Houses Gardens People: 2011

A 1920s Christmas Tudor in Dallas by Designer Lisa Luby Ryan

Katie and Scott Reynolds' house in Highland Park,

done up for the holidays, as pictured in Traditional Home this month.

Joy! I had such fun last Christmas producing this story on Katie and Scott Reynolds' charming house in Highland Park for Traditional Home. We had to wait a year, but it's finally out, and it made the cover! Dallas designer Lisa Luby Ryan, who did the interior renovations and design for the house, did a gorgeous job styling it for the holidays, all last-minute. Andrew Lenz at Southern Botanical and Brenda Lyle at Vintage Living did the holiday greenery. Alicia and Adam Rico of Bows & Arrows did the flowers.

We basically took over their house for a week, and the Reynolds never complained. That photo of the family in front of the Christmas tree is exactly how they are, even with so many kids -- calm, cool, and composed. We didn't stage that photo of Katie baking fudge in the kitchen, either. She really does that, and there was always some delicious smell wafting from the oven.

I've posted the PDF of the story below (click on the images to supersize them!) or if it's easier, you can go to the site and read the story.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

John Dickinson's Iconic White Plaster Furniture at David Sutherland Showroom in Dallas

John Dickinson's original table designs, now in reinforced concrete,

at David Sutherland Showroom.

The table with rope tie and tree stump pedestal are shown.

Making News . . . if you're an interior designer, architect, or someone who loves great design, you already know about John Dickinson's famous white plaster furniture, produced during the 70s and early 80s. Often anthropomorphic with chunky animal or human-style legs, his work was influenced by African motifs and nature.

What you probably didn't know is that Dickinson had a strong Dallas connection. At the time of his death in 1982, he was collaborating with Dallas showroom owner David Sutherland to produce his furniture in fiberglass reinforced concrete. "Plaster is heavy and brittle. It literally falls in on itself. Nothing that John ever shipped wasn't damaged when it arrived," Sutherland tells me. "He and I were working together to make a material that wouldn't crack when he died."

Dickinson's demise put everything on hold for the next three decades. But this month, Sutherland's collaboration with the great designer finally comes to fruition. The Sutherland John Dickinson Collection makes its debut with 13 key pieces of estate authorized productions. They're made in fiberglass reinforced concrete, from the creator's original molds and stamped with the Sutherland logo on the bottom.

"This has been a nostalgia trip for me," says Sutherland. "I've been thinking about this for more than 25 years."

From left, Dickinson's Hoofed Table and Footed Table.

The original plaster furniture is scarce and goes for thousands of dollars, but it took decades before people appreciated Dickinson's designs. Angelo Donghia introduced Sutherland to Dickinson and his designs in 1980. "People used to call it Fred Flintstone furniture," he says. "Most people didn't get it, but some of the most sophisticated designers in the southwest were buying it from me."

Dickinson's Twig Mirror, Twig Lamp and Tin Table.

"When John died, everything came to a screetching halt," says Sutherland, who was left with a dozen or so samples of the reinforced concrete pieces the two had been working on. "I decided to put them in storage, and always had a piece or two in my homes."

Several years later, the owner of the company who was making the replications went out of business, and offered the Dickinson inventory and molds to Sutherland. "At the time, the Dickinson estate didn't want them, so I brought them to Dallas and put them in storage."

Dickinson's Large Lamp with Dome Shade and Footed Lamp.

Dickinson was revered on the west coast -- the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art did a retrospective of his work shortly after his death. But Dickinson was mostly unknown anywhere else until 2000, when some of his pieces were put up for auction. "There was a frenzy to buy his work all of a sudden," says Sutherland, who kept in touch with the executor of Dickinson's estate. "The time never seemed right to reintroduce those pieces we'd been working on. I've lived with it all these years, and finally, it was time," he says.

Dickinson's Etruscan Table and Large Six-Legged African Table

Because the pieces are made of reinforced concrete, they will last forever outdoors. But that wasn't the original intention. "I started working on the idea of reinforced concrete with John seven years before I started doing my outdoor collection," says Sutherland. "It's nice to have whimsy and a different look for outdoors, I think."

A rare, Six-Legged African Table was never before

seen outside the Dickinson estate

The 13-piece collection includes lamps, a mirror, side tables, coffee tables, a galvanized steel end table, and a rare six-legged African table that Dickinson had in his own home, but never made available for sale. Five or six more pieces will be introduced in the years to come, he says, including a bar console, floor lamp, wall console, and the possibility of pieces with different finishes.

