The North Shore home industry turned out in droves for Northshore Home magazine’s Spring Soiree at the historic Waldingfield estate in Ipswich held during Boston Design Week. The evening began with a panel discussion on Reimagining Estate Houses and Farmsteads in Rural New England. The panel discussion included Kristina Crestin and Jonathan Knight of HGTV’s Farmhouse Fixer; JB Clancy and John Tittmann of ART Architects; and Dan Gordon of Dan Gordon Landscape Architects, and was moderated by Northshore Home editor Nancy Berry. The lively discussion, in front of a sold out audience, shared insights on how they all work with clients to restore and renovate older buildings across New England as well as create new homes informed by vernacular regional designers.
Jonathan Knight, best known as a member of Grammy-nominated New Kids on the Block, shared the challenges and triumphs of restoring centuries-old New England farmhouses. Kristina Crestin splits her time between her business Kristina Crestin Design and designing and filming HGTV’s Farmhouse Fixer, and shared ideas on how to work within a client’s budget.
John Tittmann and JB Clancy of the award-winning architectural firm Albert Righter & Tittmann talked about designing fresh interpretations of traditional New England Architecture. Dan Gordon, the founder and principal of Dan Gordon Landscape Architects, shared his body of work, which has achieved sustained recognition, including numerous awards from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art.
After the discussion guests explored Waldingfield, which was built in the 1920s and is a take on the Italian Renaissance style. The house was a fox hunting lodge for the original owners Charles and Julia Bird. Spread across 39 acres, the landscape is an exercise in the theatre of nature: allées, intimate entertaining terraces, meandering pathways, endless manicured hedges, and rolling lawns open to vistas of the gardens, the polo fields, and the Ipswich River beyond.
The Premier Sponsor for the evening was Creative Design Interiors who provide quality products, construction and design services for kitchens and baths. And the featured sponsors were Coastal Windows & Exteriors, a home renovation company that specializes in energy-efficient windows, siding, roofing, doors, and baths (during the evening they gave away a picnic basket valued at $1,400); and Gregory Lombardi Design, an award-winning landscape architecture practice with a fresh interpretation of classic, timeless principles.
This Northshore Home event was in is in support of The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art, the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism, and their allied arts. It does so through education, lectures, and tours.
Up next in June is our Northshore Home Summer Event at Meredith Farm in Topsfield. Be sure to reserve your tickets for what is sure to be another memorable Northshore Home event.
Photography by Elise Sinagra