A Woman’s Place

Over the years I have had the pleasure to design spaces for women who are doing really important things, like coding the human genome or defending the disadvantaged. Even when they’re changing the world, every woman wants a beautiful home.

One day the call came from the incoming President of Brown University, who hired me to redesign her official residence. To make the space feel welcoming for donors and students alike we created a gender-neutral visual language, with hues and textures that evoke classic menswear. The office had traditionally been lined with portraits of “dead white men,” as the new President put it. Instead, she wanted her house to be filled with works of living woman artists, which we selected from the university’s private collection.

The President also wanted to open a dialogue about the University’s founder, John Brown, who had made his fortune trading commodities that included slaves. In a feature wall in the dining room we placed a modern sculpture by Yinka Shonibare of a sailing vessel made of Kuba cloth, a reference to the ships that transported slaves from Africa.

And to push the gender tension in the room, we installed pink silk curtains.  

Photography by Joshua McHugh