
william f. CobertChief Executive Officer
stePhen w. kongVice Chairman
& Group Publisher
john CarrollPresident, Eastern Division
& Group Publisher
miChael r. liPsonChief Operating Officer
ann y. song Vice President Creative
& Fashion Director
sPenCer beCkEditorial Director
alan kleinPresident, Western Division
& Group Publisher
louis f. deloneGroup Publisher,
Southwest Division
john PietrolungoSenior Vice President, Finance
Continental divide.Create privacy with our beautiful sliding room dividers.
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HOME FRONT
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24 | | Summer 2010
Vintage Edition!
Shopping locally for vintage fashion, art and accessories just got immeasurably easier thanks to Atelier, a smart new River North emporium that is a cross between a sexy boîte and an intriguing artist’s workroom. Its rich red walls and glossy checkerboard fl oor make the eclectic and chockablock panoply of pieces, ranging from signifi cant artworks and couture clothing to captivating little baubles, all the more beguiling. T is is no surprise given its owners: Kathryn Sullivan Alvera and Jason Clark, part of the team from Prosecco next door and formerly of Narcisse and Domaine, and Roberto Pesce, who previously worked at Burberry and Ultimo. Prices range from high to low, and current standouts include a Christopher Makos photograph of Warhol ($3,000), a pearl-encrusted skull made by Clark as an homage to Damien Hirst ($1,500) and a dazzling collection of gilt frames ($250-$2,500, with framing services on the premises). –Lisa Skolnik
MIXED ‘N’ MAXED A variety of fi nds at Atelier.
The pair from Furniture Revival put together a must-buy list for the hardware store.
How good are the guys at Furniture Revival? Good enough that midcentury savant Richard Wright calls on Dan Snyder and Garth Borovicka for pre-
auction prep on his pricey collectables. T e pair also reports that Scout’s Larry Vodak trusts them to refi nish his fi nds while preserving, in Larry’s words, their essential “Scoutness.” Snyder, a serious rock musician, and Borovicka, a talented photographer, came to Chicago for the arts scene and were actively pursuing their creative interests before Angela Finney-Hoff man of Post 27 pushed them into full-time furniture. Proof that restoration is as much art as science, they work magic on anything from Queen Anne to Herman Miller. Below, four items they don’t leave the hardware store without. –Lisa Cregan
DENATURED ALCOHOL
“It’s a solvent for shellac, but it’s
also a good cleaner. We can wipe
a piece before it’s fi nished and
get a good idea of what it will
look like when we’re done. We
don’t use water because it soaks
in and raises the grain and that
can hurt the wood; denatured
alcohol just dissolves.”
MINERAL SPIRITS
“It’s more or less a paint thinner,
a low-odor version. It’s good for
clean-up and won’t smell up the
whole house the way turpentine
does. If you’re using an oil-based
enamel and you don’t want your
paint to dry too fast you can thin
it with this and the paint will
dry slower. And when we use a
special varnish like tung oil, we’ll
use mineral spirits as a base.”
HANDHELD ORBITAL SANDER
“We go through two or three
a year. But we fi nd the Porter
Cable orbital sanders work best
because they don’t burn out
after three months. There’s so
much sawdust in our workshop
between us and our two
employees that it affects
the motors.”
MURPHY’S OIL SOAP
“We’re trying to get people
to stop using silicone-based
cleaners like Pledge. Dust
doesn’t stick to them but nothing
else will either. If you ever want
to paint or revarnish after using
a silicon-based polish, it’s very
diffi cult. Murphy’s Oil Soap
doesn’t leave a harsh residue...
after we’ve refi nished a piece,
we always give it a once-over.”
Prep Schoolers
DECK SET!
Damien Hirst’s
deck chairs.
Well Slung
T e humble deck chair gets an artistic upgrade this summer via Damien Hirst. T e Brit art stud seems to be moving away from his broody skull period and returning to his mod-pop roots with brightly colored, butterfl y-embellished patterns. T e images are digitally printed on sailcloth seats, while wooden frames include Hirst’s signature on stainless steel plaques. $425 at artwareeditions. com. –Alexandria Abramian-Mott
SUMMEr FIND
SHOP SCENE
A®FURNISHING A BETTER WORLD
Club Sofa
$3,499
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HOME FRONT
now!
26 | | Summer 2010
Shower Power
An outdoor shower that harnesses its own hot-water energy? Los Angeles-based KAA Design Group has created an eco-friendly upgrade to the bone-chilling garden hose-off . With solar panels, low-fl ow showerhead and wire mesh privacy walls, the free-standing Allora is the ultimate in hippie luxury. Emphasis on luxury: It goes for about $12,000. At homlifestyle.com. –AAM
Slick and MortarTaking their cue from the likes of Alesandra Branca and Michael Del Piero, more top Chicago decorators are expanding their businesses to include a retail shop. Highland Park interior designer Randy Heller has opened a space in the multi-vendor venue at 531 Bank St. in Highwood. T e self-professed “hunter/gatherer” off ers a range of treasures, from vintage couture furniture and her own custom pieces to a selection of fi ne imported wallpapers. Also getting into the brick-and-mortar game: Julia Edelmann of Buckingham I+D and Debra
Phillips, owner of Scentimental Gardens in Geneva. T e two
have taken a space on Grand Avenue, divided it in half and created a double-punching hotspot for one-of-a-kind home fi nds. At Buckingham I+D (1820 W. Grand Ave.), Edelmann off ers interior design services as well as work by local artist Marilyn Borglum, lighting by L.A.-based Marjorie Skouras, and furniture from the artists of Outdoorz Gallery in Paris. At SG Grand (822 W. Grand Ave.), Phillips—a landscape designer and veteran retailer making her city debut—presents a truly eclectic inventory, ranging from antiques to garden ornaments and inventively repurposed pieces, like a conveyor belt from a French factory transformed into a folding screen. Not the best time to open a business? Phillips says, “I feed on risk and predict this area will become a mecca for the design-oriented.” –T omas Connors
BUrNING QUESTION
“T e Design Deutschland 2010 exhibit was the most interesting of the international exhibitions at the ICFF. T e
newcomer products were all original, fresh and quite clever.
I especially enjoyed items by Formf ord, Reinhard Dienes, and Studio Uli Budde.”
–LOrI OELHAFEN, MOrLEN SINOWAY ATELIEr
“At ICFF, I fell in love with the Deborah Bowness product, New Antique Books Wallpaper.
It was the fi rst booth I wondered upon, and when she
pulled out a vintage suitcase to show me her wallpaper samples, she stole my heart. So much in love. I will be carrying her products at Post 27 in late summer.”
–ANGELA FINNEY-HOFFMAN, POST 27
What was your favorite design from the furniture fair circuit—Milan, Miami, ICFF, etc.—this year? –Diana Tychsen
“One product that I thought was not only beautiful but sensible from
the Milan Fair: Tokujin Yoshioka’s
Memory chair, which is composed of recycled aluminum and changes shape depending on who is sitting on it. T e constantly changing shape makes it almost organic and ‘alive,’ despite its cold metallic look. Is it art? A garden chair? A performance piece? I love the mystery of it.”
–PATrIZIO FrADIANI, STUDIO F
The sleek interior of
Buckingham I+D,
which is fi lled with
style-forward fi nds.
SHOP SCENE
Space Saving with Style
745 N. Wells St., Chicago, 312.787.3358 w w w . h o m e e l e m e n t f u r n i t u r e . c o m
HOME FRONT
now!
TJ O’Keefe designs furniture that would bring a tear to Euclid’s eye. “It’s all based on logic and geometry,” O’Keefe says. Even the name of his one-year-old Helic line of side tables (carried by Haute Living on Kinzie and I.D. on Halsted) is a subtle homage to the twist of a double helix. “By rotating the table against a sofa or a wall you create
private spaces without using drawers. I try to distill furniture down to its essential parts,” says the 28-year-old. An Ann Arbor native, O’Keefe studied graphic design at Michigan and architecture at Penn, but came to Chicago three years ago drawn by what he calls a “nurturing” design community. While interviewing at local architecture firms O’Keefe realized that furniture is his real passion. Tings took off from there. With two Helic tables and a stunning, stripped-to-its-essence chair called Chair IV (available this fall) under his belt, O’Keefe is already on to his next mathematical conquest. He’s thinking cubes. –LC
One To
Watch!
Growing by The Number
At the Gary Comer Youth Center, created by architect John Ronan, design goes hand in hand with a soaring social agenda. Cue the beautiful rooftop garden by Hoerr Schaudt, where 250 kids work, learn and grow food and flowers every year. More roof-raising stats:
The stunning rooftop of the Gary Comer Youth Center.
New-on-the-scene
furniture designer
TJ O’Keefe sits in
the Chair IV of his
own design.
1,000pounds of organic
food each year that is
used by students, local
restaurants and the
center’s café
3,500spring and
summer bulbs
26varieties of perennials
in the garden
75kinds of annual flowers,
vegetables and herbs
85teens involved
in the career
exploration
program
Green Teens
this summer
29planting rows
8,160square footage
of green roof
30height in feet above
street level
Famous by Design
When Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa breezed through Chicago last month for a series of appearances timed to coincide with NeoCon, aesthetes followed his every move like rock groupies. During a lecture at the MCA and a private luncheon at Luminaire, members of the media, fans and fellow design-world stars hung on Fukasawa’s every word. Also at Luminaire, an exhibit of products by the Tokyo-based designer showcased his sensory, solution-based style, from a jointless Boffi bathtub that gurgles water like a futuristic hot spring to a thoroughly modern mini-TV that eschews a thin-as-paper profile in favor of a more nostalgic shape. When Fukasawa outlines a product, he says it’s never perfect the first time but always trying to be: “Like when you draw a circle and you make your pen go around many times.” –Amalie Drury
PASSING THrOUGH
Naoto Fukasawa’s impeccable
Grande Papilio Lounge Chair for
B&B Italia, available at Luminaire.
NUMBEr CrUNCH
Number of square inches of glass in the new Trainor Glass Design Center.100,234,678
28 | | Summer 2010
Snaidero USA o� ers eco-friendly products that qualify towards LEED certi� cation.
CORPORATE SHOWROOMS Fort Lauderdale | Los Angeles | Miami | New Jersey | New York
INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED SHOWROOMS Chicago | Edmonton | Greenwich | Honolulu | Jersey Shore |
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Washington D.C. | Bogotá | Mexico City | Puerto Rico | Caracas
F O R M F O L L O W S L I F E
KITCHENS + DESIGN. Made in Italy. 1.877.762.4337 | www.snaidero-usa.comStudio Snaidero Chicago 222 Merchandise Mart #140 Chicago, IL 60654 312.644.6662 www.snaiderochicago.comDandamudi’s Custom Cabinetry 2121 N. Clybourn Avenue Chicago, IL 60614 773.525.8200 www.dandamudis.com
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ORANGE | Advanced modularity by Snaidero Design
Contact our showrooms for our “Orange” launch promotion.
