Creative Collaborations, Celebrating A Thirteen Year Relationship
By: Dawn Carroll, Stone Specialist, Cumar Marble and Granite
Pure fascination. That’s typically the reaction people have when designer Rosemary Porto, of Poggenpohl Kitchens, unleashes her creativity. We are left in awe with the end result. However, her designs and unparallel talent is only part of the entire process. The other half of her success is due to her uncanny ability to assemble the perfect team for each job. How do I know this? For many years, I have found myself on her winning team.
For those New England fans out there, you can think of Rosemary as the Coach Belichick of the design field. As Belichick has said, “On a team, it’s not the strength of the individual players, but it is the strength of the unit and how they all function together.”
Over the past 13 years of working together, Rosemary has led me to many “Design Super Bowls.” Together, we have won prestigious awards. The Subzero, Best of the Best Kitchen Design, which showcases top talent, featured two amazing projects that I was lucky to be a part of, along with Hacin + Associates. I have also been very fortunate to have had the opportunity, through Rosemary, to work with some of the finest architects and builders, in some of the most well-known addresses on the East coast. Not only had the experience working with these individuals been wonderful, but I can also now call most of them by dear friends.
Rosemary is also a big believer in the power of mentoring. She has been a huge supporter of one of my passion project, the Over My Shoulder Foundation and our Design Mentoring Mission. Rosemary embodies the words of our co-founder, Patti Austin, when she says “we are all increasingly interdependent on each other, rather than independent individuals.” She invests in her friends, their dreams, and gives her time as she graciously hosted a dazzling mentoring event in collaboration with designer and friend, Leslie Fine.
As Rosemary consistently reminds us, it’s all about the team and I couldn’t agree more. Therefore, I would like to give recognition to my colleagues at Cumar Marble and Granite, who are the true “Rock Stars” of this collaboration.
My super star boss Ivo Cubi, owner and patriarch of Cumar, travels around the world to hand pick the gems of the earth to bring back to Cumar. After the designers make their selections, our engineering team examines each slab spending hours creating a layout where the elegant stone patterns and designs come to life, weaving the perfect story. Then the fabrication shop talks ownership of this creation, slicing and polishing each rare stone, sculpting the shapes needed for each individual project. Once it’s complete, the installation artists secure the stone in its final home, where it becomes the epicenter for a family, hosting many family gatherings.
As I celebrate with Rosemary thirteen years of friendship, mentoring, design, and collaboration, it is with great pride that I share the news of an exquisite editorial piece that is in the current Design New England’s Fall issue. A stunning team design- a Super Bowl win for us.
Congratulations to the entire team and bravo to my Cumar team! Looking forward to thirteen more wonderful years creating masterpieces.
