Celebrating Pride: 7 LGBT Design Pros to Know
Find inspiration in the work of these influential architects and designers
Gwendolyn Purdom
June 27, 2019
Lover of architecture, history, dogs, the Chicago Cubs, crowded bookshelves, and homes with a story. Former editor at Preservation mag and Culturess.com.
Lover of architecture, history, dogs, the Chicago Cubs, crowded bookshelves, and... More
You would probably recognize the curves of her Bibendum chair, but you may not recognize Eileen Gray. The Irish designer and architect’s creativity continues to influence pieces that decorate our homes more than 40 years after her death, and her contributions represent only a sliver of the important body of design work created by members of the LGBT community. June is traditionally the month when lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender achievements are celebrated with festivals and other events. But the impact the following seven innovators — and many more like them — have had, and will have, on the spaces we live in is worth knowing about year-round.
Decorator Elsie de Wolfe popularized floral chintz fabric.
1. Elsie de Wolfe
With its heavy drapery and dark wallpaper palettes, the Victorian home was typically a little stuffy. So when New York-born former actress and socialite Elsie de Wolfe came on the decor scene with softer colors, lighter fabrics and an airier overall aesthetic in the early 1900s, it marked a major shift. De Wolfe is often called America’s first decorator. Her work initially garnered attention when she was commissioned to design the interiors for the Colony Club, New York City’s first exclusive social club for women. In the years that followed, she brought her less formal, more feminine style to projects throughout the city, in California and beyond.
1. Elsie de Wolfe
With its heavy drapery and dark wallpaper palettes, the Victorian home was typically a little stuffy. So when New York-born former actress and socialite Elsie de Wolfe came on the decor scene with softer colors, lighter fabrics and an airier overall aesthetic in the early 1900s, it marked a major shift. De Wolfe is often called America’s first decorator. Her work initially garnered attention when she was commissioned to design the interiors for the Colony Club, New York City’s first exclusive social club for women. In the years that followed, she brought her less formal, more feminine style to projects throughout the city, in California and beyond.
Though she married a man in her later years, de Wolfe spent more than a decade living with literary and theatrical agent Elisabeth “Bessie” Marbury. The house the two shared in New York’s Gramercy Park — where they regularly hosted political and artistic celebrities of the time — is now designated as part of the city’s LGBT Historic Sites project. Today, de Wolfe’s legacy lives on in decorative elements such as mirrors, wicker, indoor trellises and the (sometimes divisive) incorporation of floral chintz, like the kind seen here.
See 14 rooms abloom with modern chintz
See 14 rooms abloom with modern chintz
Mark Pasnik’s firm, OverUnder, designed this vacation home in Westport, Massachusetts.
2. Mark Pasnik
In his book, Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston, Boston architect Mark Pasnik and co-authors Michael Kubo and Chris Grimley reflect on the controversial movement known as Brutalism. It’s a style that Pasnik, who often explored his builder grandfather’s work sites as a kid, has long found fascinating.
“Concrete structures like Boston City Hall or the Christian Science Center were conceived as bold civic gestures, yet more recently their forms have been interpreted as authoritarian. These buildings were an instrumental part of a political and economic effort to renew an entire city, and to a significant extent it worked,” Pasnik says.
2. Mark Pasnik
In his book, Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston, Boston architect Mark Pasnik and co-authors Michael Kubo and Chris Grimley reflect on the controversial movement known as Brutalism. It’s a style that Pasnik, who often explored his builder grandfather’s work sites as a kid, has long found fascinating.
“Concrete structures like Boston City Hall or the Christian Science Center were conceived as bold civic gestures, yet more recently their forms have been interpreted as authoritarian. These buildings were an instrumental part of a political and economic effort to renew an entire city, and to a significant extent it worked,” Pasnik says.
