Cambridge’s First International Style Home

I am gratified that 2017 has started with an exciting project which has come full circle on Reservoir Hill, Cambridge.  This caps off the last five years of Cambridge “firsts” for Heidi Pribell Interiors.

An Early Innovative Style

One thing leads to another, and our past few Cambridge properties adhere to this idiom.  With a current gut renovation of 28 Fayerweather Street, I am mindful of the path clients take to my studio.  I am thinking back to 2012 when I re-furnished Cambridge’s first International Style home at 45 Fayerweather Street, The Garrett Birkhoff Home, the only Cambridge work by Walter Gropius’ Harvard colleague, Walter Bogner.

Sunken Outdoor Garden’s defining feature is the foundation wall of the previous Victorian home.

Harvard Faculty

After construction of the Garrett Birkhoff House, Professor Bogner turned his attention to his own home, adjoining Walter Gropius’ home in Lincoln, MA.  I would have loved to have met these greats, working in the early 40s, on projects that defied convention.  It’s gratifying that Heidi Pribell Interiors was able leave a furnishings mark on Bogner’s only Cambridge landmark.

The exterior gardens were magnificent, but the home inside was euphemistically stale.  According to Brattle Associates Real Estate after I staged it for sale, clients viewing the property would exclaim “Wow — who lives here?! This place is fascinating!”  In fact the Historical Commission also commented that I “understood the vocabulary of the architecture and selected excellent furnishings.”

Next Historic Home

Next my attention will turn to the first Colonial Revival home in America!  Also on Fayerweather Street in Cambridge, I return to this landmark property, having re-furnished the home in 2012, for the family of Governor William Weld.  The property had languished on the market for 2 years, and our Heidi Pribell Interiors staging led to a successful sale two months after we completed the project.  The Arthur Astor Carey home now has new owners who are committed to a full gut restoration, where my interior design journey on Reservoir Hill continues.