After previous showcases at the historic residences of influential 20th-century New York architects Gerald Luss and Eliot Noyes, Object & Thing is now bringing its unconventional approach to showcasing contemporary art and design pieces to James Rose’s house in Ridgewood, New Jersey. After being stationed in Japan during World War II, the late landscape architect often integrated the country’s architecture practices into his work and repurposed building materials to avoid waste. His approach greatly inspired Aaron Aujla and Ben Bloomstein, who founded their furniture studio, Green River Project LLC, as a gallery in the barn of Rose’s family farm in upstate New York. 

The duo’s latest collection of two mahogany armchairs, a cinderblock coffee table, and dining table will be on view alongside a smattering of newly commissioned art and design objects that reflect Rose’s ethos. Among them are rice paper lamps by Preziosi lighting, a set of white leather Adirondack chairs by Hugh Hayden, Bode workwear, and a rare 1943 edition of Plywood Sculpture by Charles and Ray Eames. “Rose was an impossible maverick, called by one author, ‘The James Dean of Landscape Architecture,’” says Dean Cardasis, director of the James Rose Center, the foundation and museum dedicated to preserving his work. “But I think he’d be very happy with the vision Green River Project LLC and Object & Thing have brought to this house.”