Artists Helen Marden and the Late Brice Marden Refashioned a Decommissioned 19th-Century Ferry Terminal

With the help of the architecture and design firm Sachs Lindores, an abandoned ships landing becomes a luminous refuge with a front-row seat on the HudsonSwan House is accessed from a long, narrow causeway on the Saugerties riverbank.Over the course of their more than 50-year marriage, artist Helen Marden and her late husband, the eminent painter Brice Marden, amassed an international collection of seriously eccentric—and deeply magical—houses, gardens, and studios, each designed around the double helix of art and family. They bought their first house, a cliffside cottage on the Greek island of Hydra, in 1973, and since then real estate and art have been entwined in their life, art facilitating the purchase of property, the properties both catalyst and carapace for the evolution of their art. An Italianate villa in upstate New York, a pair of traditional riads in Marrakech, a hotel set among the ruins of a 19th-century sugar plantation in the Caribbean, a second house by the port in Hydra, a Renaissance Revival town house in Manhattan, a stately manse on a sprawling estate in Pennsylvania—every one of their idiosyncratic properties has its own fascinating history, reflected in its interior. The homes are all documented in the upcoming book Brice & Helen Marden: Houses, Gardens, Studios (Gagosian), edited by this writer, with photography by Stephen Kent Johnson.Helen Marden in the living room. Chair and side table by the Campana Brothers. The chimney is clad in Clé Tile. A watercolor by Henri Michaux rests on the mantel. ART: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, ParisThe living room includes chairs by Marcel Wanders (far left) and the Campana Brothers. Sculpture at right by Matthew Wang. ART: © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Michael Wang.In the dining room, a Paavo Tynell pendant hangs above a rustic farm table with chairs by Jonathan Olivares and Maarten Baas. Amazonia marble covers one wall. The Mardens were instinctively drawn to residences with endurance, places that have seen a few things, not newly built pleasure domes devoid of texture and soul. Swan House, the riparian hideaway in the middle of the Hudson River, epitomizes the couple’s embrace of the strange and the enchanted. Accessed by a long, narrow causeway that leads off the shore of Saugerties, the structure was built in 1877 as part of Long Dock, a ship terminal and moorage for large vessels conveying people and goods the length of the Hudson. It was also a landing for ferries crossing the river between Saugerties and the village of Tivoli. One can see Swan House shimmering in the landscape from the edge of Rose Hill, the Marden family’s 19th-century Tivoli estate.The Depression, along with the advent of more efficient modes of transport, scuppered the last of the large ships landing at Long Dock in the early 1930s, but ferries continued to make the two-minute trip across the water until 1938. After that, the structure was decommissioned from professional service and sold, becoming the only privately owned peninsula on the Hudson. The Mardens purchased the property in 2011, but it took a full decade before they engaged designer Daniel Sachs and architect Kevin Lindores of the AD100 firm Sachs Lindores Architecture, Interiors to execute a full-scale renovation.The primary bath features custom zellige tiles, a vintage Vistosi chandelier, an antique marble sink, and a tub by The Water Monopoly. Sachs Lindores remodeled the entry with a windscreen of glass brick. The chair is by Gaetano Pesce. Yellow zellige tiles meet a pale pink Aga range beneath a custom zinc hood in the kitchen. The pendant light is by Adolf Loos from WOKA. Brice Marden’s For Helen – Valentine 2019 (2015–18) hangs on the black-tiled fireplace tower that mediates the bedroom and living room. ART: © 2026 Estate of Brice Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkA custom bed is flanked by an antique French console table and a Charles Rohlfs hall chair. Lighting includes a Franz West chandelier and a floor lamp by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. “Early on we demolished a few walls to open up the views, but it was pretty raw. We’d just go over and watch the boats go by,” Helen recalls. “You have a completely different relationship with the river when you’re sitting in the middle of it.”Given the famously cultivated, idiosyncratic tastes of the homeowners, the collaboration between Sachs Lindores and their clients was unusually fertile. Together, they reimagined the derelict building as a trick box for trapping the natural light that bounces off the water on all sides, with reflective, lead-coated copper siding and a zinc roof on the exterior and fields of luminous plaster, tile, and marble within. “Helen never shies away from a bold gesture. At first, she told us to paint the house red, but when we presented the idea of a glistening metal-clad box with light dancing on the skin, she immediately went for it,” Sachs recalls. “Brice and Helen were very interconnected in their aesthetic tastes and decision making,” Lindores adds. “As you might imagine, they studied every paint color and trim detail.”Ruins of the 19th-century dock remain alongside the house. A guest room is outfitted with a Pierre Jeanneret daybed, lounge chairs by Monika Mulder for IKEA, a vintage Kevin Walz standing lamp, and a Mathieu Matégot magazine rack. Painting by Helen Marden. ART: © 2026 Helen Marden / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New YorkSigmar Polke’s Untitled (1998) hangs above a vintage Walter Knoll sofa in the first-floor sitting room. ART: © The Estate of Sigmar Polke, Cologne / ARS, New York, 2026While retaining the shape of its original architectural envelope, the house was essentially rebuilt, with new window configurations, open circulation, and an exposed ceiling, all in service of maximizing watery vistas and ease of use. On the lofty upper level, the existing chimney, newly revealed in its full floor-to-ceiling height, was clad in glossy black brick tile. The monolithic form now feels like a high altar in a temple of light. Custom zellige tiles imported from Fez cover the walls of the kitchen and baths, where Helen’s genius for juxtaposing colors and materials comes into high relief.The polyglot ensemble of furnishings hews closely to the signature Marden mix: Moroccan rugs; bold contemporary designs by the likes of Gaetano Pesce, Marcel Wanders, and the Campana Brothers; humble American folk pieces; 20th-century classics by Paavo Tynell, Adolf Loos, and Pierre Jeanneret; and a few Continental antiques to leaven the brew. “I just pick things that I like, things that make me happy,” Helen says, pooh-poohing the idea of some grand decorative vision. Her designers would demur. “She has an incredible eye,” Sachs insists. “The more crazy Helen would get, the more Brice liked it.”This story appears in the December issue. Never miss a story when you subscribe to AD.Not a subscriber? Join AD for print and digital access now.Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the best of design in your inbox.Mayer Rus is the West Coast Editor of Architectural Digest. A prominent author, critic, and lecturer for the past 30 years, he chronicles the work of the world’s leading designers and architects as well as the homes of today’s most prominent cultural figures, from pop stars to presidents. Prior to ... 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