October, 2024 | By: Danielle Devine | Photography courtesy of the Strong National Museum of Play
If there’s a doll that embodies the 1980s, it’s the Cabbage Patch Kid. The first iteration of the famous dimpled dolls was conceived in the ‘70s by an American folk artist from Kentucky named Martha Nelson Thomas. Thomas, who graduated from art school in Louisville, began making 16-inch-tall soft sculpture dolls with hand-stitched facial features and yarn for hair. She considered them expressions of herself and called them her Doll Babies. Each baby came with its own packet, which included adoption papers, a letter from Martha, and a list of the baby’s likes and dislikes. Xavier Roberts purchased the dolls from Thomas to offer at his gift store in Georgia and sold them for a huge profit. Thomas was uncomfortable with the high price of the dolls and spoke to Roberts about lowering it.
In response to Thomas’s concerns, Roberts began to make the successful cloth dolls himself, cutting out Thomas. He called his dolls Little People, but they looked exactly like Thomas’s dolls, with adoption papers and all. Roberts soon met with Roger Schlaifer, an Atlanta designer and licensing agent, and changed the name to Cabbage Patch Kids to avoid confusion with FisherPrice’s Little People toy line. Schlaifler then brokered a deal with the toy company Coleco Industries, designed the Cabbage Patch Kids logo, and, along with his wife, Susanne Nance, created the magical origin story of the Cabbage Patch Kids, which was printed on each doll’s box.
It’s fitting that it was another woman who altered the design to create the Cabbage Patch Kid we know today. Judith F. Albert was a designer at Coleco Industries in the 1980s who created a vinyl recast (with a signature sweet smell) of the formerly cloth doll head. Albert also designed a computerized program to ensure that each doll was unique, with varied eye colors, facial features, and clothes.
In 1983, the new Cabbage Patch Kids were introduced to great fanfare at the International Toy Fair in New York City, and soon, they were coveted by every child in the U.S. That holiday season, there were riots in stores across the country because there were not enough dolls to meet consumer demand. In 1985, Cabbage Patch Kids sales totaled $600 million. Schlaifer estimates that the final tally of five years of sales was around $4 billion.
Thomas, the original creator, did file a lawsuit in 1979 that was settled out of court in 1985 for an undisclosed sum. Thomas reported that the settlement was enough to allow her kids to attend college. Maybe for our next lesson we’ll talk about when karma came for the Cabbage Patch Kids empire, when the baseball card company Topps ripped them off to imagine their far less cuddly Garbage Pail Kids.
October, 2024 | By: Becca Abramson | Photography: Ben Hoffmann
Designers Rodman Primack and Rudy Weissenberg, cofounders of Mexico City–based AGO Projects, live the nomadic lifestyles of celebrated creatives, bouncing from New York City to Guatemala to London to work on new projects and attend to their thriving business. In the new book Love How You Live (Monacelli, 2024), the pair open the doors to six homes they’ve designed for themselves across the globe, along with seven residences they’ve curated for others.
Despite running a successful design firm and art gallery based in Mexico City and New York, Primack claims he has no special authority to dictate what’s beautiful; rather, he aims to lead others to their own language for living with the following instructions: “Nurture what you love and share that with others. Seek out the beauty in authenticity and minimize your investment in trying to emulate the supposed ‘good taste’ of others. Embrace flexibility and chance, the unresolved and unexpected. These principles work in decorating,” he writes, “because they work in life.”
When outfitting the interior of this sprawling U-shaped home for themselves in Guatemala City, Primack and Weissenberg made the most of the “traditional local know-how” that they believe is too often overlooked in locations rich with culture and craft. To avoid importing wherever possible, the couple sourced wool textiles from looms in the Mayan highlands; used wood from family sawmills; employed a local metalsmith to make window casings, benches, and shelving; and commissioned artist and architect Dario Escobar to design tiles to decorate the home. Hand-me-down furniture and kitchenware from Weissenberg’s grandmother are found throughout the space, often paired with Guatemalan crafts from local artisans. As writer Ana Karina Zatarain notes in the book’s foreword, Primack and Weissenberg’s homes “reflect an intense fondness for objects, with every room densely populated by art, furniture, textiles, ceramics, glassware, patterned wallpaper, variegated tiles, and countless curios coexisting in eclectic juxtaposition.” Follow the couple’s lead and learn to love how you live with these nine finds.
VEJIGANTE MASK Art by Mercedes // etsy.com/shop/artbymrcds MAUVIEL COPPER TRIPLY 7-PIECE COOKWARE SET Williams Sonoma // williams-sonoma.com THAMES PENDANT LIGHT Den Studio // denstudioshop.com MERCER LARGE CANISTER Crate & Barrel // crateandbarrel.com 19th CENTURY SPANISHCONSOLE TABLE Pamono by Chairish // pamono.com POMELO 4×4 TILE Zia Tile // ziatile.com DESIGNER SERIES WALL MOUNT RANGE HOOD ZLine Kitchen & Bath // zlinekitchen.com ABODE COUNTER STOOL WITH STEEL SEAT IN REDIndustry West // industrywest.com NO. 898 MOROCCAN RUG Kantara // kantararugs.com
October, 2024 | Photography: Andy Gagne | As told to Becca Abramson
“Saddleback was looking to expand dining options on the mountain, and our inspiration was a picnic table in the woods where the ski instructors used to hang out. It was their secret spot with a hidden aspect to it, which is how the building came to have a humble, rustic look. We looked at old Swedish ski buildings and the technique of coating locally sourced wood siding with a natural pine tar finish. The black exterior in the snowy landscape is then contrasted by the warm colorful interior of the building. When you approach the structure, it appears small, and you enter through thick doors that make the portal more intimate. Inside, it opens to a large dining space with a panoramic view. There’s an industrial aesthetic with the nest of exposed steel overhead which is offset by the use of a cozy color palette.
