DESIGN: Hands On

When Christian Steiner was growing up in Berlin, Germany, his mother told him, “Whatever you want to do, you can.” Steiner took her words to heart. He became not only an internationally renowned photographer and acclaimed musician—known regionally for his role as artistic director of the Tannery Pond Concerts series in New Lebanon, New York—but also a man who is as comfortable tiling floors, building furniture, and even sewing bedspreads as he is at the piano or behind the camera.

The Columbia County, New York, home he shares with Frank Heller, his partner of more than thirty years, reflects Steiner’s passion for “creating beauty all around him, in every way,” says longtime friend Cindy Puccio, who hastens to add a memorable Grand Marnier soufflé to Steiner’s long list of accomplishments.

The serene retreat, where the two men spend most of their time when not traveling or at their midtown apartment in New York City, seamlessly merges classic country character with Oriental and European flavors, capturing the aura of the couple’s cosmopolitan lifestyle as well as their preference for all things gemütlich—German for cozy, warm, and congenial. The house is a fabulous mix of homey and sophisticated, from the bold sunflower-print linen on the walls of the sitting room (Steiner hung it himself) to his mother’s Hutschenreuther china displayed in illuminated, glass-fronted cabinets designed by Steiner to the master bathroom he tiled, where a tall, narrow window set in the shower provides a glimpse of mountains and sky.

 It’s no surprise that Steiner, whose full head of white hair complements a youthful face and demeanor, considered interior design and engineering as possible career paths before devoting himself to music and photography. Having combined both passions, he is best known for his portraits of musicians, including such distinguished names as Lena Horne, Franco Corelli, Luciano Pavarotti, Vladimir Horowitz, Yo-Yo Ma, and Maria Callas. A former director of the Spencertown [N.Y.] Academy and the founder of the Tannery Pond series, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this summer, Steiner has also recorded for RCA and performed with the likes of Jessye Norman, Joanna Simon (Carly’s sister), the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic Octet.

“This is a cliché but true: Christian is a Renaissance man,” says Claire Brook, a close friend and executive editor for Pendragon Press in Hillsdale, New York, which publishes musicological research and musical reference works. “There is nothing that he puts his hands to that he does not do beautifully. Whatever he does is done with a standard that is beyond belief—he sets the bar high and never fails to reach that goal.”

  The trim, brown-haired Heller appears to be the grounded yin to Steiner’s artistic yang. Heller owned a market research company in New York City for many years, consulting primarily for magazines and newspapers, then segued into real-estate management; though he remains a registered realtor, he considers himself mostly retired. On a winter afternoon, with Chopin playing in the background, the pair—accompanied by their snow-white Sealyham terrier, Nikolai—graciously show a visitor the house, which has undergone three major renovations since Steiner bought it in 1972.

The first project was the alteration of the attic into a master bedroom, followed by the addition of an entryway, sitting room, and downstairs and upstairs bathrooms in 1990. The most recent and most extensive project, completed in 2006, was designed by Spencertown architect Benedetto Puccio (Cindy’s husband), who worked closely with the couple to draw up a master plan that used the original 1940s board-and-batten structure as an armature on which to layer and expand the living space. The plan included clearing trees to create a new circular driveway, building a freestanding garage, adding a conservatory to the lower level of the house, and creating a dining area off the kitchen. Implemented by builder Andrew Stall of Canaan, New York, the design tied together the property in a coherent, flowing composition and increased the interior space to more than three thousand square feet, doubling the original size of the house.

Outside, twenty-seven gently sloping acres are defined by a bluestone walkway heading down to the manmade pond (one of Steiner’s first additions to the property), which in the warm season is surrounded by a profusion of yellow flag iris, white and purple Siberian irises, daylilies, and heavy-headed peonies.

The house and garage share the same warm red hue and the standing-seam metal roofs, whose baked enamel finish provides a green hue, are reminiscent of oxidized copper. Covered walkways connect the two-car garage, which resembles a Japanese pavilion, to the house, while the original garage at the top of the driveway, now heated and insulated, serves as a woodshop, workout room, and photo studio. In the space between the house and the new garage is a courtyard garden, accented by a Chinese millstone fountain from a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a small pond, which becomes flushed in spring with blue myrtle, light-pink rhododendron, and scarlet azalea.

The courtyard-facing door opens into an entrance hall, its walls lined in a red-and-blue cotton floral, which leads to the sitting room. Called the Sunflower Room for the pattern of the Belgian linen upholstering the walls, it’s furnished with wicker furniture, a dictionary stand, and a magnificent cherry armoire built by Steiner. (He also laid the wide-plank pine floors here during the 1990 renovation.)

The Sunflower Room leads into the formal dining room, featuring a wood-paneled fireplace redone from the original white-painted brick; deep gold walls accented by brass candleholders; and glass-fronted cabinets displaying porcelain and glassware. A white porcelain cow planter from Venice, which originally belonged to singer and philanthropist Alice Tully (one of Steiner’s photography subjects), sits atop a replica of a traditional English-style dining table. To one side of the room is another Steiner masterpiece: a Welsh dresser made of a beautifully grained cherry wood. (Both men enrolled in woodworking school in Greenwich Village in the 1970s; Heller dropped out early, but Steiner stayed the course.)

