Rowdy Meadow (House - Land - Art)

An art-filled, Cubism-inspired house set in an extensive sculpture park

Welcome to Rowdy Meadow, a visionary house that is a complete work of art—from its architecture, interior design, furnishings, and collection of contemporary art to its landscape architecture and private sculpture park. Inspired by Czech cubism, it is unlike any other house anywhere. Designed and decorated by Peter Pennoyer Architects in Hunting Valley, Ohio, it is a structure of tremendous complexity made to feel simple and calm by Pennoyer’s mastery of the language of this style. Inside, Anne Walker guides the reader through the house, room by room, showcasing furnishings spanning the Arts and Crafts era through art deco, with pieces by Émile‑Jacques Ruhlmann, Josef Hoffmann, Dagobert Peche, Eileen Gray, and Gio Ponti; and fine art by Walton Ford and James Lee Byars. She then tours the Reed Hilderbrand–designed landscape and sculpture park—with works by Anish Kapoor and Andy Goldsworthy—spread throughout the 146‑acre property. Illustrated with photographs taken throughout the seasons by Eric Piasecki that capture Rowdy Meadow’s unique detailing, imagination, and energy, as well as with renderings and drawings, the book itself is an extraordinary achievement.

“A Gesamtkunstwerk in which every element has been invented out of whole cloth but is inspired by Cubo-Expressionist precedents, Rowdy Meadow is a paragon of invention and intelligence. Peter Pennoyer Architects has forged a looking-glass world, shapeshifting and pleasantly discombobulating, a work of art that has been designed to hold works of art.”—Mitchell Owens, from the Foreword