Northshore Home magazine highlights the best in architectural design, new construction and renovations, interiors, and landscape design.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/660193
92 of his new home, a Federal manse on Salem's Chestnut Street. A serial restorer, he has brought function and beauty to all sorts of houses all over the country. In the process, he learned that he loves minimalism. He even found a new career. "There were pre-war apartments, Victorians, Crafts- man bungalows, cottages, contemporary houses," he recalls. "My mother was an art collector and designer, so I grew up with that exposure." A metal-sculpting artist who has collected abstract expressionist art since his teens, he did not pursue a de- sign career until recently. (Before his recent move from Seattle to Salem, he was an advertising executive.) "People always came to me for design advice," says Cohen. "All my life, I've had an interest in art and de- sign. I went into advertising because I thought it would be a more practical career, but it would still provide me with opportunities to be creative." He and his partner, postgraduate dental educator Martin Lieberman, exercised their creativity with res- toration and design projects wherever their jobs took them. Now, Cohen has made the break from corporate advertising to work closer to his heart's desire, interior design. The hinge that turned his life in this direction is a venerable 6,600-square-foot house. Built in 1817 by members of Salem's prominent Pickering family, the three-story brick house in the McIntire Historic District represents Salem's golden age of commerce. It boasts the classic hallmarks of the Federal Style, including a circular portico with Corinthian columns, an elliptical fanlight, and slender Federal-style architecture in combination with a clean white interior creates a gallery- like setting for the couple's contemporary art collection. Opposite far right, Cohen's office and creative board. sidelights. Elegant and austere, Federal architecture was all the rage when Salem families made vast fortunes in the China trade; today, it draws admirers from all over to Chestnut Street. Cohen has applied his penchant for minimalism to this house for an effect that highlights the fine elements of Federal architecture while creating a gallery-like environment for a striking collection of contemporary art and furnishings. "Federal is a perfect architectural style for minimal-