"There is a tacit terror in most men when it comes to furnishing their house."
Interior designer Greg Jordan '78 decorates a home in unpretentious style for a presumably pretentious clientele. His aim-"to make people feel comfortable, at home."
Hailed as one of the country's leading interior designers, Jordan was proclaimed a designing legend in Architectural Digest magazine. In 2004, The Robb Report named him among "the best of the best."
Jordan takes an all-encompassing approach to design. His staff includes architects and interior designers, and he has helped clients Ashley Judd, Pat Riley, and Blaine and Robert Trump find comfort in their residences.
Jordan designs a room only after collecting great detail from his clients.
"The rooms we design are visual biographies of those who inhabit them."
Yet for all their uniqueness, a universal yearning drives each room's design.
"I think we all are connected by our human needs to feel safe at home," Jordan says. "It is the one place where we are kings of our own castle, shut off from the atrocities existing outside our doors."
Jordan says that sense of security emanates from the furnishings and the design details of a room.
"The 'style' of any room is subjective. It's the 'feeling' of a room that makes it safe, and safety is found in the details that make a room comfortable."
Whether he's designing for Hollywood stars, financial moguls, or just for himself, establishing that sense of security and belonging is the underlying goal of Jordan's work.
"I am driven by the practical use of rooms and making them comfortable. All the rooms I design are safe havens," he says.
"There is a tacit terror in most men when it comes to furnishing their house," Jordan told The Robb Report. "Men feel, 'I buy the house, my wife will decorate it.' They think decorating is the fluff part and they say they don't care, but in reality they do care."
And they should, Jordan concludes.
"There is great intimacy and power in decorating."
We are sorry to report that at press time, we learned that Greg Jordan had died of a heart attack in his home in New York City on April 20. A remembrance will be in the next issue of WM.