Sawyer / Berson - by Brian Sawyer & John Berson (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The first book from SawyerBerson illustrates the award-winning firm's quintessential pairings of modernism and classicism in seaside houses, metropolitan residences, and spectacular garden retreats.

Treating architecture, landscape, and interior design as complementary endeavors, Brian Sawyer and John Berson have been ahead of their time and influential in the world of design since the founding of their eponymous partnership in 1999. SawyerBerson's prodigious use of traditional and modern vocabularies has gained the firm widespread recognition and many notable clients. Meticulous attention to detail and versatility combine to create a wide variety of projects.

In the Hamptons, a modernist house of stone and glass lets in the sun and sea views while secluded by the dunes and drifts of native grasses. Another residence is built according to the pinwheel floor plans of early twentieth-century houses by Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright to accommodate four primary suites around a central common area with plenty of space for entertaining and individual relaxation. Yet another project, equally arresting, is a Colonial Revival cedar-shingled house and seaside landscape built for multiple generations. Whether restoring a historic Georgian Revival town house in Manhattan, designing a modernist residence in the country, or planning a garden by the ocean, the practice embraces traditional and contemporary styles with equal distinction.

Review Quotes

"When Brian Sawyer and John Berson founded their eponymous New York firm in 1999, the synergies between architecture, landscape, and interiors were immediately clear. This book reflects that harmonious spirit through projects like a grand East End estate that still embraces the area's simple shingle vernacular, a midcentury-modern home in Bridgehampton sporting a cantilevered roof terrace, and a Manhattan town house brightened by a brick and ivy garden." --ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST

"The first book from Sawyer Berson illustrates the award-winning firm's quintessential pairings of modernism and classicism in seaside houses, metropolitan residences, and spectacular garden retreats." --MOFFLY MEDIA

""To be modern is not a fashion, but a state," Le Corbusier once said. "It is necessary to understand history, and he who understands history knows how to find continuity between that which was, that which is, and which will be." Few contemporary design firms are as up to the task as Sawyer Berson, the practice began in 1999 by Brian Sawyer and John Berson. They met in the office of the famed Robert A.M. Stern and developed an approach that treated architecture, landscape design and interior design as equals in the pursuit of an aesthetic beau idéal. This, their first book, is required reading for anyone wishing to understand that which will be." --TOWN AND COUNTRY

About the Author

Brian Sawyer and John Berson--whose backgrounds are in landscape architecture and architecture, respectively--met when both were working at Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Their combined design philosophy guides SawyerBerson, an AD100 firm. Mayer Rus is the West Coast editor of Architectural Digest.