Archive
Fat Is the New Green
AIA Design Theory- October 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Trent Bell
Architect Jesse Thompson believes green design offers the chance for a new aesthetic
Conversations about sustainability often involve a sense of having to do without or limiting creativity in some fashion. Jesse Thompson and his firm Kaplan Thompson Architects is instead finding that the quest for low-energy, durable buildings has not been an act of denial or limitation but instead is leading toward a new aesthetic and creating opportunities for a new style.
The Life of the Loft
October 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Trent Bell
On Camden’s waterfront, a lively blend of food and family
One Sunday morning in Maine, as in Robert Frost’s famous poem, Christina Sidoti came upon a fork in the road.
Portland Platinum
October 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Irvin Serrano
SUSTAINABLE: A Portland house achieves the ultimate in LEED ratings
There is a well-known, albeit clichéd, adage: Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars. Sometimes, though—as was the case with Catherine and Jonathan Culley of Redfern Properties in Portland—one shoots for the stars and winds up hitting the moon. The two real-estate developers set out to design and build a home that was both green and affordable—a goal that some would consider unachievable. What they got surprised even them: a home that not only was affordable but that earned the highest rating possible—Platinum—from the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) system, an internationally recognized certification program for environmentally conscious construction.
Garden Gala
TURNOUT-ANTIQUES IN THE GARDEN-October 2009
Photography David Murray
A night filled with antique treasures and culinary treats
Letter from The Editor
When we put an issue of Maine Home+Design together, we select and develop stories, matching them to one another until the blend is just right. The stories often bind together and form a collective whole. If each issue develops its own collective personality, then this issue resonates with the theme of a fiercely independent spirit.
All the In-Betweens
ESSAY-September 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” -Robert Louis Stevenson
Simple Rhythm
THE DRAWING BOARD-September 2009
A mountain retreat takes advantage of the shallow slope of the land
Little Italy
FEAST-September 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography François Gagné
European-style dining thrives off Portland’s beaten path
Nature’s Cathedrals
THE CANVAS-September 2009
by Suzette McAvoy
Janice Anthony, R. Scott Baltz & Jane Dahmen
A Common Thread
CRAFT OF MAINE-September 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Local artisans whose woven works are Maine made and inspired
Homing In
FIELD TRIP- Nicola Manganello 2009
by Veronique McAree
Photography Liz Atterbury
A home isn’t merely a place to live—it’s a veritable storybook of styles, influences, and thoughtfully executed design.
Second Lives
September 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Trent Bell
On Diamond Cove, a former pilot transforms a naval power plant into a home
The Moss Manse
September 2009
by Debra Spark
Photography Trent Bell
Taking John Calvin Stevens to Boothbay
When it comes to her own home, realtor Connie Moss has something of a set design approach to real estate. After the stage has been set—her home constructed or renovated in as fine a fashion as possible—she lets the show of her life run for a few years, then it’s on to a new performance—a new residence and a new project. Since relocating to Maine in 1997, Moss has built and sold a home in South Bristol, renovated another on Pemaquid Point, and fixed up both a brownstone and an 1867 half-house in Portland. Her latest effort and current abode—an expansive Shingle Style home that sits on a ledge overlooking East Boothbay’s Little River—is currently on the market. She isn’t, she emphasizes, “flipping”—the real real-estate term for buying up properties for rapid resale—but enjoying the whole process of perfecting properties. “It’s an adventure,” she says. “I like to think that I respect the house. I like to do what the house needs in terms of material, and I like to feel that I add something to the house, that it is better off for my being there.”
Being Green
PROFILE-September 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Irvin Serrano
A furniture designer discovers his passion for the process
If there were a mascot for the saying “Life is more about the journey than the destination,” Doug Green would be it. That isn’t to say the furniture maker, inventor, industrial designer, wood tamer, and founder of Green Design Furniture in Portland doesn’t love a fine finished product; it is just that, for Green, the process of design is the most compelling part of his work.
