The Loving Cup

Photo by Matt Rose
Photo by Matt Rose

Even by big-city standards, Patti Glazer is a busy woman. A designer and renovator, for the past 30 years, of some of Asheville’s most distinctive buildings, she might be forgiven for getting her coffee on the go.

However, Glazer—the eyes and energy behind the mixed-use villa Lexington Station and the sumptuous recording studio Echo Mountain, among other recent projects—enjoys her morning joe at home. What’s more, she’s careful to start the day off well by choosing just the right cup in which to pour it. Which has to take a while, since she’s got enough of them to last six months without repeating a selection.

Owning nearly 200 handmade mugs was “never intentional,” says the multiple-award-winning architect (although her 600-plus pairs of earrings suggests that her affection for accumulation can’t be so easily dismissed). “I guess once I had amassed 60 mugs or so, I realized it could be perceived as a collection.” And now that they’re there, she fully intends to use them.

“I thrive on the variety,” declares Glazer, whose work in WNC also includes designing such important commercial structures as both Asheville Earth Fare locations and the 35,000-square-foot Habitat for Humanity Home Store.

“The mugs have different personalities,” she explains. “It’s fun to pick the one that suits the mood of the moment, whether it be the pink one shaped like a fish or the black-and-white polka-dot one with the bright turquoise interior, or a neutral stoneware one.”

Other standouts include a cobalt-blue vessel with a striking triangular handle; a whimsical mug on four legs that recalls a claw-foot bathtub; and one particularly clean-lined piece distinguished by aloof concentric circles—like minimalist doughnuts for the skinny-latte set.

Yes, she has a favorite: “It’s the color of a Granny Smith apple and is composed of intersecting geometric shapes.” Besides its look, though, Glazer says “The amount of liquid a mug can hold is also a determining factor in selecting the one for the morning cup of coffee.”

Achieving that necessary blend of form and function is natural for Glazer, who’s almost as well known for her extensive application of building safety codes as she is for sharp aesthetics. She acquires her cups in her off hours, though, browsing through area galleries, studios and art fairs.

“They are all handcrafted,” she confirms. “This region is home to some of the best craftspeople and creative potters, so a majority of the cups are from WNC, although I did pick up a few in travels to Mexico, Japan and Italy. One that I brought back from an antique shop in Amsterdam was quite a find: an oversized coffee cup and saucer 15 inches in diameter that had been used as display signage for a cafe.”

Supporting her fellow artists is an admirable side effect of her habit. And displaying a superior interpretation of one of the most common types of collections is perhaps just as visionary as collecting something unique. These mugs aren’t mere souvenirs in the same way that Glazer Architecture’s dramatic repurposing of the once-condemned Marshall High School into riverfront art studios wasn’t just another renovation project.

Nudging such lofty considerations aside, though, one ultimately concludes that Glazer just can’t help herself.

“An appreciation of good design is not something you turn on and off,” she points out. “It permeates everything. We architects sometimes refer to it as the ‘designer’s curse,’ when we cannot bring ourselves to buy the mundane household object rather than the cool, designerly version of the same thing. “Each mug is an objet d’art, an expression of form, color, pattern and function,” she adds, before settling, architect-like, on practical matters. “The good thing is that mugs do not take up a lot of room, and they are relatively affordable.”

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