1. Knotted Melati hanging chair, $498, at Anthropologie.
2. Mykonos water pitcher made out of recycled glass, $35, at Jayson Home & Garden.
3. Wire shop baskets, $98–$125, at Jayson Home & Garden.
Playing for Space
When design collab Mas Studio entered Architecture for Humanity Chicago’s Street Furniture Competition, they started breaking rules right away. “T e challenge was to reimagine how to use empty lots in the city, but we didn’t want to make something like a lonely bench that would just sit there. We wanted to engage the community,” says Iker Gil, Mas Studio’s founder. Quickly nixing actual furniture, the group created containers made of aff ordable plywood four-by-eights to house native grasses, herbs or even toys. Gil hopes Cut.Join.Play, which won the competition, will inspire future projects that use small objects to make a big impact on a community. –AD
Going Vertical
Following in the eco-conscious footsteps of green roofs, the latest gardening trend has us looking up. Vertical gardens—or living walls, as they’re sometimes called—are fl ourishing throughout the city. “Vertical gardens are about to explode,” says Heather Sherwood, a senior horticulturalist at the Chicago Botanic Garden, who recommends trying them on a south- or west-facing wall. A good
option for urban green thumbs without a lot of space, vertical gardens can
beautify blank or unwelcoming walls. “It doesn’t damage the buildings, because unlike letting ivy run wild, the plants used aren’t ‘suckers’ that grab onto the skin of the building. T ey’re just looking to grow,” says Grace Rappe, a landscape architect with Chicago fi rm Hoerr Schaudt, who’s busy pitching large-scale projects to potential clients like the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association and Chicago Department of Transportation. Craig Jenkins-Sutton of Topiarius has installed vertical gardens in the courtyards of several Chicago condo buildings, and cites enviro benefi ts as a top selling point: “T e cooling eff ect that a green wall can have is signifi cant—as much as a 30 percent energy savings—and there’s research on the cleaning eff ect the plants can have on the surrounding air.” Still, he goes on to say, “T e main reason why vertical gardens are becoming so popular is because
A vertical fruit and vegetable island at the Chicago Botantic Garden.
Winner of the street furniture competition, Mas Studio’s containers were built for use in Little Italy.
Net Worth
Boost your bottom line with some of this summer’s hottest woven home fi nds. Upgrade your standard-issue rope hammock with a color-punching, macramé seat that can take prime position on the porch, while a garden-variety water pitcher gets a modern makeover with a chic seagrass cover. And why not swap out that ho-hum grocery tote for a fashionably cool wire bouclé basket that marries drop-dead form with eco function? –AAM
When Julie Michiels and Iker Gil moved into their Marina City condo fi ve years ago, pink may have ranked as one of their least favorite colors. As architects at Mas Studio (mas-studio.com), the couple is more easily classifi ed as gray and black proponents. But when a 725-square-foot unit with Chicago River views and generous balconies came on the market, they decided to take the chic with the pink: Its original kitchen, complete with ’60s-era General Electric-commissioned fridge, stove and metal cabinets, was all done in a uniform Mary Kay shade of cotton candy. “We’ve had to learn how to work with the color. Now we love it,” says Gil. And while the couple fi rst thought of painting the entire kitchen white or gray, they’ve now not only learned to abide by the shade, but abet it as well. “We’ve learned to embrace the color, which isn’t really a pale pink but hasn’t yet reached Pepto-Bismol either,” says Michiels. “We’ve bought pink oven mitts, pink salad tongs, and, our best fi nd, a Bialetti espresso maker. When we saw it in pink, we had to have it.”
Thinking Pink!Ready to indulge in the color wheel’s sweet spot? Meet the hue’s–who of pink
By Alexandria Abramian-Mott and Meghan McEwen
Shelf Life Contractor and creative décor hobbyist Dave Albin kits out his Logan Square living room with custom paint-covered books and puts literary-chic in the pink!
BIBLIO-STYLE Dave Albin’s bubblegum-colored book covers.
PINK-ALICIOUS! Julie Michiels and Iker Gils’ ‘60s-era kitchen.
Sliding Scale
Barely bubblegum? Full-throttle watermelon? We’ve got the season’s choicest pink off erings in tailor-made shades.
1. Junior Dachshund bookends, $150, at Jonathan Adler, 676 N.
Wabash Ave., 312.274.9920.
2. Basic Ostrich cushion in fucshia, $255, at calypso-cell.com.
3. Addison Chair, starts at $1,495, at Jonathan Adler, 676 N. Wabash Ave.,
312.274.9920.
4. Blu Dot’s Strut table in watermelon, $274–$1,369, at ID Modern,3337
N. Halsted St., 773.755.4343.
PROJECT IMPETUS “I had this
living room on the fi rst
fl oor. It’s the fi rst thing you
see when you walk in, and
I wanted to make a fi rst
impression. But I didn’t
need more bookshelves, so
I thought, ‘What if I turned
the whole wall into an art
installation?’”
COLOR CHOICE “I wanted to mix
the most masculine pink I
could. It’s almost Pepto—but
with a little bit of dark gray.”
HOW Albin realized he needed
glue to prevent the pages
from crinkling and warping.
“If you glue them all together
and smear glue on the page
sides, you can brush the
paint on and then let them
dry. Brush, dry, brush, dry…
I also painted bookends
and fi gurines. I painted
everything pink, then tucked
my art books in between
some of the nonfunction
books.” He picked up the
volumes from resale shops,
yard sales, rummage sales
and a book trade drop-off,
where he would trade in old
paperbacks anytime he could
snag a hardbound. “There’s
maybe about $10 worth of
books there.”
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continued...
34 | | Summer 2010
Forget wicker rockers, wrought iron lanterns and a smattering of geranium-filled flowerpots. When creating a tri-level rooftop lounge/open-air dining space/sundeck in Bucktown, Chicago designer Lukas Machnik took his high-design sensibility and translated it into the great outdoors, bringing in a collection of sexy furniture by the likes of Marcel Wanders and Patricia Urquiola, and let-it-be landscaping by Jayson Home & Garden. To set it
all off at its flattering finest, Machnik added illuminated occasional seating and coffee tables, perfect for after-dark ambiance. Te result: a decidedly Delano-meets-Donald Judd aesthetic with nary a kitschy stripe or floral print to be found. And those bright, summery colors that usually populate a patio? Tey didn’t stand a chance. “By using shades of gray, you really highlight the green grasses and leaves,” says Machnik, a Polish-born minimalist
whose love of Mies van der Rohe brought him to Chicago in 2002. “And when nothing’s popping out, it’s more serene and much sexier.” Te first stop to sexy was creating a sense of privacy on the three decks, each of which stands close enough to the homes on either sidethat sharing a cocktail with neighbors wouldn’t require an invitation, just a slight stretch. “On each of the rooftop decks, you could reach out and touch your neighbor. Space was a challenge,” Machnik says of the project for a 20-something trader who desired a modern, minimalist, party-ready space. To achieve that
urban-retreat feel on the first deck, a dining and entertaining space, Machnik commissioned a dramatic, 16-foot-tall duck-blind pergola—horizontal slats of ebony-stained wood that encase three sides of the 20-by-20-foot deck and serve the dual purposes of shielding the space from next-door neighbors as well as the sun. “Te initial inspiration was the Delano,” Machnik says of the South Beach hotel’s Philippe Starck-designed poolside retreat, which, like Machnik’s project, was conceived as an indoor room moved outside. “Te philosophy is that it’s not just a deck; it’s outdoor living space. I’m using the same color palette and contemporary lines that we’re using inside the house.” Te bunker-like, exterior cinder blocks were painted in Machnik’s signature charcoal gray (“It took years and lots of tests to finalize that shade,” he says), the floors were covered with sandblasted concrete tile (lighter than a concrete pour, the weight of which the rooftop structure couldn’t support), and the space was filled with sleek furniture pieces and planters from Zaha Hadid, Urquiola and Wanders. “It’s moody, kind of depressing, but sexy,” Machnik says of the shades-of-gray space. While design was always top of mind, putting the “fun” in functionality was equally important. “My client loves to entertain, and the first deck will be primarily used as a massive dining room,” Machnik says. A built-in Lutron system offers party-perfect lighting and sound at the touch of a button. Machnik designed and hand-built the 12-foot-long, Donald Judd-inspired slab
Gray GardensThree levels, one color and sky-high design transform an outdoor Bucktown bachelor pad
into a sexy, monochromatic space for all seasons By Kate Templin | Photography by Bob Coscarelli
slat happy Above: Clean-lined
West Elm lounge chairs under
an angular, 12-foot wooden art
installation of Machnik’s own
design. Left: table and benches
designed by lukas Machnik.
HOME FRONT
style
...continued table, which accommodates 10-plus, from reclaimed barnwood with Lonney H. White III (available at Pavilion). Te lounge area will feature Hadid’s lighted modular tables, which also act as additional seating. “Tey kind of look like mushrooms after the rain, sculptural but beautiful,” Machnik says. “And when you sit on them, they’re actually comfortable.” Urquiola’s Canasta armchairs, oversized Fibrestone planters, five-foot-high polished-chrome torches—Machnik’s take on a modern fire pit—and Jayson Home & Garden-designed, low-lying plant boxes filled with tall grasses fill out the first deck. “All the plant life is low maintenance,” Machnik says. “I don’t see my client watering or weeding, so we went for a more wild, less manicured, ‘pretty, pretty’ look.” Lighting was also extremely important to Machnik (“After all, you spend 90 percent of your time at home at night”), who brought in illuminated coffee tables, planters and an organic, wicker-weave fixture to hang over the dining table. “Tis is a sharp-angled, clean-lined space, but I thought it was important to play around with organic elements that add softness while keeping everything very masculine,” he says. And make no mistake about it: Tis is a manly
space—from the private cubes tucked between weeping willows and designed to act as make-out booths, if the need should arise, to the no-wimps-allowed, dramatic spiral staircase that connects the first deck to the second. Machnik hopes his client will use it often. “It was important that each deck had its own purpose. Otherwise, he’d probably end up using only one,” Machnik says. “Te challenge is they’re all separated, so how do you create a functional flow? I introduced elements on each deck that will force him to use one or the other for dining, tanning, lounging, entertaining… It gives him a lot of options without leaving any space unused.” Te second-level deck’s purpose: lounging, specifically on a black lacquered Hadid bench, Kartell plastic Bubble Club Chairs and CB2’s Sawyer eucalyptus wood adirondacks, a sleek, sustainable and economical find at $250 each. “I like to mix expensive and inexpensive, especially in an outdoor space,” Machnik says. “Why spend $3,000 on a chair that will be damaged in a year, when you can find a $300 chair that looks so great?” Design-wise, the second deck continues the gray theme with a concrete fire pit and coffee table from Luminaire and an eight-foot-tall piece of petrified wood. “It almost looks rotten because it has so many holes in it,” Machnik says. “It makes a statement that this is an outdoor room.” And the truly courageous (and hopefully sober) can brave a ladder up to the final deck, a massive, top-floor space lined with green grass and filled with simple loungers designed for sunbathing. Shockingly, Machnik ordered them in black and white.
