I had recently filled out a questionnaire where-in I listed Aerospace Engineering at The University of Alabama as my choice of school and curriculum. My guidance counselor, Mrs. Gibbs, offered another option, that I attend Auburn University and study Architecture. It was literally the first time I had ever heard of Architecture as something one might major in.
I went to the local library and asked to see books on Architecture. I was shown two books, one on Thomas Jefferson and the other on Frank Lloyd Wright. I checked them both out and began what is now 50 plus years in pursuit of, as Mr. Wright put it, "The Mother Art".
Auburn provided an excellent and challenging curriculum which prepared me well for the world of Architectural practice, or at least apprenticeship, for it was on a third year field trip near Auburn that I experienced that moment where it all came into careful resolution, Paul Rudolph's Tuskegee Chapel.I was transformed into a world of space, texture, and light that previously had only been abstract concepts.
I went to the local library and asked to see books on Architecture. I was shown two books, one on Thomas Jefferson and the other on Frank Lloyd Wright. I checked them both out and began what is now 50 plus years in pursuit of, as Mr. Wright put it, "The Mother Art".
Auburn provided an excellent and challenging curriculum which prepared me well for the world of Architectural practice, or at least apprenticeship, for it was on a third year field trip near Auburn that I experienced that moment where it all came into careful resolution, Paul Rudolph's Tuskegee Chapel.I was transformed into a world of space, texture, and light that previously had only been abstract concepts.
Services
In 1987, clients for whom I previously worked returned from 5 years in Paris with a veritable treasure trove of fine furnishings, pictures, and objects of high provenance, including Lalique light fixtures and dining chairs from The Normandie.
They purchased a 2000 square foot Penthouse overlooking The Hudson River with a wrap around terrace and views of the Washington Bridge, and asked that I reconfigure the interior to accommodate their return to New York.
Having moved from Manhattan to Bridgehampton 3 years earlier, this was my first attempt at designing a New York space from afar, and while challenging, proved to be a rewarding exercise in melding classic furnishings and art into a "clean uncluttered foil", as it was described by Eddie Lee Cohen in Interior Design.
They purchased a 2000 square foot Penthouse overlooking The Hudson River with a wrap around terrace and views of the Washington Bridge, and asked that I reconfigure the interior to accommodate their return to New York.
Having moved from Manhattan to Bridgehampton 3 years earlier, this was my first attempt at designing a New York space from afar, and while challenging, proved to be a rewarding exercise in melding classic furnishings and art into a "clean uncluttered foil", as it was described by Eddie Lee Cohen in Interior Design.
In 1997, at the end of my second decade of Architectural practice, my client Gordon Cooke was tapped to head a company holding the licenses of a number of high end women's fashion catalogs, J.Jill among them.
Having seen the results of my work for Fanny Farmer in Boston, Gordon asked for my participation in designing a corporate image for the company in keeping with his vision.
Thus began an association with J.Jill spanning 11 years.
My first assignment was to design a new Fulfillment Center on a sprawling 120 acre environmentally significant site in Tilton, New Hampshire.
Having seen the results of my work for Fanny Farmer in Boston, Gordon asked for my participation in designing a corporate image for the company in keeping with his vision.
Thus began an association with J.Jill spanning 11 years.
My first assignment was to design a new Fulfillment Center on a sprawling 120 acre environmentally significant site in Tilton, New Hampshire.
In April of 2015 my longtime client and close friend Sandra Stetson Schifter Martinuzzi, donated a building to her Great Grandfather's namesake university, Stetson University in Deland, Florida and named me as the project's architect.
The building was to house the University's Rowing Teams and given its location on Lake Beresford would also include an Institute for Water Resiliency at Stetson.
The 10 acre site would also include a native Botanical Garden based on the model defined by William Bartram, a naturalist in the 1770s who visited the area and chronicled the native flora.
The building was to house the University's Rowing Teams and given its location on Lake Beresford would also include an Institute for Water Resiliency at Stetson.
The 10 acre site would also include a native Botanical Garden based on the model defined by William Bartram, a naturalist in the 1770s who visited the area and chronicled the native flora.
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