Springtime Paintings

'Zurich in May'

'Goldeneye'

'Frari'

'Beaver Swamp Fence'

'Pink Pearl Fisher'

'Yalta'

Architectural Projects and Details

Architectural Projects Designed by John E. Scofield

Inside of two back-to-back 'Rumford' fireplaces. 

I designed and built a group of 'cabins' for a Hollywood producer who owned land in Connecticut. This shoot for Vogue was the first design story in the USA for editor Hamish Bowles. He arrived in a white fur coat, no hat, on a very cold day. I built him a fire in the main cabin and toasted up some scones in the fire place. That cheered him up... 

On the fire screen, in the upper left corner, there is a small forged-iron screech owl. This was to commemorate the owl that once sat in a nearby apple tree during the middle of the day. Stonework by the late Anders Chase. Ironwork: Peter Catchpole.

• See two photos with red dots in the story below.

This is an authentic

Adirondack 'Rushton'

canoe in front of the 

cabin's screened-in porch.

• A garage / workshop with great-room and fireplace on the second floor:

Exterior stone steps take you up to a terrace and main entry to the great-room:

Contractor: Jack Nelson, Concord Environmental Construction Services, Kent, CT.

• An insulated cabin / studio overlooking Hatch Pond in S. Kent, CT:

Note a garden supplies storage area below. Designer / Contractor: John E. Scofield

• Architectural amenities for a commercial project: 

'Mountain Waves' This enclosure keeps mechanical equipment
(air conditioning units etc.) and noise away from the buildings.

A medical building with a 1,000 s.f. yoga studio on the 2nd
floor. One of the (12) buildings in the commercial project. 

'My Song is Love Unknown' concrete relief.

'Peel' utilities enclosure / raised planting bed with mahogany curved bench.

'Peel' detail.

'Figures in Landscape' concrete relief hides electric meters. 

(Construction photo).

• A curved-top oak kitchen trellis on an 18th century country house: 

Note bottom hinge brackets that allow the trellis to be lowered for maintenance.

• A 10,000 s.f. sculpture and landscape project in Branford, CT that was published in Landscape Architecture Magazine. 

Landscape plan designed / drawn by Peter Alexander, Greenwich, CT

House designed by architect Peter Woerner, New Haven, CT

• Residential porch addition / before and after photos.

Interior detail with 'eyebrow' window.

Interior and exterior features of addition designed by
Bartley I. Johnstone and John E. Scofield.

John Scofield Designs, LLC

   PO Box 761

   Sharon, CT  06069

   mobile: 860-671-0153

   johneverettscofield@gmail.com         

       www.johnscofield-designs.com

Daniella On Design Post / Colored Chair

'Daniella On Design' very kindly put this photo and text on her chic contemporary design blog. Please click on the words 'Colored Chair by John Scofield' below to go to her site.

"Colored Chair" by John Scofield

Colored Chair: Shown in Robert Motherwell's library, Greenwich, CT in the 1970s. Matisse collage on lower right was one of his 'testing' art works. Chair is made of carved cherry and poplar wood, flocking, leather, varnish.

08/29/2013 'Daniella on Design' Post:

The School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology has trained some of the best American artists and craftsmen. One of them the amazingly talented John Scofield, created this sculptural chair, the “Colored Chair” while a student in 1971. Robert Motherwell bought it three years later and kept the chair in his library for the next 17 years - until he died. In 1990 the Franklin Parrasch Gallery sold it to legendary design collectors and patrons Sydney and Frances Lewis, who gifted much of their extraordinary collection of American Arts and Crafts and French Art Deco to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  

http://www.daniellaondesign.com/2/post/2013/08/colored-chair-by-john-scofield.html

Architectural Design, Remodeling and Construction Supervision: A Porch Addition

My wife, Bartley Johnstone, and I collaborate both in life and in work. Trained at Parsons as a fashion designer, Bartley is also a talented and successful interior designer. Her fashion store in Kent, CT is called B. Johnstone & Co. I have designed, built, remodeled and supervised many residential and commercial projects. My company is called John Scofield Designs, LLC. Here are 'before' and 'after' views of a remodeled porch addition that we created together for a house in Connecticut:

The 'before' condition of the porch is shown above. It is a small room with a small porch that was added on later. They have two different roofs that do not meet. There are no screens. The foundation is bare concrete. The door on the far right was a sealed-off 'door to nowhere' from the living room.

The completed porch is much enlarged as shown in the 'after' photo above. It wraps around the formal entry room and is fully screened. New double French doors on both sides allow people to move in and out easily during parties. The new standing-seam copper roof is unified and tight. New stone foundation piers match the original stone on the house.

It was Bartley's idea to add the new 'eyebrow' window over the screen door.

