Overdue Notice

Rediscovered by aesthetes in the know, the late designer Ward Bennett gets his place in history with the monograph he long deserved

- Pilar Viladas

Mention the name Ward Bennett and you’ll likely get a puzzled look. But from the 1960s through the 1980s, Bennett—who was born 100 years ago this month and who died in 2003—was one of America’s best-known designers. He was famous for his luxurious brand of modernism and for pared-down, sumptuous interiors that skillfully integrated antiques and contemporary pieces. (Clients included Gianni and Marella Agnelli and Jann and Jane Wenner.) His furniture designs made contemporary refinements to historical prototypes. He incorporated industrial forms and materials into his work a decade before the High Tech trend of the 1970s. And his own homes— a striking, minimalist aerie in the famed Dakota and a monastically spare weekend house in East Hampton—were known around the world.