“The structure is three-sided, with one side featuring floor-to-ceiling glass toward the big view. Bird safety was something we were talking about from the beginning because of the building’s location in the middle of the rare Bicknell’s thrush’s habitat. Working closely with Maine Audobon throughout the project, we designed a simple and low-cost screen to be installed in front of the windows that can be put up in the spring and taken down in the winter when the birds have left the area. The removable screens allow for adaptability and testing but also provide an opportunity to educate visitors about bird safety. Plus, we thought it could be fun to make it an annual spring ritual when the bird screens are added.
“The top of the building features a living green roof with hay-scented ferns and low-bush blueberries; the idea is to recreate the natural alpine meadow above the building, as if the ground had been lifted up for the building to be tucked into. Instead of a poured concrete foundation, the entire structure is built on posts that minimize disruption of the watershed.
“It’s nice to hear that people are surprised when they walk into the building. The vision was a collaboration, and we tried to create something that feels truly different— something you can’t find at any other ski mountain in New England and beyond.”
“Landscape architects play a vital role in driving innovative and sustainable design solutions to the problems posed by the climate crisis.”
MH+D ASKS CUNNINGHAM TO TELL US MORE.
Q. Many of your gardens integrate native plants. What long-term benefits will we see if more people use native plantings?
A. There are many incredible benefits to working with plants that are “of a place,” particularly since many native plants have coevolved for millennia with fluctuating weather patterns specific to our region. A robust palette of natives is inherently more adaptive to seasonal drought and deluge cycles, and because of these unique adaptations, they typically require less maintenance than more conventional ornamental plantings. Native and indigenous plant communities provide habitat along with other essential ecosystem support, which nourishes food webs and increases biodiversity. They enhance air quality, sequester carbon, reduce the heat-island effect, and define critically important site-specific ecologies on the land. In short, native plants are directly tethered to context. Because of this, they possess dazzling multi-seasonal characteristics that connect people to the natural rhythms of the places we live.
Q. How will climate adaptation play a role in your work as your firm continues to create resilient landscapes that rise to the challenges posed by the climate crisis in New England?
A. I firmly believe landscape architects play a vital role in driving innovative and sustainable design solutions to the problems posed by the climate crisis—not just here in New England but worldwide. There are generalists and specialists in all fields. I’m proud to lead a firm devoted to creating domestic landscapes that embrace context, support site-specific ecologies, and enhance our patrons’ lifestyles.
In 2022 I founded MCLD Land Lab, a curated research farm in a repurposed equestrian facility in Arundel. We study residential ecologies by examining the interactions among living things and their environments. As we evolve this endeavor, we will explore how the influence of time, seasonality, and land stewardship impacts design thinking, craftsmanship, and management strategies in response to the climate crisis. Through experiments and observations with vegetation communities, we investigate vital connections among human, plant, and animal communities, emphasizing the importance of maintaining environmental health throughout placemaking.
As an educator, practitioner, and leader in our profession, I believe mentoring the next generation of designers is one of the most significant contributions I can make to landscape architecture. I have never believed more in the power of our field to advance the fight against climate change than I do now, and we must do all we can to attract students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures so that they can learn how to return to the places they’re from and help their communities. Everything is riding on this. We have so many opportunities to use the medium of landscape architecture to positively shape the places we live.
Photos: Matthew Cunningham
Q. What are some health benefits you have witnessed over the years from investing in good landscape design?
A. Anchoring day-to-day human experiences within the natural systems surrounding us can only enhance our connections to the land, which will establish positive land stewardship ethics within our neighborhoods. A thoughtfully designed landscape will encourage people to be engaged in the outdoors, and the pandemic only reinforced this. As our landscapes grow and evolve, we’ve watched our clients forge incredibly meaningful connections to their land that help reduce stress and encourage passive and active recreational experiences for their families and friends. I believe the cumulative impacts of good landscape design will make indoor–outdoor connections visible. If we can work together, one yard at a time, we can establish resilient landscapes that will thrive for generations.
MH+D is proud to partner with acclaimed architectural photographer Trent bell on his architecture, design, and photography podcast. To hear Bell’s conversation with Cunningham, please visit adppodcast.com.
There’s a layer cake—in the form of a book, of course!—at the entrance to Anniversary: 10 Years of the Charles Altschul Book Arts Studio, the wildly imaginative group exhibition at the Haas Gallery in Rockport. Cake is a limited-edition book created by the artist and writer Cig Harvey with designer Anneli Skaar and letterpress artist Art Larson. It was published by Two Ponds Press (Liv Rockefeller and Ken Shure), who ultimately handed off the printed text block to four generations of bookbinders to assemble Harvey’s baker’s dozen of photographs, drawings, and text in their own ways, bound and unbound.
The tradition of the anniversary gift made from a distinct material with symbolic content dates back at least to the Victorian era, according to myriad wedding websites. The first anniversary gift is paper, for the opening chapter, followed the next year by cotton for the fibrous “intertwining of lives.” Through each subsequent year, embodied in a material like leather, fruit/flowers, wood, iron, wool/copper, clay, willow, or tin, there’s an expression of comfort, allure, durability, vitality, and resilience—qualities that contribute to a lasting relationship.
