SPECIAL FEATURE
Suite 16
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The SUSTAINABLE MAGICIAN Susan F. King WHY WE LOVE HER: Many say they can stretch a dollar; King is one of the few who can really do it with substance and style. Her affordable housing projects–designed to be nurturing and socially responsible--are also downright lookers thanks to an offbeat but exciting sensibility that spurs her to make intriguing use of colors, materials and graphics. Her recent AIA award winner, Wentworth Commons in Chicago’s Roseland, is a four-story, 51 unit building with supportive services on the first floor; plenty of green features (it’s the first multi-unit residential building to earn LEED certification in Chicago); and a graffiti-resistant, glazed concrete block exterior. But she used those blocks in kicky colors (green, red and yellow besides the typical orange) and made the rooftop photovoltaic array a design focus rather then concealing it. It’s not hard to postulate that her penchant for offbeat, wildly patterned tights, and her unusual purplish-red hair, may the sartorial equivalent of making a big bang with a limited budget. All she’ll admit is “plain hose are boring and always run” and “I went gray early. This keeps it interesting.” WHAT SHE HAS DONE: King hails from Mecca, Ohio–“a town so small we didn’t have a post office,” she groans. She credits her dad, a steel worker who built both the family homes by hand, which stirring her interest in building and design. After earning a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Cincinnati, which had a coop program that allowed her to work in Chicago, she headed back here, worked for several firms, and joined Harley Ellis Deveraux in 1997. She became their third woman partner last year. Harley Ellis Devereaux, |
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Q. Any special skills? A. My friends and family always say I’m great at making something out of nothing. Q. What are your key inspirations? A. Sustainability, and doing a lot with a little. Q. What are you afraid of re garding the future? A. That we won’t be able to make buildings consume less fast enough. Q. Who would you like to design something for? A. My clients don’t have any homes, so there is no one better to design for then them. |
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The CONSUMATE CURATOR Eric Ceputis WHY WE LOVE HIM: Many designers claim they do everything, but Ceputis is a straight-shooter who pigeonholes himself precisely, knowingly admitting “I focus on post-industrial design and clients who share that interest.” He unearths intriguing pieces and documents their histories and importance with detective-like zeal, but his most striking talent seems to be integrating them creatively and cohesively into the homes he designs. For now, these environments “embrace a Modern, though hardly purist, aesthetic, but that will change as today’s designers make their mark with newly engineered materials and technologies that build on the innovations forged in the 20th century,” he explains. Such as? “They can print furniture (in a process called rapid proto-typing) and use resins in incredible ways,” Ceputis marvels, noting perceptively that “the things they’re creating now will be historically significant someday.” WHAT HE HAS DONE: After graduating from Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, he worked as a graphic designer in New York City. But a moonlighting gig with master muralist Christian Grenvelle (whose jet set clients included royals and Paloma Picasso, Bill Gates, Yves St. Laurent, Bruce Springsteen and Michael Douglas) hooked him on “using historic patterns and motifs in interiors.” In 1986, he quit his day job, moved back to Chicago and jetted worldwide to jobs---until he got tired of nomadic life and launched his own mural business here. This led him to forsake murals for interiors five years ago; since then his work has appeared nationally in Metropolitan Home. Now he’s facing an even tougher challenge than tracking down vintage treasures—namely figuring out which contemporary pieces are destined for greatness. Eric Ceputis Design, |
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Q. Where do you see the future of design going? A. Materials and technology are becoming so sophisticated that we’re able to mass produce things that are unique, like the resin furniture and objects of Gaetano Pesce. “No two are the same though they’re made the same way,” he points out. Q. How would you describe your approach to design? A. Find a client’s wavelength, investigate it and develop a path. Every client is different, and so is every path. Q. Is there any designer you appreciate? A. Too many. And there are always new ones to discover. Right now I’m enamored with Claudy Jungstra hand-dyed wool felted rugs, which are sold by Maharem. She even raises the sheep herself. |
