ARQUITECTURA Y DISEÑO

George W. Vanderbilt created one of the greatest self-sustaining American country estates of the late nineteenth century—at its center, Richard Morris Hunt’s splendid 250-room French Renaissance château. Beyond the acres of gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and the imposing castle exterior lies one of the most notable private collections of fine and decorative art in the nation. Discover the wealth of treasures assembled in the historic rooms: paintings by Monet, Renoir, Sargent, and Whistler; Renaissance tapestries; rare books; and exquisite French and English furniture.

This book is meticulously designed as a large-format visual portfolio of the world’s most distinctive birds, whose nesting behavior and natural beauty are celebrated in beautifully detailed graphite and watercolor illustrations—all based on actual field studies. The exquisitely detailed bird, nest, and egg portraits are framed by details that include building techniques, materials, egg characteristics (shapes, colors, and number in a clutch), hatchlings and chicks, and parenting behaviors.

Principals Jamie Drake and Caleb Anderson delight in creating imaginative rooms that emphasize the precious alongside the everyday. Drake is known for his fearless use of color as well as his fashion-conscious sensibility. Anderson is lauded for his layered approach and the confidence with which he juxtaposes a variety of historic periods. While firmly focused on contemporary design, their work harkens back to the legendary designers and decorators of yesterday. Drake/Anderson’s deeply informed yet accessible modernist sensibility is exemplified by eleven remarkable residences, from Manhattan to London to Arizona, in a full spectrum of rich jewel tones and textures. In an aerie with panoramic views, the pair devised a platinum-and-pearl backdrop for a provocative potpourri of materials—wood, lacquer, stone, gypsum, glass, velvet, leather, mirror, and bronze. Whether refashioning a private oasis in the woods, where contemporary pieces mix with custom items of the firm’s design, or bringing a stately 1910 house fully into the present by amalgamating the owners’ antiques with modern and contemporary art, Drake/Anderson embraces a dynamic eclecticism all its own.

Over two decades, William Curtis and Russell Windham have worked to show that classical architecture can embody the same attention to context and custom approach to design often ascribed to more modern movements, underscoring how versatile classical ideals and details can be. In styles reminiscent of the great Tudor manor houses of England to quaint symmetrical clapboard farmhouses, quintessentially Mission-style haciendas, and of course neo-Georgian mansions, the firm builds houses with a faithful adherence to historical detail, proportion, and materials that makes them stand out as truly world-class designers. With interiors as much a part of their core practice as exteriors, this firm is able to carry through an integrity of vision—graciously curved banisters, warm and inviting mantels, detailed brickwork, and coffered ceilings—that makes every project feel truly whole, complete. Yet a strong sense still pervades every featured home that they are organized to support modern lifestyles, taking the best of the past and adapting it to create homes that are truly comfortable and functional for today’s families.

Conceived by William Cecil, Lord High Treasurer to Queen Elizabeth I, and built between 1555 and 1587, Burghley House is a testament to the ambition and vision of the most powerful courtier of the first Elizabethan age. Designed by Cecil himself, in consultation with the Dutch Renaissance architect and painter Hans Vredeman de Vries, the architecture and interiors at Burghley reflect a mix of contemporary fashionable influences. The house’s facades are each markedly different, with a striking and ornate Gothic gatehouse beneath a roofline of cupolas and obelisks, and with French and Italian styles visible in the windows and pilasters. And inside, where the State Rooms house remarkable collections of furniture, textiles, and Old Master paintings acquired over the centuries, Cecil’s Gothic-style Old Kitchen remains alongside the magnificent Renaissance staircase and Italianate fireplace in the Great Hall.