Private cubes, tucked between weeping willows, are designed as make-out booths, should the need arise.
staCking thE dECk
a quartet of sawyer
chairs from CB2 create
an intimate, clean-lined
lounge area.
36 | | Summer 2010
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TRENDS!
38 | | Summer 2010
Whether you’re greening up your house, balcony or garden, these planters turn a brand-new leaf on out-of-the-box containers. If you’re looking for a high-concept home for foliage, English design collective Vitamin Living has the answer with its IV Planter, a cheeky solution for every forgetful waterer. � e refi llable IV bag with built-in fl ow regulator lets you set watering rates to suit your plant. For the best new eco option, Bacsac off ers the latest in high-tech, lightweight containers made from 100 percent recyclable Geotextile. And if you’re looking for sculptural, brightly colored pots, PAD’s Pod planters are it. Created by RISD-trained designers, the powder-coated pieces will sprout in any room of the house.
Planters Punch!By Alexandria Abramian-Mott
Vitamin Living’s IV planter, $285, at aplusrstore.com.
Bacsac’s Geotextile planters, $36–$275, depending on size, at aplusrstore.com.
Magenta’s 4.5”-tall wood grain herb planters, $55 for a set of three, at magenta-inc.com.
Chelsea boxes made out of fi berclay, $45–$165, at Jayson Home & Garden, 1885 N. Clybourn Ave., 773.248.8180, jaysonhomeandgarden.com.
Woolly Pocket’s modular planter, $50–$189, at City Escape, 3022 W. Lake St., 773.638.2000, cityescape.biz.
PAD Pod planters, $164–$174 (steel stand, $48), at Sprout Home, 745 N. Damen Ave, 312.226.5950, sprouthome.stores.yahoo.net.
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FLO
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a s
ime
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by
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French Lit
For a hotel that exudes luxury from its grand French motor court to its Lucien Lagrange-designed mansard roof, designer Lisa Simeone of Simeone Deary Design Group knew the lobby’s first impression had to be awe-inducing. Her crystal chandelier—inspired by an amalgam of Chanel brooches—provides just the explosion of sparkle the Elysian needed. “Juxtaposed with the embroidered wool drapes and marble finishes of the lobby, the chandelier’s glitter is meant to set the tone for what you’ll experience
throughout the entire hotel,” she says. Based on Simeone’s sketches and built by Baldinger in New York City, the chandelier consists of more than 100 polished chrome spiked arms studded with more than 2,000 faceted crystal beads. For a residential setting, Simeone says, it would need to be scaled down by several notches. “I’d take a picture to a custom lighting company and have it made, or peruse antique or auction sites like 1st Dibs or Pavilion. I also always recommend Lightology for its sheer volume and variety of lighting—there’s usually something there that would be close in nature.”
Stair Cased
When designing the showstopper staircase at River North bar and restaurant Epic, architect Jeremiah Johnson of Chicago Building Design approached it “as though, with the right lighting, it could become the ‘chandelier’ of the space,” he says. Scenesters now traipse up the stairs on their way to Epic’s rooftop until the wee hours of the morning, but Johnson says the industrial-chic look could also work in a more Zen residential space. “It would be great in a modern home or as a modern insertion into a period building. It has a rough-versus-refined feel that would also be fantastic in a loft.” If the lines of the staircase seem laser-cut, it’s because they practically were: Johnson used a process called Computer Numerical Controlled design (CNC) to carve the prototype from a block of raw material. Te stairs were later fabricated by Chicago-based Nick’s Metals.
Beaming It Up!
An al fresco feel was the inspiration behind the unique beamed ceiling at Fred’s restaurant in the new Barneys New York store on Rush Street. “It’s meant to evoke a garden lattice,” says David New, the executive vice president of creative services who works with architects, designers and contractors to build out Barneys stores nationwide. “We used teak wood, and the light fixtures are somewhat randomly placed and residential,” he says. Achieving the terrace look is not overly complicated, New insists. “It’s just nice materials used in a simple way. Tis format could succeed in almost any room of a home.” If working in a space with less natural light, New would consider choosing a lighter ceiling color than the dark stain used at Fred’s.
Stealing HomeHOME FRONT
style
fred’s
tHe elysIAN
epIc
The luminary Lisa Simeone in the Elysian lobby.
continued...
BARE MARKET The rustic-chic
exposed ceiling at Fred’s.
ON THE RISE The industrial staircase at Epic.
Forget HGTV. We tapped the designers behind six of Chicago’s coolest hotspots to give up the goods on some of the city’s most snag-worthy decorating ideas By Amalie Drury
40 | | summer 2010
At Fa u x D e s i g n s t u D i o 101 North Swift Road | Addison, Illinois 60101 | 630-627-1011 | www.fauxdesignstudio.com
c o l l e c t i o n
P h o t o b y A d A m J A b l o N S k I
gir
l &
th
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oa
t a
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sa
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ag
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by
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lis
; m
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...continued
The Flame Game
“I own the complete 1969 Playboy After Dark series,” says Robert
Polacek of San Francisco-based design firm Puccini Group. “It was filmed at the Playboy penthouse in Chicago, and in almost every scene, Hugh had a fire roaring in the background to set the mood.” For the interior of new River North restaurant Sable, Polacek and his team decided to go for a modern take on the cozy vibe by teaming up with Strike Anywhere Films to create a digital fireplace for the space. “You can buy fireplace videos online, but most of them are just films of a gas burner. No sparks. No jumping fire.” Polacek and Strike Anywhere filmed an actual six-foot burning log over cocktails in Napa one night, and the difference, he says, “is exceptional.” When translating the look at home, Polacek recommends, “Don’t just think about where you’d expect a fireplace.” And though he knows it would be a stretch for someone with traditional sensibilities to incorporate a digital fireplace into a classic design scheme, “It would look outstanding,” he says.
Finish Language
Design magazine photos of burned cedar planks—a traditional Japanese building material still used by modern architects—were hanging on the tackboard in designer Karen Herold’s office for two years before she had the opportunity to translate the
look in one of her own projects: the high-profile Girl & the
Goat restaurant just opened by Top Chef winner Stephanie Izard. Herold, the vice president of design at Chicago-based 555 International, felt it described the restaurant’s “rustic with an edge” aesthetic perfectly. “We burned them ourselves in our parking lot,” she says. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had creating a finish.” Te burned cedar covers a brick wall dividing two rooms in the restaurant, and Herold says she’s already had at least one request from a residential client to cover his entire fireplace in the planks. But the project could easily be do-it-yourself, she says. “Anyone with a torch and some cedar is good to go.” To finish the look at Girl & the Goat, Herold and her team added a layer of resin to give the wood sheen, then lit the wall from the top with LED lights.
Tile Style
Te new, 6,000-square-foot Hermès store in the old Barneys New York
space was Chicago’s most anticipated retail opening of 2010. Like all Hermès boutiques since 1976, it was designed by Parisian firm RDAI, the architectural group founded by Rena Dumas, the late wife of former Hermès CEO Jean-Louis Dumas. A section of mosaic tile at the foot of the store’s centerpiece white spiral staircase is an ooh-la-Hermès touch that has been echoed in the brand’s worldwide flagships for decades. “It would be perfect in the home of anyone who loves the art of travel,” says RDAI artistic director Denis Montel. “It looks best in an entryway, hallway, foyer or any specific space the individual would like to personalize.” As seen from a distance, the mosaic’s woven pattern tips its hat to Hermès’ long tradition of sumptuous leather goods—an effect that can be achieved by choosing a small tile size and light, closely contrasting colors.
FAKING IT A digital fire at Sable.
BURN, BABY Charred cedar walls.FLOOR’D! Hermès’ signature mosaic at its new store.
Hongtao Zhou’s Spinning Table.
42 | | summer 2010
sAble
GIrl & tHe GoAtHermes
Residential Design
360 W Superior St
Chicago, IL 60654 USA
312 640 8300
garyleepartners.com
HOME FRONT
TRENDS!
44 | | Summer 2010
Pierre Paul’s Pumpkin chair, $2,100, at Ligne Roset, 440 N. Wells St., 312.222.9300, ligne-roset-usa.com.
Multicolored Wall Clock, $89, available this fall at Bo Concept, 1901 N. Clybourn Ave., 773.388.2900.
Karmelina Martina’s Helix chair for Moroso, price upon request, at Luminaire.
Dransfi eld and Ross’ fl ower tables, $115–$140, at Elements, 741 N. Wells St., 312.642.6574, elementschicago.com.
Piero Lissoni’s The Dark Side of the Moon coffee table, $6,589, at Luminaire.
Dransfi eld & Ross’ Louis XV upholstered Ribbon Chair, price upon request, at dransfi eldandross.biz.
Forget all about monotone décor. � is season the focus is on bringing a rainbow’s worth of hues into every room of the house. Designers from all over the globe are celebrating the spectrum with a series of stripes, dots and swirls. Designer Piero Lissoni’s latest is a polychromatic table made out of colored glass, while Karmelina Martina gets color crazy with her super cool seating for Moroso. Even classic design is getting a multicolored makeover: Pierre Paulin’s classic Pumpkin armchair was originally designed as a one-colored seat for Claude and Georges Pompidou in 1971. Now, Ligne Roset is off ering a limited number of the chairs in shades of gradating red and blue. But is there a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow? You be the judge!
Glass ActFrom the studio of Antonio Citterio, a globe-trotting designer returns home to ignite Chicago’s design scene By Lisa Cregan | Photography by Maia Harms
Felicia Ferrone has had one foot in Chicago and one foot in Milan for most of her adult life. But hallelujah: � is world-traveling young designer—whose glassware has been added to the Art Institute’s permanent design collection and touted in Wallpaper* Magazine—seems to have settled her heart on a 606 area code. A native of River Forest, Ferrone snagged a position right out of college (Miami University of Ohio, architecture) in the studio of Milan-based architect/product designer Antonio Citterio—a name that sends little shivers of joy through all card-carrying modernists. “I experienced architects there who were not just creating architectural products, but were creating graphics, designing showrooms and furniture. Always playing with diff erent scales,” says Ferrone. “� en the Milan Furniture Fair came along and that altered my life. I saw design in a whole new way.” Pumped after observing all the edgy brio at Milan’s famous Salone Internazionale del Mobile, Ferrone says she began rethinking the whole “building thing.” “My real love was product design, I just didn’t realize it,” she says.
