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Designer-at-Large for
a Small City
\Want to get re-excited about New Haven? Spend an hour with Andy Rubenoff,
who sees it like no one else
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Business New Haven
8/24/1998
By: BNH
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Musician, interior designer, electrician, painter, wordsmith, event planner, fashion designer, culinary artist, photographer, technician, retail consultant, graphic designer, party purveyor to the stars - how do you begin to describe the many facets of New Haven's own Da Vinci, the redoubtable Andrew Rubenoff? The man himself, principal of Andrew Rubenoff: Design, puts it much more simply. “I'm an entrepreneur,” he says.
How do you describe what do you do, since it encompasses so many disciplines?
It depends on the context and what I am doing at the time. I have done interior design of restaurants. I'm working on one now, in Plainville, called Confetti's. Pretty much everything - designing the uniforms for the staff, lighting, interior decorations, sometimes even items for the menu, revising the descriptions on the menu. I will also pick the music for the restaurant. For me, that all comes from the same place. I am trying to create an environment, whether it is on stage at the Palace or at the Lawn Club. What creates the mood that is right for a specified project? That is what I try to find. I am now working with the [city of New Haven's] Office of Cultural Affairs on the street festival. I haven't done this for about eight years. They have asked me to come in as a consultant and help restore some of the pageantry or festive qualities, and maybe simplify it in other ways. I do a lot of charity work and the most exciting projects I do are the ones that I don't make that much money on because that is where the most enthusiasm is. About half of my income comes from designing things that would fall in the category of events or parties or celebrations, the other half is commercial design projects, like lighting for the street festival, etc.
Do you ever turn projects down because you can't get excited about the project, the resources or the people?
Yes, I just did recently. I was asked to do something that I thought the client wasn't really prepared to do. It was a restaurant and they wanted me to completely change the restaurant. I realized that this was not a small project and they were not going to be able to do what they had asked me to do with the amount of money they wanted to spend. I am honest about that. If I think they are going to be throwing their money away, I won't do it.
Where did you learn all this stuff?
I didn't learn anything I know about business in school. I learned it either by making horrible mistakes, or from having some very smart local relatives and friends who have given me very simple instructions like, 'When you do a job, you have to send a bill.' School doesn't tell you how to conduct yourself or have a conversation with your client about what they need or the process of making the idea materialize. I think that is something you just have to have an instinct for. You learn most of this by doing it. I go out of my way to work with nice people, because they all reflect on me. I don't specifically think of myself as in one industry.
What's your formal training in?
As a kid I studied a lot of fine art, painting, drawing, sculpting, etc. I was lucky because my parents recognized my ability for things artistic and took me to a lot of museums and art shows and stuff like that when I was young. In elementary school, I was interested in science, having to do with using issues of physics and optics. A lot had to do with presentation, which is why I won the science fair three years in a row. I studied theatrical design at Ithaca College for four years. I did all kinds of things there, large and small productions. Then I worked for several professional designers for a year. Then I applied to Yale Drama School for design and started that program.
What made you decide to stay in New Haven after drama school?
I had developed a lot of work in the area to put myself through school and had started to do some local projects. I liked what I was doing, had a nice place to live, a network of friends and family. It seemed like a second home town to me so, I stayed.
What proportion of the work that you do is local, compared to somewhere else - New York, or
wherever?
Three-quarters of my work is the New Haven area - southern Connecticut, the shoreline, not too much in Hartford at all. The services that I use and the clientèle that I have is here. There are all kinds of resources around here that are very good and that I know are very good. I have good suppliers here that I trust.
What year did you finish at the Yale School of Drama?
I didn't actually finish the program, but I was there until 1982.
What has kept you all these years from going to do what you do on a bigger stage, say in New York or Chicago?
I do go there occasionally. You can't really develop a going business in a place that is too expensive to do business in without a lot of resources. In New Haven it is relatively easy for me to earn a living doing smaller projects. It is much less expensive here. Plus, getting yourself known in a place like New Haven is much easier. I didn't set out to do it that way; it just worked.
Do you solicit clients any more, or do they all just find you?
When I meet someone who doesn't know what I do, I let them know what I do. People know about me from local social events. But I still have to go out and get the bigger projects and sell myself a little.
How do you get excited about doing the same project year after year - I think of the example of Chapel Square Mall at Christmas - and avoid getting bored with it? What is the mental process you go through to avoid falling into a rut?
I try and get the client re-excited about it: 'What did we do last year and how can we make that more interesting?' I try to come up with one or two new focal points and figure out whether we can afford it. I don't get bored, because there are usually nice people to work with and you get to see them a year later and catch up. Perennial events are not that much the same every year. If I am having a good time doing this and I am excited about it, I think that makes it a better event.
What would you do, if resources and money were no object, to change the look and feel of downtown New Haven?
Do you have an hour? I have some really outlandish ideas that have more to do with tourism than the quality of life. New Haven is such a blend of history and urban planning and antique architecture. New Haven is fascinating from 50 feet in the air, so I think if they had one of those monorails, like “New Haven: The Ride,” it would be a great way to connect New Haven. See the Yale campus and the Green and the Coliseum, etc. Downtown used to have, in the 1940s and '50s, major jazz clubs, a lot of night spots, live entertainment, etc. I think it would be a great story to talk to one of those jazz people that was here during that time.
How do you get people who have moved away from the city - say, to Branford - to come back to New Haven and experience it again for the first time, as it were?
We need more of the Joel Schiavones and the Donald Trumps and the Disneys to get that kind of attention for New Haven, but I don't know how you attract those kind of people. There is a beautiful harbor in New Haven, and that needs to be emphasized. If they are going to build that big thing at the harbor [the proposed Marketplace at Long Wharf], maybe it shouldn't just stop, but it should spread out into the city. I think that would connect the city more and make it seem more accessible.
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