Mid2Mod: Lawrence Peabody

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Thursday, August 23, 2012

Lawrence Peabody

Lawrence Peabody (1924-2002) was an American architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, and he studied at Rhode Island School of design, receiving a degree in 1950, after having served in the U. S. Navy. He also studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. While there, he met and fell in love with Bette Taarland of Norway, who was a professor at the school. They married in 1952.

In 1955 Peabody started the design firm Lawrence Peabody and Associates in Boston. Clients included Sears, Roebuck & Co., Kohler, Regal Rugs, Boyd Lighting, Chapman Lamps and Richardson Brothers.

Peabody also helped design numerous hotels in the United States and Caribbean, including the Carriage House in Kohler, Wisconsin, Malliouhana Hotel in Anguilla, British West Indies and Fager Island in Ocean City, Maryland.

Peabody owned a home in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, and along with friend DeWitt Peters, the founder of Haiti's Le Centre d'Art, he helped promote interest in primitive Haitian art.

According to his daughter, his mission in life was to beautify everything, and many of his designs were in response to what he felt was kitsch and ugliness in furniture design.

From joshuahudelson.com and lawrencepeabody.tumblr.com