Acanthus Award: Allied Arts & Craftsmanship November 2016
Excellence in Allied Arts & Craftsmanship Award:
Custom Dining Room Credenza
Suzanne Lovell Inc. with VCA, Inc. & Maureen Fullam
Suzanne Lovell Inc. was honored to receive two Acanthus awards in 2016 from The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Chicago-Midwest Chapter. We’re proud to support the work of the ICAA to advance the practice and appreciation of the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism and the allied arts.This Dining Room Credenza epitomizes Suzanne Lovell Inc.’s skill at creating custom product that combines multiple materials, historic reference and specificity of use while fulfilling the Client’s wish for sophistication and opulence.
The credenza features a sophisticated combination of materials: silver leaf over Victorian yellow clay, verre églomisé, hand-cast bronze hardware. Since the credenza serves as a spatial divide in an open floor plan, it is finished on all four sides. The dimensions of the credenza are based on the exact size of the silver leaves applied to achieve a specific rhythm of pattern. The verre églomisé inset has an organic pattern corresponding to other elements in the interior while off-setting the rectilinear patterns of the credenza itself. The hardware profile relates directly to the adjacent dining chair seat back. The interior is stained walnut and outfitted with custom drawers and inserts to house the Client’s formal dinner service. The credenza sits atop a central base that minimizes its overall monumental scale to give the impression that the piece is floating.
Every element of the design, including materials, dimension, proximity and floor plan, was studied and considered to produce a unique, heirloom-quality furniture piece, specifically engineered to meet the Client’s vision.
The jury remarked:
The design suits the space extremely well. Attention to detail is both precise and nuanced. This is a level of subjectivity that takes a true artisan. Nothing was too difficult to pursue and there were no pursuits without purpose.
The simple form of the credenza was made neutral to its manufacture well evidenced in the process photographs and obvious understanding of appropriately rendering this technique. The underlying functional articulation of the piece and its relation to the unit of the leaf is a cousin to the column diameter to the order in classical architecture.
The credenza represented not only technical and artistic virtuosity but was well conceived as a component of the comprehensive interior design. The project was further admired for its level of attention to design, from the layout of the individual silver leaf sheets to the function of its components.