For Anniversary, Richard Reitz Smith, artist and studio manager of Maine Media Workshop Book Arts, has invited 36 current and former studio faculty to take inspiration from anniversary gifts “with plenty of room to stretch meaning and loosely, often playfully, respond to the theme.” Among the invited exhibitors are many nationally known book artists, as well as celebrated photographers who, like Barbara Bosworth, materially reference book arts and artists from Maine and away who celebrate the book as a form for narrative and sculptural invention.
A decade-long relationship with a shared interest in enduring and thriving is by nature collaborative, and so is almost every piece in this visual feast—from the renowned book artist and studio founder Charles Altschul’s monumental folio The Lost Ones by Samuel Beckett, created in the 1980s by Altschul with engravings by Charles S. Klabunde and signed by Samuel Beckett; to Erin Fletcher’s gorgeous embroidered, sequined, and hand-bound letterpress edition of Rebecca Chamlee’s At Low Water: An Intertidal Memoir; to the work of “godmother of book arts in Maine” Rebecca Goodale, whose letterpress accordion-style book Shagbark Sestina illustrates a poem by Lisa Hibl with hand-painted drypoint prints. Other works in Anniversary take on more traditional book art forms as points of departure for sculptural explorations. Rachel E. Church’s soft sculptural clementines printed from inked clementines (really!) seem to roll out of their book box as a dimensional still life. Erin Sweeney’s collection of steel wire forms, handmade books, and soft sculpture arrived at the gallery for Reitz Smith to assemble using his own storyteller’s sensibility. Sweeney, in delightful collaboration with Reitz Smith, presents The Divine Lorraine—Inside My Head (translated by Richard) as a wall installation resembling a puppet theater with dynamic shadow play.
In Anniversary books are containers for stories, or portals to worlds the artists help us to imagine, or forms that, when opened book-like, as are Sal Taylor Kydd’s mixed-media tin box photographs, might reveal something otherwise thought to be lost. All the works in the exhibition exude a reverence for, or even giddy delight in, books. Suzanne Glémot, a librarian and book conservator, presents Confetti Library, a book box enclosing hand-dyed paper confetti sorted by color into glass vessels. Jan Owen’s astounding scrollwork on layers of translucent cloth begins with her words, “Do you know how beautiful words are…” and encompasses chosen writings by beloved writers of poetry and prose.
As a 15-year Maine Media Workshops veteran, the Book Arts program chair since 2018, and Anniversary’s curator and collaborator, Richard Reitz Smith brings his own story to the piece he presents, which is appropriate for the tenth anniversary gift of tin. His mixed-media piece Tarnished—a story of aging together told in found objects and poetry—speaks as much to a personal storytelling style that lends itself wonderfully to book arts as it does to his love for material forms that can contain emotion and for collecting and caring for beautiful things.
Anniversary: 10 Years of the Charles Altschul Book Arts Studio will be on view at the Haas Gallery at Maine Media Workshops in Rockport through December 2024.
The densely wooded inland lot is untouched, offering a blank canvas for master planning. The site’s design includes two axes that maximize solar gain and assist in the distribution of spaces. To balance scale, the program is organized into smaller, single-story structures connected by fully glazed corridors with green roofs that help settle the volumes into the landscape. The resulting L-shaped layout creates a natural southern-facing courtyard, fostering interior–exterior engagement.
Exterior priorities included a greenhouse (intended as a gathering space with a woodstove), the use of natural stone, rainwater collection systems, green roofs, and photovoltaic panels. Stone walls, wildflower meadows, and tree glades serve as architectural edges. These features not only enhance the site’s natural beauty but also create functional, organic boundaries and contribute to the overall harmony between the residence and its surroundings.
Location: Yarmouth Architect: Mobile Studio Design Project Team: Randy Smith & Jessica Jolin Landscape Architect: David Maynes Studio Construction Start: Spring 2025 Construction Complete: TBD
Maine’s architectural landscape is as diverse as its natural beauty, blending coastal charm with modern innovation. From sustainable homes nestled in the wilderness to cutting-edge public spaces redefining urban design, the state’s newest structures showcase a unique fusion of tradition and forward-thinking creativity. In our annual architecture listing, we highlight some of the most inspiring projects that are shaping Maine’s built environment today.
RESIDENTIAL
Saco River Residence
The client requested a modern, energy-efficient home with a strong connection to the sloping site. From the street, the home appears small and modest for its location, with a glass entry creating a clear focal point within an otherwise private exterior. Upon entry, the house opens to a connected kitchen, dining, and living room designed for entertaining, with expansive views of the fields below and the Saco River beyond.
The main level was designed for aging in place with a primary bedroom suite, main living spaces, and an office, mudroom, and laundry room. The three main volumes (living room, dining room, and primary bedroom) step from southwest to northwest in plan and section, defining separation of space and providing increased views up and down the river with natural daylight. The lower level includes two additional bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a theater/family room that opens to a covered patio and firepit area.
Aesthetics and comfort were equally important considerations for the home. A high-performance building envelope with double stud walls, smart tapes and membranes, and triple-glazed windows minimizes heating demand. At the same time, electric heat pumps and mechanical ventilation were selected for efficiency.
Architect: BRIBURN Builder: Big Country Built Mechanical Engineer: BuildingWorks Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Photographer: François Gagné Location: Saco Completed: 2024
House at Town’s Edge
Built on an existing foundation, this house bridges two site conditions. The center of town is a five-minute walk from the front door; stroll out the back door, however, and you’re in the Maine woods. A rift of granite blocks defines the exterior spaces, which include parking, entry, and a back patio. The stone silhouette continues through the house, where the blocks demarcate a woodstove alcove at the end of the living space. The landscaping and interior details are drawn from the owners’ love of Maine’s granite quarries.
