News Feature: Miami Herald:
Louis Shuster has elevated the mere line to signature status in his designs (2007)

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When Louis Shuster started in design more than 20 years ago, he ran his business out of a houseboat in Fort Lauderdale. Not that it was moving much, but getting a straight line in a floating office can present a certain challenge.

Perhaps that's why today he has a thing about clean lines.Whether it's a penthouse dining room, a stack of coffee table books perfectly aligned next to a towering Phalaenopsis, or his new office -- a Wilton Manors building iconic in its dissecting and connecting lines -- Shuster has elevated the mere line and made it a signature in his designs.

TIMELESS AND CLEAN"

This structure couldn't be better for what we are about," said Shuster, who in January received an award of excellence from the Wilton Manors Historical Society for the building's renovation. "Clean, timeless lines."

The building was originally constructed for Doris Robinson's Beauty School in 1964, back when beauty schools had a kind of kitschy glamour.

One quick tour and it's apparent the elegant old building has found its rightful owner. The sinks and hair dryers that once cluttered the interior have been replaced with contemporary art, original Herman Miller chairs and other pieces, some contemporary and some classic, like the Saarinen table and chairs outside Shuster's office.

The interior and exterior, so resolutely linked by architect Dan Duckham's walls of glass, have been stripped and painted white and taupe. Shuster rebuilt original light fixtures and returned the grounds to a sparse prairie landscape.

The union has been a love affair in the making for years. Shuster started in the men's clothing business in Philadelphia but grew disheartened and moved to Fort Lauderdale in 1981, where he teamed with another designer to run a small firm out of the houseboat in Marina Bay, where he also lived. When Hurricane Andrew sunk the boat and its contents in 1992, he struck out on his own and opened a firm in Victoria Park.

IT BECKONED

But over the years, the Duckham building kept beckoning."I have driven by this building for 25 years and every time I did I drooled. I'd say to whoever was with me, that's the perfect design studio," he said.

In the 1990s the Huizenga family had purchased the building for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County and hired Duckham to remodel it. At one point, Shuster offered to buy it, but was turned down. Then one spring day last year a friend called.

" He said the building of your dreams is for sale," Shuster said. "The night I walked through here, I knew where everything would go."

From the front door, it might appear that he designs only contemporary. Much of the art, from his own collection and the Elaine Baker, Karen Lynne and Michael Joseph galleries, is modern. And most of the furniture is modern or mid-century. But really, Shuster said, it's about classics."I don't like trends. I like design that withstands time," he said.

His own house in Fort Lauderdale is a former Cuban consulate, built in the late 1920s and heavy on the stucco and arches.Over the years he has learned the key to being a successful designer has as much to do with a good eye as a good ear."Good design is 50 percent of the project. The other 50 percent is being there for the client and making sure everything is right," he said.

Shuster's projects are both residential and commercial, including an Atlanta home for the founder of Home Depot, a 30,000-square foot spread in Alabama with an air-conditioned tree house, a ski chalet in Idaho and a Central Park apartment.

Lately, Shuster said clients are asking to simplify."

People are using their homes more and want a carefree and easy environment," he said -- island-inspired homes are big now. "We're not so much creating showplaces anymore like we did in the 1990s. They want beauty, but they want function and low maintenance."

Which brings us back to the Duckham building.

" Since we opened . . ., every consultation and every presentation we've done, we've gotten the work," Shuster said. "And I attribute that not only to what we've shown them, but their surroundings."

LOUIS SHUSTER
Company: Shuster Design Associates, 1401 NE 26th St., Wilton Manors;
954-462-6400

Personal: born in Philadelphia.Education: Bachelor of Arts, St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia.

Design philosophy: My installations all have a very distinctive personality -- and it is all about what the client is about, not what I am about.

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