Architectural Digest January 2021

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“Jean-Michel Frank was the apostle of minimalism. He was an authority who broke many barriers, changed the aesthetic, and still inspires many 80 years on—including me.”—Pierre Yovanovitch Meriting a spot on the annual AD100 list is an intensely desired honor among architects, interior designers, and landscape designers. I contend that whether a professional lands on it once in their career or several times, it is like being an Oscar winner: Once AD100, always AD100. No one can—or should!—win every year. The editors of AD worked more purposefully than ever on our 2021 list. We keenly felt that this year’s list should reflect the depth and diversity of talent in the U.S. and internationally. I hope that readers will find it inspiring and full of the sense of promise and discovery that…

France’s leading steel manufacturer, Ugine-Gueugnon, wanted to up the glam factor on stainless steel back in 1968. At its invitation, the Paris designer Maria Pergay—already known for her exquisite way with silver—considered transmuting some of her signature objects and accessories into Uginox, the company’s brand of the industrial material. But then she had a better idea: How about furniture? Unveiled at Galerie Maison et Jardin amid the heated political riots known as May 68, the line included the Wave desk, Flying Carpet daybed, and Ring chair. The presentation was a hit, reports gallerist Suzanne Demisch, who represents Pergay’s work at Demisch Danant in Manhattan: “Pierre Cardin bought everything.” “It is the fruit, if you will, of my first artistic success,” Pergay, now 90, told AD in 2018 of the chair, which…

Stepping inside Giancarlo Valle’s Manhattan studio, one can feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland. A quick look around the Chinatown loft reveals a spellbinding cache of tiny furniture and homes—models for the AD100 designer’s impressive slate of current work. A maquette for a West Village town-house renovation shows an exquisite bathroom wrapped in end-grain oakwood. A rustic structure captures the country-home concept he is hatching with Green River Project. And a cylindrical model hints at the daring powder room he’s creating for a ground-up Craftsman-style cottage in Carmel, California, his most significant commission to date. “We carve out all the windows, all the human-scale elements, all the furniture,” explains Valle, noting that the architecture program at Princeton, where he got his master’s, emphasized model making. “When you see everything in…

Alot of what I do is a leap of faith,” says Alison Berger, a celebrated Los Angeles–based artist known for manipulating glass into one-of-kind lighting, furnishings, and other spellbinding objects. “I feel called to bring beauty. That is the baseline of my work. But the narrative takes a piece where it wants to go.” Where she has gone, most recently, is uncharted creative territory. Berger is now debuting a series of collections for RH—arguably her most ambitious project to date and a radical departure from her atelier practice. “I had never seriously thought about not making something in my own studio,” recalls Berger, who has created bespoke pieces for the home-furnishings company Holly Hunt for more than 20 years. In 2017, however, a chance encounter with RH chairman and CEO Gary…