MATTHEW S. ROBINSON 62 Brookline Street, Needham, MA 02492

617 877 6264 / matthewsrobinson@mac.com The following piece appeared in New England Home:

Steel Magnolias Taking man-made materials back to their natural elements, sculptor David Tonneson evokes nature through un-natural means By Matt Robinson Steel. A combination of natural elements and human processes. It can support thousands of pounds or simply hold together two pieces of paper. It all depends on how it is used, on who crafts it and who shapes it, and on whose vision it is bent to replicate. For nearly 20 years, Somerville-based sculptor David Tonneson (www.davidtonneson.com) has been using this man-made material to evoke the wonders of nature, bringing light and openness to public and private spaces across the country through the use of this heavy and all-too-solid material. An admitted doodler and lifelong art fan, Tonneson received a BFA in photography at the University of Delaware. While there, he also tried his hand at other artistic pursuits. “I was concentrating too much on one thing,” says the avid fisherman, mountain biker and aerial photographer, “so I took a class in jewelry making.” Thus was born a love affair with metal. “I learned how to anodize titanium,” he recalls, explaining the process of chemically treating metals to allow them to reflect light at different wavelengths, thereby releasing a myriad of colors. “I eventually sold over 100,000 anodized bracelets, which was enough to keep me at a nice poverty level.” Hoping to take his art and his bank account to new heights, Tonneson wanted to change the dimensions of his medium as well. So, when he moved to the ironically stuccoed Brickbottom Artist Studios in Somerville, he began to take on new challenges even before he was fully aware of what he was doing. “Somebody heard that I worked in metal,” he recalls, explaining how he came to

be offered his first large-scale sculptural gigs. “I had no space, tools, or know-how, but I figured I’ll say yes to the job and then figure out how to do it.” This improvisational ethic and can-do attitude served Tonneson well even after he figured out how to use the giant lathes, welders, and plasma torches, which can cut through ½” of steel with unadulterated heat. “I use them the way they say not to,” he explains. “They are meant to give smooth lines, but I like to bend them.” As Somerville is “a land of no trees,” Tonneson figures that part of the reason he is there is to bring some natural beauty to the industrial area. “I like to break up lines,” he says. “It is very therapeutic and relaxing. Though he uses hi-tech tools for many projects, Tonneson is also a bit of an old-fashioned guy who takes great pleasure in the ways of the hammer and the anvil. “Nothing beats elbow grease,” he says. “You basically persuade the hell out of it!” Though his materials can weigh hundreds of pounds and the hammering has left him with battered arms and wrists, Tonneson is far from muscle-bound. Like the material he uses, he is strong but lithe; solid but flexible. The smile comes as easily to his slender face as the equally sculpted curves come to the steel in his hands. One of the aspects of his artistic life that makes him smile the most is the lack of commute. “I used to have a corporate job,” he recalls, remembering his life after he gave up selling jewelry on Martha’s Vineyard and traveling to such far-flung locales as New Mexico and Switzerland. “It was miserable. Now I go days without driving!” In fact, Tonneson’s living space/office (which he gladly opens to the public during Brickbottom’s famed Open Studios each November) is just a few steps across a steel-trellised courtyard from his workshop. There, painted floors and steel-sheathed ceilings intermingle with delicate miniature models and substantial full-scale renderings of Tonneson’s signature lighting and sculptural work. “Sometimes it’s easier to make something than to find it,” Tonneson says, pointing out the handmade bathroom fixtures that combine brushed steel with rocks found on the beach and the custom kitchen that is a rare example of non-curvilinear design. “It is punishment for me,” he says of the angular island, “but it is practical!” The natural arc of his creations not only leads the eye around Tonneson’s diversely decorated living/workspace (that includes everything from taxidermed fish that Tonneson caught to a model of a 45’ sculpture Tonneson created for Legal Sea Foods) but also emphasize his desire to combine the natural and the man-made. “The process of playing with metal, making forms and seeing what I like,” Tonneson explains, “made me realize how I liked extracting the natural spaces.” While many of Tonneson’s structures evoke vines, rose bushes and the flames from which they are created, perhaps the crowning achievement of his ecologically-inspired work is the giant fish that now swims atop Legal Sea Foods’

