Benjamin Barstrom

It may be said that Ben’s path to Centerbrook was preordained. After all, he grew up in Windham, Connecticut, home of our Frog Bridge, and explored the Ocean House in Rhode Island while visiting his grandparents during their stewardship of the Watch Hill lighthouse. He followed a circuitous path though, via Boston’s Massachusetts College of Art and twenty years in the graphic design field.

Ben knew he had a creative side when as a child he was intrigued by his grandfather's drawings and his parents' divergent penmanship styles. Voted class artist, he designed his high school’s program of studies, drama club playbills, and yearbook covers. Senior year he painted an abstract mural of his eyes, in blue instead of brown, just for fun.

At MassArt, Ben studied communications design, which led to graphic design as a principal focus. After graduation, he stayed in Boston where he nurtured a passion for solo urban exploring. He also traveled to Europe, where he became fascinated by how modern street art was juxtaposed with historic architecture. Ben sought opportunities to advance his skills, designing environmental graphics, marketing materials, and leading in-house creative teams for the commercial real estate companies CBRE and JLL. It was there he kindled his architectural interest by designing building brand packages, investment offering memoranda, and property marketing collateral. He was particularly enamored by the snappy renderings created by the architects to bring proposed projects to life.

As the pandemic took hold, Ben saw an opportunity to make a change, leaving the high octane real estate world to nurture his own business in a small Connecticut town. He purchased an 1855 Colonial whose interiors he delights in transforming with modern elements in patterns and colors he hopes don’t induce his vertigo. A budding chef, Ben cooks a mean pan-seared filet mignon with a balsamic demi-glace and enjoys the precise measuring that baking offers, especially when it results in a perfect brown butter brownie.