Printable Full Color Brochure - Walker, Wallace, and Emerson Realty

875 Rondo Ridge
Tryon, North Carolina
This unique home designed by Eleanore Pettersen A.I.A., a protégé of
Frank Lloyd Wright has one of the most expansive, green and dramatic mountain
views anywhere. The living room is octagonal with a soaring 18’ ceiling of cedar,
wide board floors and a stone fireplace. The landscaping has spectacular rock work,
waterfall and a custom in-ground pool. This 24.49 acre property adjoins 207 acres of
land that is under a Conservation Easement that can also be purchased as well as an
additional 430 acres of land also under a Conservation Easement with very limited
home sites. This is an exceptional opportunity for privacy that will never be
threatened by excessive development.
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
December 10, 1989
Architect Leads Way for Women
By JOAN COOK
WORKING out of a converted barn in Saddle River, Eleanore Pettersen has created buildings as
diverse as a luxury town house, a church, a convent school, offices and a nursing home.
One of the first women to be licensed as an architect in New Jersey, in 1950, she has designed
residences for a clientele of mostly business and professional people both in and out of the state.
But her best-known work is probably the home of Richard M. Nixon, a $1 million, 15-room
house on four acres in Saddle River.
Actually, she designed the Nixon house, with lighted tennis courts, a swimming pool and a
1,000-bottle redwood wine cellar, for John Alford, a New Jersey businessman. He sold it to the
former President in 1981.
Ms. Pettersen is the state's representative on the board of the national American Institute of Architects, a member of the New Jersey Association of Architects and an articulate spokeswoman
for her profession.
''Medicine is the closest thing I can compare it to in terms of the same kind of apprenticeship,
the same long hours,'' she said. ''Of course the money's not the same, but it's a good living and a
fabulous life.''
Ms. Pettersen, a native of Passaic, said that when she began her career in the 1940's, there were
from 10 to 12 women in the country who were architects. Today, out of 55,000 architects in the
United States, about 20 percent are women, she said. ''I think it's a good profession for anyone to
go into who has a deep interest in people and is interested in improving the environment,'' she
said. Encouraging Education
Prof. Leslie Kanes Weisman of the New Jersey Institute of Technology's School of Architecture
said, ''Eleanore Pettersen is deeply committed to encouraging the education of architects, particularly in New Jersey.'' Ms. Pettersen is a member of the school's board. Professor Weisman is
former associate dean and one of the founding faculty members of the school.
''She has employed a number of students both while they were in school and after they graduated
and taken a real interest in them,'' he said. ''I consider her an adjunct faculty member. She has
been a really important role model as a woman in a man-dominated field. By her acomplishments she encourages others and also helps personally whenever she is able.''
Ms. Pettersen is typically forthright where her male colleagues are concerned.
''Being a woman in this profession has been an advantage as far as I'm concerned,'' she said.
''Everywhere I went, I was the first woman, and, by and large, men have been very helpful. After
all, it was men who are responsible for my being on the A.I.A.''
Of her own abilities she had little doubt from the beginning. Both her mother, a painter, and
her father, a successful lumberman until the Depression, brought her up to believe she could
be anything she wanted to be. Planned to Be an Artist
''I was bent on a career as an artist and went to Cooper Union because the Depression was on
and it was tuition-free,'' she said. ''The Cooper Union philosophy was that you might think you
want to be a painter, but you haven't yet been exposed to other fields. True. At that time architecture was at the bottom of my list, but they were right and it turned out to be at the top.''
To get her degree, she went to school at night and worked during the day, graduating in 1941.
The timing, because of the war, worked in her favor to get her the hands-on experience she
sought.
Her first job was as a draftsman with the National Defense Research Committee, but the most
significant period of her early career was in Arizona and Wisconsin as an apprentice to Frank
Lloyd Wright.
''It was communal living where everyone did everything,'' she said. ''Man or woman, you laid
shingles on the roof, did concrete work, laid stone, raised vegetables, did laundry and took
your turn at cooking. Wright had no hang-ups about women. ''In my experience, a man with a
strong ego never does. It's the men with the strong egos who give women the opportunities.
My biggest jobs have come from young men in the field, which says something for the future.''
More Women Entering Field
Today an increasing number of women are entering architecture. The New Jersey Institute of
Technology's School of Architecture in Newark, which opened in 1974, had a full-time enrollment of 159 students in 1976, 14 of whom were women. This year there are 450 undergraduate students, 110 of whom are women.
The chances for women at the entry level are the same as for men - they both do very well,
said Phyllis Miller, a spokeswoman for the school.
At Princeton, the state's only other undergraduate school of architecture was established in
1919, and in 1969 it became coeducational. In 1978-79 there were 49 students enrolled; of
these 18 were women, even then a higher percentage of women than in the undergraduate
population as a whole. In the 1989-90 school year, the undergraduate enrollment is 60, of
whom 27 are women, still a slightly higher proportion of women than in the undergraduate
population as a whole.
Ms. Pettersen's most recent project is a group of luxury town houses in Park Ridge.
''Ninety percent of my work is residential, 10 percent other things,'' she said, adding that residential work takes tremendous patience. ''Every job is different, just as each site is different.''
Ms. Pettersen also designed a nursing home called Hartwych West in Cedar Grove. The 135bed home has each wing furnished in a different style and handrails stained in different colors
to enable residents to find their way easily. Another Pettersen project was a church in Clifton,
built to replace one that had burned.
Ms. Pettersen's two firms - Eleanore Pettersen, A.I.A., an architectural firm, and Design
Collaborative, an interior design concern operate out of a barn built in the 1800's ''of no particular architectural distinction,'' she said. She also lived in the barn but later built her own
house on the property. She said she devoted 60 to 80 hours a week to her work.
Her personal favorite architect is Hugh Newell Jacobson, followed closely by I. M. Pei.
Of Frank Lloyd Wright she said, ''There is only one Wright; he had his own handwriting there is no other like it - and each of us has to try to find our own handwriting.''
She regards the study of architecture as the last of the Renaissance education. ''The final
bastion,'' she said. ''You may not end up being an architect, but you'll have a great education
for whatever else you do.''
Photo of architect Eleanore Petterson at work in Saddle River (NYT/Jim Wilson)
We Know These Hills Better Than Anyone...
Offered at $895,000.
For additional information
Please contact :
Madelon Wallace
864-316-3484
800-442-4749 ext 125
madelon.wallace@wweRealty.com
Walker, Wallace & Emerson Realty
400 East Rutherford Street Suite 100
Landrum, South Carolina 29356
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