The Architect & The Collector: A Conversation with Peter Pennoyer on Aso Tavitian’s Legacy
STAIR recently sat down with Peter Pennoyer, Founding Partner of the New York City-based firm Peter Pennoyer Architects, to speak about the firm’s projects for the late Aso O. Tavitian. The conversation uncovers how Tavitian approached collecting, and illustrates the connection between two inherently different, but ultimately complementary, creative forces.
Peter Pennoyer, Founding Partner of the New York City-based firm Peter Pennoyer Architects. Videography by Martin Crook.
The relationship between a collector and an architect is one that has shaped the way we experience Art and Design for centuries. From the Renaissance to today, this partnership has produced some of the most inspired and enduring spaces, where architecture serves as both a framework and a stage for great collections.
Aso O. Tavitian’s collection is extraordinary, built over a relatively short period but with an eye for history, engineering, and material culture that reflects a deep intellectual curiosity.
The interior of Aso Tavitian’s home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Peter Pennoyer, FAIA, is the founding partner of Peter Pennoyer Architects, a New York City-based architecture firm renowned for its mastery of classical and traditional design, seamlessly blending historical inspiration with modern innovation. As a founding partner, Pennoyer has earned a reputation for meticulous attention to detail, a deep understanding of historical precedent, and the ability to craft timeless, elegant spaces. Together, Aso Tavitian and Peter Pennoyer Architects embarked on a journey where both continuously benefitted from the other’s passion for detail and bottomless curiosity for art, architecture, and antiques.
“Aso came to enjoy working with us really quickly when he realized that we behave like we’re still at university here, so we’re still buying books, we’re still learning, we’re doing research and writing.”
Their relationship began when Tavitian bought a home in Stockbridge, MA. Situated on six acres of bucolic land in the heart of the Berkshire Mountains, the country residence of Aso Tavitian reflected the grandeur of early 20th-century estates replete with a masterful collection of furniture, garden statuary, fine and decorative arts.
Pennoyer in his office in New York City, looking through archives of historical, architectural references.
“In creating an environment for a collection, architects have worked specifically around the classical tradition, which often lends itself to great collections. There are other examples of rooms that are completely designed around specific pieces. In Aso’s case it was, I’d say the harmony of the vision of the architecture and the art and the furniture.”
With sprawling grounds and expansive interiors, Tavitian partnered with Peter Pennoyer Architects to design the Stockbridge, MA home’s interior architecture, as well as his Beaux-Arts Townhouse in Manhattan.
“We were approached by Aso to work on his house in Stockbridge, which had been framed up, but the interior architecture hadn’t been designed. And we worked on first looking at one room to see what could be done, to see how the layers of architecture could add to the beauty of the space. And it was a complicated room, polygonal shape, and the plan ended up being a perfect square with opposite ends and layers of moldings and paneling that made it into something that as also thought was very special. And he said, ‘If you can do this for the dining room, I want you to go through the whole house. That’s how the relationship started.”
Tavitian’s sprawling garden in Stockbridge, which includes a striking collection of Garden Statuary included in STAIR’s upcoming auction.
“The architecture [in Stockbridge] was less specifically about a style, a period, but more generally relying on classical vocabulary. And Aso was astonished in the Great Hall, he realized there were seven layers of molding in these door frames that went into the main rooms. There was the pilaster, the frieze, the casing, and he was fascinated by all of this.
The Townhouse was a complete rebuild. There was nothing there, and people continually felt that the house had always been there. It wasn’t, we were designing to make it feel like it was in the original Beaux Arte vocabulary as it would’ve been.”
The collaboration between Tavitian and Pennoyer’s firm was driven by a shared appreciation for fine craftsmanship, historical precedent, and the seamless integration of art and space.
The interior of Tavitian’s home in Stockbridge overlooking the garden.
“He really was responding to the architecture when he bought furniture. He wanted the rooms to feel like home. He had a very good sense of what was appropriate for a wall, what would look wonderful under a painting and what functioned. He was not simply trying to bring a collection into a space without thinking about how it affected the space, and he was trying to make it feel more comfortable.”
Aso Tavitian’s Beaux-Arts Townhouse in Manhattan was located on the Upper East Side and is a testament to Beaux-Arts grandeur.
“The relationships with the dealers was extraordinary because he was learning from the dealers as he was working with us, and they were, I think, especially interested in bringing in the best of the best because he cared and he knew, and he was rapidly becoming an expert himself, which was astonishing. Even though his manner was somewhat humble, he was actually accumulating an enormous amount of knowledge, reading everything he could get his hands on and getting the best advice.”
“He saw that each room needed to be thought of as part of the procession through the house and as a place you occupy. We’d often think together about anchoring a room with a great piece of furniture, giving your eye a place to go, but also how the story would unfold throughout the house. And because the houses were large, there could be different kinds of moods in each room. He was very much an open book to all that.”
