Anthony CotsifasThe west side of Sara Rotman’s house.
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An architect and client’s shared vision produces a house that’s both logical and lyrical — and energy-efficient.
At first glance, they would appear to be unlikely collaborators. David Mann, the founder of the New York practice MR Architecture + Décor — which designs high-end residences, and retail spaces for clients like Pierre Hardy (a New York store that will be its first in the United States), and the design showroom SUITE New York — is a soft-spoken architect with a less-is-more approach and a closet full of black and navy Prada suits. Sara Rotman, whose company, MODCo Creative Inc., has designed identities, logos and textiles for companies from Tory Burch and Carolina Herrera to Pour La Victoire and Kelsi Dagger, plays polo, owns a Rottweiler named Boogie and favors tattoos, skinny jeans and very high heels. When Mann answers a question in the affirmative, his response is a quiet “Sure.” Rotman’s is an emphatic “Hell, yes!” And the trait that they do share, which is that they are extremely opinionated on matters aesthetic, doesn’t always make for an easy collaboration.
But the two also shared something that transcended their outward differences. Rotman really wanted to build a weekend house — a small, Modernist house. “I didn’t want to do the Kaufman house again,” she explained, referring to the famous Palm Springs dwelling that was designed in 1946 by Richard Neutra, “but I wanted something Modernist in feeling, and in harmony with the land.” And Mann, as it happened, had been thinking about just such a house for several years. He even designed one for himself, to be built in the California desert. He still hasn’t built the house, but Rotman saw the design in his portfolio several years ago when she was interviewing architects for the Tory Burch store in NoLIta. Mann got the store commission, and Rotman eventually asked him to design her house. For Rotman, discovering that “we’re both true Modernists” sealed the deal.
Her property in upstate New York, with its sweeping view of the Berkshires, offered the perfect spot for a house that would make her feel “like I was outside all the time.” Initially, Mann hoped to site the house so that it looked west, toward the Catskills — an even more spectacular view. But it involved cutting down too many trees, and Rotman argued that the Berkshire view would be just as nice; she could wake up to the sunrise. Mann came around to his client’s point of view, calling her “site savvy.” But architect and client agreed from the start on the design of the house, a 2,400-square-foot, bar-shaped building clad in red cedar, with all rooms facing the view. The open living-dining-kitchen area — the more public space — acts as a buffer between the home office and guest room near the entry and the master bedroom at the far end of the house. (Closets lining the hallway that connects the spaces provide ample storage.) Nine-foot ceilings give the interior a graciousness that belies its small size, and the limited palette of materials — concrete for the floors, wood for the ceilings, dry-stacked local stone for the fireplace wall and Corian for the cabinets — makes the rooms feel even more spacious. Radiant heat eliminates the need for radiators, or “wall acne,” as Mann called them, although there is also a forced-air system for cold winter days.
The collaboration between architect and client extended to the decoration of the house as well. Mann chose a set of vintage wood chairs by Paul McCobb for the dining table; Rotman, who loves color (see her Loquita line of scarves at loquitanyc.com), suggested painting them bright red. Mann thought an antler chandelier would be a nice reference to the local wildlife; Rotman thought gilding the chandelier would make it wilder still. Cowhide upholstery continues the rustic theme, although Mann added what he called “a ‘Green Acres’ touch” (Eva Gabor, not Eddie Albert) when he found a hand-painted wallpaper from De Gournay for the guest bathroom.
Still, this house isn’t just another pretty facade. It’s energy-efficient, too, using both geothermal power and an array of solar panels that Mann cleverly concealed behind the roof parapet. These features, and the fact that the house is used mainly on weekends, allow it to run mostly off the power grid. “We always bring up the energy issue,” explained Mann, whose office designed a LEED Platinum-designated store for Origins in Denver. “My house in the desert was going to be solar.”
In the end, Mann said of Rotman, “As collaborators, we were seamless.” Rotman, who called their working relationship one of “violent agreement,” obviously loves her house. “I don’t need art on the walls,” she said. “I have Nature TV. I watch storms and hawks, and a snowy owl hunting.” To her, the house feels “glamorous, yet invisible.” You can’t argue with that.
