American Modern Home: Jacobsen Architecture + Interiors

Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the legendary architect and late co-founder with his son, Simon, of Jacobsen Architecture, once said “the most efficient house is polite to her neighbors and never shouts.” This observation is a key to the philosophy of the firm, whose houses are suffused with one of those quiet sophistication that mingle elegant, subtle modernism, with respect for local vernacular traditions. Low-key at the out of doors, at the inside these houses offer dancing symphonies in white. Unmarked by moldings, walls and ceilings express simple volumetric forms composed of solid planes and voids, whilst, upon floors of burnished wood or travertine, furniture, much of it designed by the firm, allows for serene repose and practical, unfussy use. Featured here are exemplars of the firm, from Harbor Hill—a cluster of 12 small structures, appearing to start with as a group of smallish shingled Nantucket cottages, that reveals itself as a single serene place of abode overlooking Nantucket Harbor—to Windsor, a Florida Colonial abstraction in Vero Beach. Featuring inviting interiors, exteriors, and gardens, the book is an expression of eloquent design.