Two gabled forms emerge from a lower flat-roofed structure. The first contains a central cathedral space composed of living, dining, and cooking areas. High clerestory windows draw light in above the lower roof plane. The second gabled volume defines a woodworking shop, while a studio featuring large-scale windows that capture north-facing light is ideal for creating art. Black metal trusses, concrete floors, roasted oak accents, and a patinated metal entry door nod to an industrial aesthetic that harkens back to the urban loft the owners inhabited before moving to Maine.
The black-stained exterior of the house and the dark metal roof allow the building to recede into its wooded backdrop. A natural landscape of ferns, grasses, and native shrubs ties the house to its woodland setting, while the gable massing speaks to the scale of surrounding structures. The two halves of the structure deftly dance along the site’s edge condition, bridging the natural and manmade.
Architect: Elliott Architects General Contractor: Jon D. Woodward & Sons Landscape Architect: David Maynes Studio Landscape Installation: Adams Landscaping & Construction Lighting Designer: Greg Day Lighting Masonry: Jesse Cameron Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Photographer: Sarah Elliott Location: Downeast Completed: 2024
Ledge House
This interior project included a full renovation of the first floor to fit the homeowner’s needs. The project centered on creating a first floor primary suite, guest bathroom with laundry, walk-in pantry, and new kitchen space while applying Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards into the confines of an older, smaller home. ADA codes apply only to specific public spaces and not single-family residential projects; however, the clearances were an important guide throughout the renovation when considering elements like door sizes and approaches, hallways, and hardware grasping.
The home’s interior was designed with extra space and appliances in easy-to-access spots. Due to the homeowner’s limited mobility, the dishwasher was placed on the right side of the sink for ease of loading. The kitchen’s limited upper cabinets avoid hard-to-reach spaces, and a custom dog nook with a water-filling station is situated below counter height to make it easy for the homeowner to refill.
Residential code does not require ADA-compliant 12-inch door clearances on the push side and 18 inches on the pull side of door latches, but these clearances were applied in the home for easy navigation into and out of rooms. A five-foot diameter turning radius was applied to the kitchens, bathrooms, and large walk-in closet. While most homeowners would consider this a loss of space, it was desired for this project and prioritized within the home’s small existing footprint.
Architect: gaf ARCHITECTURE Builder: Oceanside Property Management & Construction Interior Designer: Clara Brown Cabinetry: TPK Cabinetry Photographer: Heidi Kirn Location: Cumberland Foreside Completed: 2024
Cape Haven
Designed, managed, built, photographed, styled, and landscaped by and for women, this Craftsman-style home in Cape Elizabeth combines clean, open interior spaces, universal design, and energy-efficient strategies. Juniper thoughtfully considered the clients’ requests, which included space for woodworking and crafts, the option for aging in place, ample views of the adjoining woods, an elevator, and a sensitive relationship to the property’s striking natural ledge.
Craftsman design cues inside and out include custom millwork on the trim, a hand crafted energy-efficient front door with stained glass windows, and an arts and crafts style tile fireplace. Outdoor spaces include a second-floor deck overlooking the ledge and garden and a sitting area with an outdoor firepit accessible from the kitchen.
A complete package of energy-saving and carbon-reducing strategies make the home exceptionally efficient. Thermally decoupled wall construction was achieved by a double stud wall assembly. An innovative foundation was built using a shallow, frost-protected, floating wood slab that dramatically reduces the use of carbon-embodied concrete. Triple-pane windows and dense-packed cellulose insulation in the walls and roof add to the efficiency of the home. All-electric and prewired for EV chargers, the residence is net-zero ready with conduit run to the roof for a photovoltaic system.
Storybook begins a new chapter of lakeside living with the practical and purposeful volumes needed for a comfortable stay. Each level of the home accesses one of a trio of stacked balconies overlooking the lake. Projecting off the home on turned cedar timber supports, the elevated outdoor spaces live like a treehouse perched among the old-growth maples. An exterior rope bridge extends from the second-level hallway to a nearby raised play-deck where residents can escape down the spiral slide, invite friends to ascend the rope ladder, or torpedo some tubers from the deck-mounted potato gun.
The founder of a nonprofit children’s literacy initiative, one family member’s love of storybooks inspired many of the project’s novel details and necessitated a clever storage solution. Her collection reaches new heights in a bookcase spanning all three stories of the home, accessed by an interior staircase that climbs upward around it. Another curved bookcase extends along the entirety of the lower-level living room; a tug in just the right spot and a portion of the case swings outward, revealing a hidden entry to the primary bedroom suite.
The house was constructed using a Passive House–compliant prefabricated enclosure system. The structure’s floors and walls were produced and weatherproofed offsite, then transported to and assembled on the foundation. Copper shingle-clad bump-outs contrast with matte fiber cement on the rest of the building. A rooftop photovoltaic array powers the home and allows it to function off-grid as necessary using a battery backup.
Architect: Kaplan Thompson Architects Builder & General Contractor: Maine Passive House Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti Exterior Timber: Hanson Woodturning Millwork: Wentworth Woodworking Photographer: Irvin Serrano Location: Casco Completed: 2023
Juniper
Fueled by a commitment to the state’s future and a passion for preserving its natural beauty and resources, Knickerbocker Group set out to design and build prefab living spaces ready for any Maine landscape. Juniper, the 500-square-foot model, embodies an art-infused design maximizing light, space, and connection to nature. Available in both a modern (shown) and traditional design, the accessory dwelling unit accounts for comfortable and contemporary living with an open kitchen, living, and dining area; full bathroom with linen storage; combination heat pump washer and dryer; kitchen with full-size appliances; private bedroom with hanging and drawer storage; work-from-home office area; and optional outdoor living spaces.
