After working for 40 years as a magazine art director in New York City, most notably at Vogue and Vanity Fair, Charles Churchward found that he no longer got the same energy from the city that he used to. Before moving to Santa Fe, where he obtained his very first driver's license, Churchward knew the he didn't want "one of those cliché adobe-style dwellings." On the edge of town, near the Sangre de Cristo foothills, the former art director found the home he was looking for: a "low, geometric building, with glass doors and large windows" designed by architect Ralph Ridgeway in 2002 as his own residence.
Writing for Architectural Digest, Churchward describes the home as a place with the feel of "a large city apartment transported to a perfect outdoor setting":
"On the outside, thick, rough walls of Rastra (an insulating cement composite) change color, from chocolate to burnt umber to ocher, as the sun crosses the sky. Inside, the walls are the same material painted white. The public areas are paved with sandstone tile from India, while the floors in the bedrooms are pine." In the living room (↓), the largest of those sandstone-paved public areas, Churchward brought in a vintage Florence Knoll chair done up in zebra-stripe upholstery, a pair of Charles Pollock armchairs (also Knoll), a B&B Italia sofa topped with two Marcel Wanders pillows, and artworks including a Tom Sachs gun sculpture and a Peter Dayton collage.
Inside the library (↑↑), Churchward hung a large canvas by his mentor, Alexander Liberman, and brought in, among other pieces, a Saarinen side table (Knoll) and an Eames chaise longue (Vitra), both from Design Within Reach. As with much of the home, the bedroom (↓) is lit by "graphic bands of sunlight" throughout the day, thanks to skylights behind the exposed wood beams.
Head to Architectural Digest to check out the home in full.
· A Former Art Director's Modern Desert Retreat [Architectural Digest]
· All Santa Fe coverage [Curbed National]