Image courtesy of JCDA.

James Carpenter

American architectural designer and glass artist James Carpenter (1949– ) became interested in glass while an undergraduate at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he studied and collaborated with Dale Chihuly; he earned a BFA in sculpture from RISD in 1972. Carpenter contributed to the development of new glass materials at Corning Glass Works throughout the 1970s, and in 1978, he established his own cross-disciplinary architectural practice, James Carpenter Design Associates. Working at the intersection of art, engineering, and the built environment, the firm is noted for its ability to employ glass as a means to mediate interior and exterior spaces and to exploit the performative aspects of light.

Works

Nordstrom NYC Flagship, 2019. Image courtesy of James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA). Photo: Nic Lehoux.

Museum at Gateway Arch St. Louis, 2018. Image courtesy of James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA). Photo: Sam Fentress.

Lake Light Threshold Toronto, 2012. Image courtesy of James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA). Photo: Jonathan Forsythe.

Media

James Carpenter discusses historic, nature-based lampwork with Paul Hollister and gives Hollister a book he illustrated on herbs in a circa 1991 interview.

Playing00:50 Transcript
James Carpenter

James Carpenter discusses historic, nature-based lampwork with Paul Hollister and gives Hollister a book he illustrated on herbs. Paul Hollister Interviews with Edward Larrabee Barnes and James Carpenter, c. 1991 (Rakow title: James Carpenter interview [sound recording] / with Paul Hollister, BIB ID: 168555) Clip length: 00:50.

Paul Hollister [PH]: And of course you’ve seen all the [Herman O.] Mueller lampwork at the Natural History Museum [American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York].

James Carpenter [JC]: The one at the Peabody? [Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts]

PH: New York. New York.

JC: No, here. Right. And all the animals, and the sea life—

PH: Protozoa, diatom, radiolaria, and all—

JC: Right, right—that’s fantastic.

PH: Unbelievable.

JC: But also the collection at the Peabody, the glass flowers was always very impressive.

PH: Oh, yeah, yeah. I took my anthropology course there.

JC: I was just looking for a book that I could give you, actually. I have a—where would it be? I might have it upstairs, but I should give you a copy of a book that I did on herbs [The Herbs of Lost Thyme, by John Ferris, illustrated by James Carpenter (Shelburne Mass: The Lost Thyme Press, 1971)].

PH: On herbs?

JC: Yeah.

PH: Oh.

JC: Around ’70. Actually done around 1971.

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Bibliography

Writings by Paul Hollister Bibliography

“James Carpenter: Adventures in Light and Color in Space.” American Craft 51, no. 3 (June/July 1991): 28–35.

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