Things They Love: David Hacin

David Hacin is committed to his neighborhood. Since founding his eponymous Boston-based interdisciplinary architecture and design firm in 1993, Hacin and his team have conceived many of the city’s most innovative residential, commercial, and civic designs. In fact, he lives across the street from the firm’s South End office in a Hacin-designed apartment building, overlooking a Hacin-designed park, just a stone’s throw in any direction from Hacin-designed restaurants and hotels. Active with many professional and nonprofit organizations, including twenty years serving on the Boston Civic Design Commission, Hacin is generous with the connections he has forged: “You two should know each other,” is an oft-used introduction. A longtime design essayist, the Swiss-born Princeton- and Harvard-trained architect is focusing on his own narrative of place and writing a memoir. Hacin, Boston, hacin.com

1. I have a collection of…mostly midcentury white and brown vases of all shapes and sizes—lots of Rosenthal and Meissen—that my husband Tim and I have accumulated during thirty years of antiquing all over the world. And then there’s my parents’ graphic, stackable wedding china designed by Gerald Gulotta and made by Block Chromatics in the early ’70s. German porcelain is starting to take over the house….

2. A place that means a lot to me…is the Swiss Alps. I was born in Geneva, and there is something profoundly satisfying about hiking up to the glaciers that feed the waters of the Rhône Valley. In particular, the Matterhorn is a masterwork of natural architecture.

3.  When I travel, I always carry…my AirPods Max. I am happiest when flying through the clouds to someplace new and exciting, listening to my husband’s curated playlists of house, pop, and big-band music—or enjoying the absolute quiet of noise cancellation.

4. The last book I read and loved…was Patrick Bringley’s All the Beauty in the World. It’s full of wisdom on how to appreciate fine art in a very personal way.

5. My favorite Boston haunt is…Anchovies on Columbus Avenue in the South End. It’s a time tunnel with excellent, affordable pub fare, especially the chicken parm.

6. The best gifts I’ve given recently…are donations to help nonprofits that have lost Federal funding. A particularly worthy organization, with which I have a personal connection through my sister, is the Center for Victims of Torture (cvt.org). It provides counseling and other support to legal immigrants who have been granted asylum in the United States for reasons of abuse or torture.

7. The best gift I’ve received…is the companionship of my miniature schnauzer, Walter (and his two predecessors, Oscar and Spritz).

8. My style icon is…Paul Smith. He designs classics with a colorful twist, often hidden in the lining.

9. The most meaningful advice I’ve received…comes from my father: “What’s so great about being right?” These are words to live by. Trust me.

10. My favorite indulgence is…dark chocolate imported from Switzerland (Läderach, Lindt, and Teuscher are all available in Boston) or handmade locally by Lisa Costanzo at Bittersweet Violet, located in the courtyard at 46 Waltham Street.

11. When I need inspiration I…take a bath. No devices. No place to go. Just a chance to process and synthesize the rapid-fire deluge of inspiration that comes from
living in a highly distracted and distracting world.

12. In another life I would have been…a modern-day Tintin, my childhood hero. He was a reporter, adventurer, and diplomat, always optimistic, resourceful, and up for anything as long as he was accompanied by close friends and his faithful terrier, Walter…I mean Milou