Fun at the Farnsworth
TURNOUT-September 2009
Photography Jonathan Laurence
Celebrating the 2009 Maine in America Award winner Robert Indiana
The Homework of Home
September 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Trent Bell
One couple’s journey to the not-so-big house
When planning their first home together, Jeff and Dominique Sommer immersed themselves in the world of home design and construction. Hardcover architecture books with glossy pages moved to the top of their reading lists. Design terminology worked its way into everyday conversation at the breakfast table, in the car, and just before bed. Emails at 3 a.m. to architect and mentor Carol De Tine of Carriage House Studio Architects in Portland were frequent. Late-night algorithms (for example, calculating the shoreline setback using the Pythagorean theorem) were not uncommon. The methods of renowned architectural greats were called on. For months on end, the Sommers lived, slept, ate, and breathed the creation of their home.
Virtue and the Ventriloquist
PROFILE-September 2009
by Rebecca FalzanoPhotography Irvin Serrano
Artist Robert Shetterly paints the truth
From Inside Out-Architect Caleb Johnson’s take on “form follows function”
AIA Design Theory- September 2009
Beauty in building is born out of restriction. It is the restraints of building materials, site location, client personality, spatial needs, and budget that prompt a building design to blossom into an elegant solution and a refined object. It is for this reason that a building that is both functional and beautiful must be designed from the inside out, from a thorough understanding of the confines of its specific situation. When a building is designed this way, its exterior and interior will be one of harmony projecting confidence in its attributes.
Read more: From Inside Out-Architect Caleb Johnson’s take on “form follows function”
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Easy Elegance
August 2009
by Laura Serino
Photography Trent Bell
A blend of modern and traditional styles, the island way
Almost three miles across Penobscot Bay from Lincolnville, or about a twenty-minute ferry ride from the mainland, is the small island of Islesboro. Although the community is perhaps best known as the summer residence of such high-profile celebrities as John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, the vibe here is anything but pretentious.
Masters of Glass
CRAFT OF MAINE-August 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Four Maine artisans unlock the secrets of glass
Known for its fragility, its texture, its possibility, glass has been a medium for artists for thousands of years, starting with the earliest man-made glass objects around 3,500 B.C.E. This month, in continuation of MH+D’s Craft of Maine series on functional art, we feature four glassblowers who use a delicate combination of heat, balance, gravity, air pressure, and applied leverage to create works of art that are as beautiful as they are functional. The creations of these artists may range from platters to vases to vessels, but all employ texture, color, light, and form—not to mention technique—in uniquely eye-catching ways.
Capturing the Color of Light
THE CANVAS-August 2009
by Suzette McAvoy
Alexandra Tyng, Louise Bourne & Thomas Paquette
You Are Here
ESSAY-August 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” -Henry David Thoreau
A Family Affair
August 2009
by Debra Spark
Photography François Gagné
Designing for generations
When Ariana Fischer-Gregg was 22, she took the Johnson O’Connor aptitude test. Her credentials were in order—her years at boarding school and Boston University behind her—but what were her natural talents? “High aesthetics,” she remembers the test concluding. “Long-term vision. You should own your own business or sell pretty things.” Could these results have been a surprise? Given Ariana’s lineage? Her childhood? Probably not.
Urban Archaeology
PROFILE- Kaja Veilleux-August 2009
by Rebecca Falzano
Photography Irvin Serrano
An auctioneer with a photographic memory and an obsession with preservation
On a muggy morning at the end of May, the sheer volume of people and antiques inside Thomaston Place Auction Galleries makes the building, a former chicken coop, feel like it could bust its seams. Just before the auction starts, Kaja Veilleux—owner, appraiser, auctioneer, and founder—is walking around distributing handshakes and promises of a great show. “Going to be some fireworks here today, I tell ya,” he says with a wink. In the heavy air, the smell of antiquities and an excited energy mingle as people start taking their seats.
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