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Artistic, historically-informed architecture
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FR Review:
Like Michelangelo and his famous block of marble, Billings approaches each project waiting for the inner character of the space to call out to him. Each room must have a spark–whether it’s an ingenious window that maximizes natural light, a perfect crown molding or simply a magnificent doorway, this is an architect who doesn’t work with “good enough.” Stylistically, there's a prewar depth of spirit and detail to his work–he strives to create spaces that feel timeless. Not to say that all is staid traditional–on a notable apartment project he combined several staff rooms with a terrace and employed a terra cotta floor to conjure the feeling of a Tuscan mudroom on the Upper West Side.
Before college, Billings attended Avon Old Farms, falling in love with the Arts and Crafts architecture of the school (coincidentally, Billings's grandfather designed some of the early buildings there). He went on to get a B.Arch at Cornell, then worked in the offices of Jed Johnson and Alan Wanzenberg–"from Alan I learned how to edit, from Jed I took a belief in the amazing." After a long partnership with another designer, Billings formed his own firm in 2010.
Not one for quick kitchen refaces or small built-ins, Billings generally prefers complete engagement in 2-3 large-scale projects at a time, reveling in the freedom to start from the ground up. A partnership with the interior designer Harry Schnaper and the contracting firm Building Image has yielded many successful projects, sources tell us "get those three working and it's like a dream team." Obsessed with perfection, Billings will finesse the details until they are just so, he'd rather it be superlative and done by next week than just ok and done by tomorrow. Fees, charged as a percentage of construction, are very reasonable.
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