Adrian Taylor
photo by Brittany Ambridge
If you could have a second home anywhere, where would you live? Echo Bay, British Columbia
What are three words to describe your style? Catholic school uniform
Tell us about your childhood bedroom? My family moved around quite a lot, so I had many bedrooms. One of them was literally a canvas tent with pink polka-dots. My favourite was a long rectangular room with terra-cotta floor tiles in a Spanish-Colonial bungalow we lived in circa 1975 in Laguna Beach, California. It was a sunken room with two steps leading down into it from the door thresholds at either end. My dad mounted a rope to the ceiling so that I could swing in and jump onto my bed like Tarzan the ape-man.
What’s the first investment piece you ever bought for your house? In 1988 when I got my very first apartment, I bought one of those incredibly heavy bistro tables with cast-iron legs and a white Carrera marble top. It is a ridiculous thing to lug around, but well worth the effort. Over the years, it has proven to be surprisingly adaptable to my evolving tastes and lifestyle, filling numerous roles including dining table, writing desk, synthesizer stand, crafting table and outdoor buffet. It is the Michael Caine of tables. I suspect it will be with me forever.
In the history of design, if you could hire any designer other than yourself, who would it be? My dream house would be designed by architect Kirtland Cutter with interior décor by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann.
No room is complete without: Some evocation of its occupant’s passions.
People think of me as conservative, but I am really kind of a hippy.
Things you omit from:
A flower arrangement: Carnations – they make me sneeze.
An hors d’oeuvre platter: Foie gras. Have you seen how they make it? So barbaric!
A bar cabinet: Fernet Branca Menta – tastes like mouthwash to me.
A song for:
Dinner at home: Água de Beber by Astrud Gilberto
Working at your desk: Ambient1: Music for Airports by Brian Eno
Going for a run: Don’t Go by Yaz
If you were on an Ambien high and internet shopping, what would you buy? Undoubtedly some vintage synthesizer I do not actually need.
Do your clothes reflect your design sensibility, if so, how? I would say that my clothes tend to reflect my work in the world of design more than they do any design sensibility per se. They almost inevitably bear the tell-tale dust and smudges one picks-up from spending a lot of time in a plaster workshop. It can be challenging because I frequently have days that begin at the workshop, include multiple visits to jobsites and/or design offices, and then conclude someplace with a strict dress code. Certain clubs in NYC have very graciously tolerated my dusty loafers and lapels.
Who is your star crush? In my first job back in 1989, I was once reprimanded when my superior discovered that I had stored a trove of sappy love letters to Winona Ryder in an encrypted subdirectory on a company server.
What is the thing you would never do on a project, but do not detest when you see others do it? Synthetic materials; like polyurethane foam, PVCs, synthetic fabrics. I personally cannot have those things in my immediate living space – it just feels like they will all one day be revealed to be unhealthy for people.
If there were a fire, and you could only keep one design book, what would it be? Motifs Historiques - Décorations Intérieures by César Daly.
For posterity, what would you like your work to be known for? Hopefully, people will remember me as someone who cared enough about a dying craft to preserve it, and also for bringing some things of beauty into existence.
photo by Durston Saylor
A Few Favorites:
Movie: Young Frankenstein directed by Mel Brooks
Book: Too Loud A Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
Scent: Eucalyptus trees
The fabric you always come back to: Cotton
Dream project: Doing the first plaster mouldings on Mars
Meal: Pomegranate Chicken at La Mediterranee in San Francisco
Drink: San Pellegrino sparkling water on ice with a lemon wedge squeezed into it
Hotel: 7132 Hotel & Therme in Vals, Switzerland
Travel Destination: The Dalmation coast of Croatia
Artist: Abigail Tulis
A cause near and dear to me: Scenographia – an organization I’ve been involved in founding that promotes the importance of maintaining the art and practice of drawing by hand.
Thing to collect obsessively: Musical Instruments
Era in the history of design: That is a hard one – I like a lot of different things about a lot of different style periods. If I had to choose, I would probably gravitate toward early Art-Deco.
Museum: The Hispanic Society Museum in New York
Paint Color that always looks great: My default for the walls at home is something called “Hazelnut Cream”
Favorite person to follow on Instagram: @k5fuwa
Dogs, Cats, or No Pets? I have not had any pets since I was a kid, but back then I had several dogs. I am allergic to cats, unfortunately (I do like them though)