In 2000, while living in Italy and working, by this time, for starchitect Vittorio Gregotti, Ferrone became fascinated by the whole messy enterprise of table settings—the diff erent heights, shapes and sizes of water and wine glasses off ended her sense of order and discipline. So she set about creating her own design solutions, the result of which is her Revolution Collection: clear glass cylinders that can accommodate a generous goblet-sized pour of water at one end, or fl ipped over to receive a more abstemious serving of wine at the other. “� ey’re meant to be used two to a guest. Each place setting gets a pair, one with the wine side up and the other with the water side up. It makes for a clean tablescape,” says Ferrone, who modestly admits the glasses were an instant sensation. “I was published in Elle Décor Italy, Surface, Dwell, Abitare.” But, she says, it took until recently to iron out the manufacturing to her satisfaction. “� ey’re simple, but very diffi cult to make. � ey have to be made by hand by expert glassblowers. I fi nally found a manufacturer in the Czech Republic, so I’m manufacturing them myself.” In April, ff errone design was born, with an online store where the Revolution glasses can be purchased along with her exquisite glass bowls and champagne fl utes. Currently, Ferrone is working with Corian on a new shower design, and this October, she’s headlining a solo exhibit with Volume Gallery. “I’ll be showing all new work, from a kinetic chandelier to a rug. Really, my designs are all across the board. � e glassware collection is just the beginning.” Let’s all buy one and raise a glass to homegrown Chicago design.
Designer Felicia Ferrone at home
with her Revolution Collection.
POUR HOUSE
46 | | Summer 2010
j u l i a b u c k i n g h a m e d e l m a n n
1 8 2 0 W . g r a n d a v e n u e + c h i c a g o , i l 6 0 6 2 2 + 3 1 2 - 2 4 3 - 9 9 7 5
W W W . b u c k i n g h a m i d . c o m
p h o t o g r a p h y : e r i c h a u s m a n
b u c k i n g h a m
i n t e r i o r s + d e s i g n l l c
48 | | Summer 2010
Leather Forecasters
After launching the city’s coolest wallpaper biz, Casey Gunschel teams up with a local handbag designer to give leather a new grooveBy Thomas Connors | Photography by Maia Harms
“When people hear we work with leather, they immediately think S&M stuff ,” says Casey Gunschel, a wallpaper designer who recently took up a new medium after apprenticing under a saddle maker in Oregon. Using traditional leather-tooling techniques to achieve almost painterly eff ects for high-end custom furniture and interior installations, Gunschel and her partner, local handbag designer Meghan McGuinness, will make you rethink that glass-top coff ee table. Celebrating the beauty of a natural material and an ages-old craft, Gunschel and McGuinness create singular patterns—intertwined snakes against a botanical backdrop; a composition of old penmanship fl ourishes—that project a decidedly modern aesthetic. Gunschel, owner/designer of Palacepapers, was living in rural Oregon a few years back when she got the itch to try something new. “� ere wasn’t much going on where I was and I just needed a creative outlet,” she relates. “And I’ve been a horse person my whole life.” Her longtime friend McGuinness, who was back in Chicago making belts and bags, asked Gunschel to tool some straps for the hand-crafted, easygoing creations she sells online (cope-and-drag.com). “My handbags are meant to be well worn,” says McGuinness. “We aren’t trying to make the next ‘it’ bag, but more a timeless bag that gets better with age. I have known Casey for years and we share a similar aesthetic and work ethic. I respect her eye for design.”
When California interior designer Erin Martin asked McGuinness to apply her leather crafting skills to furniture, she asked Gunschel to collaborate. � e two dove in, fashioning a tabletop (inscribed “Zins of the Fathers”) for a California winery. More projects followed. One entailed executing an astrological theme across a homeowner’s bedroom walls. “We’re not interested in Western motifs,” says Gunschel. “What’s interesting to us is taking a traditional craft and giving a modern twist to it, making it contemporary.” For one designer, the two fashioned a large coff ee-table top depicting an octopus, its tendril-like arms unfurling, a uniquely dramatic piece that sold for $18,000. � ey get tanned hides from Argentina, treat them for durability, and hand-dye them with an oil- and spirits-based dye they often mix themselves. “It’s been a real learning process,” admits Gunschel. “Even old saddle makers tell you it can be hit or miss, because you’re dealing with an organic product that can take dyes diff erently. And no one works on the scale we do.” Gunschel’s leather endeavors aff ord her a new kind of freedom. “Wallpaper is more intrusive in an interior and I have to appeal to a wider audience. Furniture can be more unique and personal. And leather is so interesting because it’s kind of alive. I never would have guessed that what started as a hobby in rural Oregon would become a growing business.”
Green Ideas: Solar panels, recycled & pure glass countertops
Free Estimates & Design Consultations!
Chicago Design Center939 W Lake StChicago, IL 60607
312-870-9660
Chicago Design Center
www.trainordesigncenters.com
Digitally printed glass
Store Hours Tues- Sat 10-6, Sun & Mon ClosedAfter hour appointments available
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HHOOMM EE FF RR OO NN TT
TTRR EE NNDD SS !!
Patricia Urquiola’s Tropicalia daybed, price upon request, at Luminaire, 301 W. Superior St., 312.664.9582.
Patricia Urquiola’s Tropicalia chaise, $3,032–$3,880, at Luminaire, 301 W. Superior St., 312.664.9582.
Charles Long’s Untitled, 2009 ceramic bird feeder, at cumulus-studios.com.
Tord Boontje’s Sunny lounger, $2,763, at morosousa.com.
Emmet sofa made from 100 percent recycled plastic, $649, at Room & Board, 55 E. Ohio St., 312.222.0970.
Lebello’s Chumy chaise, $1,325, at lebello.com.
Big Sur lantern, $78, at Jayson Home & Garden, 1885 N. Clybourn Ave., 773.248.8180.
KAA Group’s ceramic bird feeder, $325, at homlifestyle.com.
Don’t even think about putting patio standards in the garden. � is season, it’s all about importing insider style to your outdoor areas with big color, bold shapes and out-of-the-box ingenuity. Some of the world’s top design talent is taking it outside, from Patricia Urquiola, whose Tropicalia chaise and daybed are the ultimate in multicolored, plein-air chic, to Tord Boontje, who created the ultra-swank Sunny lounger. And for the birds? We’ve got two takes on high-fl ying style, from artist Charles Long’s limited-edition ceramic bird feeders to KAA Group’s super-sleek and pointy take on sowing new seeds of outdoor change.
Out Fest
By Alexandria Abramian-Mott
50 | | Summer 2010
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HOME FRONT
PEOPLE
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The Eccentric Gardener
Designer Patrick Henson outfi ts a 4,000-square-foot rooftop with everything from foo dogs to rare fl owers to create a mind-bending ride of an urban oasis By Lisa Cregan | Photography by Jason Robinette
Hey kids, don’t try this at home! Unless, of course, you have an enormous penthouse on top of your sprawling warehouse complex with 4,000 square feet of rooftop garden to trick out. Landscape designer Patrick Henson of Chicago’s Handsome Designs is the pro who was handed this once-in-a-career assignment. His clients own an old-time manufacturing facility on the banks of the newly scenic Chicago River and decided it would be fun to live above the shop. What ensued was a fabulous fourth-story aerie with long views of the city’s glimmering skyline, while immediately below lies that other Chicago—the one of husky, brawling, big-shouldered fame. Maneuver past skittering forklifts, around clattering heavy machinery and through gigantic spools wrapped in lord-knows-what to an industrial elevator that eventually spills you out facing a massive steel door. Swing open that door to a wonderland of sculpture, planters and trees that seems to go on forever. How much space is there? Well, let’s put it this way: ere’s a tennis court. e mind boggles.
Henson’s task here amounts to hand-to-hand seasonal combat with Mother Nature. ere’s a reason most landscapers don’t do rooftops. Henson has to battle desiccating wind, scorching sun and, let’s face it, non-existent soil depth. Not to mention needing to work around a sculpture collection that’s constantly expanding and morphing at his clients’ whims. Just when things seem laid out for the season, Henson suddenly fi nds himself looking for spots for Buddha and his companion foo dogs. And the Astroturf? At least Henson wasn’t expected to grow a suburban rooftop lawn. A perpetually green carpet was already in place when he arrived—a welcome, no-maintenance, faux-sylvan backdrop. Now in his fi fth year on the roof, Henson seems to take the tumult and trials in stride. “ is garden’s been a labor of love,” he says. “I’d rather do rooftops all summer long. I enjoy the challenge, it’s closer to God, and the views are spectacular. You can see the whole skyline, the entirety of Chicago.” e scale of
1. There’s an unobstructed view of the skyline from almost every angle of this enormous warehouse rooftop garden 2. A brass pyramid was manufactured right in the
homeowner’s factory two stories below 3. The homeowner personally designed these fi ber-optic globes that periodically change colors 4. A copy of a sculpture currently at the
Weizmann Institute in Israel 5. Sand sculptures engage in a staring contest atop driftwood pedestals.
52 | | Summer 2010
312-642-7379
www.hickmaninteriors.com
Hickman Design Associates
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this installation is almost as vast as the views. Currently 27 planters line the outer perimeter and a fl eet of rolling aluminum boxes of boxwood can scoot around to accommodate any eye-popping sculpture that suddenly appears. “� e crabapple trees and forsythia in planters bring in bright spring color,” says Henson. “� e fi berglass planters I fi ll with fragrant viburnum and nemesia. � ey’re actually hiding some vents.” Henson even makes the Astroturf a little more visually palatable by growing tufts of pretty lime green sedum in gaps in the carpet. Nothing pays greater tribute to Henson’s creativity, though, than the endless line of planters edging the vast terrace. Henson employs them like some citifi ed Gertrude Jekyll to create the eff ect of an English border garden. � e planters are an exercise in controlled chaos, bursting with delphinium, lilies, poppies, roses and heather. “Carnival colors. We made that our color palette: purples, blues,
coral, pink,” says Henson. Despite the harsh growing conditions, it’s an expert plantsman’s Eden that softens the hardscape of rooftop parapet and the stone and steel sculptures that pepper the garden. “I can’t say I completely understand how things come and go here,” laughs Henson. “I’m just working on the garden and I love working around all these wonderful things. Like these four gigantic candelabra with light bulbs, gigantic menorahs. All of a sudden they were up here. � ings just appear.” Once they do, Henson enfolds them in nature’s embrace like the vintage washtub he’s fi lled to overfl owing with petunias. He says he’s learned to have confi dence in his clients’ mad methods. “On my third year working here I went to one of the owners and I said, ‘You know, I don’t really understand these orange triangles,’” Henson recalls. “So she pointed out the Star of David inside them and suddenly they made sense. Now? I love them.”
...
6. The 30,000-square-foot penthouse features a large deck rimmed by Henson’s plantings 7. A sculpture by local artist Stephanie Wilke 8. This piece anchors a corner of the
terrace “like a crossroads of molded aluminum,” says Henson 9. Garden designer Patrick Henson inside a salvaged architectural remnant. Framed in the distance is a globe
sculpture by Brian Sperry 10. Sun chaises, also designed by the homeowner.
54 | | Summer 2010
7 7 7 N O R T H Y O R K R O A D S U I T E 9
G A T E W A Y P L A Z A • H I N S D A L E , I L 6 0 5 2 1
6 3 0 - 7 3 4 - 0 6 6 2
W W W . H I N S D A L E L I G H T I N G . C O M
HOME FRONT
DESIGN
continued...
