Magazine

Drink + Sketch 2024

October, 2024 | Photography: Christina Wnek

There’s concern in architectural and design circles about the decline of the hand sketch. A drawing is not meant to replace a finished rendering or be a masterpiece but rather part of a designer’s creative process. “What has happened to our profession, and our art,” said renowned architect Michael Graves to the New York Times, “to cause the supposed end of our most powerful means of conceptualizing and representing architecture?” While Graves acknowledged the importance of computers for presenting data and creating detailed construction documents, he argued that an architect’s hands as creative tools should never become obsolete. Many iconic designs throughout history have begun as a simple sketch on a napkin, place mat, or scrap of paper, from Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater to the “I Love New York” logo drawn by Milton Glaser in red crayon on an envelope in the back of a taxi. With this spirit in mind, MH+D, Knickerbocker Group, and the Portland Society for Architecture invited Maine designers to join us at Novare Res Bier Café in Portland for a drink and a chance to create their own napkin sketches. Participants were given five prompts and some pens and napkins and asked to produce as many or as few sketches as they wished within the allotted time. Here are the results.

PROMPTS

Each guest was asked to create one or more drawings based on the following prompts.

  • A downtown train station for Portland
  • A structure based on your favorite board game
  • A children’s play fort/treehouse in Deering Oaks Park
  • An adaptive new use for an old space (mill, shopping mall, box store)
  • A reimagined Adirondack chair

CHRIS DELANO
Principal/Owner
DELANO ARCHITECTURE

“I am fascinated by the relationships of people and the fabric of places. These sketches address the collective effect that relationships have on a composition. They are visual studies: lines become an object, each object joins other objects to create movement, a point of view, and a place. A story emerges.”

RACHEL CONLY
Owner/Design Director
JUNIPER DESIGN + BUILD

“For me, the best seat in the house is always at the edge of the sea. The Adirondack prompt inspired a chair shaped from earth that is designed to provide a contemplative, front-row view of the tides and ocean life with easy access for full immersion or soaking one’s feet.”

DANIELLE FOISY
Architect
JUNIPER DESIGN + BUILD

“The treehouse is made up of interconnected pods, designed to foster imagination in nature through playful exploration or as a refuge in the trees.”

HENRI JP BIZINDAVYI
Designer
JUNIPER DESIGN + BUILD

“Envisioning the future of downtown Portland’s train station is like sketching a bridge through time, where the echoes of the past meet the wisdom of nature, guiding us toward a sustainable tomorrow. The goal is to create a space where the elegance of historical architecture seamlessly merges with organic forms inspired by our intricate ecosystem.”

CHRISTOPHER DUDLEY
Lead Carpenter
JUNIPER DESIGN + BUILD

“I drew a reimagined box store, turning a Home Depot into an apartment complex with indoor/outdoor community spaces. It was a fun evening of sketching and seeing what other creative people came up with from the prompts given.”

RICHARD LO
Senior Architectural Staff
KAPLAN THOMPSON ARCHITECTS

“My last sketch of the evening, the ‘Peacorondack,’ was no doubt helped along by excellent company and beverages. A slightly showy upgrade for a familiar and iconic vacation chair, it is best displayed prominently in small groups scattered at the edge of sloping lawn facing a lake, river, or the Atlantic Ocean.”

PAIGE BECHTLE
Interior Designer
KAPLAN THOMPSON ARCHITECTS

“We get so accustomed to drawing from observation or designing what’s ‘typical’—it was so enjoyable to stretch our creativity with playful prompts and places we are all fond of here in Maine!”

GRACE TISDALE
Project Manager
KAPLAN THOMPSON ARCHITECTS

“Although seemingly impractical, the ‘S’mores Chair’ is a comfortable yet supportive chair throughout the day, and then as you settle in for the evening and light a fire, you can enjoy your seat as it melts into a treat!”

KATIE BRADDOCK LA ROSE
Architect
KAPLAN THOMPSON ARCHITECTS

“The Adirondack chair is all about sinking back, relaxing, and taking in the surrounding views; this reimagination favors togetherness as well. The ‘Adirondack in the Round’ allows for few or many to gather, as if around a fire, for conversation and company. The semicircle pieces can be rearranged into a landscape of their own.”