When he’s not advocating for bold concrete construction, Pasnik, pictured, is doing award-winning work as the founding principal of design studio OverUnder, including taking on preservation projects, overseeing academic buildings in Qatar and vacation homes in New Jersey, and teaching at Boston’s Wentworth Institute of Technology and elsewhere.
“For me the most interesting projects are those that engage the cultural world around them,” Pasnik says. That might be working on a building with a complicated political history or designing a house around the needs of an unconventional family structure like his own: Pasnik and his partner of 18 years live in Boston and New York respectively.
“For me the most interesting projects are those that engage the cultural world around them,” Pasnik says. That might be working on a building with a complicated political history or designing a house around the needs of an unconventional family structure like his own: Pasnik and his partner of 18 years live in Boston and New York respectively.
A comforter from Nate Berkus’ line of bedding
3. Nate Berkus
Chicago interior designer Nate Berkus endeared himself to a national fan base when he became Oprah Winfrey’s go-to expert in the early 2000s. Berkus’ TV appearances, and later his own shows and bestselling books, positioned the home as a vehicle for expressing someone’s unique narrative. “My job as a designer is being able to tell my client’s stories through the things they choose for their home,” Berkus says on his website. “What they’ve seen, who they’ve loved, and where they hope to go next.” His work has included everything from overhauling family homes to launching his own product lines, but no matter the project, his designs almost always showcase vintage pieces with plenty of character.
3. Nate Berkus
Chicago interior designer Nate Berkus endeared himself to a national fan base when he became Oprah Winfrey’s go-to expert in the early 2000s. Berkus’ TV appearances, and later his own shows and bestselling books, positioned the home as a vehicle for expressing someone’s unique narrative. “My job as a designer is being able to tell my client’s stories through the things they choose for their home,” Berkus says on his website. “What they’ve seen, who they’ve loved, and where they hope to go next.” His work has included everything from overhauling family homes to launching his own product lines, but no matter the project, his designs almost always showcase vintage pieces with plenty of character.
Another Nate Berkus comforter
Berkus’ own story has played a big part in the way he has connected with the design-loving public. After losing partner Fernando Bengoechea in Sri Lanka’s 2004 tsunami, Berkus has been vocal about the unexpectedly supportive response he got from people from all walks of life who had gotten to know him on TV. In 2014, Berkus and his husband, fellow designer Jeremiah Brent, were the first same-sex couple to marry at the New York Public Library. They now host home makeover show Nate & Jeremiah by Design on TLC and welcomed their second child in 2018.
Berkus’ own story has played a big part in the way he has connected with the design-loving public. After losing partner Fernando Bengoechea in Sri Lanka’s 2004 tsunami, Berkus has been vocal about the unexpectedly supportive response he got from people from all walks of life who had gotten to know him on TV. In 2014, Berkus and his husband, fellow designer Jeremiah Brent, were the first same-sex couple to marry at the New York Public Library. They now host home makeover show Nate & Jeremiah by Design on TLC and welcomed their second child in 2018.
4. Eileen Gray
Eileen Gray’s famous adjustable table, the one she designed to complement her E1027 villa in the south of France, remains a fixture of the modernist style. Born in Ireland in 1878, Gray, pictured, who was bisexual, later moved to Paris, where she displayed her innovative pieces and textiles in her own showroom.
Eileen Gray’s famous adjustable table, the one she designed to complement her E1027 villa in the south of France, remains a fixture of the modernist style. Born in Ireland in 1878, Gray, pictured, who was bisexual, later moved to Paris, where she displayed her innovative pieces and textiles in her own showroom.
Eileen Gray’s adjustable table is still in production.
E1027, and the tangle of design-related drama surrounding it, was the subject of a British feature film and accompanying documentary in 2016. The movies explored Gray’s contentious relationship with the “father of modernism,” Le Corbusier, and how he had led the design community to believe he had designed the storied villa. Gray’s work “was very modern at the time,” The Price of Desire writer and director Mary McGuckian told Houzz after the film’s release. “I have the idea that if you find a classic piece of furniture in Ikea or Muji or Habitat, you can probably trace it back to Eileen Gray.”
