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Marcus Gleysteen is in the middle of one of the most plum commis-sions he’s had yet, but it’s not a cliffside mansion or sprawling beach compound—it’s at the Boston Design Center. The architect and his

firm won the opportunity to transform a raw space at the center into a VIP lounge for designers and their clients. Many of the showrooms in the center, as well as Marc Kaplan and his Sanford Custom Builders, are contributing materials to help Gleysteen realize his vision for the space and fulfill his wildest expecta-tions. “This is like being a kid taken to FAO Schwarz and told you can have whatever you want,” he says.

For most of the flooring he’s chosen a ceramic tile that looks like burned wood, while the meeting spaces, which will be just

off the lounge, are floored with reclaimed wood. Silver leather cladding will wrap the building’s support columns. He’s chosen the furniture, though his vision for the space’s décor is under wraps at the moment. “The space is meant to inspire,” he says. “And everyone is contributing here.” Not just his staff, but many of the showrooms in the building.

Gleysteen’s mood boards mix linear and organic forms, including a maga-zine page of two women in geometric pink and chartreuse bathing suits. “That pink,” he says, “is Honeysuckle, Pantone’s 2011 color of the year.” But it’s not just the color (or the woman in the swimsuit) that draws Gleysteen’s eye; rather, it’s the pairing of the curve of the human body with the straight line of the suit’s white trim.

Looking through Gleysteen’s portfolio, it quickly becomes evident that he enjoys the element of surprise. He’s building a mountain house in Bhutan that had to adhere to tradi-tional architectural strictures as firm as those in historic parts of Cambridge. As a result, on the outside, the home will be classically Bhutanese, while inside it’s modern and chic.

Another project of his, in Manchester-by-the-Sea, causes a little spark of glee at first sight. Overlooking the Atlantic, it’s all sweep-

ing curves, with a form inspired by the Sydney Opera House, the shape of an open hand and the image of a carefully removed orange peel on a plate. Inside, the more natural, organic forms emerge—a round fireplace and steps made from rough slabs of maple. But the true surprise comes from a glimpse of the garage. Its clear glass walls and Mondrian-inspired paneled doors make it more art object than storage space, and its roof, created by Span Systems from the same high-tech Teflon and tensioned fabric that covers the Boston Harbor Pavilion, looks like a circus tent. “Their nickname for the garage was the Tater Tot,” says Gleysteen. “So much modern architecture is quite orthodox,” he continues. “In modern design you draw a lot of rectangles, and it’s hard to get excited about rect-angles after a while.” But the garage at the Manchester home takes the lid off that rectangle, literally.

thinking both inside and outside the boxARCHITECT MARCUS GLEYSTEEN TAKES THE BEST OF MODERN DESIGN AND SCULPTS A UNIQUE VISION. by Janice o’leary

portfolio

“ It’s like being a kid at FAO Schwarz and told you can have whatever you want.”

Showrooms at the BDC are contributing materials and furnishings for the designers’ lounge.

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With a background in sculpture from The Cooper Union, Gleysteen doesn’t focus only on modern design, as evidenced by a wine cellar he built inside a Weston home. The cellar is based on the structure of a cata-comb; its arched stone ceiling has niches and small rooms the family can designate for various vintages. Gleysteen and his team custom-designed furniture and cabinetry to fit the space. “I love modern stuff,” he says, “but this stuff is so much fun.”

He’s also enjoying the construction of a ski house in Stowe, Vermont, which he calls his most “mature, edited and conceptual structure.” The home’s windows maximize the views, and a huge granite fireplace, con-structed of the rough-cut ends from a Vermont quarry, dominates the living space. The surprise feature of this home is a glass and timber-frame bridge linking the master suite to the rest of the home, so the owners can enjoy a cozy cabin within their cabin; a box within a box. BC

Gleysteen describes his Lincoln home as a Brady Brunch house when he first saw it. “It was a really ugly house, but it had great bones.” So he and his wife, who attended Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, completely renovated the split-level colonial. “We turned the

ranchburger part of it into a barn,” he says, “and the split-level colonial we turned into a farmhouse.” He used reclaimed stone barn columns to create the entry to the house and some rough-sided slate for the fireplace. It didn’t hurt that the home sat on a beautiful piece of property next to

the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. “I went to the museum for the first time when I was 16 and going to school in Concord. It was the first show of super-realist painting I’d seen. But I remember standing outside and looking at the pond and thinking that I’d love to live there.” Now he does.

MIDCENTURY UGLY DUCKLING the architect’s own home’s journey from split-level colonial to modern farmhouse

The interior of Gleysteen’s Lincoln home. He used rough-cut slate for the fireplace.

Gleysteen takes a virtual walk through a 3D model

of the lounge.

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