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[caption id="attachment_45177" align="alignnone" width="800"] Jack Lenor Larsen at Planters: On + Off The Ground at LongHouse Reserve in East Hampton. Dawn Watson photo.[/caption]
Earlier this month, LongHouse Reserve founder and legendary textile designer Jack Lenor Larsen was presented with the Director’s Award by the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum—which celebrated outstanding achievement in American design with its 16th annual National Design Awards program. The 2015 National Design Awards, which recognize excellence and innovation across a variety of disciplines, awarded its recipients at a gala dinner at Pier Sixty in New York City on October 15.
Mr. Larsen was also awarded the 2015 Star of Design in the category of Lifetime Achievement on behalf of Charles Cohen and the Decoration and Design Building on October 14. That award recognizes an individual who has had significant achievements in their field and those who have made a lasting impact. Awards were presented in Art, Architecture, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Photography and Product/Industrial Design at a gala awards ceremony and dinner held at the D&D Building restaurant, Upper Story, in Manhattan.
The designer, author, and collector is one of the world's foremost advocates of traditional and contemporary crafts. His awards are many and his designs are in collections of international museums. Mr. Larsen is associated with schools and art centers worldwide. He founded the firm that bears his name in 1952. Over the past five decades, Larsen—the company—has grown steadily to become a dominant resource for signature fabrics. The "Larsen Look," which began with Mr. Larsen's own award-winning hand-woven fabrics of natural yarns in random repeats has evolved to become synonymous with 20th century design at its pinnacle. Known as an innovator, Mr. Larsen has won many awards and is one of four Americans ever to be honored with an exhibition in the Palais du Louvre. Mr. Larsen is a scholar, world traveler, and an authority on traditional and contemporary crafts.
LongHouse Reserve, located on 16 acres in East Hampton, was built as a case study to exemplify a creative approach to contemporary life. He believes visitors experiencing art in living spaces have a unique learning experience—more meaningful than the best media. Inspired by the famous Japanese shrine at Ise, LongHouse contains 13,000 square feet, 18 spaces on four levels. The gardens present the designed landscape as an art form and offer a diversity of sites for the sculpture installations.
For more information on Mr. Larsen or LongHouse Reserve, visit longhouse.org.
