Bringing It All Back Home

Rattled by 9/11 and worn down by 34 years in lower Manhattan, artist Lauren Ewing wanted to build a retreat where she could escape the city for a few weeks or months at a time. Ewing, a sculptor and Rutgers University art professor, considered sites in the Northeast but eventually turned to the 500-acre property in Vincennes, Indiana, that her family has farmed since 1806. The house she designed—a version of the venerable Southern-style shotgun house, updated with a modernist flair—has given her a place to unwind and reconnect with her Midwestern roots.