WORLD DESIGN / ULTIMATE WRITER’S DEN IN THE CONNECTICUT WOODS

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John Barr stands in front of his studio in the woods: a place for poetry.

In the woods near Greenwich, CT not far from the family main house, retired investment banker and poet John Barr has created an idyllic writer’s studio on a slope amid trees, boulders and a terrain populated with hawks, deer, wild turkeys, fox, squirrels, and chipmunks beyond number.

        

Called “The Studio in the Woods: a place for poetry,” Barr called on architect Eric J. Smith and builder Nordic Custom Builders to create the poet’s visual version of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater home.

        

But, the small box of stone and glass is not by Wright because it is every bit Eric J. Smith.

        

What Smith and Barr created is a cantilevered aerie, complete with all the electronic devices and homey comforts to make a poet happy and to house in style a collection of books numbering 1,600 plus.  It is a treat to look at from any angle.

        

Last fall, the Smith office published a coffee table monograph highlighting the best of the firm’s 30 years as one of New York’s go-to architects for residential design.

        

Renewing Tradition, The Architecture of Eric J. Smith, has brought attention to Smith’s work.  Two major media since have published articles on the Barr studio.

Exterior photo(s) of John Barr in front of his stylish book bunker by Emon Hassan for the New York Times.  Interior images are by Dezeen.com’s Durston Saylor.

For Dezeen’s article by Jenna McKnight click here.

For the New York Times by Eve Kahn article click here.