HOUSE PROUD

For theater impresario —and couture connoisseur— Jordan Roth and his husband, author Richie Jackson, home is a sumptuously transformed 19th-century manse in New York City

- RICHIE JACKSON

AS MY HUSBAND, JORDAN, has become more himself, he has transformed our lives.

Our initial home’s aesthetic could best be described as muscular: wood, steel, straight lines, chic but careful. Closets filled only with dark Prada suits and crisp white shirts. But then Jordan grew his hair, painted his nails, jettisoned the suits for dresses. Couture conquered careful. And now our new home is the physical manifestation of Jordan’s full-throttle freedom, bravery, artistry, creativity, and abundant love.

Full disclosure: After house-hunting together, once we chose this house, I didn’t return till the day we moved in three years later. I tell all our visitors: I had nothing to do with anything you see.

When friends hear that we hadn’t worked together on our house project, they commend us, saying, “Our renovation nearly destroyed our relationship.” But our approach is still a collaboration, our marital one. I don’t know the difference between a soffit and a sconce, but that is not the reason I don’t get involved. While I am not interested in design, I do love Jordan’s love of it, and more than exercising my right to a say in the color of the grout, I want Jordan to have the creative expression he craves.

For Jordan, the revel is in the details, and for three years, he had hours-long weekly meetings with Haynes-Roberts, the architecture/design firm he had also collaborated with on that previous apartment for a previous life.

Entering our house is entering Jordan’s world. Or rather, the world as he wishes it to be: passionate and relentlessly encouraging.

On move-in day, Jordan took me on a tour of where we are to live, and while I hadn't seen anything beforehand, I recognized everything.