What seems like one more little blink-and-you’ve-missed-it burg along Michigan’s Red Arrow Highway, Harbert is actually a town with a long history of nurturing creative risk-takers. Back in 1928 a young guy named Carl Sandburg set up house in Harbert’s dunes with a plan to raise goats (and maybe write a little poetry on the side). Seventy years later, Brian Overley and Alan DeBaugh lit out for the small lakeside town from a cramped Chicago apartment and launched their own creative eff ort, a genre-defying interiors shop named Marco Polo Antiques. Pause on the threshold of Marco Polo (about 75 miles around the lake from downtown Chicago) and prepare to be blown away. Arrayed against the walls are pieces of farmhouse furniture with perfect patinas and mysteriously beautiful obsolete machinery. Call it “agrarian modern” or maybe “haute farm.” Every pristine,
Destination StationA home design junkie’s dream summer outing: Less than 80 miles from Chicago, two city transplants turn an old party store into haute-farm headquarters By Lisa Cregan | Photography by Jim White
iN TuNe alan DeBaugh
and Brian overley in
their harbert shop.
clean-lined piece stands in crisp relief against walls painted smoky gray or alabaster white. A burnished steel machinist’s toolbox here, ancient spikes of hayforks there, mysterious bits of defunct equipment, clouds of wire baskets, even quirky oversized factory lighting fi xtures. In Overley and DeBaugh’s chic hands the industrial grime falls away to reveal the beauty of the form and the romance of the wear, and the fl otsam of rural American life becomes covetable tables, chairs, consoles, lamps—even sculpture. “T is is about our personal vision of beauty. If something’s not beautiful when we get it, we ask ourselves, ‘What does it need?’” says Overley, who has a degree in fi ne arts from Indiana University. T e pair maintains a separate studio they laughingly refer to as “hair and makeup,” where Overley works his magic on their fi nds. “Sometimes it’s about changing the fi nish,” he explains. “Sometimes it’s about refurbishing, sometimes repurposing, but it’s always about maintaining the fl avor of age.” For example Overley points to a piece he says was once an old tavern table in some rural 1950s Michigan saloon. “I cut it down to make a
uNDer scruTiNY
at marco Polo,
where every detail
is art-directed, a
microscope is used
as an interesting
design piece.
56 | | Summer 2010
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...continued
Call it “agrarian modern” or “haute farm.”
Every pristine, clean-lined piece stands in
crisp relief against walls painted smoky
gray or alabaster white.
farmhouse-chic!
clockwise from top: a
muted white-on-white
corner mixes clean lines
and vintage charm;
a display featuring a
vintage truck; shades
of yellow makes this
perfectly curated
vignette pop.
cocktail table,” he says. “It was sanded, painted, then I tapered the feet so it would feel elegant.” Te table has the quirky integrity of age but, paradoxically, it also feels very modern. “Rural farmers were more concerned with function than decoration so their pieces have an inherent modernity,” explains Overley. “I think these pieces have an almost Bauhaus feel, where form follows function. Even an old farm washstand, today, looks so beautiful, clean and contemporary.” DeBaugh points to a swirling floor-to-ceiling plume of yellow-speckled steel: “I love that. It was part of a combine that rotated the corn and then spilled it out into a wagon—purely functional, not trying to be beautiful at all, but you isolate it away from the machine and it becomes a piece of sculpture.” “But not all farm machinery is created equal,” Overley laughs. “We have to see something in the proportion and lines, and that spiral is strangely poetic.” Te poetry carries over into a line of very limited-edition furniture Overley has begun designing: ash shelves in an iron frame, his interpretation of some creaky painter’s scaffolding he spied in a World of Interiors magazine, and a steel version of a folding wooden campaign table he once admired. He’s even conjured up a line of Adirondack chairs with a uniquely Marco Polo silhouette. But for the most part, no two pieces here are alike. So here’s a word of advice: If you see something you love in Marco Polo, buy it. You’re probably never going to see it again. A few years ago the store’s growing reputation forced Overley and DeBaugh to move from their intimate space in Harbert’s former post office. “We just kept selling out all the time,” sighs Overley. True to form, the pair saw something graceful in the impossible ugliness of a discount party store down the street. It had yellow vinyl siding and tiny blackout windows that made it look more like a roadside porn shop than a place to plan a celebration—unsurprisingly it quickly went belly up. Overley and DeBaugh pounced and transformed the building into their fantasy of elegant converted stables. “We changed the surface of everything,” admits Overley. “My inspiration was a quasi-Swedish barn crossed with Kentucky horse barn. A rural flavor but more classical.” If this is a barn, next life we’re coming back as a Holstein. Sandburg wrote that “the secret to happiness is to admire without desiring.” Obviously Carl’s Harbert years were pre-Marco Polo.
58 | | Summer 2010
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HOME FRONT
TRENDS!
Paging all petal pushers: A modern take on fl oral design is sprouting throughout the house. Channel your inner wallfl ower with a variety of new wallpapers, including Amy Butler’s drop-dead-gorgeous Field Poppies paper and Osborne & Little’s granny-gone-groovy Foxglove pattern. And if you’re feeling like sprinkling some seeds of change a bit further, Slovenian designer Nika Zupanc’s 5 O’Clock Chair for Moooi takes those traditional climbing roses into postmodern turf. Your garden variety of fl oral patterns this is not.
Bloom Service!By Alexandria Abramian-Mott
Obsorne & Little’s Foxglove wallpaper, $140 per 11-yard roll, at Workroom, 1906 W. Belmont Ave., 773.472.2140.
Nika Zupanc’s 5 O’Clock Chair for Moooi, price upon request, at Luminaire, 301 W. Superior St., 312.664.9582.
Amy Butler’s Field Poppies wallpaper in midnight, $80 per double roll, at grahambrown.com.
Madison and Grow’s Michelle wallpaper, $150 per 15-foot-long roll, at Urban Source, 1432 W. Chicago Ave., 312.455.0505.
La Tête au Cube’s Tank U porcelain vase, $75, at aplusrstore.com.
Kartell’s Bloom lights, $890 each, at Orange Skin, 223 W. Erie St., 312.335.1033.
60 | | Summer 2010
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HOME FRONT
HOME
continued...
Chicago contractor Dave Albin is a human divining rod when it comes to scouting killer deals on art, furniture and building materials. T ere’s no better example of his ingenuity than his new La Porte, Indiana summer home—a former schoolhouse he bought for a song and renovated over the course of 10 months. His handiwork speaks for itself: from the salvaged tin ceiling he bought on Craigslist and installed himself to a sprawling outdoor oasis with DIY sculpture and garden cabanas. “I didn’t keep track of my labor, but I spent less than $100,000 altogether,” says Albin, who includes furniture and art in the fi nal tally, along with the reno and serious landscaping eff ort. His secret? T e jack-of-all-trades sources materials from Craigslist, consignment shops and even alleys, where
he got nearly every piece of art that hangs throughout the house as well as much of the furniture. Take the beat-up, four-drawer dresser he found in an alley and had “dip-stripped” before staining ebony black. He spruced it up with stainless steel handles and new legs to complement the contemporary look of his master suite. Albin is also the master of design shortcuts. Above the dining room table, he hung fi ve modern globe pendant lights at varying heights to save time leveling. Reinforcing the pleasingly off -kilter eff ect, he made no attempt to center each fi xture in the round, chartreuse decals he stuck to the ceiling. Creative touches of the DIY variety abound: a shadowlike chandelier decal that mimics the chandelier hanging in the dining room and an art installation
TO dIy-FOr! Clockwise from
top left: a salvaged tin ceiling
makes a dramatic statement
in the kitchen; dave albin in
his lush backyard; graphic
decals and random placement
create an interesting lighting
installation over the dining
room table.
Weekend WarriorThis ultimate do-it-yourself deal-seeker creates a style-packing weekend retreat for less than $100,000 (real estate included!) By Tate Gunnerson | Photography by Jim White
Leonard Goldberg (Geneva Seal), Amy Wimer (Eye Bank Gala Chair), Alex Kats (Geneva Seal), Greg Hyder (2010 Man of Vision)
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64 | | Summer 2010
...continued fashioned from homemade shadow boxes and spray-painted trophies. When Albin first toured the 2,400-square-foot brick building, it had already been gutted and outfitted with a new roof and windows. Making the deal even sweeter, the sale price included piles of rough sawn lumber stacked throughout the building, which the former owner had left after clearing a dense thicket of trees in the backyard to make room for an addition. Instead of completing the project, Albin filled the foundation hole (with dirt he dug up to create a koi pond) and used the lumber to handcraft a long, narrow dining room table, as well as the home’s baseboards, window frames and front porch. But Albin isn’t all save and no splurge. He used the money he saved with freecycling and penny-pinching to pay for hand-carved mahogany flooring throughout—a decision that lends a certain richness and continuity to the space.
When it came to the sprawling backyard—where he envisioned both intimate gatherings and big soirées—it was all about making a statement. Near the house, Albin created a chic outdoor dining room decorated with two industrial mirrors, and three tall pieces of tempered shower glass, which he painted blue and green and hung side by side. Ten, farther back toward the edge of the property, he built a small wooden pergola and hung an unexpected Ikea clearance sale chandelier made of plastic balls. “It was really important for me to have a design for all four seasons,” says Albin, who favored plants like berry bushes and red twig dogwoods that have bright red leaves all winter. “I knew I’d be having people over all year long, and I wanted it to be as interesting as possible,” says Albin, who scored deep discounts at end-of-season sales. One thing he didn’t anticipate: “Tere’s an extremely exotic South American bird in my backyard—a Purple Gallinule—a mating pair. Tat’s never happened north of the Everglades.” Albin’s backyard is full of wonders. Unable to resist adding a little bling, he created a dramatic outdoor sculpture by smearing concrete over two-inch Styrofoam pieces he glued into a giant cube. Reaching nearly six feet and standing in the middle of a patch of burning bushes, the DIY piece—with a price tag totaling less than $20—is the perfect representation of how little money it takes to create cool.
Albin used the money he saved with freecycling
and penny-pinching to pay for hand-carved
mahogany flooring throughout, which lends a
certain richness and continuity to the space.
yard games From top: albin
painted panels of shower glass to
create instant art in the outdoor
dining room; the backyard
sculpture was homemade with
cement and styrofoam.