ERIC WITTMAN
Senior Project Designer, Architecture
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP

“Imagine turning the shell of a familiar national brand into a vertical farm. The structure and layout would make it an easy transition, and existing loading docks would be a plus. Naming the farm ‘Garden Encapsulated Towers’ or simply ‘Grow Eats Tall’ would allow you to ‘adaptively reuse’ half of the existing sign.”

STEVEN MANSFIELD
Senior Associate Landscape Architect
MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM LANDSCAPE DESIGN

“It was a great evening to be with some of Portland’s best designers and contribute to conversations that came up from wildly different sketch prompts. It’s always fun to step back, let loose, and draw the first thing that comes to mind.”

KARL ALAMO
Designer
MATTHEW CUNNINGHAM LANDSCAPE DESIGN

“The Maine landscape is lush, rugged, and hosts a way of life inimitable and seldom rivaled. For a transportation center, I envision simple uses of steel that celebrate the early industry of rural Maine life, nestled into a landscape abundant with locally native plants and stone—a welcome home, and a reminder to return soon.”

ERIK MILLES
Principal
CHARRON | REFLEX LIGHTING

“I loved seeing the creativity and hand drawing skills of everyone involved. Drink and Sketch holds a special place in my heart because it brings us back to the very essence of architecture and design: putting pencil to paper, letting the mind explore, and sharing it with others to enjoy.”

RUSS TYSON
Principal
WHITTEN ARCHITECTS

“Introducing a light rail train station to the peninsula would make it a breeze to hop off the train and dive right into Portland’s downtown neighborhoods. It would spark more foot traffic and energy in the charming Old Port while keeping the car chaos to a minimum.”

GEORGE WORKMAN
Senior Landscape Architect
SMRT ARCHITECTS & ENGINEERS

“While the world changes and moves away from analog so quickly, and freehand drawing threatens to go the way of cursive, it’s truly a pleasure to enjoy the company of colleagues and friends while drawing freehand. It feels like a vignette of the old days.”

SOREN DENIORD
Owner/Principal
SOREN DENIORD DESIGN STUDIO

“Drink and Sketch was a fun ‘after-work’ gathering and a chance to connect outside of shared projects. The prompts were imaginative, and I enjoyed hearing and seeing different people’s interpretations.”

KARI GALLOW-WRIGHT
Landscape Designer
TED CARTER INSPIRED LANDSCAPES

“There is something wonderful about reimagining a board game as a livable space. I began by studying the pieces and elements of particular games before things took on a more concrete form. I particularly enjoyed drafting a Monopoly walkway with a focus on material, shape, and color.”

TED CARTER
President
TED CARTER INSPIRED LANDSCAPES

“As my mind wandered during the sketching event, my inner child came out to play, and I found myself daydreaming about various country settings. I went off script. The natural world has so many hills and valleys filled with mystery and intrigue, both timeless and limitless.”

ALEX HABA
Designer
WHITTEN ARCHITECTS

“I heard that Casco Bay Lines is expanding…underwater railroad from the Eastern Prom to Brunswick.”

TORI GITTO
Designer
WHITTEN ARCHITECTS

“Throughout the game of dominoes, lines extend and join into lengthy shapes of legible connection. Structures share a similar language by using compatibility to build and join together what would otherwise appear to be dissimilar or incompatible. Warning: Carelessness may result in a chain reaction of fallen dominoes and failed structure!”

ALYSSA PHANITDASACK
Project Architect
WHITTEN ARCHITECTS

“A sketch is a seed. Drink and Sketch is my favorite event that encourages casual cross-pollination of creative minds.”

CHRISTIAN A. PRASCH
Architectural Designer
WINKELMAN ARCHITECTURE

“I had fun with the space station Chutes and Ladders scene. I enjoy changing the scale of an object in an attempt to make something new, and this game provides easy fodder for such an exercise.”