See more about the controversial house “that changed the way we live”
E1027, and the tangle of design-related drama surrounding it, was the subject of a British feature film and accompanying documentary in 2016. The movies explored Gray’s contentious relationship with the “father of modernism,” Le Corbusier, and how he had led the design community to believe he had designed the storied villa. Gray’s work “was very modern at the time,” The Price of Desire writer and director Mary McGuckian told Houzz after the film’s release. “I have the idea that if you find a classic piece of furniture in Ikea or Muji or Habitat, you can probably trace it back to Eileen Gray.”
See more about the controversial house “that changed the way we live”
Wythe Hotel
Sawyer DeVuyst designed the green side table in this Wythe Hotel room.
5. Sawyer DeVuyst
Sawyer DeVuyst is a model, actor and artist based in Los Angeles and New York. As a child, he spent a lot of time in the wood shop with his dad, who was a woodworker. “He instilled an appreciation for craftsmanship in me,” DeVuyst says. “Growing up poor, I learned the importance, necessity and practicality of being able to fix things on your own.”
In 2010, DeVuyst founded Saw, a furniture and interior design company that has supplied pieces to residential clients as well as for commercial buildings, including Amazon’s offices, the Etsy headquarters and the hip Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn, New York.
5. Sawyer DeVuyst
Sawyer DeVuyst is a model, actor and artist based in Los Angeles and New York. As a child, he spent a lot of time in the wood shop with his dad, who was a woodworker. “He instilled an appreciation for craftsmanship in me,” DeVuyst says. “Growing up poor, I learned the importance, necessity and practicality of being able to fix things on your own.”
In 2010, DeVuyst founded Saw, a furniture and interior design company that has supplied pieces to residential clients as well as for commercial buildings, including Amazon’s offices, the Etsy headquarters and the hip Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn, New York.
DeVuyst renovated this space in New York City’s East Village. Photo by Allison Michael Orenstein
With industrial finishes and pops of color, DeVuyst’s furniture combines a minimalist approach with a sense of fun. DeVuyst is on a break from designing furniture, focusing instead on a self-portrait series titled Mine that captures his day-to-day life as a transgender man.
“Good design doesn’t beg; good design doesn’t shout,” he says. “It just is.”
With industrial finishes and pops of color, DeVuyst’s furniture combines a minimalist approach with a sense of fun. DeVuyst is on a break from designing furniture, focusing instead on a self-portrait series titled Mine that captures his day-to-day life as a transgender man.
“Good design doesn’t beg; good design doesn’t shout,” he says. “It just is.”
Alan Buchsbaum helped create the supergraphics style seen on the wall.
6. Alan Buchsbaum
Alan Buchsbaum’s bold colors and modern lines injected New York’s houses, businesses and lofts with new life in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. The Georgia native made a name for himself as one of the creators of the High Tech architecture style, a genre known for its playful shapes, funky materials like plastic and vinyl, and industrial influences. Buchsbaum also helped introduce the oversize images called supergraphics to American tastes.
6. Alan Buchsbaum
Alan Buchsbaum’s bold colors and modern lines injected New York’s houses, businesses and lofts with new life in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. The Georgia native made a name for himself as one of the creators of the High Tech architecture style, a genre known for its playful shapes, funky materials like plastic and vinyl, and industrial influences. Buchsbaum also helped introduce the oversize images called supergraphics to American tastes.
Supergraphics incorporate blown-up versions of text or patterns.
Buchsbaum’s contributions to architecture and design were cut short in 1987, when he died from AIDS-related complications, and he is cited as a key shaper of modernism. “Mr. Buchsbaum,” says The New York Times obituary of the architect, “captured — in the houses, stores, apartments and lofts he designed — the informal and adventurous spirit of a generation of clients who had come of age in the 1960s.”