When working on the Townhouse in New York, there were many moments where Tavitian would become particularly passionate about specific rooms and features to best exemplify the history of the space. Located along Manhattan’s prestigious Upper East Side, the Townhouse is a testament to Beaux-Arts grandeur. Originally designed by esteemed architect C.P.H. Gilbert in the early 20th century, the mansion epitomized classical elegance with its finely detailed limestone facade, intricate ironwork, and stately proportions. Gilbert’s Fifth Avenue houses are synonymous with the Gilded Age, making it particularly befitting that upon Aso Tavitian’s acquisition of the property he sought to restore its former splendor. Tavitian also entrusted this project to Peter Pennoyer Architects in collaboration with the architect Theodore Prudon.
Tavitian’s Manhattan Townhouse included an iron and handblown glass lightwell, a feature which was part of the original design by C.P.H. Gilbert from the 1890s.
“In the New York house and the Townhouse, the bedroom hall is buried in the middle of the house. And it seemed that that might be sort of a letdown, a dark space. But in fact, he challenged us to make a dome that would bring light through a lightwell, which was part of the original design from the 1890s. We drew a dome that was decorative, it was cast in iron, and he was very particular about the glass. The glass was sort of milky and hand-blown. That became a project that we wouldn’t have imagined at the beginning, and it made a perfect kind of filtered light for the furniture and objects below. So, the light that came from that turned out to be the most exquisite, kind of filtered even light throughout the day, which is unusual in a New York house.”
Over the course of our afternoon with Pennoyer, he recalled many memories of working with Tavitian and how his love of collecting threaded a narrative of how he lived his life with passion and joy.
“When we started the project, he really didn’t have anything of note. It was the houses that caused him to then start on the quest to furnish and to buy art. And he said, ‘I had to decorate the house.’
“He didn’t forget his roots. We were looking at a small table and I said, ‘that would be perfect for your breakfast table in Stockbridge’. And he had this smirk, and then he giggled. And I said, ‘What’s so funny?’ He said, ‘that’s just like the table I grew up sleeping underneath’. And I said, ‘Why would he sleep underneath a table?’ He said, ‘Because my brother was sleeping on top. This is the Bulgarian childhood where it’s a family of four in a one-bedroom apartment.”
The late Aso O. Tavitian fulfilled his philanthropic legacy and desire to contribute to the Clark Art Institute, a beloved local institution.
“He loved people. He enjoyed the relationships. That affected his whole approach. He was scholarly, he had a stupendous intellect, and he also brought a European sensibility. His love of opera, his love of art, his love of furniture, his love of architecture, all came together in a very synthetic way. But he was completely unpretentious about it. And if someone challenged him to say why he liked a certain object, he could have pontificated about its quality or provenance, and he would simply say, because ‘I like it’ or ‘it’s beautiful’. He felt that living around beauty was good for his soul. He wanted to bring beauty into every room and every place. He wanted to make a complete environment. And I think that’s the sign of a great collector.”
A true testament to his passion for collecting, Tavitian fulfilled his philanthropic legacy and desire to contribute to a beloved local institution. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Tavitian Foundation. Among its key initiatives, the Foundation is committed to advancing the work of the Clark Art Institute, located in the Northern Berkshires.
The sale preview for the Collection of Aso O. Tavitian will begin on March 7th, 2025 with property on view in our gallery at 549 Warren Street, Hudson NY. Garden statuary will be on preview in our offsite location near the gallery, please call ahead to schedule an appointment to view.
Thank you to Peter Pennoyer and the team at PPA for partnering with STAIR on the Collection of Aso O. Tavitian.
Peter Pennoyer, FAIA, is the founding partner of Peter Pennoyer Architects, an award-winning New York City–based architecture and design firm with an office in Miami. A Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and winner of the Richard H. Driehaus Prize, he is the co-author, with Anne Walker, of five books on early twentieth-century American architects and the author of A House in the Country, written with his wife, interior designer Katie Ridder. Recent projects include a house for the Jeff Koons family, an Art Deco–style apartment building on Madison Avenue, and Rowdy Meadow, an award-winning Czech Cubism–style house in Ohio, the subject of a book published by Vendome Press in 2021. The firm’s newest book, Peter Pennoyer Architects: City | Country, was published by Vendome Press in Fall 2023 and Peter contributed to the new book Rosario Candela & The New York Apartment, recently published by Rizzoli.
Follow the firm on Instagram @peterpennoyerarchitects.
When you register with STAIR directly: You will be automatically registered each day of the three-day sale.
When you register with a third-party platform like LiveAuctioneers: You must register for Part I, Part II and Part III individually. Register in advance to avoid delays in approval to bid.
GALLERY PREVIEW
The collection of garden statuary is on preview at a location a few minutes away from our Warren Street gallery. Please reach out to schedule an appointment to see the collection.
Friday, March 7: 9am – 5pm
Saturday, March 8: 11am – 5pm
Sunday, March 9: Closed
Monday, March 10: 9am – 5pm
Tuesday, March 11: 9am – 5pm
Wednesday, March 12: 9am – 5pm
Thursday, March 13: 9am – 5pm
Friday, March 14: 9am – 5pm
Saturday, March 15: 11am – 5pm
Sunday, March 16: Closed
Monday, March 17: 9am – 5pm
Tuesday, March 18: 9am – 5pm