Studio

Duncan Laurie's studio in Jamestown, Rhode Island, stands on the site of the 58-room Queen Anne mansion where he summered as a child, on a promontory that affords a view of the Newport Bridge and the former Auchincloss estate across the water.
Laurie's family home was leveled 20 years ago because it was was in a state of irreparable disrepair; all that remains of the original structure is a stone retaining wall. Laurie, who is an architectural glass and design artist, remembered the magical quality of the place: "I knew I had a magnificent site and knew that I grew up here in a building that was powerful and happy. It took the rawness of the environment and managed to put it into human context." One is struck by the strange luminosity of the site and the enveloping sound of the wind and ocean, and it comes as no surprise that it has been called "Weatherledge" for generations.