The dining room of an art-filled residence in Miami, overlooking Biscayne Bay, conceived by House of Hunt, the interior design firm headed by Holly Hunt.
Photo: Kris Tamburello
Holly Hunt Devises a Spirited Miami Apartment for Art World Insiders
The designer’s firm, House of Hunt, takes cues from the dynamic collection of Jennifer and David Stockman
House of Hunt, the interior design firm headed by Holly Hunt, combined a pair of apartments overlooking Miami’s Biscayne Bay for collectors Jennifer and David Stockman. In the living room, a “Super Star” light sculpture by Olafur Eliasson sparkles above armchairs and a velvet-upholstered sofa, all by Pierre Augustin Rose. An Aaron Curry floor sculpture stands near the window, curtained in a Holly Hunt Great Plains fabric, and paintings by Rita Ackermann hang on the nearby walls. Photo: Kris Tamburello
When Jennifer and David Stockman decided to move to Miami and buy side-by-side duplex apartments to combine into one breathtaking home, their shortlist of people to call for help included one name: Holly Hunt, the multitalented, Chicago-based designer.
“I’ve known Holly from Aspen for decades, so we’re longtime friends,” says Jennifer Stockman, a film producer, art collector, and president emeritus of the Guggenheim Museum. While the pair had frequent discussions about design over the years, they never had an opportunity to work together, Stockman adds, because Hunt was focused on her namesake furniture brand.
Hunt sold her company to Knoll in 2014, staying on for a time as CEO and later as a consultant, before stepping away completely in 2019. But she wasn’t finished. A few years ago she teamed up with Neil Zuleta, a designer she had worked with extensively in the past, to launch her interiors firm, House of Hunt. “When David and I heard Holly was starting up a new design business, I got very excited,” says Stockman, “and I asked if she’d be willing to take on our project.”
A custom geometric glass screen highlights the dining room, where artist Andrea Bowers created the chandelier above an Enzo Berti table for Kreoo, which is topped by a Holly Hunt Coiled bowl and ringed with Holly Hunt chairs. Artworks by (from left) John Baldessari, Marisa Merz, and Bernard Frize enliven the walls. Photo: Kris Tamburello
In the entrance hall, bespoke bookshelves host ceramics across from a salon-style display. Photo: Kris Tamburello
Hunt’s answer was an unequivocal yes. “Jennifer has been an art collector for a long time and likes things that are sophisticated but fun,” says Hunt, who was keen to work with a collaborator who would bring her own bold voice to the project. “She collects what she loves, and she already had a house full of incredible art.”
The Stockmans’ trove focuses on contemporary works, and pieces by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, John Baldessari, Rachel Harrison, Alex Hubbard, and Michael Raedecker are displayed throughout their home. Animating the entertaining spaces are spectacular light sculptures by Olafur Eliasson and Andrea Bowers as well as a futurist-baroque, chandelier-style pendant by Lee Bul.
Indeed, while Holly Hunt furniture is revered for its simple lines and streamlined forms, it was clear from the outset that this project was going to lead somewhere else. “We were joking that we were going from minimalism to maximalism,” says Hunt, whose book Holly Hunt: Fearless in the World of Design will be released by Rizzoli this fall.
A multipanel artwork by Olafur Eliasson adds a chromatic splash to the living room, where a Lee Bul sculpture is suspended above a Sebastian Herkner table for ClassiCon and Vera chairs by Bridgette Buckley. In the adjacent bar, a sofa and chairs owned by the clients mix with a Holly Hunt cocktail table and Roche Bobois side tables. Photo: Kris Tamburello
First, there was the matter of combining the units to create a 5,000-square-foot home. To do so, Hunt and her team demolished the wall between them and added a white-oak bridge with glass railings that functions like a catwalk above the living room, which has a 20-foot-high ceiling. The bridge connects a pair of upstairs offices—one for Jennifer to work on film projects and another for David, a best-selling author and former investment banker as well as a congressman who directed President Ronald Reagan’s Office of Management and Budget—both of which enjoy expansive views of Biscayne Bay.
Hunt then brought in the elegant materials and pared-down details she’s famous for. The sleek bar off the living room is finished in metallic champagne lacquer. The dining room has a custom Piet Mondrian–inspired screen of clear ribbed glass and gold-frosted opaque glass. The kitchen is wrapped in Acquamare quartzite with matte-lacquer cabinetry framed in dark metal.
Artworks by Robert Rauschenberg and Rodney Graham hang at the base of the staircase, near a Josephine Meckseper print installed above a Kwangho Lee stool. The grid of prints on the mezzanine is by Rachel Harrison. Photo: Kris Tamburello
For the furniture choices, the designer upped her color game. At the center of the living room, she installed a pair of plump, curved Pierre Augustin Rose sofas upholstered in juniper-green velvet. They surround a sculptural Grzegorz Majka cocktail table topped with smoked glass and marble featuring hits of green and black. Holly Hunt Lens side tables add pops of orange with their polished-resin-and-mirror tops.
Suspended above these pieces, one of Eliasson’s “Super Star” sculptures dazzles with color-effect filter glass, while another of the artist’s commanding chromatic works, a large grid of 48 photogravures from his “Colour Spectrum” series, hangs nearby. “We knew she had a very bold, eclectic, colorful art collection,” says Hunt. “So we wanted to reflect that in the palette for the interiors.”
The primary bedroom’s raffia wall covering, bed, and circular side table are all by Holly Hunt, while the bench and terrace furniture are by RH; the painting is by Michael Raedecker. Photo: Kris Tamburello
In a colorful living room corner, a large Alex Hubbard painting hangs near a work on paper by Dustin Yellin, a chromogenic print by James Welling, and a Gaetano Pesce resin chair. Photo: Kris Tamburello
The living room is arrayed with eye-catching art, which also includes an Aaron Curry floor sculpture whose cartoonish, Surrealist-inspired form is silk-screened and spray-painted in striking pink hues. Boldly expressionistic swirls of color radiate from a trio of paintings by Rita Ackermann, while a James Rosenquist canvas lends Pop Art panache. Meanwhile, choice design objects, such as a vibrant pink-and-orange resin chair by Gaetano Pesce and an enameled copper stool by Kwangho Lee, blur the boundary between furniture and art.
“I see it as a whole installation, where things are in dialogue with each other”
Jennifer Stockman
For her part, Stockman likes to emphasize the interplay between pieces. “I see it as a whole installation, where things are in dialogue with each other,” she says, “whether it’s because the artists relate to each other or just the colors and forms.”
To keep the conversation interesting, Stockman continues to experiment by moving works to different spots throughout the home. “It’s still evolving,” she says. “I’m definitely not finished.”
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2024 Summer Issue under the headline “Sheer Delight.” Subscribe to the magazine.
Cover: The dining room of an art-filled residence in Miami, overlooking Biscayne Bay, conceived by House of Hunt, the interior design firm headed by Holly Hunt.
Photo: Kris Tamburello
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