Talk Shop: Gary Brewer // Robert A.M. Stern Architects
ABOUT GARY
Gary L. Brewer joined Robert A.M Stern Architects in 1989 and made Partner in 2008. A classicist at heart, Gary’s broad body of work includes private residences around the country, from Westport, Connecticut to Seaside, Florida. Gary’s work has been published in Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Architectural Record, Life magazine, and The Classicist. He is the co-author of Designs for Living: Houses by Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Designs for Learning: College and University Buildings by Robert A.M. Stern Architects. He is a Fellow Emeritus of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, Co-Chair of The Classicist Committee, and a member of the American Institute of Architects.
Recently, the firm published HOUSES, a stunning book of homes from across the country in a diverse range of architectural styles that embody the spirit of place and find harmony between the traditional and the contemporary. (We have paged through the book more than once for inspiration!) We were so honored to sit down with Robert, and hope you enjoy it!
Describe your style in three words or less:
“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.” Oscar Wilde
What have been the three biggest influences on your aesthetic in your life:
Travel, travel, and travel. Oh, and knowing how to see and draw when travelling.
What is your favorite thing about what you do:
Realizing the built form to show that better buildings and cities are not a thing of the past.
Do you have a mentor in your career, and if so, how have they helped to shape your trajectory:
If I didn’t acknowledge Bob Stern he’d gently remind me to.
What does your home say about you:
Before this year that I should spend more time there instead of at the office, traveling for projects and fun.
Where do you find inspiration:
Any place built before 1940.
Who are your style icons:
Stanford White.
What are your key ingredients for entertaining:
A good bottle of wine and entertaining dinner partners on either side.
Do you collect anything:
Long ago transferware with a Grand Tour theme but not so much nowadays. I used to love flea markets to see what others had once owned and the people who visited the markets but they are now with the internet a thing of the past.
Favorite Instagram accounts to follow for inspiration:
Anyone posting on architecture, interiors, or landscape as a means of mining for design inspiration.
What design “rule” do you always follow, and which is made to be broken:
Learn the vocabulary of traditional design and classical architecture and then study how others have unlearned it to breathe new life into the past. Put simply, architecture is the art of lining things up.
What are you working on right now:
Houses in Nashville Tennessee; Sea Island, Georgia; Essex, Connecticut; Asheville, North Carolina, Shelter Island, New York and restoration of a West Village townhouse in Manhattan. Elsewhere I just finished up the new Cougar Point Golf Clubhouse in Kiawah and golfer cottages at the Ocean Course in Kiawah adjacent to our clubhouse. Also, a large multifamily project in Charleston, South Carolina under construction with four others nearby on the boards, a senior living facility in Charleston as well as hotel designs in Charleston and Kiawah. I’m fortunate to be a partner at Robert Stern architects with so many talented collaborators.
Wardrobe staples:`
A pocket square and when in town don’t wear brown.
Favorite fabric/wallpaper:
Not once has that thought ever crossed my mind although I’ve always been amused by Wilde’s last words, “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has got to go.”
Best interior advice you ever received:
Good poets borrow; great poets steal.
Best career advice you ever received:
Good ideas come from everywhere and everyone if you just listen and look.
Types of home purchases you invest in, and save on:
Invest in a place you love that is full of interesting people and pre-war houses preferably no more than an hour away from New York City.
Your greatest extravagance:
All of the fun I didn’t have before I turned thirty.
Favorite places to shop for home:
Learning about the history of houses and their interiors qualifies as shopping in my book.
Most prized possession and why:
Billie, my wire haired fox terrier although she seems to think that she is the owner.
Your interiors motto:
Great decorators think like architects; great architects think like decorators.
Your life motto:
Not that I’ve ever thought that I had a motto but I do appreciate Aristotle’s quote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
Advice for someone looking to define their own interior style:
See the world through other’s eyes to be a true original and never believe in the myth of originality.
Take Ten: My Favorite…
Food: Anything served in a beautiful setting.
Drink: Martinis and Manhattans before I curtailed my drinking.
Film: So many to choose from. Days of Heaven, any movie about New York, Badlands, Taxi Driver, Fred Astaire movies, The Last Picture Show. Citizen Kane. All About Eve. The Wizard of Oz. Recently We the Animals and The Florida Project. And I’m probably the only person who hates It’s a Wonderful Life.
Hotel: La Mamounia, Marrakech
City: New York, New York, New York. (and read the book New York, New York, New York Four Decades of Success, Excess, and Transformation by Thomas Dye).
Bedding: Honestly? No pillow talk here.
Tea or Coffee (and how do you take it): Café Bustello, no sugar, splash of milk. Max of two cups and none after 3 pm.
Playlist: There is no genre of music I dislike although recently I’ve taken a guilty liking to American Country and Western, old and new, for its Americana storytelling qualities.
Weekend Activity: Gym, gardening, movies.
Design Book: How can anyone seriously interested in the history of architecture, interiors and gardens possibly list one book?!