THE #PIERLOOK

Q&A WITH HUDSON INTERIOR DESIGN ON CURATING PIER 4’S MODEL HOME

PIER 4 recently unveiled its Model Home, curated by Hudson Interior Designs Principal Jill Goldberg. A refreshed take on urban living on the waterfront, the design integrates subtle homages to PIER 4’s Boston Harbor views to emphasize its waterside location, bringing a fresh perspective and unexpected details to its interiors.

As the only Seaport residences surrounded by water on three sides, the 106 homes at PIER 4 deserve a design that matches their unique locale and unmatched amenities. We sat down with Jill to talk about the Model Home’s design, and the best ways to make the most of your new luxury, waterside home at PIER 4.

Tell us about your background, and how you got started as an interior designer.

I moved to LA to pursue an acting career in my twenties and fell in love with California’s aesthetic. The soft lighting, warm neutrals and vintage accents inspired me to tap into my passion for interior design, and I eventually moved back to Boston to pursue this sort of creativity full time. In 2006, I opened my boutique, Hudson, in the South End, which now features the Hudson Interior Designs office, and represents a true convergence of my two true loves: home furnishings and creative design.

What was your inspiration behind the interior design of PIER 4’s Model Home?

My design style has always been a mix of California comfort and New England tradition with a vintage twist. A lot of Boston’s new residential homes use palettes consisting of bright whites and dark charcoals, with sleek metal accents and the occasional pop of color – a beautiful design scheme, but one that didn’t strike me as I set about planning for PIER 4’s design.

PIER 4 is anything but cookie cutter, so it needed a design to match: unique textured rugs, beautiful lighting fixtures, hand-made original artwork (courtesy of moi!) and statement making color splashes really brought the space to life. Exploring PIER 4’s Model Home for the first time, all I could imagine were sandy neutrals, rich earth tones and standout vintage furniture and art pieces to make PIER 4 really feel like home, while maintaining its unmatched level of sophistication. Everything about the project is so unique; I was happy to bring in a design scheme that was equally as bold to make the space come alive.

How do you highlight PIER 4’s beautiful Harbor views?

The Boston Harbor is the ultimate art piece. We didn’t want to oversaturate the space with references to the sea – too cliché, and too obvious. What we wanted to do was make it clear from entry that you were close to the water, bringing beachy SoCal energy throughout the space. The most direct reference we made to the sea was a large beautiful artwork by Pauline Curtiss of Patina Designs that has loose representations of fish running across it; to take things a step further, we commissioned a local artist to recreate some of those fish on the walls of the foyer, bringing the aquatic energy outside of the frame into the rest of the space.

There are so many unique and beautiful furnishings throughout the space. What are some of your favorite pieces?

One of the standout pieces in the space is a Lindsey Adelman chandelier that hangs above the dining room table, with five branching arms that each hold one clear globe. It’s a really special piece that balances the space’s modernity with an antique-y flourish. The rest of the space is furnished with some beautiful vintage furniture, like the Hawaiian Koa Wood and Woven Cane Chairs in the living room and the vintage Danish dresser in the master bedroom, which give the space a sense of history and make it feel lived in.

You have such an innovative approach to design. How did you add your special touch to the space at PIER 4?

I wanted to create a space that was full of surprises. After rolling everything out, we wanted to add punches of color (like the salmon and cream wall paper in the bathroom featuring organic shapes), unique textures (like the black and cream silk paper with tribal designs on the master bedroom’s ceiling) and fresh greenery (like the succulents in the living room, hand-potted in Celadon reproduction bowls) to make the Model Home feel like just that – a home. It’s all in those unexpected details, you know?

Contact Advisors Living today to schedule your tour of PIER 4’s Model Home and visualize your waterside residence, and contact Jill at Hudson Interior Designs here to bring the design of your home at PIER 4 to life.