Author(s): William Saunders

Architecture

From family houses to historic restorations, hotels, and high-tech office spaces the architectural firm of Roger Ferris + Partners has pursued uncommonly diverse projects at vastly different scales, all with an approach to design that synthesizes imagination and logic. Whether a 1,500-square-foot house on a narrow lot overlooking Long Island Sound, or the Royal Bank of Scotland s US headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut with a six-story glazed atrium and a courtyard in the sky on the roof of its two-story trading floor a building that is well conceived and artfully executed, cannot help but be beautiful. Among Ferris major projects are a golf clubhouse that has turned a conservative typology on its ear with bladelike forms inspired by a racing engine turbine, and a partially sunken service entrance in which impresario Robert Wilson has staged theatrical productions. A design for a restaurant includes not only a central, glass-enclosed kitchen elevated 18 inches above the floor, but an art installation that periodically projects scrolling text on the dining room wall. In every project, the fulfillment of the client s functional needs is rendered in the most elemental and legible way, resulting in both formal elegance and dramatic power."