Photos by Tim Street-Porter
Designing Dudes
September 1, 2003
Lorenzo De’ Medici did not leave the business of decorating his palaces to his wife. He hired Tuscany’s best architects and designers, then oversaw every detail, from sumptuous stone floors to elaborately frescoed ceilings. When it comes to their houses, today’s Renaissance men—business leaders and patrons of the arts—are following in Lorenzo the Magnificent’s tradition, or so say the designers who work with them.
Larry Wangberg, former chairman of Tech TV, a Paul Allen company, reviewed every decision for the French country-style vacation home that he is building in Sun Valley, Idaho. While never insensitive to the taste of his wife, Michelle, Wangberg imprinted his own style on the house, personally selecting pieces of furniture while on trips to Bordeaux, Provence and Burgundy.
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“Larry is a guy’s guy,” says Thomas M. Beeton, Wangberg’s design guru. “He loves huntin’, fishin’ and decoratin’, in that order.” And the house shows it. “European, but not fussy,” as Beeton describes it, the house features all the accoutrements of hunting—a moose head over a fireplace and, in Wangberg’s bathroom, a tall rack that includes a wood plaque with antlers.
New York designer Greg Jordan has also noticed that titans of business are taking a greater interest in their homes. “It used to be that all the decorating meetings were with the wife,” says Jordan. “And the husband would say, ‘Whatever she wants. I just write the check.’ ” Now, many top businessmen have fallen in love with the design process. “And they have done their homework,” Jordan adds. “They don’t say, ‘I want a blue room.’ They say, ‘I want my study to have a Regency feel.’ ”
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