TO SUBMIT PROJECTS OR REGISTER YOUR SCHOOL, PLEASE CONTACT:
Dee Dee Bonds, Allied ASID, 2016 Otto Zenke Chair via [email protected]
STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION INFORMATION:
For further materials, please contact Chair indicated above.
BRIEF HISTORY OF OTTO ZENKE:
In 1939, Otto & Henry Zenke moved from New York City to Greensboro, NC to create a New Classic Southern Style by adapting 18th-Century British Neoclassic décor to the 1940’s South.
The Zenke Brothers had showrooms in Greensboro, Palm Beach & London. Their growing reputation landed them historically significant projects up and down the East Coast & Europe, including Jenrette’s early purchases, the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh & John F. Kennedy’s White House.
The Designer’s knowledge of his subject - Late Georgian to English Regency, his impeccable taste which showcased “smooth” spaces that flowed from one to the other, and his incredible showmanship became his calling card.
Spaces could be easily recognized as reflecting “Instant Otto’s” uncanny ability to transform an interior space overnight. This has allowed the Otto Zenke legacy of good taste to live on.
The Zenke Legacy endures with elegant, English, estate-inspired style ranging from “Authentic French Zuber Wallpapers” to “Black & White Checkerboard Terrazzo” and from “Intricate Embroidered Monograms” to “Custom Designed China Patterns."
Infused with the relaxed tones and motifs of the American South the spaces are as relevant today as when Zenke was at the pinnacle of his career.
The Otto Zenke name lives on in the Otto Zenke Student Design Competition, originally endowed by Otto Zenke and sponsored annually by the Carolinas Chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers.
[Upd. 9-2-15]