"John's favorite color was chalk white, but he loved the idea of people changing the look, doing whimsical things to them," he adds. "I'd like to have seen what John would have come up with had he lived longer, but I think he'd definitely be pleased with what we've done."

How to Layer a Modern Interior with Favorite Collections

A sitting room in Scott Hill and Arthur Johnson's

Dallas apartment includes a vintage Ward Bennett

for Brickell sofa, a vintage Knoll Platner low table.

The gold-leaf screen is by Square One.

Photography by Justin Clemons

Meticulous and modern . . . Furniture designers Arthur Johnson and Scott Hill of Dallas-based Square One Furniture, who moved into their two-bedroom apartment in the Terrace House last January, left behind a rambling modern ranch that they had painstakingly renovated, and before that a 70s era house in north Dallas, “the size of a football field.”

The new residence is much smaller, but the views of the surrounding Turtle Creek area are inspiring, and the mid-century era building imparts a sense of history. The challenge was how to integrate their large collection of contemporary furniture and art, including original prototypes of their own furniture designs. Some of it was put into storage, but they kept their favorite pieces, layering inherited art with modern "antiques" much in the way traditionalists have done for centuries.

For Johnson and Hill, modern doesn't mean stark and cold. It's warm, inviting, and full of their favorite collections.

24-karat gold Midas's Lunch by sculptor Paul Suttman

A Square One Riviera chair and Champagne end table;

lamp by Philippe Starck; sculpture by David Brothers;

Johnson and Hill have hundreds of art and architecture books

which they use constantly for reference.

Downsizing in this economy just makes sense. The upkeep of their earlier homes required constant diligence, Johnson, 55, says. “Our taxes had gone up at our previous house 125 percent in three years. It was getting ridiculous for the two of us to live in such a big house with humongous taxes. It made sense to pare down.” Johnson and Hill launched their furniture design business, Square One, in 2000. Hill's post-graduate work at UT Austin in architecture had kindled a passion for furniture design years earlier. “I started sketching prototypes of furniture in 1985,” he says.

In the living roomforeground, a T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings end table

from Nancy Hamon's estate; terra cotta bowl by Elsa Peretti;

chairs, sofa, and side tables from Square One.

Johnson, a graduate of The Art Institute of Chicago, parlayed his creative talents into staging and merchandising for companies such as Macy’s and Neiman Marcus, where he designed display fixtures. Designing furniture was a natural next step. Clients for Square One’s spare and elegantly conceived chairs, tables, benches and case goods include Duke University, the Nasher Sculpture Center, Rockwell Group, W Hotels and residential designers Mil Bodron, David Cadwallader and Emily Summers. In part, the large houses that Johnson and Hill purchased in the past served as places to keep their furniture prototypes in situ, as it were, they say.

Their rooms are very architectural, from the clean lines and scale of the furniture, to the way everything is placed in the room.

Johnson and Hill created interior architecture with a custom fireplace

in faux shagreen. Large scale floor lamps by Leavitt Weaver

help balance the room; the painting is by London artist Luke Elwes.

Living room detail: Johnson and Hill's collections

include a silver bowl by Richard Meier and Robert A.M. Stern candlestick.

In the background, a view of Dallas artist Shane Pennington's tree sculpture

It took a while for the couple to consider the idea of renting; they’ve bought, renovated and sold seven houses in the past 20 years. After unloading their latest abode, they pounded the pavement looking for a smaller one to buy, quickly. The market had changed considerably, and finding a new one that fit their exacting tastes and budget was almost impossible. “Any Realtor in town will tell you we’re the most high-maintenance customers when it comes to looking for a house,” says Hill, 52. Real estate agent David Nichols, who specializes in modern homes, urged them to rent instead. “He sat us down and said, ‘You boys need a break, take the pressure off.’ We looked at each other and said, ‘You are so right. We won’t have to worry about the pool man, the lawn man, the tree man or whether the gutters need replacing.’”

The Giving Tree wall sculpture by Dallas artist Shane Pennington

In the living room: Square One's Zen walnut console and U2 bench;

Richard Meier bowl, Karim Rashid votives;

photo at left by Michael Booth; at right, Flip Art.