DAVID DUNCAN MORRIS
Partner
WOODHULL

“One fun thing on top of another!”

PATRICK BOOTHE
Director, Commercial Studio
WOODHULL

“I often take my 2½-year-old to Deering Oaks playground, where I imagine one of the majestic oaks soaring to 300 feet. After a lightning strike, it miraculously stands tall, transformed into an observation deck with a near-perfect, code-compliant spiral staircase leading to the top. Oh, and it has a zip line, of course.”

JOHN MUCCIARONE
Senior Project Manager
ZEROENERGY DESIGN

“Treehouse: an elevated, urban escape in nature that is simple, playful, and imaginative for the inner child in all of us.”

DUSTIN TISDALE
Residential Studio Project Manager
WOODHULL

“Napkin sketches are the idea droplets that fill the cup of a complete design. Sometimes a little drips out to make room for better ideas…I’m still waiting.”

RICK NELSON
Practice Leader, Architecture
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP

“The world is in Trouble. It’s best to stay above it.”

GREG NORTON
Senior Project Designer
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP

“An infrastructure that allows a Portland worker to park out of town and take a trolley to work, relieving Portland of vehicular congestion. One big train station, or series of unique neighborhood stations—anything to create more public transit options as Portland continues to grow.”

TREVOR WATSON
Design Studio Leader, Architecture
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP

“Being open to different view is a skillset which affords us many opportunities in life—what is more powerful than the physical manifestation of this concept? A treehouse in a park, elevated, built into the branches and leaves. A child’s first experience with a space to call their own.”

TYLER DOHERTY
Revit Specialist and BIM Manager
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP

“Imagine the possibilities if we innovate the millions of square feet of shopping malls in this country to become rooftop gardens and pastures. They would feed local communities, reduce the risk of food deserts, and bring people a sense of pride in what would otherwise be a desolate expanse of concrete and asphalt.”

LEAH LIPPMANN
Design Studio Leader, Interiors
KNICKERBOCKER GROUP

“I chose Commercial Street as the location for a grand train station that brings the heritage of trains back into the city. The steel structure acts as a bridge between the past and present while sleek new trains make the trip into the city quick and easy.”

David Matero Creates a Crescent-Shaped Home in West Bath Complete with Two Art Studios

October, 2024 | By: Jorge S. Arango | Photography: Jeff Roberts

Joan Lasky Saba and Mark Saba, Pittsburgh natives who raised their family in Connecticut, began renting homes in Maine for stretches of time when their son decided to attend Bowdoin College. But the state’s many charms soon lured them in, convincing them to settle here permanently. “I found this 800-square-foot, two-bedroom cottage on the internet,” Joan recalls. “The price was slashed, and I wondered why.”

Curious, she flew up to Maine and drove to West Bath. From the moment she entered the 4.3-acre
property abutting Winnegance Bay, she recalls, “I felt it was something magical.” She was so moved, adds Mark, “When the realtor told the owner Joan had gotten teary-eyed, the owner said, ‘I want them to have it.’”

The house itself, however, was not going to be sufficient to accommodate their retirement plans. Mark had been a medical illustrator and graphic designer for Yale University, but he wanted to pursue his love of painting, poetry, and fiction writing full-time, which required a studio. Joan, though still a partner at an architectural firm specializing in hospitals and academic medical centers, was also a painter in search of her own studio space. “I knew there was no way I’d have the time to design a home,” she says. So she hired David Matero Architecture, whose work she had found in design magazines.

Matero and Eric Smith of Oceanside Builders quickly realized a few possible reasons the property’s price had been reduced. “It was on a steep slope,” explains Matero. “There was about a 50- or 60-foot drop to the house, then another 30-foot drop to the water.” Additionally, there were building restrictions associated with waterfront setbacks and septic systems. “There was not a lot of buildable land.”

Furthermore, adds Smith, “We knew we were going to hit rock at some point, and we did, but only on one part of the house and not the other. I wasn’t going to build one half of the house on fill and the other on ledge.” After consultations with an engineer, Smith solved the issue by hammering back the ledge and bringing in “proper backfill so that the house would be evenly distributed on the base.”