Here's how it looks from the inside. The new eyebrow window and barrel-vaulted ceiling brighten the space and make the chandelier sparkle! They also add a more formal quality to a previously moribund room. The entry door and French doors are new. To keep expenses down, we rehabbed the two original flanking windows. Bartley found the chandelier in pieces up in the attic. She had it cleaned and rewired. Note the perimeter down-lighting and speakers.

This framing detail shows you how the barrel-vaulted ceiling was made. The workman is cutting the sprayed-in foam, high-R insulation to conform to the curve. Next, thin panels of sheet-rock will be lightly sprayed with water and fastened to the wood strips. That lamination process creates a distortion-free curved surface. Traditional plastering would have been much more expensive but not necessarily of better quality.


Here are more views of the completed addition:

 

7 Sept. 2013 post script:

Designer Melissa Brunet, in Paris, just requested the following: "I love love love to read about how people solve design problems. And I know I'm not alone on this so please continue!" 

OK Melissa, here goes: The design for the addition was tricky because the new roof peak could not go higher than a 2nd floor window sill. Squeezing the vaulted ceiling, framing widths, plate height etc. into the available space - leaving room for roof pitch - took a little Texas chainsaw massacre work...! The authentic Greek columns are fibreglass from Brosco. Cutting each one burns through a new skil saw blade per column. It's still worth it. They don't rot. The square columns are rot resistant wood that we fabricated on site. The mahogany deck has a decent pitch; sheds water. Had to 'ice and water shield' the new roof to the house wall to prevent future leaks. That sprayed-in foam solved another problem. Code makes you vent the entire roof; soffit and ridge - unless you fill all under-roof voids with approved foam! Done. Would you like my dissertation on nails too...?

Maquettes for Furniture Designs

A model (maquette) for a dining table.

Making small-scale models of objects is a good way to explore scale and form. Revisions to a full-scale design can take days or weeks and be very costly. It's better to make changes on the maquette that only took a day or two to create. And there is nothing like being able to hold the model in your hand!

Actual size and scale is shown here.

The first photo at the beginning of this story fools us into thinking that we are seeing a real dining table. In fact, this maquette is just 2 7/16 inches (62mm) tall.

Side view.

The wood top is made out of 'bird's-eye' maple. The legs were cut from silver-solder brazing rods. They were given a brushed texture finish and then several coats of spray lacquer.

Leg and 'coved' apron detail.

.This table leg detail photo shows how the 'apron' under the table is curved on all four sides.


 A biomorphic table maquette:

A continuously curved-edge 'biomorphic' shaped table top.

When we see contemporary designers using biomorphic curves, it is fashionable these days to say that the inspiration came surely from the modernist European sculptors Brancusi, Moore or Arp. Personally, I have always preferred British sculptor Barbara Hepworth in this department. She was often more bold with her shapes than the men. And certainly elegant.

Dame Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) carving a stone sculpture.

L - R: George Beylerian, John Scofield with a painted oak bench Maquette.

Photo: B. Johnstone.

 Here I am, on the right, presenting a maquette for a bench to design-world icon George Beylerian in 2013. He is probably the foremost collector of modern miniature furniture designs in the USA. Naturally, I am very honored to be included in his collection. 

Here are some other maquettes I have made over the years:

'Reclining Woman Bench' maquette.

The full scale 'Reclining Woman Bench,' in carved cherry.

Bench with multicolored back and metal legs.

Two maquettes for the 'Equestrian Bench.'

The full scale 'Equestrian Bench' in carved and painted mahogany.

Maquette for 'Night Sky Table in painted pear wood.

The full-scale 'Night Sky Table' in painted cherry and forged iron.

Top view of full-scale 'Night Sky Table' depicting the Milky Way with thousands of painted white dots.

The furniture and sculpture maquette display at my Port Chester, NY studio in the 1980s

Additional pieces in this photo along the bottom:
On lower left a black Steinway piano chair. My Folding Music Stand with a copy of Threads magazine on it. The cover shot is Martha Yazzie weaving a Navajo Burntwater-style rug near the Canyon de Chelly, AZ. A geometric steel and granite table with flowers. A sculpture titled 'The Savage and the Tender,' after the Robert Burns poem 'Song Composed in August.' A settee designed by Jack Lenor Larsen. Jack was a juror in the first exhibition of my work - The Brockton, MA Art Center show 'Things,' 1972.

Fir wood top, painted legs. Photographed on a galvanized table surface.

Side view shows tapered and coved apron dining table; Hepworth inspired table.

Gloss sprayed lacquer is rubbed with a fine abrasive for a less reflective satin finish.

Note in the photo above that each of the eight legs is a different color. Also, the color palette for each table has a different emotional tenor. The Navajo weavers would say that the one on the left is 'brightened,' while the little table on the right is 'saddened.'