Architects and Artisans

Thomas Jefferson’s affinity for landscape design can be experienced today at Poplar Forest, where an observant pilgrim can see and feel how he molded land and plantings to his advantage during the early 19th century.  The home takes its name from the view out its north portico.  There, Jefferson allowed a stand of thirteen poplars to grow.  Five of [...]

Unfinished during his lifetime and not yet fully restored, the rural villa Thomas Jefferson called Poplar Forest still may be his most perfect architectural work – an idealistic symbol of the balance he sought between man and the natural order. It took a mere fourteen years to complete (compared to Monticello’s forty), and its condition [...]

When the late-19th-century trains of progress began chugging up the slopes of the western North Carolina mountains onto the Asheville plateau, word soon spread that this little mountain village was a latter-day Garden of Eden. Its moderate summers appealed to tourists from the South and its short winters were a balm to their counterparts up [...]

When he closes his eyes, North Carolina artist Steve Staresina says he sees images. So he began to paint with acrylics on canvas, back in the early ‘90s. Later, he branched out into working on walls. That led to jobs as an artisan plasterer for architects and interior designers. He took a trip to France, [...]

Richard Weston is a one-person cottage industry. He’s trained in architecture and landscape design. He uses the latest digital imaging technologies to make rugs, frocks and coffee tables. His newest design is being woven now into a scarf in Italy for Liberty of London. He builds. He teaches. And he writes. His first book was [...]

When invited to pull together a jury for the 2010 Inform Awards, Tulane Professor of Architecture Judith Kinnard turned for help to a pair of prominent New Orleans designers, Steve Dumez, FAIA, of Eskew+Dumez + Ripple and Wayne Troyer, AIA, of Wayne Troyer Architects. The trio of judges gathered in the warehouse district of New [...]

Micah Condon’s web site, www.dailypainters.com, has no shortage of aspiring artists waiting to post their work in his galleries. In fact, he’s basically got an embarassment of riches. “We’ve always had a big waiting list,” he said. “So this time, we decided to hold a competition to see who the next artist to join us [...]

Today The Martin Agency is 500 people strong and rapidly on its way to 600. It‘s a magnet for talent and for likeable people. Much of that can be laid at Mike Hughes’ feet, since he may be the most well liked person in Richmond, if not the entire advertising industry. “I’m sure there are [...]

If he were a patient man, Mike Hughes might have turned to architecture for a career. Instead, he helped fast-track a small Southern ad agency into a top-tier, nationally-known communications firm. He’s president of The Martin Agency, named 2010 “Agency of the Year” by ADWEEK.  That magazine called him one of the industry’s nine best creative [...]

Pritzker Prize laureate Zaha Hadid’s spectacular National Museum of XXI Century Arts, featuring the first national museum of architecture in Italy, will open May 30 in Rome. The Iraqi-born architect that New York Times critic Nicolai Ouroussoff called a modern-day Bernini won the competition for the project – out of 273 entries – in 1998. [...]