This all-electric home features dense-pack cellulose insulation, engineered white oak flooring, and locally crafted custom cabinetry. Smart built-in storage solutions enhance space efficiency, making Juniper excel at small-space living. These design elements provide the comforts and conveniences of a larger home while economizing space to maintain overall cost efficiency. The usage of natural materials and expansive triple-pane windows and doors seamlessly brings the outdoors in and embraces biophilic design principles.
Each Prefab Pod is built in the firm’s instate prefabrication facility and requires minimal onsite finishing work, which cuts delivery times to one-third of traditional construction and offers cost savings through easy customization and bulk purchasing. By emphasizing sustainability and a streamlined building process, Juniper offers a refined housing alternative, making it an ideal option for those committed to healthy living.
Architect, Builder, Interior Designer & Landscape Architect: Knickerbocker Group Photographer: Jeff Roberts Location: Boothbay Completed: 2023
Home on Binnacle Hill
The clients, both newly retired with a lifelong desire to return to Maine, knew they wanted a home that celebrates the landscape while strategically maximizing privacy. A peaceful, wooded lot nestled at the end of a cul-de-sac in Kennebunkport was the ideal backdrop for their next chapter.
The home embodies the familiar New England feeling of cozy and classic living. A first-floor en suite is tucked away in a sun-filled corner while windows serve as picture frames, revealing new compositions with the changing seasons. Expansive French doors connect the main house to a mahogany screened porch, and warm oak and natural stone act as a continuation of the exterior language.
Meticulously crafted casework from Derek Preble Cabinetmakers is found in virtually every room, capitalizing storage opportunities. While the home fits into a classic design aesthetic, it reimagines ideas typically found in contemporary architecture, specifically the concept of a “glass box.” Through purposeful glazing on three sides, the dining room pushes toward the forest. Even the pantry and laundry room, often overlooked spaces, incorporate natural light and high-end craftsmanship.
Whitten Architects was initially tasked with designing two separate homes on a coastal property. As the project developed, the brief evolved into a unique design for a single, full-time residence that would harmoniously accommodate three generations of a family seeking a unified lifestyle. Midcoast Maine’s rugged coastlines, charming villages, tidal rivers, and maritime heritage inspired the unique intergenerational home’s design. Crisp, monolithic white gables are softened by natural wood soffits and details. The standing-seam metal roof unifies the gables, while the glazed link connects shared and private spaces.
Upon arrival, the glazed central entry offers instant views of the water beyond. The communal living room lies to the right; to the left, private wings are separated by a shared mudroom/laundry alongside a sculptural oak staircase that leads upstairs to the youngest kids’ bedrooms, a private living room, and an office. Both primary suites extend toward the water at ground level. Separated by a three-sided courtyard, each room enjoys private, framed views of the surrounding landscape. The single-story grandparents’ wing accommodates an office, private sitting room, and painting studio bathed in northern light.
Strategically positioned for equitable access and stunning views running parallel to the water, the communal living space serves as an open-plan, central hub. The spacious kitchen fosters a shared love for collaborative cooking, with multiple sinks, ample work surfaces, and a walk-in pantry. The south-facing stone terrace provides outdoor gathering space alongside a screened porch on the westerly end with a woodstove that provides a cozy retreat for afternoon sunsets and enhances connections from inside to out.
Capitalizing on the site’s natural features, the house maintains shoreland setbacks, respects the existing meadow, and maximizes views of the field and cove.
Architect: Whitten Architects Project Team: Jesse Patkus and Matt Holland, designers; Roo Collins, architect; Jessie Carroll, associate principal; Russ Tyson, principal Builder: Bowley Builders Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates Cabinetry: Block Brothers Custom Cabinets Landscape Architect: Richardson & Associates Landscape Installation: Terrapin Landscapes Stairs: King & Company Photographer: Trent Bell Location: Midcoast Completed: 2022
Nestled in Belgrade
On this steep, sloping, and rocky site along a pond in the Belgrade Lakes region, the challenge was to create a contemporary year-round home that connects to the woods and water while working with the slope of the site rather than fighting against it.
Strewn across the site are massive boulders, remnants of receding glaciers from thousands of years ago that are now covered with moss and ferns. Instead of blasting them into pieces and hauling them away, the home was situated to nest among them.
The inverted floor plan features a main entry on the second floor and the primary living spaces on the lower level. These spaces are pushed forward toward the lake so that they sit low on the ground. They thus flow outside in a single step with lake views under the canopy of large pine trees. A tall, glazed stairwell links the two levels together and floods daylight into the rear spaces nested into the hillside. To further blur the distinction between the home and its topography, all the lower roofs are planted and extend back into the hillside so that the house appears to be emerging from the landscape rather than piled on top of it.
Architect: Winkelman Architecture Principal Architect: Eric Sokol Builder: LP Homes Structural Engineer: Albert Putnam Associates Cabinetry: Linekin Bay Woodworkers Steel Fabrication: LMC Light Iron Photographer: Jeff Roberts Location: Belgrade Completed: 2022
Artist’s House
Positioned on a popular walking trail along the water’s edge that connects Rockland’s South End with its vibrant downtown arts district, the home’s black exterior forms complement the decaying industrial surrounding relics of the limestone industry. The interior of the residence was modeled after a museum, maximizing both the daylight and the walls of art. The entry to the house is a gallery with concrete floors. Large windows make the artwork visible to people as they walk through the neighborhood. Local whitened pine floors carry through the home with a simple recessed aluminum baseboard detail.