Buchsbaum’s contributions to architecture and design were cut short in 1987, when he died from AIDS-related complications, and he is cited as a key shaper of modernism. “Mr. Buchsbaum,” says The New York Times obituary of the architect, “captured — in the houses, stores, apartments and lofts he designed — the informal and adventurous spirit of a generation of clients who had come of age in the 1960s.”
7. Jane Greenwood
Jane Greenwood, principal at New York’s Kostow Greenwood Architects, has been professionally active for 30 years. She has been out as a lesbian and a vocal advocate for women, minorities and LGBT people for just as long. After co-founding the Organization of Lesbian + Gay Architects and Designers in the ’90s, Greenwood helped head up the effort to map sites with historic significance to the LGBT community in New York.
“We have such a rich history that wasn’t being shared outside our community, and it was time to tell our stories,” Greenwood says. “By documenting these LGBT sites, we created a written history that didn’t exist before. The NYC LGBT Historic Site Project [which Greenwood isn’t directly involved with] is continuing this important work today.”
In 2017, Greenwood was named one of Out magazine’s 100 most influential LGBT figures and a “woman of influence” by the New York Business Journal.
Jane Greenwood, principal at New York’s Kostow Greenwood Architects, has been professionally active for 30 years. She has been out as a lesbian and a vocal advocate for women, minorities and LGBT people for just as long. After co-founding the Organization of Lesbian + Gay Architects and Designers in the ’90s, Greenwood helped head up the effort to map sites with historic significance to the LGBT community in New York.
“We have such a rich history that wasn’t being shared outside our community, and it was time to tell our stories,” Greenwood says. “By documenting these LGBT sites, we created a written history that didn’t exist before. The NYC LGBT Historic Site Project [which Greenwood isn’t directly involved with] is continuing this important work today.”
In 2017, Greenwood was named one of Out magazine’s 100 most influential LGBT figures and a “woman of influence” by the New York Business Journal.
Kostow Greenwood Architects designed the Shop East at VSP Global in New York City. Photo by Studio Brooke
Her portfolio with Kostow Greenwood has largely focused on broadcast media and cultural institution clients, but no matter what she’s working on, Greenwood says the principles of thoughtful design that guide her work stay the same.
“Smart, sensible and sustainable are three key drivers that are the foundation of good design for me,” she says. “Whether it’s designing a new building or a teacup, one must consider how people engage with your product. Always ask tough questions, such as: Is it necessary or does it bring added value? If the answer is not a resounding yes, then start over.”
Tell us: How have you been celebrating Pride? Let us know in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Read about other influential designers and architects
Learn more about the art of architecture
Her portfolio with Kostow Greenwood has largely focused on broadcast media and cultural institution clients, but no matter what she’s working on, Greenwood says the principles of thoughtful design that guide her work stay the same.
“Smart, sensible and sustainable are three key drivers that are the foundation of good design for me,” she says. “Whether it’s designing a new building or a teacup, one must consider how people engage with your product. Always ask tough questions, such as: Is it necessary or does it bring added value? If the answer is not a resounding yes, then start over.”
Tell us: How have you been celebrating Pride? Let us know in the Comments.
More on Houzz
Read about other influential designers and architects
Learn more about the art of architecture
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Happy Pride!
I think these are/were exceptional people. People are exceptional because of who they are, not who they are partnered with. They should be celebrated for that.
Having taught Interior Design for 25 years, many of my students were both gay and lesbian, and were excellent students. Their sense or working with good design principles was notable, and they were extremely hard workers because they knew themselves well enough to know that pursuing a design career was what they were meant to be. I have stayed in touch with some of them over the years, and I always marvel at the things they have accomplished in the Interior Design profession. And they knew they could come and talk with me about their place in life, and that I would listen and give good advice accordingly. Here's to my Gay and Lesbian students!