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HOWDID YOUBREAK THROUGH AS A YOUNG ARCHITECT IN MONTCLAIR ? Imoved to Montclair in 2006 , but my jobs were mostly in New York City and Philly . In 2011 , Idecided to get an office in town , so Icalled Bob Silver , who had an open space inthe Academy Square building .( Silver is aformer president and CEO of UBS Financial Services and founder of the Bravitas Group , a commercial real estate development and management company .) Bob said the space wouldn ’ t work for me and suggested the adjacent former church building . Itdidn ’ t fit my budget or timeline , but Igave him my marketing package and told him , “ Your buildings are beautiful , but they can be more beautiful .” Ibasically said , “ I can do better .” He was like , yeah , yeah , no thanks .
But he gave my name tothe owners of the former church , since they needed adesigner . They hired me , and Bob got jealous . Hecalled me and said , “ Maybe
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you could give me aproposal just to do the hallways and the conference room of Academy Square — that ’ sit .” Idid that work and then he was like , “ Maybe you could give me aproposal for ….” Wehave been together ever since . RHG has done the interiors on his house and all his commercial buildings and many of his tenant spaces . We did Montclair Film ’ s505 ( Bloomfield Ave .) building together ; RHG did the interior design , Sionas Architecture did the structure and we collaborated on the facade . That relationship with Bob has been one of the biggest gifts .
WHERE DID YOUR JOURNEY IN ARCHITECTURE BEGIN ? My roots are Midwestern . Igrew upinDenver , went to college in Wisconsin , got my architecture degree inMilwaukee , and started my career in Chicago in 1993 . Chicago is the seat of American architecture ; the way they work ismuch different than
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how we work here , but itwas agreat foundation .
Icame to New York in ‘ 98 to see how deep Icould dive into design . I ’ d been moonlighting for Jordan Mozer , who encouraged me as Ifound my way in New York . My first project was Cartier on Fifth Avenue . How lucky do you get ? Ialso worked for Russell Groves , who was very much about high-end retail — Armani , Coach and the Greenhouse Spa , a20-room spa on Fifth Avenue . Jordan was outwardthinking , while Russell was about control , coloring within the lines , soIgot to experience different approaches .
Then Iwas with ( Shogo ) Aratani , who was the foremost designer in the world at the time . Mozer and Aratani were both ( about )“ How crazy can you make it ?” Iworked on the Shangri-La in Kuala Lumpur and asushi restaurant in Turkey called Godzilla where everything was oversized , asifyou were in
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COURTESY OF EMILY GILBERT |
10 FALL 2023 MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE |