Architectural Digest

architectural digest

EDITOR IN CHIEF Amy Astley CREATIVE DIRECTOR David Sebbah EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Keith Pollock EDITORIAL OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Diane Dragan EXECUTIVE EDITOR Shax Riegler FEATURES DIRECTOR Sam Cochran INTERIORS & GARDEN DIRECTOR Alison Levasseur STYLE DIRECTOR Jane Keltner de Valle DECORATIVE ARTS EDITOR Mitchell Owens WEST COAST EDITOR Mayer Rus FEATURES SENIOR DESIGN EDITOR Hannah Martin DEPUTY DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Kristen Flanagan SPECIAL PROJECTS DIRECTOR, DIGITAL Sydney Wasserman ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR Dana Mathews EXECUTIVE FEATURES EDITOR David Foxley CLEVER EDITOR Nora Taylor FEATURES EDITOR, DIGITAL Nick Mafi ASSOCIATE ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Rachel Wallace ASSOCIATE CLEVER EDITOR Zoë Sessums ASSISTANT EDITORS Elizabeth Fazzare, Katherine McGrath (Digital), Carly Olson ASSISTANT TO THE EDITOR IN CHIEF Gabriela Ulloa MARKET MARKET EDITOR Madeline O’Malley AD PRO EDITOR Katherine Burns Olson DEPUTY EDITOR Allie Weiss SENIOR STYLE & MARKET EDITOR Benjamin Reynaert FEATURES EDITOR Anna Fixsen NEWS EDITOR Madeleine Luckel REGIONAL NEWS EDITOR Tim Latterner ASSOCIATE VISUALS EDITOR Gabrielle Pilotti Langdon ASSOCIATE EDITOR Mel Studach PRODUCTION EDITORIAL OPERATIONS…

editor’s letter

“Architecture materializes culture, but to impact culture it has to represent and argue for a broad cohort of communities. Diversity is key.”—Mónica Ponce de León, Dean, Princeton School of Architecture This is the Star Power issue, and it was our own star editor Sam Cochran who informed me that the deans of the architecture schools at an astonishing five Ivy League universities, among other top programs, are now female. Certainly this is a significant triumph and major step forward in a traditionally male-dominated field, and I find the words of these five intellects (all luminaries, but mercifully not a “starchitect” in the lot) enormously inspiring, refreshing, and compelling. “Our mandate is to identify questions that are relevant and urgent, questions like ethics, climate change, and housing,” says Harvard’s Sarah Whiting. “There…

board games

It was 1982 in the remote desert town of Marfa, Texas, and Rainer and Flavin Judd, daughter and son of artist Donald Judd, had just moved into rooms of their own. Don, as they call him, made each of them a desk, but as Flavin explains, “Once you have a desk, you need a chair—a place to sit and do your homework.” In no time, their father sketched one (actually, there were 10 variations) and took the plans to a carpenter to have seats hewn in pine from a lumberyard. The design couldn’t have been simpler, made entirely from flat pine boards. But in that cubic volume beneath the seat, the artist experimented: In one version he placed a shelf, in another a slanting board; another was solid on the front…

coming into bloom

Step off the elevator into Niki Bergen and Andrew Zuckerman’s Manhattan apartment, and you’re instantly blitzed with images from nature—nature like you’ve never seen it before. At the far end of the hall, a nine-foot-tall grizzly bear rises up on its hind legs, locking eyes with you. Nearby, a ghostly snowy owl spreads its wings, frozen in mid-flight. Then there’s the expanse of floral wallpaper, arrayed with fanciful cannonball and Pride of Burma blooms. This wild kingdom makes quite a first impression, and it continues throughout the 3,300-square-foot loft that the couple share with their three children in Chelsea. Everything is a thoughtful expression of personal and professional passions, explains Zuckerman, a photographer and filmmaker whose work explores the intersections of nature, culture, and technology. Captured in ultra–high resolution, against stark…

trueing

“You true a wheel to make sure it’s perfectly round,” says Josh Metersky, explaining the engineering term that he and his boyfriend, Aiden Bowman, chose when naming their design firm. Bowman finishes the thought: “It’s making something into its intended shape.” The moniker is fitting considering their slick, highly edited output. Metersky, a mechanical engineer who cut his teeth working for New York lighting designers Ladies & Gentlemen Studio and Bec Brittain, and Bowman, an alum of AD100 firms BIG–Bjarke Ingels Group and wHY Architecture, founded Trueing more than three years ago when they entered a glass-and-brass table lamp into a design competition. Their piece didn’t win, but when images appeared online, sales inquiries started rolling in. Since then, the duo has designed hooks made from leftover dichroic glass, with…

tailor made

Shoppers, rejoice! The North Carolina–based furniture company Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams has partnered with the U.S. textile giant Kravet to offer some 340 additional upholstery choices, more than half of them treated with a stain-retardant finish. “Personalization is really important to our brand,” says Williams, keen to offer customers “more opportunities to express themselves at home.” From luxurious velvets to graphic jacquards, fresh looks for your new sofa, chair, or bed can be delivered in 10 to 12 weeks. mgbwhome.com…