headquarters on Boston’s south piers. “I had done a waterfall for one of their restaurants,” Tonneson recalls, “and Roger [Berkowitz] asked me for ‘something really major.’” Though it took the LSF CEO almost as long to define the actual project as it did for Tonneson to create it (after which time, he almost did not get it out of the garage door of his studio!), the long-time fisherman was able to come up with another impressive design that combines natural beauty with kinetic fabrication. “The scale of my work has gone from my fingers to my entire body,” Tonneson says, recalling his early days of delicate jewelry work. “Doing this project, I felt like an ant!” That Tonneson is still marveled by his own process helps him to keep his work fresh and to make each piece new and exciting. “I am always hard pressed to do just one thing,” he says, offering a portfolio of creations that ranges in design from menu holders to sconces to a new flame-shaped piece he has labeled a “coat rack” (so the shippers will not blanche at the prospect of mailing “art”) and in price from $3000 for a dining room chandelier to over $100,000 for a monumental sculpture). “Every angle gives a different take, and it is not the same from every view.” While Tonneson enjoys allowing the public into his home for Open Studios, there are plenty of other ways to see and enjoy his creations. Having made friends with nightlife guru Pat Lyons early on, Tonneson has placed his work in many popular clubs on Lansdowne Street in Boston, as well as in such fine dining establishments as The Fireplace, Hammersley’s and East Coast Grill. And some of his work appears outside as well, such as the steel tower on top of Best Cellars in Brookline’s Coolidge Corner and the menorahs that mark the spiritual homes of Ohabei Shalom and the Graham Gund-designed Young Israel in Brookline and Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore in Swampscott. “I love doing them because they are steeped in so much tradition and meaning,” Tonneson says of the curving crowns he has created for these congregations, “and because they are unique to each community.” Though the raw materials may be raw indeed, Tonneson takes great pride in his ability to bend and shape them not only to his will but also (and more importantly) to that of his clients. “My work can go in a traditional Colonial or a modern deck house,” he says of his “ancient relics of the future,” many of which have had him short listed in national competitions. “It fits well in a variety of spaces.” As with his anodized jewelry, which allowed him to play with depth on a two-dimensional surface, Tonneson uses his larger pieces of steel to bring even further dimension to what is often a flat landscape. “Now that I am working in three dimensions,” he suggests, “I can say a lot more.”

MATTHEW S. ROBINSON 62 Brookline Street, Needham, MA 02492

617 877 6264 / matthewsrobinson@mac.com The following piece appeared in Design New England:

Second Home by the Sea Talented team mixes old and new, land and sea in compound project By Matt Robinson When a retired couple of long-time sailors wanted to build their dream home on Cape Cod, the dream did not involve just the location – in this case, a peninsula overlooking the harbor and abutting their current property. They also wanted a place where their extended family could gather and where they could enjoy all the comforts of home and all the glories of the sea. “They are very family oriented and love the ocean,” says interior designer Eileen Peretz of Eileen Peretz Interiors, Inc. “They wanted to bring the outside in.” In order to realize this dream, the parents of three daughters and grandparents of a quickly growing troupe called on experienced waterfront architect Mark Hutker of Mark Hutker Design, Architects, Inc. Working with Peretz and landscape architect Kris Horiuchi of of Horiuchi & Solien, Hutker and his co-principal Charles Orr put together a 4,000-square foot second home that combines traditional New England materials with pioneering design elements in a seamless blending of coastal comforts. “[The owners] wanted the living areas…to be socially connected,” Hutker says. “They wanted a space where their family could gather.” In order to live up to this part of the owners’ dream, Hutker’s team combined a traditional Cape exterior clad in shingles and painted trim with a forward-thinking interior that eschewed the local tradition of many small rooms in favor of a large space that was marked not with walls but with furnishings and other design elements. “The dining room’s focus is on the table such that it defines the area,” Hutker suggests, citing an imported French table that opens from a 64” round table for two to an 11’ long setup that can accommodate the owners’ expanding family. “And the kitchen…uses built-in cabinets.” With the spaces defined by how they were used, Hutker and his colleagues were able to leave much of the floor space open. In fact, the three main living areas are set off primarily by a custom stone fireplace that opens on three sides. “The house lives bigger than itself,” Hutker suggests, touting its surprising interior

space. “A house that wasn’t designed this way would need to be bigger to accommodate these things.” And good thing too! For as it is surrounded by water and conservation land and situated on a flood plain, the home’s footprint and foundation were limited. “The restraints were both horizontal and vertical,” observes Hutker, “[but] we embraced the restrictions and used them to find opportunities in our design.” As the natural vegetation in the area grew to about five feet high, raising the building platform on terraces took care of the floodplain issue while also improving the all-important views from the house. It also allowed Horiuchi to comply with the owners’ wish of bridging the old neighborhood and their new home. “The landscape palette was designed to link the house to the surrounding…area,” Horiuchi says, noting how the native plantings not only complemented Peretz’s interior palette of sea greens and blues, but also helped the new house to fit in even better with its older neighbors. “The owner wanted it to fit into the community,” Hutker says, “but the way we live [today] is different from the way that families structured themselves when the historical houses were created.” In addition to the plantings, the new home is also linked to its environment by the locally-quarried stones that were used both for the interior-defining fireplace and the exterior-defining retaining wall. The interior materials also lend an air of history to the new construction. “The inside is primarily antique heart pine which is on the paneled walls as well as the flooring,” says Orr, complementing project architect Kevin Dauphinais’ custom woodwork. “The beauty of having used that interior paneling is that it…looks as if it has been there a while.” Another time-twisting touch involved designing the living room to look as if it had once been an old screened porch that had only recently been filled in. “It accommodates the openness between the spaces that was important to the owners,” Hutker says, citing their “strong mandate that the sense of interior space flowed out…in a very natural progression.” This interior openness and connection to the outside are also emphasized by the many large windows that allow for clear sightlines to the water and the owners’ beloved sailboat. “The house is sited…with a north-south orientation,” Horiuchi explains, citing a “dramatic layered view” looking out at the harbor. “The living room and a series of outdoor decks are oriented toward this water view.” By embracing challenges and working together, the design team created a space that combines coziness and expansiveness, tradition and practicality and, most importantly, dreams and reality. “It is a very personal house and it reflects [the owners] and their family,” Peretz suggests. “We all worked very well together and I think the clients were very happy!”