1920-2012
Albert Livingston Hadley, Junior
By Christopher Hyland
Albert Hadley visited the Christopher Hyland showroom
in New York's famous D & D building (Design and
Decoration) on a regular basis for over a generation.
He consistently shopped the market, never failing to
be au courant. Even into his early nineties, just weeks
before he died, I saw him to the elevator, talking about
the wonderful interview that we would do for HYLAND.
I had just shown him an issue of the magazine on my
iPad. He was enthralled. As the doors closed, we said
we would see each other soon. Instinctively, I wasn't so
sure, especially when I heard, shortly thereafter, that he
had returned home to Nashville, Tennessee, where he
more recently died.
I interviewed with Albert Hadley, then in his famous
partnership with Sister Parish, Parish-Hadley, in the mid1970s. It was a courtesy call. He instinctively knew that
my interest lay in the intersection of design, business,
sales and marketing. He was absolutely charming,
encouraging and thoughtful.
Adam Lewis' book, Albert Hadley: the Story of America's
Preeminent Interior Designer, is a wonderful study of a
designer whose sense of balance, reserve and facility
to employ the tenets of modernism in tandem with the
traditional is near unique. Reading it is a memorial service.
HYLAND