American Modern Home

Readers will respond to the warm and sophisticated work of Hugh and Simon Jacobsen, whose style of architecture and interiors might best be described as American modern vernacular—the place where traditional comfort and modern design meet.

Hugh Newell Jacobsen, the legendary architect and late co-founder with his son, Simon, of Jacobsen Architecture, once said “the best house is polite to her neighbors and never shouts.” This statement is a key to the philosophy of the firm, whose houses are suffused with a kind of quiet sophistication that mingle elegant, subtle modernism, with respect for local vernacular traditions. Low-key on the outside, on the inside these houses offer dancing symphonies in white. Unmarked by moldings, walls and ceilings express simple volumetric forms composed of solid planes and voids, while, upon floors of burnished wood or travertine, furniture, much of it designed by the firm, allows for serene repose and practical, unfussy use. Featured here are exemplars of the firm, from Harbor Hill—a cluster of 12 small structures, appearing at first as a group of smallish shingled Nantucket cottages, that reveals itself as a single serene residence overlooking Nantucket Harbor—to Windsor, a Florida Colonial abstraction in Vero Beach. Featuring inviting interiors, exteriors, and gardens, the book is an expression of eloquent design.

Simon Jacobsen is a founding partner of Jacobsen Architecture. The recipient of many prestigious awards in architecture and design, he is an inductee of Architectural Digest’s AD100. Paul Goldberger is contributing editor at Vanity Fair, former architecture critic for The New Yorker, and holds the Joseph Urban Chair in Design and Architecture at The New School. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Criticism in 1984 for his work with the New York Times.