Created for a woman in her 80s, the house was crafted with special consideration of low-maintenance materials. The major spaces of the home are located on one level for a luxurious aging-in-place experience. The studio/gallery and two-car garage on the lower level are accessible from the lower portion of the site. The main bedroom suite features a flush-shower, universal height wall-mounted toilet, wide doorways, and a porch off the bedroom for convenient access to the outdoors and fresh ocean air.
An additional sunporch is composed of glass combination windows that can be easily converted from within to screen windows, creating a cozy exterior space connecting to the kitchen. The lower-level studio is a flexible space where the owner can create, display, and sell her artwork. A separate exterior door and deck welcomes patrons and community members alike into the studio space. A conditioned art storage room completes the studio suite.
Architect: ZEL Project Architect: Zel BowmanLaberge Builder: The Potter Building Company Kitchen Designer: Starlight Kitchen & Bath Photographer: Sarah Szwajkos Location: Rockland Completed: 2022
COMMERCIAL
Kevin Browne Architecture Office
Kevin Browne Architecture’s new, nearly 3,000-square-foot working office is double the size of their previous space. Located in a brand-new building that is helping to change the Falmouth skyline, the office provides plenty of space for staff to spread out, with an increase in natural daylight that has done wonders to energize the team throughout the day. The space is intentionally left very open, with low partition walls dividing eight different workspaces. One closed-off office features a glass wall that lets light filter through into the open workspace.
The office boasts two conference rooms, one with an incredible view down Route 1 in Falmouth and the other smaller and more private. This dual setup has been useful for multiple meetings happening at the same time while doubling as a quiet Zoom space or a place to take more private phone calls. Additionally, features that the previous office lacked include a lounge area with a kitchenette and an outdoor deck that provides a comfortable place to meet or have lunch.
Architect & Interior Designer: Kevin Browne Architecture Builder: Penobscot Company, Ben Roberts Construction Photographer: Jeff Roberts Location: Falmouth Completed: 2022
Lucky Cheetah
The interior renovation of the existing Old Port Tavern into a new restaurant, lounge, and event space focused on fine food and drink. Located in the landmarked Mariner’s Church building, the project faced operations and code compliance challenges. The existing space had an occupancy count that would not be permissible today, so deliberate design direction was taken to achieve compliant occupancy numbers based on the existing exiting conditions. Similarly, the existing restroom facilities, if built new today, would not comply with current codes and laws.
Owners Jared Dinsmore and Wills Dowd, who also own Bird & Co. in Woodfords Corner, had a vision for the iconic space and enlisted the talents of Susie Smith Coughlin Interior Design and MJM+A Architects to bring that vision to life. Coughlin’s masterful composition of visual elements within the restaurant provide an incredible blend of color, texture, and pattern. The new restaurant is both cozy and elegant, roomy and intimate, and it is positioned to be a destination and staple in downtown Portland.
Architect: MJM+A Architects Interior Designer: Susie Smith Coughlin Interior Design Photographer: Anthony Di Biase Location: Portland Completed: 2024
Night Moves Bread
Night Moves Bread was designed and built in tandem with Lambs, the bakery and bar both moving into neighboring sides of a recently vacated auto mechanic’s shop. The journey to the space was a long one, but now that Night Moves has been up and running in its new location for just over a year, it’s clear that this spot by the water was worth the wait.
The full gut interior renovation worked within the existing building’s footprint and volume to achieve some lofty goals. The design aimed to improve building performance and find flow within the tight, 1,400-square-foot space while also creating connection to the outside and immediately adjacent water. Visitors enter through a custom-built mahogany storefront system and are greeted by a long, monolithic bar with soft rounded edges. Customers line up here to order coffee, baked goods, bread, and soft serve, often spilling out onto the original loading ramp. The room closest to the water was converted into the main bakery space, where tall ceilings and two new banks of glider windows help the room feel larger than it is and give the bakers the unique experience of a working kitchen flooded with natural light and views.
Through a new full-light garage door at the side bay of the building, visitors can glimpse the huge 8- by 12-foot oven, which necessitated a room of its own. A long, narrow walk-in cooler slid into an adjacent courtyard space provides ample storage for dough and ingredients, while a service kitchen is tucked discreetly behind the coffee bar. It was a task to fit the project program into the compact building, but in a fine orchestration of rolling racks the space buzzes with the warmth of freshly baked bread and community.
Local handbag company Rough and Tumble secured arguably one of the most coveted retail spaces in Portland’s vibrant Old Port. Extensive work had been done throughout the building, so the project started with a blank slate that allowed LR/ARC to create a unique flagship space that showcases Rough and Tumble’s vision and craftsmanship along with the product’s rugged beauty.
Two walls of the space feature nearly floor-to-ceiling windows that maximize natural daylight and visibility both into the space and out to the bustling street. This did, however, present a challenge when trying to minimize all the necessary mechanical equipment, including fire suppression systems, that needed to be at the ceiling plane. Instead of dropping the ceiling below the windows, the architect worked closely with the building owner and contractor to creatively hide what they could and maintain a minimalist aesthetic for what was visible. The walls of the storage room, location of niches, and introduction of the soffit above the register all work to hide mechanical and electrical equipment and structural columns.
LR/ARC partnered with Grace Rote at Light and Form Studio to specify and lay out the store’s lighting to provide an ambiance tailored to Rough and Tumble’s aesthetic. The selected lighting system allows the track heads to be easily removed and rearranged based on a new showpiece or event—no electrician is needed. This flexibility is valuable to the brand and maximizes the potential of the retail space with an inviting atmosphere that enriches not only the neighborhood but the human experience when inside the space.