As for the paucity of buildable land, Matero designed a contemporary crescent-shaped structure. “The landscape really formed this house,” he observes. “The crescent opens up corners on the water-facing side of the house but embraces the topography in the front. The hillside goes way up on the right, so the tall part of the house relates well to its height.” His clients also didn’t want their home to stand out like a sore thumb from the water, so Matero “broke up the massing,” which turned out to have an added advantage: the collection of small roofs drain water more effectively than one big roof would have. That water now streams down through a valley created by the varying rooflines and cascades dramatically like a waterfall outside the main living space. However, Smith explains, to help prevent pooling and foundation-damaging backwash, “We created a dry riverbed look over a storm drain that carries it away from the building.”

Inside, the multiple rooflines create a dynamic play of pine-clad angles overhead but also slope toward the view, training the focus on the waterfront. To ensure a contemporary sensibility that is nevertheless informed by the locality’s sense of place, “We kept rusticity to a minimum without ignoring the surroundings,” says Matero. For instance, Douglas fir paneling enveloping the primary
bedroom is a nod to camp style, as is the stone fireplace, except here the stone is cut into blocks rather than left natural, thus telegraphing a cleaner profile. The warmth of wood and its relation to the forested site continues onto the floors, which are oak throughout.

As an architect with a substantial understanding of design, Joan proved an ideal collaborator with Jeanne Handy of Jeanne Handy Designs on interior finishes and furnishings. “We talked about bringing the outside in with the palette and details like wallpaper and hardware,” remembers Handy. “But the idea for me is always to be less obvious—not to look like the outdoors, but to evoke the feeling the outdoors brings, the serenity the site already has.” The point was to “create ‘aaah’ moments where your shoulders drop a little.”

Says Handy, “It’s always fun for me to work with clients who are artistic. It facilitates a group process rather than having me dictate a style. The Sabas have an excellent eye and are open to things that are different.” They were also quick studies, apparently. “Jeanne and I selected all the light fixtures in 90 minutes,” notes Joan.

Green (primarily Sherwin-Williams Sea Salt in a matte finish) and blue were obvious choices for the color palette, but they are also subtle and susceptible to changes in light throughout the day. Wallpapers bring in elements of surprising pattern and color, such as stylized stripes on the wall behind a bed in a guest room, and the midnight blue paper with a gold pattern of the cosmos in a hidden reading nook tucked behind the fireplace.

The reading nook, one of several unusual features of the home, was Joan’s idea and is sure to be a highly coveted sleeping accommodation for grandchildren. Another of Joan’s unique, innovative details is a 38-by 38-inch “puzzle drawer” that pulls out of the kitchen island. Rather than have a jigsaw puzzle occupying a surface when no one is working on it, she explains, “you can just drop it into the drawer.”

Other elements that differentiate the house from a standard shingle-clad camp are architectural. Matero swathed the entry volume’s exterior with dark bronze corrugated metal. “We didn’t have to use metal,” he admits, but doing so “highlights the entrance and the staircase just inside.” There’s a considerable amount of shadow play activated by the rooflines, but also by brise-soleils, screen panels that protrude horizontally from the tops of windows, breaking up the sunlight both on the exterior and inside the house as it filters through them.

One of Joan’s favorite novelties is a clerestory window in her studio set into the wall within a chamfered edge. “I called David and said, ‘Wait a minute. This reminds me of the windows in Ronchamp’”—better known as Chapelle Notre-Dame du Haut, Le Corbusier’s famous structure in
Ronchamp in northeast France. Indeed, her hunch about this architectural reference was accurate, he assured her.

Outside, Jorgensen Landscaping created mulched paths and stone steps to convey the Sabas, their family, and guests through the woods and down to the water, all bordered by native plantings that simply bring a bit more order to the wildness of the site.

