Back to the 2014 AD100 List

A home designed by Thad Hayes is like a breath of fresh air. Featuring rooms that are elegant, soothing, and impeccably curated, his interiors are masterful studies in thoughtful restraint. Hayes finds inspiration in 16th- and 17th-century Japanese architecture and Zen gardens, but he translates their stylistic purity for contemporary American life with a mix of trim modern furnishings and select antiques. “There’s layering and complexity, a kind of alternating current,” says the Louisiana native, who practiced landscape design before shifting his focus and founding his Manhattan interiors firm in 1985. Hayes has a predilection for organic forms and tactile materials—elements that have enlivened residences for such clients as Leonard Lauder and Marc Jacobs and that also figure into his current projects, which range from a ten-building family farm on Cape Cod to an art-collecting couple’s sprawling New York apartment. thadhayeom

Meet the other architects and designers on the 2014 AD100 list.