Architect: LR/ARC Builder: Consigli Construction Building Owner & Developer: East Brown Cow Lighting Designer: Light + Form Studio Photographer: Erin Little Location: Portland Completed: 2024
The Museum of Modern Art opened on November 8, 1929, in several rented rooms on the 12th floor of the Heckscher Building—today the Crown Building—at 730 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Lee Krasner (1908–1984) visited the exhibition on November 9 with several of her classmates from the National Academy of Design. “We disbanded after leaving the show, and there was no time to compare notes…but the after-affects were automatic,” Krasner recollected later to the art critic Lawrence Campbell. “A freeing…an opening of a door. Seeing those French paintings (the inaugural exhibition featured Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Seurat) stirred my anger against any form of provincialism.” Apples painted from still life for her student work at the Academy began to sit differently in the picture space. Similarly, as the story goes, after seeing their first Matisse and Picasso works, she and fellow students responded with shapes, colors, and compositional choices that caused their portrait instructor to hurl paintbrushes across the classroom and exclaim, “I can’t teach you people anything.” While Krasner valued her foundational art training, these experiences exemplified the attitudes of the time. In the late-1920s and early-1930s art circles of New York City, there was enormous debate and upheaval around the notion of what makes a picture interesting. Abstraction was taking hold in the broadest sense, and European avant-garde movements like De Stijl were beginning to influence American art forms.
In the Ogunquit Museum of American Art’s exhibition Lee Krasner: Geometries of Expression, Krasner’s early drawings and paintings hang with works from the same period by some of her dearest and lifelong artist friends—Burgoyne Diller, Mercedes Matter, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Balcomb and Gertrude Greene—as well as her renowned teacher, the brilliant conveyor of the abstract concept “push/pull,” Hans Hofmann. The exhibition centers on four circles of influence for the young Krasner: her study with Hofmann, her employment with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), her involvement with artists’ organizations like the American Abstract Artists, and her reverence for De Stijl founder and artist Piet Mondrian, who was also a friend. Geometries is lovingly co-curated by guest curator Michèle Wije, who previously curated the exhibition Sparkling Amazons: Abstract Expressionist Women of the 9th Street at the Katonah Museum of Art in New York, and Devon Zimmerman, curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, whose own research on De Stijl and the networks that fueled modernism is reflected in the intimate experience of connection that happens from one picture to the next. “This is a period of time when American identity was up for grabs,” says Zimmerman. “We are interested in how Krasner, and many of her friends and peers, turned to abstract art to engage an international community of artists responding to the tumult of modern life, and in turn, to make an argument for American culture as global.”
Krasner’s gorgeous abstract Mural Studies for Studio A, WNYC Radio Station in gouache on paper represent a personally significant (but ultimately unrealized) project for the Federal Art Project for New York and New Jersey, a woman-led regional division of the WPA established by the federal government in the mid-1930s in response to the Great Depression—a lifeline for artists who were literally starving. The Federal Art Project provided creative employment at survivable wages as well as equal pay for male and female artists. Krasner jumped in at the outset, qualifying for numerous projects and always hoping for the opportunity to work on her own abstract mural. That opportunity eventually came through WNYC Radio Station in 1941; however, only the studies were made, as the project was scrapped when the United States entered World War II.
Geometries is infused with the mark of Piet Mondrian. Mondrian’s limited-palette grid compositions were so important to Krasner and her contemporaries, and it’s exciting to see their reverent but free-thinking responses to his work in their own—especially Charmion von Wiegand’s lovely Untitled (Geometric Abstraction) oil on canvas. Hans Hofmann is also ever-present, and while his influence is much louder and bigger than the boundaries of this exhibition, those boundaries allow a focus on just this slice of time, when Hofmann was famously tearing up his students’ work in front of them (including Krasner’s) to reassemble the pieces in a new more dynamic relationship with the picture plane. It’s refreshing to visit Krasner at this time of her life, when so much was new and coming into being. The artist died months before the Museum of Modern Art launched Lee Krasner: A Retrospective, the “first-ever comprehensive survey elucidating Krasner’s importance as a vanguard Abstract Expressionist.”
Lee Krasner: Geometries of Expression will be on view at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, until November 17, 2024.
Every family has a few generational legends that they tell over and over —the tale of how Granddad and his brothers saved the farm from foreclosure, or the story of how Great Grandma defied her family and married for love. Sometimes these stories feel worn from repetition, like an old penny burnished by many hands over the years. But for Capozza siblings Joe Capozza III, Katie Capozza, and Tia Green, the story they tell of the founding of the company they now head seems fresh and immediate every time they tell it. Maybe that’s because, as the third generation of their family to run the business, they continue to add to the narrative every day.
Joe begins the tale: “My grandfather started the company in 1974, over on Summit Park Avenue in Portland, out of the garage. They always like to say, ‘with just a typewriter in the basement’!” he says with a laugh. He continues, “My grandfather sold just tile, I believe, probably mostly for residential and maybe some small commercial projects. My father joined the company shortly after graduating high school in 1976. By then, they had a small crew of installers to help my grandfather. I think my grandmother received the deliveries; she’d be home anyway and would take care of them. So that was the beginning.”
However convenient it was, the company outgrew the basement setup in the 1980s. “They moved to Morrill’s Corner and then eventually to Warren Avenue, where we still are today,” Joe goes on to say. “My grandfather was involved into the ’80s, but my dad was running the company by then; he brought in the residential division here. Then my mother came to work for the company in the late ’80s. She tried to get the books more in order than they were. It must have been driving her crazy secretly, and she felt the only way to do it right was to come in here and work too!”