As Handy mentioned, the cumulative result of architecture, interiors, and landscaping leans heavily into the serenity that the outdoors brings. For homeowners preoccupied with creative endeavors, this turns out to be quite generative. “We love the silence here,” says Mark, noting that they hid the television out of sight purposely, which helps them concentrate on their respective art forms. “Growing up in Pittsburgh,” he explains, “I was really familiar with Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
This is not that, of course, but I like the feeling of being so tied to nature. The site is conducive to that.”

Design Wire November/December 2024

Pamela Moulton and Roy Fox, TANGLE, 2023. Steel, salvaged ropes, and nets, paint, 14” x 10”. Commissioned for the University of Maine System and the citizens of Maine under the Maine Percent for Art Act. (Photo: Zach Boyce)

THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE ART GALLERY recently acquired TANGLE, a sculpture by artists PAMELA MOULTON and ROY FOX. Located on the school’s Portland campus, the artwork depicts a whimsical five-legged creature constructed of industry-discarded “ghost gear,” including steel, rope, and net salvaged from the Gulf of Maine. Funded by the MAINE PERCENT FOR ART program administered by the MAINE ARTS COMMISSION, the 14-foot-tall sculpture speaks to the history of net fishing in the state, a tradition the Wabanaki people have continuously practiced for 12,000 years. Moulton is a multidisciplinary artist known for her playful, large-scale installations built entirely from salvaged nets and ropes; Fox has worked as an artist and designer in both Los Angeles and Maine.

The WESTBROOK PLANNING BOARD unanimously approved a proposal to build Maine’s first center for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) residents, a community that comprises more than 26,000 people across the state. Sitting on 30 acres of land owned by WATT SAMAKI, a nonprofit Cambodian Buddhist temple, the center will include a large event hall, instructional and conference spaces, and offices that will house a variety of AAPI organizations and provide access to services, including immigration support, workforce development, English language classes, and small business incubation. The campus will include a new worship center, a traditional Khmer temple, extensive gardens, statuary, and walking trails. KHMER MAINE, another nonprofit serving the state’s Cambodian community, is raising funds for the $5 million project. Construction is expected to begin next summer by local firms, including ACORN ENGINEERING and WINTON SCOTT ARCHITECTS. “In keeping with Buddhist traditions of honoring and connecting to the natural world, the building includes sustainable elements such as a green planted roof system and a solar array on the event hall roof,” explains STEPHEN WEATHERHEAD, principal at Winton Scott. The office and classroom spaces will feature light shelves to direct natural light deeper into the building, thus lessening the reliance on artificial lighting. High-efficiency electrical and mechanical systems, reduced-water-flow plumbing fixtures, and high-thermal-performance window and wall systems will reduce energy needs for the building.

Photos: courtesy of Nike

NIKE’s new “TOGETHER WE RISE” campaign is flipping the script on the company’s traditional SWOOSH logo. To celebrate the rise of women’s sports, the third kits for men’s and women’s teams in European and Latin American football clubs feature a double swoosh pointing upward, a 90-degree pivot from its usual positioning. According to Nike, this limited-time graphic communicates the “acceleration” of the game and supports the brand’s belief that “women and girls are on the leading edge of change, redefining the parameters of sport and how it serves the next generation.”

BETH ISRAEL CONGREGATION in Waterville recently underwent an extensive renovation that included updates to the building’s accessibility, HVAC system, audiovisual services, and security led by construction manager SHERIDAN CONSTRUCTION. The building’s refresh also included the construction of a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath used for celebrations and healing. Designed by BECHTEL FRANK ERICKSON (BFE) ARCHITECTS, the mikvah is one of only three in the state and is supported by the JEWISH COMMUNITY ALLIANCE OF SOUTHERN MAINE. It consists of an entry room, a changing room, a bathroom, and a mosaic-tiled pool filled with more than one ton of water melted from solid ice sourced from a spring-fed pond on a congregant’s property. “The mikvah is a place of communal support with connection through engagement of the users and professional practitioners. The project at Beth Israel began with listening to the stories told by congregants, which provided us with the necessary vision, inspiration, and relevance of the mikvah for the greater Waterville community,” says Gerard Frank, principal at BFE Architects.