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Features
Summer 2010
home / design
Summer 2010 | | 69
Cabin Fever!A pair of Chicago design lovers gives an old-growth groove to a brand-new getaway house tucked far in the Wisconsin woods
By Lisa Skolnik | Photography by Tony Soluri
Jay Franke’s driving directions to those visiting the weekend retreat he shares with his partner, David Herro, are emphatic and concise: “Look for the house that’s different. Really different.” Te directions help, since GPS is erratic in the boondocks of North Lake in Hartland, Wisconsin. But just when it seems that Franke’s instructions are a bit too cavalier, there’s a break in the protracted row of prosaic little houses and a handsome cedar, glass and Lannon stone house with several soaring pitches in its broad roof bursts into view. With its oversized glinting window walls, spectacularly engineered slopes and natural materials, it’s a state-of-the-art architectural dazzler for today with its roots in the mid-20th century. Yet its demeanor and scale respect the rustic, idyllic setting. Te couple planned it that way, interviewing a handful of well-known architects for the job in 2004 before settling on Bruce Jackson in nearby Milwaukee. “We never wanted a harsh glass box. We didn’t want to be the goofy
FEEDING THE MASSES For the open living/dining area, the couple found a set of 12 matching vintage Scandinavian chairs (at Collage 20th Century Classics in Dallas) to pair with their contemporary Hugo França dining table. Right: Franke made the installation over the bed using dozens of ceramic pieces he bought at George Lowell in Chicago.
guys from Chicago who built an über-contemporary that stuck out and upset everybody,” explains Franke. Inside, the design program cleaves to the same standard of moderated drama. A towering central stairwell that rises 60 feet from the home’s lower level to its third-floor loft organizes spatial flow and sports an impressive steel-and-oak floating staircase that was technically challenging to fabricate “and required an engineering feat to get it installed properly,” says Franke. Te house’s layout is tailored to the couple’s lifestyle. Herro, an international fund manager, and Franke, a freelance dancer and artistic director of the Chicago Dancing Festival, are both big-hearted, gregarious extroverts who are involved in myriad
philanthropic ventures. It’s no surprise that the two love to entertain, which translates into a constant stream of weekend guests. On the main level, an L-shaped, two-story living space that transverses almost the entire structure is punctuated by a gigantic Lannon stone hearth and lined with a glass curtain wall overlooking the lake. Te curtain wall extends into the enclosed kitchen, equipped for entertaining with banks of sleek white Bulthaup cabinetry and high-performance stainless steel appliances. A trim, window-lined loft holds a very private yet airy master suite and office for the couple, which feels like a secret tree house thanks to the branches right outside the windows. Meanwhile, a rambling, walk-out lower level below offers four guest rooms, an intimate
“We never wanted a harsh glass box. We didn’t want to be the goofy guys from
Chicago who built an über-contemporary that stuck out and upset everybody.”
Above: In the study,
a zigzag West Elm
rug adds even more
verve to spirited
vintage pieces, as well
as Jonathan Adler’s
repro of a Curtis Jere
sculpture and a funky
driftwood coffee table.
Opposite page: The
central stairwell has
300 works and is still
growing. All the pieces
relate to the couple
and their family, and
none of the clocks are
operative, save the one
that is easy to reach.
Summer 2010 | | 71
72 | | Summer 2010
den and a huge multipurpose room that features an 82” flat-screen monitor and projector, lots of cushy seating and enough hidden sleeping for four more, thanks to additional sofas and a queen-sized Murphy bed. Franke, a self-proclaimed “vintage junkie” who has always had a passion for interior design, outfitted the entire home with a mix of pristine midcentury and sure-to-be-classic contemporary furnishings. “I had a starter kit of generic pieces at first, then slowly upgraded everything. I dance all over the country so I’ve had access to some amazing sources,” he explains. He scored a new Hugo França dining table and BDDW sideboard from now-closed Chicago atelier Abode, and the prized set of 12 vintage Kai Christiansen dining chairs and an impressive array of significant pieces by big-name designers (think Vladimir Kagan, Jens Risom, Florence Knoll and Robsjohn Gibbings) came from near and far. Yet if you look past the state-of-the-art architecture, sumptuous fittings and significant furnishings, the place is a bona fide throwback to the idyllic midcentury that the house references in so many ways, for it was conceived as a place to embrace family first. “David is from Wisconsin, and his brother had a home nearby. We’d come up here every weekend, then realized we wanted a more permanent place than the guest bedroom. So he found us this property, we came to see it and were hooked,” says Franke. Herro has five siblings, Franke has two and all those guest rooms and spare sleeping spots were
designed to accommodate the couple’s parents, siblings and 16 nieces and nephews. “David’s family lives within driving distance, so they’re here every weekend. Mine is in Utah and Texas, so we have Frankeder’hey Day for a week every summer, complete with organized activities and T-shirts,” jokes Franke, explaining that the name came from the local slang. Te close-knit clan also inspired what both men consider the heart of their home: the picture-encrusted stairwell. Franke got the idea to cover all the walls in pieces that reflected their families from the well-known Brooklyn silhouette portrait artist Carter Kustera, whose work he admires. He asked every family member to take a snapshot of their profile (and their little ones and pets), and painted his own versions from the photos. Other pieces hang between the silhouettes and play to guests’ interests: Tere are racecars for David, pansies for his sister and pirates for a nephew. Installing them was another DIY production, complete with scaffolding that Franke convinced his builder to erect. It took him a week to get the wall just right, but the effects of the statement-making installation were immediate. “Everyone loves to come over and see themselves on the wall,” says Herro. And Franke is considering a new venture. “All dancers have second careers. Mine just might be in interior design.”
From top, left: Barware and pottery from several decades in the dining area; a pristine corner of the living room, outfitted with a Knoll sofa, Jens Risom lounge chairs, Hans Wegner-inspired chaise and vintage coffee table, is pure midcentury Opposite
page: Choice pairings include a contemporary BDDW sideboard, Thomas O’Brien lamp and Hugo França dining table with vintage chairs and a Curtis Jere sculpture in the dining area.
Summer 2010 | | 75
Open SeasonA nature-loving architect creates his own pre-fab dream spread that’s all about al fresco family dinners, earth-first building materials and picture-perfect lake views
By Lisa Skolnik | Photography by Tony Soluri
Jodi and Walt Eckenhoff have been through enough major renovations over the last 30 years to know that rare is the building project that runs smoothly. Gaffes and spats are routine. Yet none of the glitches they experienced on their four former DIY efforts kept the two-tool belt couple from tackling a stupendously original fifth to build a sleek, eco-friendly second home—from scratch and mostly themselves—on a small lake outside Buchanan, Michigan. “I grew up going to our cottage in Door County and always dreamed of having our own. And I always like to have a project in the works. So doing this was right up our alley,” says Walt, principal of Eckenhoff Saunders Architects in Chicago and a self-admitted chronic tinkerer. Fortunately Jodi, a physical therapist, has “always been pretty decent with a hammer and saw,” she notes. If that hadn’t been the case, they would not have had much together-time during the 18 months it took to build the home on weekends.
GREEN SCENE
Common, inexpensive
building materials
surpass their humble
provenance in the
interiors of this pre-
fabricated cabin. The
Bunch Vase by Naoto
Fukasawa for B&B
(from Luminaire) sits
on a harvest table,
which was milled from
a tree felled to make
way for the house.
Right: A soaring skillion
roof underlined with
windows floods the
home with light.
Summer 2010 | | 77
Walt got the opportunity to fulfill his dream when a client offered him a 20-acre lakefront parcel in 2006 that she decided not to use. Te couple fell in love with the site—rife with gently rolling hills and statuesque, old-growth trees—and acquired it immediately. Deciding what to build took a lot longer. “Walt played with the design for a couple of years,” confides Jodi. “It started out large, then shrunk to a one-bedroom box. But we have three girls. Tey’re sure to have families someday. So I negotiated two bedrooms and a sleeping loft.” Te final 2,300-square-foot design “is rooted in the aesthetic of the barns, sheds and cribs that are so common here,” explains Walt. It has glassy rear walls that permit panoramic views of the lake, sports three decks that add another 1,500 square feet of outdoor living space; and is topped with two soaring skillion-style roofs, one on top of a jutting silo that contains the sleeping loft at the home’s highest level.
It is also mindful of a new reality to be sustainable and economical. For starters, Walt consciously tracked down aesthetically and economically smart building materials, such as construction grade one-by-six pine planks for the walls and third-grade one-by-six maple planks for the floors. Both are inexpensive but beautiful, especially the maple “because it has a lot of figuring that makes it interesting instead of bland,” Walt explains. Equally economical is the far-more-costly Garapa Gold planking that clads the decks and master bathroom. “It’s an ultra-durable hardwood that can weather sun and water, so I won’t have to redo them in 10 years,” explains Walt. Te home is also loaded with money-saving green features. Tese include a closed loop geothermal HVHC system; strategically sited glass curtain walls and “low-e” windows for passive solar heat; super-insulated construction; a layout and overhangs
Above left: All of the
doors are hung on
barn door hinges and
painted rustic colors
in deference to the
vernacular architecture
of the area. Above right: Stair treads are also
made of wood recycled
from felled trees, and
support columns are
painted maple leaf green
to blend into the foliage
outside. Opposite page:
The cabin is nestled in
a grove of old-growth
trees and sports glass
curtain walls that allow
access to the decks
outside and maximize
the view.
“It’s the only project where I’ve been the owner, architect, general contractor,
machine operator, carpenter’s assistant and interior designer.”
78 | | Summer 2010
designed to foster air convection for cooling; and a reflective corrugated steel roof to deflect sunlight and retain heat. And finally, he came up with an extraordinary building plan that deflated their construction budget to less than $200 a square foot. “Tat’s not counting the area of the deck. If we did, it would be about $120 a square foot,” Walt points out. “We decided to do as much as possible ourselves,” he says. So they rented a North Chicago warehouse from January to June 2007, and prefabricated all the framed components of the house with the help of their friend, Angelo Roncone, who is also a professional construction manager. “He was the mastermind behind the scheme to prefabricate the parts and erect it on-site,” says Walt. In June, they rented two flatbed trucks and hauled the completed floors, walls, beams and roof 120 miles to the site, where the driveway, concrete foundation and power had already been completed. “I leased a forklift with a 30-foot telescoping boom, and we lulled the house sections and steel beams into place. We had it up in four weeks,” says Walt, who admits to a fondness for operating the machine. Te couple spent the rest of the summer supervising the subcontractors who installed the plumbing, HVHC, curtain walls, deck and electrical systems, then put on the roof themselves. Weekends the following winter were devoted to the interior finish work, often with
the help of their daughters. To respect the house’s vernacular design, Walt used sliding barn doors in every room but gave them definition and personality with paint. Tose in public spaces are yellow in deference to a nearby yellow barn the couple admires; bedroom doors are white; and bathroom doors are red. Steel structural support columns are coated with “maple leaf green so they vanish in the spring and summer against the trees outside,” says Walt. Tey splurged on Wood-Mode kitchen cabinets, and saved—ecologically speaking—by recycling furniture from their Glencoe home and reclaiming maple and walnut trees to make way for the home as stair treads, bathroom vanities and a majestic, monolithic harvest table. A black granite slab for the hearth got the same treatment when it arrived from China undersized. “I had it made into a coffee table,” says Walt. In retrospect, Walt got his wish to do it all. “It’s the only project where I’ve been the owner, architect, general contractor, machine operator, carpenter’s assistant and interior designer,” he laughs. Now that the work is done, they live on the front deck facing the lake, even when it gets nippy. Tey even eat out there almost every night they are there. “Te only thing that keeps us off the deck is rain and snow,” says Walt, who learned one lesson the hard way. Sleep inside. “It’s so beautiful under the stars that I camped out on the deck last May,” says Walt. “But I got drenched when it started raining at 2am.”
