Neptune Papers Issue Nine – Bill Sofield’s Maine Lighthouse by Jesper D. Lund

Neptune Papers is an independent interiors and lifestyle publication based in Paris.

In this issue:

When Bill Sofield and his partner, Dennis Anderson, purchased their Maine lighthouse 25 years ago (on a whim—they were reading the Sunday New York Times real estate section over breakfast), it’s safe to say they had no idea what they were getting into. At the closing, which was the first time they’d set foot on the island, their lawyer whispered, “We have a way to get out of it. A loophole,” Anderson remembers. “We just looked at each other and said ‘but who ever gets to do something like this?’”

By now a sort of mutual reliance has sprung up between the house and its owners. It always needs their attention, and they crave the kind of simplicity and singularity of purpose that spending time here encourages. The rest of the year, their lives are chaotic in all the familiar ways: Anderson runs Bedford House, a vintage and antique furnishings shop in Westchester, New York, and Sofield is the founding partner of the Manhattan architecture and design firm Studio Sofield.  

The Studio’s work is often called daring, which translates as highly imaginative, unexpected and a little over the top. Among its early jobs were a Hudson River house for artists Helen and Brice Marden, the SoHo Grand Hotel and many gleaming Gucci boutiques worldwide. Current projects include the reimagining of the Flatiron Building as residential apartments and the Paul Rudolph townhouse once designed for design Halston recently purchased by Tom Ford. “Our style references in almost every aspect were the same, and from the moment we met we were able to speak about design in a kind of shorthand” say Ford. 

Despite the glamour of it all, Sofield’s values remain simple: “For me, the idea of luxury is really telling people it’s okay to enjoy things, whatever they are. It doesn’t have to have status”.

This Issue also features: Adrien Chenel, Aline Chastel, Amanda Brooks, André Balazs, Athena Calderone, Bruce Gagnie, Casalta, Cheska Vallois, Chris Wallace, Eli Zabar, Flora Byk, Flynn McGarry, François Halard, Gabriela Rosales, Giuseppe Ducrot, Golshifteh Farahani, Hope Atherton, Jamie Wyeth, Jennifer Vitagliano, Josh Smith, Julien Devergnies, La Cavalerie, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Michael Bargo, Nicolas Dreyfus, Nicole Vitagliano, Niki Rollof, Patrick Eugene, Patrick McGrath, Robert Wright, Romain Ginac, Zara Home and more!