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EMPATH Kathy Taslitz WHY WE LOVE HER: High-end design work is rarely about values and feelings, yet Taslitz has managed to turn the tricky art of furnishing interiors into a psychological exercise. After analyzing clients, she layers their places with pieces that speak to their state of mind. “It’s an emotional approach. I can fulfill their wants and needs, and say things in a new way,” she explains. For style-conscious parents of four, she silk-screened intricate patterns on prudent wood furniture to make their sturdy surfaces stunning; the same technique put an intriguing face on ho-hum mirrors needed to reflect light in a lair-like bachelor pad. And now she is creating a line of emotionally telling functional furnishings, this time reflecting her own point of view about family, identity, belonging and personal growth. WHAT SHE HAS DONE: She has a communications degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, but values most the education she got from her mother, a self-taught artist. Despite a career in advertising and photo styling, she still felt an overwhelming need to create things herself. First came beaded jewelry in her mid-twenties, then a line of hand-painted children’s furniture so exquisite that Neiman Marcus and Bellini snapped it up as exclusives. Nine years ago, she gave up furniture for interior design. Since then, her projects have appeared in local and national publications, including Architectural Digest and Metropolitan Home. Now the sculptural, limited production furnishings are her priority, aptly entitled “Pieces of Ourselves.” She speculates fine jewelry will be next. “I have a habit of coming full-circle,” she laughingly admits. 313 W. Superior St, |
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Q. What’s your inspiration? A. The mechanical designs and prop designs in science fictions films—at least the ones that were made before the digitalization of special effects. Think Dune, Star Wars, Bladerunner and even Dr. Strangelove. But also emotion and materials… we want you to have an experience. Q. What does the future hold? A. It’s wide open. In Milwaukee there has been a ton of change in the past five years and we’ve been lucky to be the beneficiaries of that vision. We’ve earned the trust of our clients and nothing feels better than that, but we’re always looking to be challenged; for the thing they said couldn’t be done. |
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The KILLER COMBO Julie Fisher & Rachel Crowl WHY WE LOVE THEM: Good partnerships are hard to find. But Fisher and Crowl are a killer combination, and in a nine year stint have amassed intriguing projects to prove the point. “We’re balanced,” acknowledges Crowl, who calls Fisher “a spirited, outgoing, energetic risk-taker.” Fisher reveres Crowl’s “strategic and thorough problem-solving approach to challenges.” Their personalities and proclivities give them different, but complementary, areas of expertise; Fisher has an exhaustive knowledge of new product and emerging trends, while Crowl possesses sterling technical experience and proficiency. But they share the same aesthetics and objectives: “we’re not planted in any design camp but favor clean lines,” says Fisher, and “our goal is to build projects that are beautiful but people can really live in,” insists Crowl. WHAT THEY HAVE DONE: Crowl has a Bachelor of Architecture from Virginia Tech, is licensed and has worked for a string of firms, while Fisher has a Bachelor of Arts from The School of the Art Institute, Chicago, a Master of Architecture from the University of Illinois, Chicago and is almost done with licensing exams. They focus on restaurants (Bluebird, just completed in Bucktown, is shown here) and residences, and have moved from small rehabs to substantial new construction projects—some of their own making. “After doing so many homes for developers, we realized we can be more clever and creative about custom features and aesthetics when we do it ourselves, so we’ve done four spec homes,” points out Crowl. Three are occupied; the last is just finishing up. fc Studio, |
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Q. If you could come back as a piece of furniture, what would it be? A.“A Fatboy pillow, which is a bean bag for the 21st century,” quips Fisher. “I don’t want to be reincarnated as anything that can’t eat. What’s the point of life without food,” counters Crowl. . Q. How would you describe your approach to design? A. “Life is complicated. We design things for real life, that people can really live in,” maintains Crowl. Q. Do you have a motto? A. “Don’t take it all too seriously. If you can’t have fun, why do it,” insists Fisher. |