NEW ENGLAND HOME - JAN/FEB 2007

Industrial Revolution

A Providence couple helps revive the city’s Jewelry District by bringing elegance and sophistication to one of the neighborhood’s first loft spaces.

Text by PAULA M. BODAH, Photography by WARREN JAGGER, Produced by STACY KUNSTEL, Architecture: MARY BREWSTER AND MARK RAPP, Interior Design: TRICIA HOGUE, Scarborough Phillips

One of Providence’s lesser-known accomplishments may be its reputation as the costume jewelry capital of the world. For the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, the city’s Jewelry District teemed with workers who toiled in dozens of factory buildings. By the latter half of the 1900s, though, as companies moved to the suburbs, sold out or shut down, the area became a forgotten part of Providence.

Enter a handful of forward-thinking souls with the bright idea of remaking the sturdy red brick buildings into lofts where artists could live and work. In 1978, the Hedison Building became the first in Rhode Island to be turned into condominiums, and artists, grateful for the lower real estate prices and plentiful parking in the area, began moving in, starting a neighborhood revival that’s still a work in progress.

Meanwhile, Tricia and Michael Hogue were raising their family on the other side of the city, in a spacious Victorian on the East Side. Once the family was grown, the couple dreamed of a smaller, lower-maintenance place. A loft seemed like the right sort of space, and the top-floor unit of the Hedison Building—now one of many repurposed factories in the neighborhood—just happened to be on the market. The Hogues were attracted to the hard maple floors that still bore scars left by chemicals and heavy machinery. They liked the openness and the weathered brick walls. Most of all, they were drawn to the views of the city that filled the big, arched windows on three sides of the loft.

The artist who had previously lived in the space hadn’t changed the interior structure. “It was just a shell with interior columns,” Tricia says. “The challenge was to keep enough open space and volume to honor the fact that it is a loft, and at the same time be able to plan some private space within that. I wanted spaces that would be separate but open to each other, with visual flow throughout the loft.”

Tricia, who with Jessie Dell owns Scarborough Phillips interior design firm, called on architects Mary Brewster and Mark Rapp to help her configure the space. “It was fairly obvious where certain things were going to go,” Tricia says. The kitchen fit naturally on the loft’s west side, for example, where sunsets over the neighborhood make washing the dishes a pleasure rather than a chore. Here, glass-front cherry cabinets hover above counters of honed white Carrara marble. “Old soda fountains were white Carrara,” Tricia says. “It has a velvet quality; it feels worn and used and loved, and that’s what I wanted.”

A double-sided fireplace, with a limestone hearth and a wood mantel painted to match, forms the loft’s centerpiece. One side faces a cozy kitchen-side sitting room, while the other faces the large living area that spans much of the loft’s east side, offering views of the downtown skyline. 

As big as it is, the living room feels intimate, and effect achieved by Tricia’s placement of furniture to create smaller sitting areas. A love seat tucked into a niche between bookcases makes a cozy spot for tea, while the large sectional sofa and a pair of fauteuils centered around a glass coffee table makes a perfect post-dinner party spot for coffee and conversation.

During their marriage, Michael and Tricia have lived in a Federal period townhouse in Philadelphia, the Providence Victorian and now an industrial loft, but in all three homes, Tricia has had a version of the subtle checkerboard floor she designed for her loft space. “All my houses have had gorgeous floors,” she says. “I didn’t want to cover them with carpet, but I did want to give them a little more interest.”

Much of what Tricia has incorporated into her design comes from her previous homes. The sectional sofa with its Brunschwig and Fils leopard print fabric, for instance, is at least eighteen years old, she says. “It has looked at home in every space I’ve had.” Brunschwig still makes the fabric, so the occasional reupholstering has been easy.

A neutral palette sets the stage for the couple’s favorite pieces of furniture, art and decorative objects. “Sometimes I think,” says Tricia, “wouldn’t it be wonderful to pare down and have everything be simple? But the things I have really mean something to me. They’re connected to some memory. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to be a minimalist.”

Minimalist it may not be, but the Hogues did get their wish for a lower-maintenance home without sacrificing an inch of style and comfort.