The kitchen is just around the corner, redone during the most recent renovation and outfitted with a four-burner Viking range, the house’s original 1978 KitchenAid dishwasher, and rows of copper pots and pans hanging on a section of exposed brick above the granite counter. “What really started us with the kitchen was we had no place to store anything,” Heller says. That was remedied with glass-fronted cabinets and a built-in pantry with slide-out shelves and rotating storage. A pass-through window above one counter was originally a glass window on the exterior wall facing south; now it looks through to the addition, which includes a small work area with a desk and a semicircular breakfast alcove. A wrought-iron chandelier hangs above a round, wooden table from Restoration Hardware surrounded by windows and a curved built-in bench upholstered in an emerald-green elephant print.

“They love to entertain, so the space has to be very fluid,” Benedetto Puccio says of the couple. “When they have parties, people are in the conservatory, in the lower living room, sitting in the dining room, in the breakfast room—the whole house becomes part of the party. They’re both good cooks and they love giving dinner parties, and this becomes a wonderful setting for all of that.”

A few steps down from the dining room is a cherry-paneled living room, with a window seat that looks out on the courtyard garden and Oriental-style mahogany gate built by Steiner. A 1780 mahogany desk, found in London, sits in one corner; a section of the paneled wall opposite swings open to reveal a short staircase that leads down to Steiner’s office and a guestroom. The living room has the feel of a nineteenth-century library, but opens directly into a very contemporary, light-filled conservatory surrounded almost entirely by glass, the setting for a gleaming 1918 Steinway that holds center stage beneath peaked skylights. Steiner sometimes plays house concerts here, fitting as many as seventy-five people into the space.

 “In order to make the [conservatory] as significant as possible, we placed it at the rear of the house, so when Christian played he could look at the lovely gardens and down to the pond beyond,” Benedetto Puccio says. A glass door on the west side of the room leads to an open-air stone terrace with a wooden table and chairs, which looks out on the magnificent northerly view of mountains, birch forest, and rolling hills. Mirroring the clarity of the conservatory’s inner space, the exterior of the addition is painted white; it seems to glow against the red of the surrounding exterior walls. “I told Ben, ‘You made such a jewel, I want it to stand out,’” Steiner says.

Upstairs, Steiner’s touch can be seen in two guest rooms: the affectionately christened Alice Tully Room—featuring the singer’s dignified portrait, walls covered in rose fabric, and an antique quilt on the bed—and a smaller red-and-white room with linen wall covers and a reversible bedspread (sewn by Steiner, of course). He also laid the black tiles in the guest bathroom, upholstered the door in a bright tropical pattern, and sewed the matching shower curtain.

On the third floor, the master bedroom is a cool, cushy space, with a thick cream-colored carpet, a comfy chaise, and a low bed covered with a blue-and-white spread. A long row of five-foot-tall windows faces the pond, across from a wall of built-in cabinets that cleverly conceal an air-conditioner, television, and storage space. The adjoining bathroom, with a partial-glass shower, opens onto the upper-level terrace.

“As an architect, you have to understand who [your clients] are and how they live, and you shape a set of spaces to satisfy that need and enrich their aesthetic,” says Benedetto Puccio. Clearly, his friendship with the couple and their involvement in the process combined with Steiner’s impressive handiness have resulted in a home that suits its owners perfectly.

“People say you get used to everything and it seems not so wonderful anymore,” Steiner says. “I haven’t gotten used to it—I still like it very much.” [JULY 2010]

Tresca Weinstein writes about visual art, dance, and yoga for numerous regional and national publications, including Dance Magazine, Pointe magazine, and the Times Union.

THE GOODS

Andrew Stall Builders
21 Stone House Rd.
Canaan, N.Y.
518.781.4376

Benedetto J. Puccio, AIA
Spencertown, N.Y.
518.392.8220

Concerts in the Country
Founded by Christian Steiner, the Tannery Pond Concerts series, which celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, offers captivating chamber-music performances in picturesque New Lebanon, N.Y., through September. The 1834 Shaker Tannery on the grounds of New Lebanon’s Darrow School provides an intimate setting where guests enjoy classical works by renowned soloists and ensembles. With its friendly, informal atmosphere, the series complements sultry summer evenings with sweet serenades.—AT

2010 Concerts

Pianist Jeremy Denk;
works by Bach, Liszt, Ligeti, and Beethoven
Jul 3 at 8
 
Pianist Kirill Gerstein;
works by Bach, Chopin, and Schumann
Jul 31 at 8

Mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux and pianist Craig Rutenberg;

works by Viardot, Garcia, Fauré, Berlioz, Rossini, and Haydn
Aug 14 at 8

Hornist Eric Ruske and pianists Jennifer Frautschi and Pedja Muzijevic;

works by Beethoven, Schoenberg, Liszt, Czerny, Cage, and Brahms
Sept 4 at 8

Pianist Alon Goldstein;
works by Schumann, Wieck-Schumann, and Brahms
Sept 25 at 8

THE GOODS

Tannery Pond Concerts
Route 20
New Lebanon, N.Y.
888.820.1696