The water front: the custom bath scene is a study in perpetual motion

Custom Home, April, 2005 by Bruce D. Snider

Project Credits: Builder: Krekow Jennings, Seattle; Architect: GGLO, Seattle; Project size: 722 square feet; Construction cost: Withheld; Photographer: Lara Swimmer. ** Resources: Countertops: Dogpaw, Circle 420; Fittings: Dornbracht, Circle 421; Fixtures: Diamond Spa, Circle 422, Duravit, Circle 423, and Porcher, Circle 424; Flooring: Pratt & Larsen, Circle 425 and Western Tile & Marble, Circle 426; Paints: Sherwin Williams, Circle 427.

** Details In a bath as elaborate as this, one might expect to find more than your average tub. Well, here it is: The two-person stainless steel vessel is surrounded by a moat, contained by a black slate curb, from which rise twin vertical slabs of basalt framed by a stainless steel panel on a wall of sandstone tiles. Water recirculates continuously from the moat to sheet down the face of the basalt. Amid all this inventiveness, perhaps the biggest surprise is that the centerpiece was an off-the-shelf item. "The tub is actually not custom," says architect Don McKay. "We found it in a magazine."

Old New World

Art Nouveau had been a hot trend in architecture and furniture design for years when this apartment house on Chicago's Gold Coast was built in the early 1900s, but it would take nearly another century for the romantic, nature-centered style to find a place inside the building. This master bath, part of an extensive Art Nouveau apartment remodel, puts matters right with a period-inspired design that looks as if it should have been here all along. ** "We did it like a great old hotel bathroom," says architect John Nelson. "The toilet is right in the room. Nothing is hidden. It's very symmetrical." What distinguishes the space is its lavish use of ornamentation to frame a few carefully selected historical pieces. Nelson found the oversize antique clawfoot tub in New York and had it refinished in enamel and nickel plate. He located the mirror, an Art Nouveau original, in Paris. "I almost designed the room around that mirror," he says, noting the contrast between its wooden frame and the room's cooler surfaces: marble mosaics, subway-pattern ceramic tile, and an elaborate plaster cove molding. The shower, with its curved glass door and multiple showerheads, is clearly no antique. But its oval plan, tiled bow front, and formal placement in the room are all very much in the Art Nouveau spirit.

Project Credits: Architect/construction manager: Harley Ellis, Chicago; Project size: 180 square feet; Construction cost: $600 a square foot; Photographer: Douglas Fogelson. ** Resources: Fittings/fixtures: Waterworks, Circle 445; Lighting fixtures: Fortuny Lighting, Circle 446.

** Details Art Nouveau emerged in the late 19th century as an antidote to the rigidity of the classical orders. Architect John Nelson describes the style's signature forms as "linear and stretchy and fluid," The mosaics of this bath embody that fluidity on several levels. The design itself features plant-like tendrils that suggest sinuous motion; the marble tiles are set in shifting gradients of color; and the grout joints flow across walls and floor as if seeking their own course.