Photo: courtesy of JAX

Biomedical research institute JACKSON LABORATORY (JAX) launched a $750,000 fundraising campaign to renovate HIGHSEAS, the 112-year-old Bar Harbor mansion that has housed the organization’s alumni, researchers, and students over the past 70 years. Built in 1912 from locally quarried granite and bricks shipped from Pennsylvania, the estate is consistently maintained but requires updates to the roof, wood trim, and windows that have withstood wear and tear from Mount Desert’s salty ocean air. Renovations to the building, which features two floors of residential space and a third-floor classroom, will reflect its historic character with modern materials. “JAX’s HighSeas is emblematic of the legacy of our highly successful summer student program as well as a significant and iconic former summer estate. We are excited to be reinvesting in the facility to serve as a home based for the next generation of JAX learners, fellows, and scientists,” says Charlie Wray, vice president of education at JAX. The facility will remain in use while exterior renovations are performed.

Built more than 80 years ago, the INDIAN CELLAR TEA HOUSE in Hollis was facing demolition when SACO RIVER THEATRE began a fundraising campaign to relocate the structure to its site in Buxton. The subject of Margaret Hammel Shea’s book Tavern in the Town, published in 1948, the tea house has served as a store, a restaurant, and a canoe rental facility. In its new location, it will undergo renovations to become a scene shop for the theater with prop and costume storage. Spring 2025 construction on the SALMON FALLS BRIDGE, which connects Hollis to Buxton, adds to the urgency of the structure’s relocation.

Photos: courtesy of the Kraft Heinz Company

Ever wondered what it’s like to sit in JELL-O? Thanks to the new JELLY COLLECTION, a line of inflatable Y2K-inspired furniture in the shape (and colors) of iconic Jell-O molds, you can finally find out. Designed to build on the rise of jelly-inspired home decor and beauty trends along with the resurgence of nostalgic inflatable furniture, each Jelly Collection chair features smooth, rounded curves that create an inviting and comfortable seat along with a built-in cup holder that perfectly fits a Ready-to-Eat Jell-O Gelatin snack cup. “With the Jelly Collection, we’re not just celebrating our rich history; we’re bringing it to life for today’s families. By blending our heritage with a modern twist, we’re inviting consumers to embrace the playful spirit that has made Jell-O a beloved favorite for generations,” says Tyler Parker, brand manager of desserts at Kraft Heinz.

2024 Holiday Gift Guide

I’ve been coveting a piece by the design duo Cee and She for the past three years. Each piece is crafted by two women artists in their Westbrook studio. These stoneware candleholders are both elegant and whimsical. The flower petals are made individually by the artists’ hands; each is unique, never to be replicated.

—Danielle Devine, editor
CEEANDSHE.COM

Ever since we covered Maine Surfers Union in last July’s Shop Talk, I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of the Ocean Clocks the store imports from France. I’d love to know if Back Cove is looking luscious or marshy before I head over.

—Becca Abramson, associate editor
MAINESURFERSUNION.COM // OCEANCLOCK.COM

I like this Orange and Gold Honeycomb Charcuterie Board, which is made in Scarborough, because it makes for a great centerpiece and is also a piece of art that I could see hanging
on a wall.Œ

—Karen Bowe, director of business & partnership development
PFWOODTURNING.COM

My friend Michelle Rose contacted me to photograph her new line of products in gorgeous packaging. Handmade in Maine, Minka Apothecary was inspired by Michelle’s personal journey to heal her case of eczema.

—Heidi Kirn, designer
MINKAHOME.COM

I long for the day I see a beautiful fireplace in my house, cozying up with a good book and my cats while letting the heat get me through the cold winter months. Stûv designs minimalist woodstoves that you can find locally at Embers Stoves and Fireplaces.

—Nicole McNeil, production coordinator
STUVAMERICA.COM

I bought my first Alice Yardley handbag at STITCH last spring. I selected a sweet summer color block bag that went everywhere with me and was often asked, “Where did you get your bag?” Spoiler alert: If my sister in Nova Scotia is reading this issue of MH+D, there will be an Alice Yardley original under your Christmas tree this year—and I just might have gifted myself an envelope clutch as a finishing touch for my holiday outfits.

