Sawyer / Berson Houses and Landscapes

The first book from SawyerBerson illustrates the award-winning firm’s quintessential pairings of modernism and classicism in seaside houses, metropolitan residences, and spectacular garden retreats.

Treating architecture, landscape, and interior design as complementary endeavors, Brian Sawyer and John Berson have been ahead of their time and influential in the world of design since the founding of their eponymous partnership in 1999. SawyerBerson’s prodigious use of traditional and modern vocabularies has gained the firm widespread recognition and many notable clients. Meticulous attention to detail and versatility combine to create a wide variety of projects.

In the Hamptons, a modernist house of stone and glass lets in the sun and sea views while secluded by the dunes and drifts of native grasses. Another residence is built according to the pinwheel floor plans of early twentieth-century houses by Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright to accommodate four primary suites around a central common area with plenty of space for entertaining and individual relaxation. Yet another project, equally arresting, is a Colonial Revival cedar-shingled house and seaside landscape built for multiple generations. Whether restoring a historic Georgian Revival town house in Manhattan, designing a modernist residence in the country, or planning a garden by the ocean, the practice embraces traditional and contemporary styles with equal distinction.

Brian Sawyer and John Berson—whose backgrounds are in landscape architecture and architecture, respectively—met when both were working at Robert A.M. Stern Architects. Their combined design philosophy guides Sawyer|Berson, an AD100 firm. Mayer Rus is the West Coast editor of Architectural Digest.