The Montgomery is a 404-foot tall, 26-story luxury residential skyscraper in Chicago’s Riverwest neighborhood. It was designed by iconic architect Minoru Yamasaki and opened as part of the Montgomery Ward Company Complex to serve as a corporate headquarters. It was renovated into a residential condominium building in 2008.

In 2016, as part of a comprehensive project to refresh the public areas of the building, the homeowners association (HOW) engaged me to design a carpet system for the 26 residential floors.

In total, xx square yards of wool carpet were fabricated -- the equivalent of xx football fields. I began with a large pattern and configured it for production on a 12-foot commercial loom. And by cutting the carpet into 8-foot lengths and shifting the sections with each cut, I was able to achieve patterns that didn’t repeat. So when looking down a 150-foot hallway, you would experience a pattern that didn’t repeat. Working this way was also incredibly efficient, and produced very little waste. We saved the remnants, however, to use as overstock so the maintenance staff could cut patches and replace any sections of carpet that became soiled or damaged over time. The beautiful consequence of this repair process has been to further enhance the pattern on a particular floor — much the way a wabi-sabi repair enhances the beauty of a piece of ceramics.

Once the carpet project was underway, I designed a unique artwork for the area across from the elevator bank on the residential floors. Each work measures 8 feet by 20 feet and represents a section of the master pattern created for the carpet, and is paired with a color from a rich palette
that harmonizes with the floor and walls.