Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
Walk along Marshall Avenue in Webster Groves and, among the neighborhood’s Victorians and Craftsmen, you’ll spot Jennifer Silverberg’s new photography studio. The modern structure is an ultrahip rectangle sheathed in corrugated black metal. The terrace carved from the second story looks like the notch in a Lincoln Log, if the sets were sold in CAM’s gift shop. You might even wonder whether you’ve wandered into one of the artsier neighborhoods of Los Angeles.
“This is my happy place,” says Silverberg, a commercial food, farm, and lifestyle photographer. She’s effervescent even in a pandemic as she gives a tour of the first-floor studio. It’s a study in functionality and beauty. A garage door on the west wall, directly opposite the shoot wall, makes moving equipment in and out a breeze. Silverberg can gain an extra 10 feet of shooting distance by opening it and stepping outside. But it also lends a cool industrial vibe.
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
The kitchen, toward the back, is a showpiece. Black granite countertops are finished to look like suede, Silverberg’s preference over polished. White hexagonal tile by Daltile adds interest to the backsplash behind the Wolf range, outfitted with six burners and a grill that a food stylist can employ to get the perfect char on a cut of meat. Even the hardware has been chosen with careful consideration. Silverberg selected the sleek cabinet pulls because they wouldn’t snag aprons and slow down work. “I don’t think anything just happened in this space,” she says.
Silverberg envisioned the design as bright, airy, and inviting—fitting, because the building pulls double duty as Silverberg’s home, which she shares with her husband, Joe Merlone, and their cat, Claire. Officially, the house was designed by Nick Adams of Mademan Design, with Silverberg and Merlone’s input. Unofficially, this is the home that charisma built.
Silverberg and Merlone had been fans of Mademan after peeping a house Adams designed in Richmond Heights, so when the couple was considering a live/work situation, they called Adams—who politely declined. When Silverberg was offered the chance to shoot Adams’ portrait for a 2018 issue of DesignSTL, she rearranged her schedule.
“I thought, If I could just get in front of this guy, and he could sense my enthusiasm, he’ll agree to work with us,” Silverberg says. “I think I spent 20 minutes doing the photo and another hour sitting in the conference room with Nick, talking his ear off about our dream space and home.” It worked.
For his part, Adams says: “I love modern architecture that can be represented by a child’s sketch. From the front, it was a box with a box cut out of the bottom. From the side, it was a rectangle with a rectangle cut out of the top right. It seems so simple, but when you build something like that, it becomes really bold when you make a single or a couple of simple gestures.”
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
For a creative whose business is also a passion, the line between work and play blurs sometimes. So though Silverberg has an upstairs kitchen, she’s quick to offer it as an option for her clients as well. “I designed the kitchens to look different on purpose,” she says, “not only for me, because I wanted this to feel a little homier and warmer, but I wanted two different visual aesthetics.” Shaker cabinets, a fireclay farmhouse sink, rose gold hardware, and open ash shelves read feminine in contrast to the more industrial kitchen downstairs.
The 12-foot ceilings in the studio drop to 10 on the first level, making the outdoor space off the second-level kitchen and living room truly terraced. The living space transitions from indoor to outdoor seamlessly: A grill sits outside on the same wall as the oven. Food can be taken out of the oven, finished on the grill, and served alfresco.
On the terrace, Silverberg reflects: “This lower deck/upper deck situation wasn’t necessarily the intent—it was just a design that happened on the basis of the needs of the downstairs space, but I love it so much. When you’re sitting out here, it feels so private.” In the home that didn’t just “happen,” it’s a happy coincidence.
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
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Photography by Jennifer Silverberg