Left: Topping the
coffee table (made
from marble that
was originally meant
for the fireplace but
came in the wrong
size), beautiful white
plate and vase from
Luminaire. Right: The
entire home rises
over five levels and
incorporates three
decks. The largest,
shown here, wraps
around the main living
level, which is faced
on three sides with
glass and fitted with
sliding doors.
Summer 2010 | | 79
Nature Nurtured
A former Latvian summer camp in Wisconsin, Camp Wandawega gets reincarnated as a creative playground for Chicago’s art and design set
By Meghan McEwen
Photography by Bob Coscarelli and Greg Gillis
David Hernandez was an infant the first time he slept at Camp Wandawega. Te Latvian summer camp located in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, is also where he learned to swim, climb trees and fish. More than 30 years later, when he took his then fiancée (now wife) Tereasa Surratt back to see the magical setting of so many childhood memories, they left with a parting request to the 80-something-year-old owner/priest: “If you ever decide to sell this place, call us first.” Te call came five years later, and Hernandez and Surratt couldn’t resist. Tey snatched up all 25 acres: the main lodge; a three-story hotel; two cabins; an archery range; basketball and shuffleboard courts; a garage; two piers; horseshoe pits; and all the furniture inside.
Te lure of the place, which sits directly on a quiet 800-foot stretch of Lake Wandawega, is undeniable. Sunshine streams through a canopy of majestic oaks, silver maple and cottonwood trees; winding gravel pathways crisscross through lush hostas and patches of wildflowers; and it’s not uncommon to stumble across a family of blue heron cranes or find eggs on the shore from nesting turtles. Welcome to the scenic backdrop of Camp Wandawega, where nature, culture and art go hand in hand, and big, freewheeling ideas fuel the creative currency that has transformed a former Latvian summer camp into a weekend playground for Chicago’s creative set.
From the first summer Hernandez and Surratt took ownership, Camp Wandawega’s transformation has
FIRST-CLASS CABIN
Art camper Tyler
Petersen walks past
a two-bedroom cedar
cabin from the ’30s
carrying a silkscreened
print. Left: David
Hernandez and Tereasa
Surratt stand on a pier
from the ’40s while their
dog, Frankie, dries off.
80 | | Summer 2010
taken the form of a non-stop work/play party. Both ad execs for Ogilvy, the ambitious pair enlists friends, who in turn enlist their friends, who trade skills and manpower—from building a new floating pier to landscaping a lakeside hill—for enviable weekend stays in the beyond-charming lodge and cottages. “It’s very rustic, like camping indoors. Tink chipmunks running wildly down the halls, ladybugs on your pillow,” says Surratt. But the tall, stunning brunette and author of the new book A Very Modest Cottage (published by Hearst, documenting the rescue and decoration of a one-room cabin she transported from her hometown Beardstown, Il) is far too humble.
Yes, it still has all the trappings of a bona fide, no-frills camp: Tere are shared showers, creaky wooden floors, rickety piers
and plenty of wicker. But make no mistake: Tis is no ordinary backwoods affair.
Camp Wandawega reads like a curated thrift store paradise, where even the bathroom doors are decorated with paint-peeling vintage oars. Te rooms are outfitted with well-worn furniture that came with the place, but Hernandez and Surratt have added another layer to it all with a beguiling mix of flea market and garage sale finds: a stack of leather suitcases in one corner, weather-worn water skis in another; Hudson Bay blankets folded neatly across beds; and vintage radios, alarm clocks, Coleman thermoses, and antique lanterns as finishing touches. Te interiors, put together like a page from Te World of Interiors, play a crucial part of the camp-as-creative-outlet experience—with
Surratt as the consummate set designer, stylist and storyteller.
“Every room is kind of a joke—we call this one ‘Brokeback Mountain room,’ because there are cowboys on the sheets,” says Surratt, who gave the main living area a decidedly hunting-lodge-2.0 spin with taxidermy overload, grommeted vintage leather sofas, and enough plaid to outfit a band of bagpipers. It’s an approach that takes every nook and cranny into account: old photos hanging by wooden clothespins, a cluster of framed paint-by-numbers, a collection of pitchers, an old fencing mask mounted on a plaque she picked up in Argentina.
“It’s hard when you’re cheap. I don’t pay much for anything,” says Surratt, who’s currently working on her second book—this one about collections. “It makes it more interesting when it’s filled with junk. It was never intended to be fancy. It’s disingenuous to do anything else.”
Tere are moments when you wonder if Hernandez and Surratt actually relax. In the two-bedroom cedar cottage, they recently spent a weekend ripping out the ceiling to expose peaked roof beams, whitewashed the entire interior and added French doors—yes, in one weekend. Over one of the beds, the wall is decorated with a simple row of fishing lures they found all over the property, imparting a tangible sense of history and place.
Given Surratt’s affinity for vintage odds and ends, art and the stories behind both, her friendship—and collaboration—with Post 27 owner Angela Finney-Hoffman seems inevitable. After stopping by the beloved West Grand Avenue store (just a few blocks from her city digs) the week after it opened in 2008, Surratt and Finney-Hoffman became fast friends. It wasn’t long before Finney-Hoffman was a Wandawega regular. And it was there, around the communal kitchen island—a massive butcher block-topped vintage metal rolling cart—where Finney-Hoffman had an idea: Art Camp for adults! Te next morning, “we were up before 8AM with clipboards and coffee, plotting activities” for the annual weekend combining nature, communal art projects, and a group of talented artists and designers.
Above: In the two-
bedroom cottage, a
room is decorated with
lanterns found on the
property and a collage
wall of framed pieces,
including a promotional
piece that reads
“Wisconsin’s Finest”
that Surratt scanned and
blew up; a ceramic deer
head; and an ink-drawn
hunting poem. Opposite page: Steven Teichelman
relaxes on a World
War II barrack bed in a
100-year-old Boy Scout
tent that Hernandez and
Surratt bought from an
old camp in Jamesville,
Wisconsin. The Boy
Scout bedding rolls and
manual in each room
were found on eBay.
Summer 2010 | | 83
“We have so many creative friends, from graphic designers to textile artists—it just made sense,” says Finney-Hoffman as she dribbles white paint down a piece of scrap wood with intentional haphazardness. “Tere’s this great energy here,” says Finney-Hoffman. “And we’re all like a family now because of it.”
Te roster of campers who have made appearances reads like a who’s who in the art and design community: the guys from Post Family; surface designer Noel Ashby; furniture designers and woodworkers Tyler Petersen and Shaun Owens-Agase of Stone Blitzer; textile designer Linsey Burritt; designer and design blogger Margot Harrington of pitchdesignunion.com; furniture designers Steven Teichelman, Bladon Conner and Aaron Pahmier. “We’re not making fine art,” says Finney-Hoffman. “Te setting doesn’t lend itself to that. We’re working on craft with reclaimed and found objects. We didn’t want it to offset the environment here. And we wanted it to be organic, because that’s how great art happens.”
Huge pieces of reclaimed wood spread out across a field for a collaborative painting—individual painted works on pressed board and salvaged doors are configured into a giant collective work that will later be
Above, left: A peek
through barkcloth
curtains at the bar in
the card room, which
used to be a parlor for
“working girls” (before
Wandawega became
a Latvian summer
camp). Above, right:
Sam Rosen (front)
and other art campers
work on the collective
field painting. Opposite
page, clockwise from top
left: Margot Harrington
takes a swing break;
Steven Teichelman
works on a birdhouse;
the rehabbed one-
bedroom cabin; art
project sign; flipping
through a vintage book
for inspiration; shelves
of Fiestaware, which
was discovered when
they knocked through
a wall; a boat on Lake
Wandawega; a cigar
box full of materials; an
original life preserver.
exhibited at Post 27, with various components either sold, given back to the artist or donated to a gallery wall at Wandawega. A buzz saw hums in the distance. Up on the hill, some of the furniture guys are working on birdhouses—creations they construct from scraps. “We don’t worry about the quality or variety: It could be from the firewood pile, blowdown trees from our own woods, demolished houses, you name it. So far, the birds haven’t complained,” says Hernandez.
Art buttons are designed with help from Kristen Carter from Busy Beaver, the local company responsible for button vending machines at spots like Nightwood and Empty Bottle. Sam Rosen and Chad Kouri from the Post Family lead a workshop on silkscreening, and the frame-worthy results are hung by clothespins on a piece of twine strung between the trees. Mini collages are an unexpected favorite that have emerged from the activity lineup. “It’s like the art version of scrapbooking,” says Finney-Hoffman. “Tey really geek out over this stuff.” A din of paper shuffling, scissors cutting and tape pulling are the sounds of creative concentration. Tables pushed together and covered with paper, wood scraps, markers, tubs of rubber cement, rolls of twine
84 | | Summer 2010
and X-Acto knives, are an explosion of color, texture and pattern. Everyone brings huge wooden crates and their cigar boxes full of magazine clippings, vintage papers and visual graphics. “Te purpose isn’t to go out and buy a bunch of new materials. It’s about the art and getting people out of the city—getting them off the grid to a setting that’s open creatively,” attests Finney-Hoffman.
Last summer, a collective brainstorming and improv sketching session laid the groundwork for an unbelievably cool tree house that’s currently in the works—a modernist-meets-camp cabin in the sky. And when they aren’t creating, campers have their run of the pleasure grounds, including access to a sports room packed with mostly vintage recreation equipment:
rackets, balls, bows, fishing poles, tackle boxes. Along the hallway hangs a row of adorable plaid vintage life vests—all fully usable—including a tiny faded orange one that belonged to Hernandez as a kid.
At the end of the long days, the group heads up the hill, where a huge farmhouse dinner awaits. Surratt and Hernandez often recruit chef friends to come for the weekend to prepare food for their guests. Another friend, DJ Ed Menacho spins music during dinner and throughout the evening, and then again in the morning, when dreary-eyed campers reconvene for a big communal breakfast. Surratt sashays around with trays of food, perfectly wrapped silverware and towering stacks of color-popping Fiestaware (discovered in the lodge when they knocked down a wall in the breakfast
Above: The wood-
paneled living room
in the lodge is where
guests come to relax
indoors on cushy
upholstered furniture.
At the other end of
the room, a pool table,
dartboard, piano and
a collection of old
instruments keep
everyone playing music
and games. Opposite
page: Art campers eat
a big farmhouse dinner
on the hill and under the
trees at dusk.
86 | | Summer 2010
room), while delegating responsibilities with the charm of a practice-perfect hostess. She points to a kitchen wall covered with brightly colored, patterned vintage aprons on hooks: “Tose aren’t decoration. When we have big, communal breakfasts, everyone has something to do—that’s why I have so many aprons.”
Hernandez, who can be found at any given hour climbing on the roof to fix a leak or scaling trees to work on the electrical, is famous for his giant bonfires—at least 15 feet high—which light up the dark, starry night. And at least once during the weekend, the art campers file into the old wooden pews in the outdoor chapel for a projected movie screening in the woods—either an Eames art film or the finale slideshow of the weekend’s events.
