Author: Eva Hagberg

The quest for the ideal getaway on Long Island sound has a very happy ending.
Architects & Builders, Tastemakers

Architect Douglas McDonald constructs "The Pure House" in Westport with the ambition to expand existing sensitivities to issues like pesticides and pollution that have become central to the current food movement to the home.

Country, Home Tours, Home Tours Connecticut, Rustic

Aimee Carpenter, a former graphic designer for Martha Stewart and current craftsman and photographer, brought not only her desires for a rural retreat to the architectural table, but also what Wagner calls her “incredibly imaginative” creative spirit.

Aimee Carpenter, a former graphic designer for Martha Stewart and current craftsman and photographer, brought not only her desires for a rural retreat to the architectural table, but also what Wagner calls her “incredibly imaginative” creative spirit.

Architect Roger Ferris is uncommonly poetic on the subject of renovation, a topic not known for its inherent lyricism. “It’s almost like adding another chapter to a novel that’s already been written,” Ferris says, speaking both of the process of adaptive renovation generally, and his Weston Tudor-house-turned-hybrid-modernist-residence specifically.

Contemporary, Home Tours, Home Tours Connecticut

Architect Roger Ferris is uncommonly poetic on the subject of renovation, a topic not known for its inherent lyricism. “It’s almost like adding another chapter to a novel that’s already been written,” Ferris says, speaking both of the process of adaptive renovation generally, and his Weston Tudor-house-turned-hybrid-modernist-residence specifically.
Artists & Collectors, Tastemakers

In 2010, Capital Eyewear founder Steven Kilzer turned his eye from filming documentaries to designing sunglasses. Made from American hardwoods and old-school Italian acetate, then fitted with top-of-the-line Carl Zeiss lenses—Kilzer learned about the best from his years behind a camera—each Capital frame is handcrafted in the designer’s SoMa workshop. Featuring more than 25 men’s and women’s shades, as well as limited-edition frames, the line is now carried throughout the Bay Area (stockists include the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) as well as in Paris and Tokyo.
Home Tours, Home Tours California, Modern

Architect Daniel Piechota of San Francisco–based Sagan Piechota Architecture faced exactly that challenge when commissioned to design a Monterey Bay house for a couple who met 29 years ago and knew, from their very first conversation, that one day they would have a house on the beach. “We’d been looking for a property for forever, truly forever, and for some reason nothing ever clicked,” one of the clients says. “And then this little cul-de-sac popped up.”
Contemporary, Home Tours, Home Tours Connecticut, Rustic

Enter, stage left, a barn; now a two-bedroom, one-sleeping-loft guesthouse with sweeping views overlooking the lake and a striking amount of open space. “They wanted a place where guests would feel comfortable, and not like they had to perform,” Bartle says. “And they wanted to do it economically and in such a way that they could take advantage of the view of the lake.” Because the couple didn’t have a specific look in mind, Bartle and his design partner Ken Lake started from the social and moved toward the aesthetic, keeping in mind both the spoken and unspoken requirements.
Architects & Builders, Tastemakers

Right after the turn of this century, the architecture firm Lot-Ek published a monograph called “Urbanscan” and gave a series of lectures. A highlight of one of them (I was there and can still remember this) was its exploration of the uses of a shipping container—as museum, as restaurant, as home.

An unexpected Modern treasure is equal parts shoreline boat and inland hand-hewn.

A waterfront contemporary in Norwalk is transformed from modernist bachelor pad into a roomy family home.