Harvard Cribs Presents: Steven A. Pinker
Unlike Lindsay Lohan, professors occasionally try to keep their private lives out of the public eye. But FM wants to bring you closer and has gone behind the scenes to visit professors in their homes, exploring everything from their closets to their iPods. Without further ado, FM Cribs presents our first host—Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Steven A. Pinker.
The Crib: A 6th floor loft on South Street, in Boston’s “Leather District,” which was originally a leather warehouse.
Size: Approximately 2400 square feet.
Vibe: A sleek mix of historical crumbliness with an urban, modern flair. Right off the red line so Pinker can take the T to Harvard.
Price: Undisclosed.
MAIN LIVING SPACE:
“Should we take a photo of me in my study? No...That would be too nerdy.”
As you make your way into Steve Pinker’s loft, the first thing that strikes you is the fact that he’s wearing black Calvin Klein jeans. The second thing is the giant open space. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and his study are all out in one area. A generous amount of windows spaced throughout the brick walls provides ample lighting, giving an air of softness yet practicality. The walls, placed in a zigzag modernist form, are lined with dozens of photographs, all taken by Pinker himself. He happily points out his little masterpieces.
“These are from a trip to Sonoma County, in California. It was the first trip my wife and I went on together, about four years ago,” Pinker says. “Others are from various parts of the world, California, Alaska, and Canadian Rockies.”
His office, which sits on a raised wooden platform and overlooks the entire space, is also practical and decorated in a contemporary fashion. An abstractly shaped blue couch, slightly reminiscent of a progressive psychiatrist’s chaise, sits in the left-hand corner. A giant desk overflowing with papers and books occupies the entire right-hand side, with a bookcase on the left to finish it off. No surprises about this set up.
However, your eyes stop at a giant wooden shelf with only one thing on it—an old Yiddish typewriter. “That was given to my wife, who is a novelist and a philosopher, Rebecca Goldstein,” explains Pinker regarding the offbeat decoration. “It might have been used by Isaac Bashevis Singer—it’s from the teens or twenties, and this is one of our prized possessions.”
“BOOKSHELVES”:
“Book ends are barbaric.”
A giant wall lined with book-filled cubes, measuring 21 feet by 10 feet, is the loft’s focal point. Installed mostly by Pinker himself, the cubes hold the couple’s book collection that numbers in the thousands. Cubes seem to be a theme in Pinker’s lifestyle.
“I like cubes; I think book ends are barbaric. They’re so primitive..books fall over and get stuck,” says Pinker. As for favorite books, Pinker points to Williams James’s Principles of Psychology.
“And certainly I’m a fan of my wife’s fiction,” he adds.
KITCHEN:
In the loft spirit, the kitchen unsurprisingly follows an open plan. An empty aquarium that used to house live animals provides a stage for Pinker to shows us a little bit of his humor. “We used to have frogs in this aquarium, but they croaked.” Oh Pinks.
Venturing over to the fridge, we wonder if there is a certain outlook on food for the mind. Apparently, the answer lies in leftover Chinese food and Silver Palate oatmeal.
“We keep a very low-fat diet, although it’s almost irresistible to not eat Chinese takeout,” says Pinker. “I have many boxes of Silver Palate Thick and Rough Oatmeal, which I order from Amazon.com. It’s really a superior oatmeal.” Sorry Quaker!
As Pinker talks about barbecues at his Cape Cod house, his wife, Rebecca Goldstein, hurries in fresh from the Cape, wearing knee high boots, a leather jacket, and Dior sunglasses. They hug and Goldstein ushers us to her study.
REBECCA’S STUDY:
[CAPTION]: Big beams hold up the ceiling of this old freight elevator shaft. Hanging on the wall is a small puppet of Baruch Spinoza, the subject of her most recent book.
MASTER SUITE:
Per usual, the bedroom is a giant, open and sparsely decorated space. In addition to the photographs of old Hungarian relatives and current family members, a sleek iPod player graces the resting chamber.
“At night we just put on jazz because head banging rock and roll isn’t the best stuff to fall asleep too,” says Pinker. During the day, he admits to being a fan of U2, the Rolling Stones, and Springstein.
The bed is floor level, and the mattress Tempur-Pedic. And again, the cubes appear. Pinker arranges his shirts and clothes in cubes. He points out a favorite shirt with “Science is Sexy” emblazoned on the front.
How does Pinker keep it all clean? With a little help from his friend, the Roomba.
In the bathroom, fossils are inlayed in the marble floors. His wife’s perfume sits atop the sink’s counter but any bottles belonging to Pinker are noticeably absent. Cologne is a no-go for the man.
“It can be a little Austin Powers-ish,” explains Pinker. “I used to wear it in the 70’s but not these days."