Year: 2013

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By Kathleen Nicholson Webber

Originally posted in the Philadelphia Style Magazine on November 12, 2013.

In 33 years of marriage, one thing Lynda and Larry Gross always agree upon is art. To celebrate their anniversary each May, they almost always buy an oil or watercolor painting, a bronze statue, or even a cultural artifact. So when their nest was close to empty, and they looked to move from a sprawling suburban home to the city, they didn’t want to deny their beloved trove of artwork the square footage it so richly deserved. Their hunt began in earnest in 2006, and they had two caveats: they didn’t want to build, and they didn’t want to live on Rittenhouse Square.

A year later the couple offers a collective shrug when explaining that they live in a penthouse condominium in the Parc Rittenhouse, a place they built from a shell, thanks to a little nudging from developer Allan Domb. How did they get there? A few failed deals, including a floor-to-ceiling glass condo in a new building, led them to meeting Domb, who suggested constructing “what they really wanted,” and who assembled a team that even included his architect of choice, Spence Kass. The result is a spacious, airy space with many old-world details, and a perfect setting for their art.

In January 2011 Kass sketched out what he could do with the blank space after his wife, Laura, came to the Grosses’ sprawling colonial in Lower Gwynedd to measure and inventory the collection. Project architect Michelle Colville listened to what they loved about their current home—and more plans were made. The apartment, which took just seven months to build, features three bedroom suites, a supersize kitchen, a media room, a library and office, and a living room/dining room/music room, which holds their grand piano and other beloved instruments.

There is a sense of peace and space the minute you walk into the apartment. Kass and Colville created a backdrop that fosters enjoying rooms where art can also be enjoyed, gallery style. The entrance foyer features an ethereal portrait by Charles Dwyer, Contemplating Blue, one of their favorites and bought in Boston for their 25th anniversary. Also in the foyer is Autumn Rain, James Scoppettone’s original oil of a meandering forest path the pair acquired in Hawaii for their 20th anniversary. Antique chairs complement the setting.

In the living room and dining room, art and instruments enjoy equal billing. Near the entrance to the kitchen is The Blue Painter, an original lithograph by Marc Chagall (acquired from Israel for their 19th anniversary). Kass and Colville fashioned the long hallway leading from the living spaces to the bedrooms into something of a gallery. “Their art is interesting. It brings life to the home,” says Kass, who chose moldings with enough detail to highlight, rather than distract from, the collection. He also gave the space arched portals and coffered ceilings to give it warmth. Floors are also artful: Decorative marquetry, using six different types of wood species, was installed in the foyer and outside the master bedroom.

Woodworker Victor Rossi did all of the apartment’s millwork and built-ins, including the rich cabinetry in the library, which doubles as an office. “We really live in the office and in the kitchen,” says Larry. Because Lynda and one of her daughters like to cook, the kitchen is a focal point and is as big as the one they left in the suburbs.

The kitchen opens up to the media room on one side and the music room on the other. They employed an acoustic specialist to soundproof the music room and other parts of the home. “We built essentially two walls near the piano,” says Larry, who has played since he was six (Lynda does, too) and loves to have his daughters and wife accompany him on vocals. “All of us sing with varying degrees of proficiency and play a variety of other instruments,” he says. The couple toasted the move and their most recent anniversary by buying two period etchings—a map and a landscape of the city during the Revolutionary period. The Grosses’ transition to the city has been seamless. “We can’t believe how easy it has been,” says Lynda. “Our home feels like a retreat, and now we are part of this vibrant community.”

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By Kathleen Nicholson Webber

Originally posted in the Philadelphia Style Magazine on September 12, 2013.

Architect Frederick L. Bissinger thinks a style can’t simply be copied. “Style is a language,” he says. “If you can speak the language well, you can write new poetry with old words.” Bissinger has been designing traditional homes for the well-heeled here since 1970. One such project is on the site of the former Schmidt beer estate in Wayne. The property’s Victorian residence burned down, but in 1997 these coveted three acres were purchased by a couple who dreamed of building a family home where they could raise their children and entertain often.

Bissinger created Honeystone, an 12,800-square-foot residence in a style he calls Artisan Revival, with English Georgian influences. “This kind of home revives the fine craftsmanship, details, and high-quality materials used in the first third of the 20th century,” the architect says. “If you look at the great old houses on the Main Line, you will see they’re made of stone and cut limestone and they have nice doorways. All of these materials and features are back in style. They are expensive, but people are willing to pay for them.”

All of his clients, including Honeystone’s owners, want a custom design, so Bissinger made certain the six-bedroom, seven-and-a-half-bathroom house was filled with ornamental details that would not be seen anywhere else. One is the front door, with its copper repoussé fan light, created by a Massachusetts coppersmith and framed in limestone. For the roof Bissinger chose natural Vermont slate; the principal is all stone; and the windows and doors are trimmed with Indiana limestone cut in Canada and installed by local masons. Inside are carefully scaled rooms—some grander, for entertaining, and others intimate, like the library, the kitchen, and the family room, which overlook the private grounds.