—Crystal Murray, editor-in-chief & publisher
ALICEYARDLEYMAINE.COM

From planes and saws to chisels and spokeshaves, Warren-based Lie-Nielsen Toolworks crafts some of the finest heirloom-quality hand tools for furniture making that money can buy.

—Shawn Dalton, senior director, creative design & production
LIE-NIELSEN.COM

There’s nothing I love more than a soft blanket to cozy up in as the months get cooler. Made of luxurious 100 percent cotton, Blanche and Mimi’s Hand Printed Throw Quilt wraps you in the warmth of the holidays. These charming quilts are the perfect blend of elegance and coziness, serving as functional decor through the holiday season and into spring!

—Lauren McKenney, associate publisher
BLANCHEANDMIMI.COM

Chef Matt Ginn’s Crispy Duck Fritters Are a Holiday Showstopper

October, 2024 | By: Matt Ginn | Photography courtesy of Prentice Hospitality

”The concept for this dish is based on one of my favorite French brasserie dishes, a crispy duck leg confit served with a red wine and mustard glaze alongside a crispy chicory salad,” explains chef Matt Ginn, culinary director at Prentice Hospitality. At the Good Table in Cape Elizabeth, Ginn replaced Maine salt cod fritters with this duck variety, offering a similar flavor profile with an elevated twist. “We think of duck as a winter protein, often paired with roasted figs or stone fruit on the holiday table,” he says. “Duck is also sustainable, with a much better footprint than other meats, and it’s more accessible than people think. Plenty of markets in and around Portland offer it, such as Rosemont.” Try this recipe for a fun and approachable way to elevate the holiday table this season.

Makes 20 to 30 fritters (5 or 6 servings)

INGREDIENTS

For the confit
4 duck legs
About 70 grams salt
Pinch of sugar
Neutral oil or animal fat

For the fritter dough
400 grams prepared confit
200 grams cooked and mashed potato
20 grams all-purpose flour
20 grams whole-grain mustard
1 shallot, minced
15 grams chopped chives
10 grams chopped parsley
5 grams salt

For breading and frying
Flour
Egg wash (beaten egg plus about 1 tablespoon of water)
Breadcrumbs
High-heat oil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Lightly salt the duck legs and add a pinch of sugar. Let sit in the refrigerator to cure overnight. In the morning, rinse the salt away and dry off the legs thoroughly.

2. Once the duck is cured, it is slowly cooked in fat (a technique known as confit). At the restaurant, the duck legs are cooked in a blend of olive oil and duck fat with a bit of garlic and thyme. At home, it’s easiest to use any neutral oil or animal fat. Place the legs in an oven-safe pan, cover with warmed fat, and bake at 250°F for 2½ hours. Let cool completely.

3. Pick the cooled meat from the bone and place into a mixing bowl with the remainder of the fritter dough ingredients. Stir to combine, then roll into balls about the size of a half-dollar.

4. Using the three-phase breading method, dredge each ball in flour, moisten it in egg wash, then coat it in breadcrumbs.

5. Heat the frying oil in a pan. Fry the breaded fritters at 340°F until they are golden brown. Serve with a chicory salad and red wine vinaigrette.

How Cabbage Patch Kids Grew to Rule the ‘80s Toy Market

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.

An Artsy Couple’s Guatemala City Home Showcases Their Fondness for Found Objects

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 SPANISH CONSOLE 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 RED Industry West // industrywest.com

NO. 898 MOROCCAN RUG Kantara // kantararugs.com

Davies Toews Architecture Hatches a Bird-Friendly Hideaway on Saddleback Mountain

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.”

—Jonathan Toews, principal, Davies Toews Architecture

Matthew Cunningham Reveals the Benefits of Thoughtful Landscape Design

“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.

“Anniversary” Celebrates 10 Years of the Charles Altschul Book Arts Studio

October, 2024 | By: Lucky Platt

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.

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