By the time Sunday morning rolls around, old-timers wander in for the weekly outdoor Latvian Catholic service that has continued uninterrupted for more than 50 years. “We have vestments that are 100 years old and hand-painted with gold silk—they’re like artwork. Tey donated it with the property, because they knew we would continue to let the community come for service,” says Surratt, who takes as much pleasure in preserving long-standing traditions at Wandawega as she does creating new ones. “David’s mom showed me old photos of traditional Latvian craft competitions—basket weaving, pottery, cute little old ladies who could crochet like nobody’s business. Te art camp is bringing it back. It feels like part of the tradition.”
“We’re not
making fine art,”
says Finney-
Hoffman. “The
setting doesn’t
lend itself to that.
We’re working
on craft with
reclaimed and
found objects.
We didn’t want
it to offset the
environment
here. And we
wanted it to be
organic, because
that’s how great
art happens.”
Summer 2010 | | 87
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
abouttown
ChiCago “City Style”
houSe tour
The 22nd Annual “City Style”
House Tour gave over 350
guests the opportunity to view
six extraordinary residences
in the Belmont Harbor district.
Chicago’s finest came out to
support Chicago City Day School,
dine on bites from Fortune Fish
Company, Erwin, and N9ne
among others and tour the
amazing interiors of these historic
Lakeview homes.
KitChen Bath &
induStry Show
CS joined Chicago’s finest
kitchen and bath designers and
professionals for the annual
Kitchen and Bath Industry Show.
The premier industry event
showcased product trends and
new design concepts from Brizo,
Kohler, Jenn-Air and many more,
while guests had an opportunity
to mingle with top manufacturers
and attend presentations on
upcoming design innovations.
CaSSona CeleBration
Cassona Home Furnishings &
Accessories welcomed guests
to their Clark Street store to
celebrate Latin-inspired furniture,
jewelry and art. They displayed
everything from functional
and exotic furnishings, to
contemporary hand-made
jewelry and artwork. Guests
dined on authentic Mayan
cuisine prepared by Xni - Pec
De Yucatan.
Luisa Romo, owneR of Kni-Pec de Yucatan RestauRanteLsa munoz, dubhe caRReno, aLma GutieRRez and maRta medina
hafele KitChen &
Bath opening
A stylish crowd came out for
Hafele’s signature event to
browse the latest remodeling
styles from the city’s elite
designers. Talented Chicago
chefs served savory snacks as
guests mingled with the best in
the business and listened to the
lovely Elaine Dame Jazz Quartet.
The Grabill Cabinet Company
and Kessebohmer also showed
their support for Hafele. caRRie Johnson and daRRiLL andeRstonY LambLos, micaeL sRecKou and sonJa mosKLiK
nataLie sPadaccini RosenbeRG, GaLeta KaaR cLaYton
and KRistine KindeR chefs fRom n9ne steaKhouse
dininG Room of a RestoRed 1893 Queen anne done
bY inteRioR desiGneR maRiette himes Gomez
chRistian PoPPeRt and david KohLeR JennY PoLacheK and amY hiLLsmanLenoRa camPos fRom toto
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www.marvinbyestates.com
sLiding dooR CoMPAny
With the Sliding Door Company options seem endless. Choose from a
variety of glass types, finishes and much more. Their vision is a complete
package designed to work with your home, whether you’re seeking a
major interior overhaul or a simple upgrade. 221 W. Ohio St. 312.494.9494
or www.ilslidingdoor.com
FABRIC, LINEN, BEDDING
bEdsidE MAnoR
For 25 years, Bedside Manor Ltd has provided Chicago with a timeless
selection of sophisticated linens and home décor from the best brands in
the industry. They create bedding ensembles that make houses feel like
homes and bath luxuries that titillate the senses. Additional locations in
Hinsdale, Lake Forest and Winnetka. 2056 N. Halsted St 773.404.2020
or www.shopbedside.com
ChiCAgo LuxuRy bEds
Chicago Luxury Beds is a new store concept carrying Hastens Beds,
VI Spring, and Pillow Bar custom pillows. With Hastens Beds and VI
Spring in the same store Chicago Luxury Beds sells the finest beds in the
world and now offers twice the selection of luxury mattresses as before.
440 N. Wells St 312.527.5337 or www.chicagoluxurybeds.com
woRKRooM CouTuRE hoME
This full service interior design showroom features a vast couture-style
selection of drapery, roman shades, wall coverings, duvets and bed
coverings as well as architectural hardware and shutters. Located in
Roscoe Village, their friendly staff and wide selection are available to both
professionals and non professionals. 1906 W. Belmont 773.472.2140 or
www.workroominc.com
FURNITURE
AKbiK gALLERy
AKBIK Gallery prides itself of having unusual antique, new and custom
ordered hand-inlay furniture with mother of pearl. The beauty and the
quality of the pieces they carry are beyond the norm. Their items add
a touch of paradise to your home and interior. 2644 Green Bay Rd.
847.328.7777 or www.akbik.com
ARhAus
Founded in 1986 Arhaus turns your four walls into a full-on inspired
living experience. With a commitment to minimizing their carbon
footprint, they provide a broad range of items for your home, including
furniture for various rooms, bedding, upholstery and home accessories.
773.248.3071 or www.arhaus.com
Located in the heart of Chicago’s Lincoln Park, UrbanEnvironments offers a full design atelier. Our staff has over adecade of experience in consulting and design.
Here’s one place where we don’t discount quality and service.Getting value means more than low price. It means quality,service, and confidence knowing your satisfaction’s guaranteed.Find it all at our Hunter Douglas Gallery™, stop in and see ustoday!
M-F 12-6Sat 12-5
Sunday-by appointment
urbanenvironments.hdwfg.com/sb.cn
MARKETPLACE 113
boConCEPT
This international design firm based in Denmark, produces modern design
for urban-minded shoppers. They also offer customized, coordinated and
affordable options for furniture and home accessories. 1901 N. Clybourn
Ave 773.388.2900 or www.boconcept.us
CAssonA
Cosmopolitan, vibrant and serene, this unique store carries a huge
selection of furniture, home accessories, lighting, rugs and wall art for
every room in the home. Contemporary pieces sourced from all over the
world. 5241 N. Clark St. 773.506.7882 or www.cassona.com
ChAi Ming
Chai Ming Studios affirms the power of understatement. With exquisite
lines, minimalist detailing, and sumptuous materials, the Chai Ming
Studios furniture collection perfectly suits diverse aesthetics—from the
ultra modern to the traditional. 222 Merchandise Mart 312.644.8484 or
www.chaimingstudios.com
dEsign sTudio
Design Studio offers a huge selection of European and domestic
furnishings for the home and office. Characterized by clean lines and
monochromatic color schemes the look is one of purist modernism.
40,000 square feet of showroom space in two locations. Additional
location in Northbrook IL. 225 W. Hubbard St. 312.527.5272 or
www.designstudiofurniture.com
EvAn LEwis
As a sculptor and furniture maker, Evan’s showroom sits next to his
studio, where he and his team create one-of-a-kind work. His handmade
studio furniture is totally unique, and the use of burnished metals give
his pieces a contemporary look. 3368 N. Elston Ave. 773.539.0402 or
www.evanlewisinc.com
fLoREnsE
Committed to producing high-quality products with preservation of
the environment and quality of life in mind. One of the largest furniture
companies in the world, offering products for kitchens, baths, bedrooms,
offices, dining rooms, home theatres and more. 300 W. Ontario St.
312.640.0066 or www.florense.com
gEoRgE sMiTh fuRniTuRE And fAbRiCs
George Smith is the manufacturer and purveyor of handmade furniture,
featuring seating and fabrics of the highest quality in both design
and craftsmanship. Multiple locations across the country, but Chicago
location is open to trade only. 222 Merchandise Mart Plz., Ste. 1879A
312.464.0242 or www.georgesmith.com
hAuTE Living
Owners Jeffery Smith and Tatjana Ozegovic have created a place to
display the exquisite furniture they find from around the world not
readily available in the United States. They’re also the exclusive Chicago
retailer for Fendi Casa, Vladimir Kagan, and Piet Boon. 222 W. Kinzie St.
312.329.9000 or www.haute-living.com
hoLLy hunT
With showrooms across the United States, design entrepreneur Holly
Hunt produces a large collection of furniture, textiles, rugs, lighting and
outdoor furniture. The company designs, manufactures and distributes
classic, modern and transitional furnishings. 222 Merchandise Mart Plz.,
Ste. 1728/1844 312.661.1900 or www.hollyhunt.com
hoME ELEMEnT
With a mix of contemporary chairs, tables, bedroom suites and
accessories, Home Element features pieces from Natuzzi, Calligaris,
Jesse, Bontempi and more. Also featuring custom floral arrangements,
wall art and vases to complement antique and contemporary furniture.
745 N. Wells St. 312.787.3358 or www.homeelementfurniture.com
From Michael Graves to Studio Murmur, designers TJ Thomas and Audra Bielskus are building buzz, one sustainable piece of furniture at a time By Kate Templin | Photography by Maia Harms
TJ � omas and Audra Bielsksus—the duo behind multidisciplinary design fi rm Studio Murmur—don’t believe that innovative design should come with a side of drama. “We’re in a business that is very trend- and fashion-oriented, but people are starting to slow down and reassess the value of the things in their lives today,” says Detroit native � omas, 44. “We’re trying to drill into that and fi nd what it is about certain objects that brings joy. So often, it’s in the simplicity of the design.”
Used to working on projects like a functional soap pump with sponge holder for Target, the former Michael Graves Design Group designers decided to open their own studio last year in order to hone their contemporary-meets-practical aesthetic: functional minimalism across furniture, lighting, kitchen and industrial design. “Our passion is for those everyday things that can bring unexpected pleasure,” � omas says.
� eir fi rst big project, which debuted at ICFF this spring and was picked up by Room & Board, is a study in utility-chic. � e No. 9 outdoor furniture collection
STUDIO MURMUR’S HOTS
Julius Meinl, bicycles, � e Stooges, Bi Bim Bop, farmers markets, Patricia Urquiola, origami, linoleum prints, Ravenswood corridor
for Loll Designs is a stylish, modern take on plastic, yes, but it’s also made from recycled milk jugs and shipped fl at. “It’s made from a new generation of high-density polyethylene that holds color really well and lasts for years and years,” � omas says. “You think of plastic furniture and it doesn’t sound so hot,” adds Bielskus, 26. “But the philosophy behind the collection is that it looks so
good that you’re probably going to want to bring it indoors. We’re not creating plastic products you throw away after a year; you’ll want to pass these pieces down.”
While recycled milk jugs sound the epitome of eco-consciousness, Bielskus and � omas are quick to point out that their sensibility is more global than green. “We don’t want to market ourselves as eco-designers... that’s just the way we roll,” relates Bielskus, who says they recently partnered with Sielaff on a line of tables made from bent metal and glass, and are also working with a West Coast architectural lighting company. “� at’s the way the industry is going to roll,” adds � omas. “It won’t even be called ‘green’ anymore.”
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