Design Confidently, Live Comfortably
| January/February 2005 Arts & Crafts Made Modern A grand plan makes a poor start Both Morosco and the Friedmans were enthusiastic about the project -- perhaps too enthusiastic. Attempting to include their favorite features from both Prairie and Craftsman architecture, they came up with a plan Ed later described as an oversize hexagonal jewel box. “It was a totally inappropriate use of the space,” says Kathy, who nixed the project when she realized its price tag was more than double their initial $100,000 budget. 
Disappointed, the couple didn’t go directly back to the drawing board. “We had to chill out and rethink it,” says Ed. But over the next few months, the Friedmans whittled away at the plan, reconfiguring it as a more modest rectangle that retained most of the features they wanted. The Friedmans still felt that Morosco, who was trained at Wright’s Taliesin School, had the talents to see their project through. “Most of the architects we talked to didn’t understand at all what we were trying to do,” Ed said. “They’d come in and give us the Arts and Crafts redux approach. Jerry knew what we wanted and knew how to do it.” So they re-hired him to execute their more modest plan. And this time, says Kathy, everything clicked from the start. NEXT: Arts and Crafts is a Natural for a Kitchen |
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PHOTOS: KAREN TANAKA
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