John Portman

“Architecture is not a private affair; even a house must serve a whole family and its friends, and most buildings are used by everybody, people of all walks of life. If a building is to meet the needs of all the people, the architect must look for some common ground of understanding and experience.”



The open lobby of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Louis Kahn

“Architecture is the reaching out for the truth.”



Considered Kahn’s finest residential project, the Korman House in Pennsylvania was recently restored.

Dining Rooms

On Nantucket, Massachusetts, a couple commissioned Botticelli & Pohl Architects and interior designer Elissa Cullman to create their seaside retreat. “The dining room,” says Cullman, “with its hand-painted scenic canvas by Chuck Fischer, is the most vibrant room in the house.”



“The space itself was inspirational,” designer Charles Allem says of a penthouse he remade for a Manhattan couple. Walnut doors, fitted with bronze hardware, open to the dining room. Hanging over the expansive walnut table is an 18-foot-long bespoke fixture. Fabricated using 105 sandblasted-glass cylinders of varying heights, it gives off “incredible shades that reflect all over the room,” Allem remarks.



Art, books and light fill author and historian Barbara Goldsmith’s Manhattan apartment, designed by Mica Ertegun, of MAC II. “Instead of jewelry,” says Goldsmith, “books have become my Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” For the dining room/library, Ertegun bought an Art Déco table at a Paris flea market; the chairs were designed by MAC II. At rear is Three Weeks, 1957, by Larry Rivers.



Combining raw, native materials with a modern sensibility, interior designer Mariette Himes Gomez and architect Jim Morter created a singular retreat in Wyoming for Anne and Allen Dick and their children. An English Arts and Crafts leather screen adds texture to the dining area. The chairs, with a Larsen tweed, were designed by Gomez.