5 Under 40: The Winners

By Kyle Hoepner

Scary as the thought is, summer is already drawing to a close (never mind that notional September 20 or 21 date our stickler friends bandy about). Cause for sorrow in a way, but cause for joy, too, because the end of summer means it’s also time for my annual boost of confidence in New England’s home design future.

Coming up very soon: New England Home’s annual 5 Under 40 Awards, to be held the evening of Thursday, September 12, at the Galleria at 333 Stuart Street in Boston. The awards ceremony will be followed by a charity auction of five gorgeous custom rugs designed by the winners (more details on these rugs, and the worthy cause the auction will support, to follow in two weeks in this space), and we’ll conclude the evening with the usual season-launching cocktail party for all the best and brightest of New England’s design crowd.

And just who is being honored at the upcoming bash? Six young people, representing five firms, all of whom give us reason to expect great things over the coming decades. If the fate of home design is in the hands of folks like these, we need have no fears for the fate of the profession.

1. Matthew Cunningham, Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design, Winchester, Mass.

Photos courtesy of Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design

2. Tiffany Eastman, Tiffany Eastman Interiors, Stamford, Conn.

Photos courtesy of Tiffany Eastman Interiors

3. Rina Okawa, ZEN Associates, Woburn, Mass.

Photo by Laura Moss, courtesy of ZEN Associates

Photo courtesy of ZEN Associates

Photo by Richard Mandelkorn, courtesy of ZEN Associates

4. Sara Ossana and Jonathan Glatt, O&G Studio, Warren, R.I.

Photos courtesy of O&G Studio

5. Phoebe Lovejoy Russell, Lovejoy Designs, Boston

Photos by Michael J. Lee, courtesy of Lovejoy Designs

By all means come help us celebrate these professionals, their talent and their promise on September 12—tickets are available here. I’d also like to give a shout-out to our event sponsors, who make the whole program possible, and particularly to presenting sponsor Landry & Arcari Oriental Rugs and Carpeting, whose staff and weavers put so much into the production of the winners’ custom rugs—as I said, more on those spectacular rugs in two weeks!