They Rescued a Teardown and Raised the Roof

A 1929 country house in Wilton, Connecticut, was in poor condition inside when Al and Sue Ravitz bought it. The property had been owned for decades by a regional hosta society president focused mainly on landscaping. The couple renovated it as a weekend home for hosting grandchildren, clearing and reworking the garage area that had been divided into four small bedrooms. They created one large room for Al’s office and studio, using a wood structure to support a cathedral ceiling and plaster finished by professional church restorers. The renovation involved smoothing plaster by hand with spray bottles of water. The couple met in the 1970s and began collecting art and decorative objects together, later shifting toward conceptual art focused on reductive qualities and object interactions.

"Most people could have torn it down," Al Ravitz says of the 1929 country house he shares with his wife, Sue Ravitz. The property, which sits on three and a half acres in Wilton, Connecticut, had been owned for more than five decades by the president of a regional hosta society who was mostly preoccupied with the landscaping. "The house was in really bad shape inside," Sue says."

"A year or two into their renovations, they cleared out the area above the garage, which had been divided into four small bedrooms. They made it one great room that Al uses as an office and studio. Their contractor created a wood structure to support the cathedral ceiling, which was finished with plaster by professional church restorers. "They would bring little spray bottles of water and then smooth it with their hands. It was spectacular watching them," Al recalls."

""We really didn't know anything," says Al. "The bigger, the louder, the better. That was our philosophy then." Later, they came to appreciate conceptual art. "We're interested in things that are reductive and in the way that objects interact with one another or evoke a sensation that can't be characterized verbally.""

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