How two old oak trees inspired a home's design as appeared in Newsday April 18, 2018

By James Kindall, as appeared on Newsday.com April 18, 2018. View the original article here.

In 2006, Helena Flecker and her husband, Jason Grossman, were renovating their dream home — a Lloyd Harbor midcentury they dubbed “The Tree House” — and were told the two beloved 100-year-old oaks framing it had deteriorated to the point they had to come down.

It was heartbreaking for Flecker, 48, a designer and ardent environmentalist who wanted to maintain as much of the natural surroundings as possible. Then it hit her. The oaks could go, as long as their wood was used in their home. It would be like the Shel Silverstein’s story “The Giving Tree,” she thought, about a tree that sacrifices itself for a little boy as he grows up.

“By the time we were through,’’ she says of the oaks, “parts of them ended up everywhere.

Helena Flecker-Grossman, Founder, and Principal of HFG Design
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

Appreciating nature and incorporating it into her work has long been a major part of Flecker’s philosophy as the founder of HFG Design. A graduate of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and a former teacher at the Parsons School of Design, she has worked on everything from corporate offices on Wall Street to homes throughout the country, all while promoting an ecological awareness.

Helena Flecker-Grossman, Founder, and Principal of HFG Design
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

Flecker and her husband, an attorney, lived in their Lloyd Harbor home for two years while they figured out how to preserve the original architecture as well as the two-acre property’s forested beauty.

Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

In no place is Flecker's dedication to sustainability more apparent than her own home, which was kept small (by today’s standards) at 2,850 square feet to reduce heating, cooling, light and watering requirements.

“It’s my exercise in restraint,” she says.

The family room in the postmodern home
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

The walls and roof of the Lloyd Harbor home are insulated with old, shredded bluejeans. Cross ventilation allows fresh air in, and ceiling fans reduce the need for air conditioning.

The family room in the postmodern home
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

Radiant heat along with a fireplace between the kitchen and living room keep things toasty. High-efficiency lighting, Energy Star appliances and low-flow plumbing fixtures are used throughout. The carpeting is wool and the padding biodegradable.

Old shipping crates services as a repurposed coffee
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

Using a local sawyer, Flecker turned the two downed oaks into flooring, stair treads, furniture, cabinets, desks and even a headboard.

Old shipping crates services as a repurposed coffee
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

In the living room, she pushed together rough-hewn blocks to create a coffee table.

In the living room in the postmodern home
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

The modular coffee table is both contemporary and rustic.

A repurposed wood beam serves as a table
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

One of the biggest chunk of wood — a seven-foot-long piece — became a dining room bench. Too heavy to lift, it was outfitted with casters and can be pushed easily around the room.

The main staircase in the postmodern home of
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

The stair treads were milled from wood of the two downed trees.

The headboard in the master bedroom of postmodern
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

Flecker designed the couple's headboard from choice pieces of the oak.

A vanity in the powder room of the
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

The powder room vanity is made from the old trees.

The rear view of the postmodern home of
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

A giant skylights and floor-to-ceiling windows make the house so bright, Flecker says, that there's no need to turn on a light until dusk.

A spiral staircase provides access from the 2nd-floor
Photo Credit: Heather Walsh

The house is cooled by shade in the summer and warmed by sunlight in winter, after the leaves fall.

“The biggest thing for me was to have a 360-degree view,” Flecker says. “I feel like I’m floating in nature. You see the sun rising, the colors exploding. There is such beauty out there.”