Their new apartment is located in the Terrace House, a high-rise on Maple Avenue built in 1961, where Johnson and Hill landed a 2,500-square-foot, ground-floor apartment with spacious rooms that overlook a heavily treed ravine. “It has a European sensibility, a sort of pied-à-terre, with all the windows to the front. And that view is like our own Central Park,” Johnson says. Rather than occupying their new rental as if it were a stand-in for a real home, Johnson and Hill set out to give it the permanence of time and attention, even if everything could be packed up at a moment’s notice.

In the dining room, a triptych by Tom Freund;

walnut table by Square One; vintage leather Laverne chairs.

A silver tray becomes an opportunity to display

monochromatic natural elements like berries, moss, and an artichoke.

At right, tiny chairs -- all found 0bjects -- are grouped together to make sculpture.

“Europeans have always leased rather grand and wonderful apartments whether in Paris, Florence or the south of France. People don’t seem to have a problem with that there, but the American culture is so driven by the purchase of a home,” he says, noting that renting is considered less desirable. “But I think it’s the future of American society.”

Downsizing into an apartment does have its challenges. There was no interior architecture to speak of, so the couple created interest in strategic places. In the entry, they designed a large quarter-sawn white oak panel and ledge and layered it over a mirrored wall to give the area dimension. An overscale console, placed in front of a floor-to-ceiling mirror, anchors the living room. The building isn’t piped for gas, but a custom wood and faux shagreen fireplace, illuminated by a tray filled with candles, provides a satisfying glow.

A custom display tower by Square One; Christian Liagre's

Paris-made India chair, deaccessioned years ago

from the lobby of the Rosewood Crescent Hotel.

The massive towers help create architecture in a modern room.

Master Bedroom: Square One custom made, quater-sawn

white oak headboard also doubles as interior architecture;

the benches and side tables are by Square One; Linda Ridgway painting.

For a couple who has spent more than 20 years together collecting, deciding what to keep wasn’t as hard as you’d imagine. “We kept the things we really love,” says Hill. Much of what they prefer has a pedigree: A Robsjohn-Gibbings end table from the late Nancy Hamon’s estate; a vintage Ward Bennett for Brickell sofa; a candlestick by architect Robert A.M. Stern; an Ellsworth Kelly lithograph inherited from Johnson’s parents; Jack Lenor Larsen’s rare Delphi chair. They kept a handful of their favorite Square One prototypes, much of their collections of bowls and boxes and all of their art and architecture books.

From left to right: Scott Hill and Arthur Johnson,

seated in a pair of Frank Gehry's Cross Check armchairs;

Connor, a white Westie, and Gunther, a black Scotty.

While their aesthetic is decidedly clean-lined and modern, Johnson and Hill took their interior design cues from the way Europeans have lived for centuries. “They went from generation to generation, layering their interiors with pieces that have been passed down from different eras,” says Johnson. “What we do is a nouveau version of that. It’s a comfortable, contemporary interior with a lot of different complexities.” Sterile environments without character or collections don’t appeal. “When you read through [interiors] magazines, the modern rooms are devoid of joy and a sense of history. They’re missing the things that come about serendipitously in lives, those wonderful moments that remind us of good times.”

Mies van der Rohe, the great architect and furniture designer famous for saying "less is more" may not have gotten it completely right -- sometimes more is so much more.

New in Dallas: Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports

Sydney Perkins and Mikäel Martinie, owners of

Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports

The Architecture of Love . . . they met in Lyon, France, where she was dancing with a cabaret troupe and he, a civil engineer, was moonlighting as a lieutenant fireman. They fell in love, and as a side business, started renovating properties together in Lyon. They never imagined their fondness for old buildings would eventually turn into an architectural import business in Dallas.

As a fireman, Mikäel Martinie's specialties were hazardous materials and underground fires. "He loves structures," says Sydney Perkins, 27, who hails from Little Rock. Martinie, also 27, was born and reared in France. "He's naturally interested in deconstruction of buildings. I had a chance to see wonderful old Provençal homes being gutted and renovated."

The couple, now engaged, started out reclaiming flooring from apartments they were renovating, then began scouting for more historically significant pieces coming from the surrounding Rhone and l'Ain regions, says Perkins. "We eventually rented a warehouse near the amazingly well-preserved medieval village Treffort-Cuisiat, where our operations are based."

The medieval village, Treffort-Cuisiat, where

Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports is based.