To continue to expand, in 2000 the Capozzas purchased Kenniston’s Tile on Commercial Street in Portland, which they rebranded as Old Port Specialty Tile Co. Here, in 2006, the third generation of Capozza family members officially joined the team. “Katie was smart to go right into the business,” her siblings insist. “It was where my interest was!” she protests, laughing. “Even when I was in high school, my dad would connect me with the interior designers that they worked with, so I would intern for those firms in the summer.” At Old Port Specialty Tile Co., she worked closely with Theresa Rosmus, who now runs PR and marketing for the company. As Katie recalls, “I had an entry-level position with Theresa. Theresa was one of the first managers at Old Port Specialty Tile. My dad wasn’t really too involved, right?” she asks Theresa. Theresa concurs, “He was very trusting of the employees and seeing that we carried out his vision.” “It was nice to be in a separate position, with other bosses,” Katie concludes, “because I didn’t feel like I only worked for my dad or my family.”
Meanwhile, Joe says, “Tia and I worked outside the industry. I worked briefly for the Providence Bruins and then as a carpet sales rep for three years after college.” Tia picks up the thread: “I worked at a retail tile store in the Boston area, as some experience in this industry, but I also had other jobs like substitute teaching and different things that had nothing to do with tile. One thing that we haven’t mentioned yet,” she continues, “is that our parents encouraged us to go to college and choose whatever path we wanted to go down, but we always say that whatever we were doing mirrored what we would be doing here. And it kind of brought us back.”
“Our grandfather founded it, our parents built a great foundation, and it’s been a great opportunity for us to try to take that over the years to another level,” says Joe. “For example, in 2015 we purchased an epoxy and polished concrete company and rebranded it to Capozza Concrete and Epoxy Flooring. So the epoxy is a new feature of what we do. And we have probably doubled the size of the staff and labor capabilities through subcontractors and in-house labor. Our volume is about two and a half times what it was.” Tia continues, “It does seem like a big scale and a short time, but it helps that there are three of us at the helm. I feel like it’s less overwhelming, because we can support each other. If there is anything that we’re unsure about, we can bounce it off each other. I feel confident taking risks or making decisions, because I feel like they have my back.”
This familial feeling extends to the company at large. “A lot of the employees do feel like family members,” says Theresa. “If you’ve been here long enough, when somebody asks you, ‘Oh, are you a Capozza?’, you just start to nod. It’s easier than saying you’re not!” She continues, in a more serious tone, “One thing that I think has positively affected the business today is that these three have been able to bring newer ideas to the table while remaining true to its spirit. It’s because, as the company rose, they never forgot who they were.” Katie continues, “We have so many people working here who are truly passionate too. People who really get into tiles or flooring tend to stay.” “The customers have sustained us, but the employees have sustained us too,” says Tia.
To mark their fiftieth anniversary, the company has decided to expand their family circle to include community members. Theresa explains, “True to the culture of this family, we didn’t want it just to be something where we were acknowledging 50 years by patting ourselves on the back.” The siblings all nod. “Our longest partner in our community has been the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and, in more recent years, the Maine Children’s Cancer Program. We plan to turn this into a fundraising year for them. The family has committed, along with our other industry partners, that we will donate $50,000 for our 50 years.” She notes that the first Capozza family donation was from their grandfather, who gave $100 in 1995. By continuing this important relationship, the Capozza siblings are adding their own lines to a family story to be told by future generations.
October, 2024 | Photography: Darren Setlow | As told to Becca Abramson
“We collaborated with our client to customize the built-ins throughout the entire house, which is a Greek Revival residence by Waltman Architectural Design. Typical to many of our design-build projects, the floor plans reflected a built-in layout without any elevations of what was to be built. Once the framing and drywall were completed, we met with the client on-site and sketched up the elevation within a couple of hours.
“We designed the shelving specifically to fit the layout of the room and its planned use, with an emphasis on accommodating the client’s vintage record collection and turntable. The house was smart-wired throughout, allowing the spinning vinyl to be heard in any room via overhead speakers. We started with the turntable and retro custom radiator and designed cubbies around each, ultimately resulting in a symmetrical layout that was visually pleasing as well as functional.
“Throughout the house, we incorporated 13 Hudson Reed radiators in place of baseboard heating. They come from England, and they’re essentially a modern version of the classic cast-iron radiator. The one we added in the library is anthracite black to match the mood of the room, which is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Spellbound. We also added a small gas Valor fireplace.
“The flooring, which is 2¼-inch rift-cut white oak, was our recommendation. There’s something to be said about narrow hardwood floors that are put in unfinished, sanded, and then have a matte finish applied on-site. To me, it’s much warmer and more authentic than what you find in many homes these days.
“Modern architecture has been popular over the last five to seven years—we’ve seen lots of homes with clean lines and fewer traditional architectural details, both interior and exterior. Although we appreciate the modern style, our goal with this build was to be as true to the Greek Revival farmhouse era as possible. We’ve been building in Maine for 20 years, and we see a revival—no pun intended—of authentic and honestly built New England–style homes. When we hired Joe Waltman to design this house, we were specific about wanting a Greek Revival–style farmhouse vibe. All the components—the trim, the built-ins, the hardwood floors, the paint, the double-hung windows—were done in the spirit of a new build that stays true to how the home would have traditionally been designed in circa-1800s Maine. When you look at just the library itself, it’s an honest reflection of the theme and finish of the entire home.”
