Sit Down. Let’s Talk. The Conversation Pit Is Back.

Abstract

"Bring back conversation pits," she shared a post on Twitter in April, with photos of several elaborate conversation pits she saw on Pinterest. "So the conversation pit is this fantasy of 'what would it be like if we were together again and having a good time?'" Reeves Connelly, a 25-year-old in Brooklyn who has a popular interior design TikTok account, said that the posts he's made about conversation pits always get the most engagement. "In a way, I use my Instagram as a way to dream and look at spaces I hope to have one day." The Peak of the Pit One of the most well-known conversation pits of the 20th century is in the Miller House, a private residence for architecture patrons J. Irwin Miller and Xenia Miller in Columbus, Ind., completed in 1957. The interior of the home was designed by Alexander Girard, "The perfecter of the conversation pit form," said Deborah Lubera Kawsky, an art historian and the author of "Alexander Girard, Architect: Creating Midcentury Modern Masterpieces." Because Girard was the director of design for Herman Miller's textile division, but also trained as an architect, he had an "Expansive conception of interior design, one that was inextricably linked with the architecture," said Dr. Kawsky. In a 1975 interview with The Times, Ward Bennett, a designer, said that he viewed conversation pits and other built-ins as "Attempts to eliminate furniture." Mr. Bennett, who helped popularize the pit, said, "I want to limit, to simplify." Many early sketches of conversation pits also featured images of lit cigarettes and martinis, Dr. Kawsky noted. Ms. Chung had been "Obsessed" with conversation pits for years, she said, and when she learned it would be too difficult to raise the ceiling in her living room to make it more spacious, it was the ideal excuse to install a conversation pit. Through the 1960s and '70s, Sarah Dwelley grew up in a home with a conversation pit in New Canaan, Conn. The house was designed by her father, James Evans, and the pit was around 11 by 11 feet, with shag carpeting and about two feet below floor level, Ms. Dwelley, 68, recalled.