Perkins and Martinie returned to the States earlier this year with the goal of opening an architectural imports business, landing in Dallas where Perkins had begun training with the Lone Star Circus, which does arial hoops much like Cirque de Soleil. Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports opened in the Dallas Design District in September. Perkins is still on cloud nine: "Hooray for entrepreneurship in a down economy!"

Terra cotta roof tiles, ancient stone fireplaces,

and beautifully patinated iron door (reclaimed from a

19th century neo-Gothic cathedral in the l'Ain region). At

Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports.

"We do all the hunting ourselves, which is why I think our approach is unique. Our pieces reflect a cultural move toward 'le luxe rustique', and increasing utilization of reclaimed material," Perkins told me recently. In fact, Martinie had just left for France on a buying trip for a month. "We've concentrated on importing mantels, limestone and terra cotta flooring, window surrounds and stone crosses as well as some cemetery statuary that may be a little too avant garde for Dallas... we've gotten some strange reactions for sure! We also have ironworks ranging from church guardrails to crosses and gates."

Stone and iron crosses for sale at Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports

18th century guardrail from a church in the Cote d'Or region. At

Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports

All of Martinie and Altom's inventory comes from France, but depending on budget, they hope to eventually begin deconstructing larger edifices from forts, chateaux, and chapels. They are currently organizing a project in Lozere on a partially destroyed protestant chapel form the 18th century.

Beautiful centuries-old, French terra cotta bricks or tommettes for sale

at Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports.

They come from Treffort-Cuisiat, in the l'Ain region

and date from a medieval house that was later turned into a convent.

Beautiful old gate reclaimed from a chateau in France, for sale at

Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports

Chateau Ste. Collombe sur Grand in Rhone where

Perkins and Martinie have reclaimed architectural pieces

Andirons reclaimed from Ste. Collombe, depicting Republic president Thiers.

Above, an old French gate and detail.

Large matching doors will be arriving soon.

Mikäel Martini and Sydney Perkins pose inside a Gothic

limestone window surround, reclaimed from the home

of a stable keeper or ecurien, on the grounds of a deconstructed

chateau in Cremieu, in the Rhone region.

It's one of their oldest and most prized pieces for sale.

To find out more about Martinie and Altom Architectural Imports, go to their website, and watch a video of Martinie reclaiming many of the artifacts from their sites in France.

New Design Firm: Square Foot Studio

Square Foot Studio: Ann Sutherland, Shannon Cotten, Vianey Villalva.

Top Talent . . . Ann Sutherland, co-founder and president of the outdoor textile company Perennials and president of the David Sutherland Showroom entity, has launched a boutique interior design firm, Square Foot Studio.

While most know Ann Sutherland as a powerful force in the world of design, running six national showrooms in addition to one of the most respected outdoor fabrics companies in the country, her first love was interior design. "Before I married David (Sutherland) and moved to Dallas, I was an interior designer in Oklahoma City. I worked for a firm there, and hung up my own single for a while," she says. When she opened Perennials 15 years ago, she put her interior design business on hold, but it was never far from her mind.

"It's fun to get back into interior design, and I think I have an even better understanding of what clients want and what is needed on a project, after being on the product side of things for so long. It brings things full circle," says Ann, who has teamed up with established interior designers Shannon Cotten and Vianey Villalva to form her new firm. Cotten spent 9-years with Wilson Associates and gained experience in residential, hospitality, and boutique commercial design. Her work has been featured in Veranda and Architectural Digest. Villalva has a background in fashion, art, and design and has worked on custom design projects for private aircraft, lighting design, and restaurant concepts.

"Square Foot Studio is a separate design firm (from Sutherland) and we won't be limited by what the showroom represents," explains Ann. "We will use whatever suppliers the project calls for and we have access to a wide range of products. I want to also stress that we will be completely transparent on how we price. We'll have contracts. We are professionals who are reliable and responsible. So many people are afraid of hiring a designer and paying money up front, because they don't know if the designer will show up, or disappear. We want our clients to feel very comfortable hiring us."

Square Foot Studio's focus will be on residential and the look will be contemporary and transitional. "We are interested in designing clean and updated rooms that are fresh and current," says Ann. As a new team, they're working on a 2,400 square foot renovation in the M Streets area of Dallas, whose progress they will document in photographs and post on their site, and on a backyard terrace in north Dallas in conjunction with Lambert's landscaping. Both projects will be ready early next year.

Below is Ann and David Sutherland's AIA-award-winning house in University Park, designed by Lionel Morrison and Square Foot Studio.