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“I’m sort of a science nerd. I love astronomy. Read a lot of philosophy, and history. I paint and sketch. I’m passionate about my work as an architect – but a renaissance man? I’m not sure… Honestly, it’s hard to fit it all in, because I’m also a dad and that’s very important.”“ He’s a renaissance man with time constraints,” counters Kathy. This inspires a shared chuckle. They are a warm and down to earth couple, who clearly enjoy working as a team in all things, from parenting three children to professional matters. She is marketing director for his architecture business, which began in California, but as of 2002 became bi-coastal with projects on Martha’s Vineyard and the West Coast. On top of running a business and family, another ambitious shared venture for the Pogues, one where their sense of humor was a key ingredient, was the fairly recent fulltime relocation of the family and business to Martha’s Vineyard. Born from happy childhood summer vacations here and a long-term love affair with the Island, they decided to become year round residents several years ago. They started by moving the family to their Edgartown summerhouse. Thus began a process familiar to many wash-a-shore families – the discovery that a summer house can be less than ideal in the winter months, the search for a new home, the decision to build, buying a lot, planning, building, and finally completing, and moving into their new home, a 2400 square foot house in Edgartown, inspired by and with respect for the surrounding, pre-existing architecture of that town, old whaling captain’s houses and shingled cottages. All this while raising triplets, designing homes for others on both coasts, and settling into the community. “It has certainly made us more empathetic to what the process is like for clients,” Kathy says with a grin. “We’ve been through it. It was a lot of work, but worth it. Sometimes it still feels like we’re moving in, getting things settled.” Currently they’re on the other end of the Vineyard dance, the “summer shuffle,” relocating their clan and renting out their new abode to summer visitors. But the story and history of their move is not the story and history that Steve wants to talk about today. His whole face lights up at the chance to talk about architectural history, art history, American history and the stories contained within. “My architectural approach is based in the romantic era, these notions of design from the turn of the century. The pre-modernist architecture that has character, detail, drama, derived from European design styles. It’s all very evocative of emotions and stories and I’m drawn to that.”
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Steve Pogue looks dubious when I suggest describing him as a “renaissance man” in his Vineyard Style profile. In a Vineyard Haven café, over cookies and iced tea, with his daughters quietly writing stories and drawing mermaids at the next table, he insists that he is a regular guy, just one with abundant hobbies.