Bissinger called on Edwin Mahoney, of Bryn E.B. Mahoney Builders, to execute his ideas for the interior. A third-generation suburban builder, Mahoney employed veteran crafts-people to do the millwork and stonework. “People who want an old house want the kind of detailing we put in this house—the chiseled stone, the custom ironwork gates and clay chimney caps,” he explains. “It’s off the wall, not off the shelf.” Bissinger, who knows quite a bit about woodworking himself, feels that his knowledge of this craft and other artisanal details makes his designs better: “If you’re educated about a craft, it helps you to choose the right materials and design for the maximum effect.”

One of Bissinger’s signatures is to uncover details meaningful to the client and incorporate them in the residence. “Sometimes I ask homeowners about carving something into a fireplace,” he says. “I make sure people feel their house is theirs.” For this project, the owners presented him with three antique stained-glass windows from an old church in Maine. Mahoney had the windows releaded and framed, and the architect made them a focal point of the entrance, creating a dramatic staircase and landing so visitors can enjoy them from up close and afar. Adds Bissinger, “They liked the idea of an important wooden-rail stairway with heavy millwork around the windows.”

Now the home is on the market. Agent Susan Ravenscroft, of Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty, says the house, priced at $5.75 million, looks grand even from the driveway. The Belgian block courtyard is set with an antique millstone provided by the client’s father. A series of terraces lines the exterior, some offering views of the home’s exquisite gardens and lawns or its heated swimming pool and spa area, complete with a fully outfitted pool house.

“The architect did such a wonderful job siting the house on this beautiful piece of property,” says Ravenscroft. “From so many rooms in the house, you can sit and look at the rolling lawns or see the snow fall from the octagonal eating area off the kitchen or from the family room. There really is attention to all the details and the fine craftsmanship of houses from another era.” For more information, contact Susan D. Ravenscroft, 610-213-3515, or David B. Harrington, 610-636-8266. Kurfiss Sotheby’s International Realty, 6038 Lower York Road, New Hope

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By Kathleen Nicholson Webber

Originally posted in the Philadelphia Style Magazine on April 8, 2013.

Buying a home designed by a star architect with the thought of revamping it can be a daunting proposition, especially when the work is by the legendary Pritzker Architecture Prize–winning I.M. Pei, best known for designing the Louvre Pyramid, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, and the Miho Museum in Japan. Deciding to take one of his creations down to the studs and redesign it to fit a modern family of three requires another level of bravado.

This kind of daring was precipitated by the arrival of a baby and a daily trek of 52 stairs to the door of a third-floor condo owned by Kevin Yoder. Yoder, an architect who had worked in high-end hospitality design for BLT Architects and corporate interiors at EwingCole, and opened his own firm in 2010, was living on Third Street at Locust with his partner, Harvey Hurdle, when they were months into parenthood; they knew they needed a family-friendly home. They both loved all of the green spaces in their neighborhood, so the search was limited to Society Hill.

Across the street was a block of I.M. Pei townhomes, built in 1962 during the area’s redevelopment. “In the late ’50s, the area was rundown, with lots of commercial properties and abandoned homes,” says Yoder. The city’s plan was for it to once again become a model residential area.” Led by Edmund Bacon, the City Planning Commission’s director, the city bought 31 acres near Dock Street for a new apartment complex that would become Society Hill Towers and 37 brick-façade townhomes. Chosen for the design over four competitors was the New York firm Webb & Knapp and its noted architect I.M. Pei.

Yoder, whose hospitality work includes Revel resort in Atlantic City and Echelon Place in Las Vegas, bought one of the townhomes and took a year to modernize the 3,200-square-foot space. Originally the idea was to update the kitchen and baths, which had not been touched since the ’60s. Once he started, though, he wanted to do more, installing recessed lighting and new floors, keeping the bones of the house and the signature Pei features—such as the spiral staircase that acts like the home’s spine, starting from the lower level and extending to the third level—intact.

In his plans, he decided to reconfigure rooms, take down walls, and use the same palette of materials throughout the home to make it appear more spacious. The end result is an ultramodern house warmed by his use of medium-hued woods, as well as color and texture throughout.

In the kitchen he took down walls to create an open first-floor layout; a visitor can now see from the front entrance to the back courtyard garden. “When you are in the dining room, you feel like you are sitting in the garden.”

On the third floor, Yoder moved the master bedroom to the Third Street side and the other two bedrooms to the back of the house. In the master bath, he mounted vanities on the wall to make the space feel larger, and he added a skylight to save on energy and give the rooms a better light quality. “On a moonlit night in the city, there is a nice glow in the bathrooms.”

Yoder, who now works on redesign projects with other Pei homeowners, feels like he honored the prize-winning architect’s work with the final product. “Pei’s designs are pure geometry. Everything is curvilinear and pure forms. The rooms of this new design now reinforce those lines.” 241 S. 3rd St., 267-994-1103.