September 15 – November 20, 2006
What happens when 15 outstanding Maine architects distill their personal aesthetics into furniture? The answers, expressed in wood, concrete, plastic, and steel, may be seen in the new exhibition “Getting Personal: Maine Architects Design Furniture,” which opened on September 15th at the Messler Gallery, on the campus of the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship in Rockport.
Curators Richard Bernhard, A.I.A. and Phil Kaplan, A.I.A. invited accomplished architects who either practice in Maine or have done significant projects in Maine to create furniture expressive of their personal design visions and, ideally, to commission Maine artisans to build it. There were no limits placed on materials or degree of functionality.
Co-curator Kaplan was particularly interested to see how the architects’ styles and processes would translate to a form and scale as different as furniture. To illustrate those relationships, the architects’ original “napkin sketches” for their furniture will accompany the exhibit, along with photos of buildings they have designed.
Reflecting on the five-month process of designing and building a chaise lounge with woodworker Jim Millay, Portland architect Scott Teas comments, “The task of designing furniture sets up different parameters than we deal with daily as architects. It was a stimulating challenge to focus my skills in a different arena where detail is so critical.” Having developed construction techniques that they find intriguing, Teas and Millay may extend their collaboration to a table and other chairs.
Architect John Silverio of Lincolnville echoes Teas’ emphasis on the attention to detail that furniture requires. He created an occasional table in collaboration with Liberty woodworker Cam Pierel, and says he hadn’t realized “how nitty-gritty a maker becomes about everything – grain selection, corner details, finish, and so on. It was valuable for both of us to learn how the other thinks. Furniture makers think about wood and how to put it together, so that their designs are largely driven by construction considerations. Architects work with form in an abstract way and consider as an afterthought how to put things together.”
Participating architects and artisans include Richard L. Bernhard, A.I.A, working with Geoff Warner; Peter Bohlin, F.A.I.A.; Blas Bruno & Elizabeth Wastler Bruno, A.I.A., working with Geoff Warner; Christopher Campbell, A.I.A., working with Brian Lazarus of Opus One Furniture; Peter Forbes, Phil Kaplan, A.I.A., working with Jon Meade; John Silverio, A.I.A., working with Cam Pierel; Brigitte Shim, A.I.A Intl., F.R.A.I.C, O.A.A & Howard Sutcliffe, M.R.A.I.C, O.A.A; Scott Simons, A.I.A., working with Doug Green; Scott Teas, A.I.A., working with Jim Millay; Steven Theodore, R.A., working with Tom Brokish; John Turk, A.I.A., working with Steven Turk; Sam Van Dam, A.I.A., working with Cold Mountain Builders and Rockport Steel; Carol A. Wilson, F.A.I.A., working with Mark White; and, William Hanley, A.I.A., working with Jim Davis of Atlantic Builders.
The exhibition is co-sponsored by the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, AIA Maine, Architalx, and the Portland Society of Architects, and is funded in part by a grant from the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
