A Sense of Place

In my mother’s day, spring was for cleaning; in my day, spring is for redecorating. There is nothing like a new coat of paint or a reupholstered chair to lift the spirits. All that frenzied decorating and redoing: from ambitious architectural extensions to cool wallpaper projects, it’s easy to get into the spirit.

New York’s dominance in the design industry is one of the key factors that influenced the springtime debut of New York Cottages & Gardens, which joins it’s already well established and influential sister publications, Connecticut Cottages & Gardens and Hamptons Cottages & Gardens. Cottages & Gardens Publications launched HC&G in 2002 with a mission to inform and inspire readers with original articles on architecture, design, art, and antiques; to dazzle them with stunning photos of local homes and gardens; and to captivate them with regional real estate gossip. The magazines were intentionally oversize and beautifully designed to emphasize the superior journalism and photography inside, all produced to the highest standards and inspired by a “sense of place.”

For several years I had been rushing to the country on Friday nights to pick up my copy of the now-seven-year-old Connecticut Cottages & Gardens, so the phrase “a sense of place” resonated with me as I read the offering memorandum for the company, which I bought in fall 2009. As a design-magazine junkie, I am passionate about all the fine shel- ter books on the market, but these publications were special.

Not surprisingly, our titles are deeply involved in their communities. Last fall, CTC&G was asked to oversee the redecoration of the Connecticut governor’s residence. The state’s finest designers and manufacturers donated their time and wonderful furnishings to create 17 public spaces fit for, well, a governor. Pink Aid, founded last year by Mitchells/Richards and CTC&G, auctioned 36 custom-decorated pink chairs and raised more than $300,000 in one afternoon. In the Hamptons, HC&G’s events benefit the Parrish Art Museum, the Southampton Historical Museum, and Guild Hall, among other institutions.

As for NYC&G, look for our involvement with Old Westbury Gardens, the New York Botanical Garden, Pink Aid at Marshs in Huntington, the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House Gala, the Designer Showhouse of Westchester, and many others in the months to come. It seems that our new title is going to be as significant a presence in its market as HC&G and CTC&G are in theirs. We call that our sense of place.

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