Morris Nathanson
Principal-in-charge
Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Morris Nathanson has lived his life on the international stage as a theatrical set designer and creator of award-winning restaurants and hospitality venues. Having traveled widely and with offices in New York, Boston and Providence, Mr. Nathanson returned to his roots in Pawtucket in l986, purchasing the historic, but decaying Rhode Island Cardboard Manufacturing complex. Over the last 18 years he and his wife, Phyllis Van Orden Nathanson, have renovated the mill buildings into offices for his design firm and a community of live/work artist lofts and renaming them Blackstone Studios. Riverfront Lofts will join the Blackstone Studios community of artists to form the core of Pawtucket's downtown Arts and Entertainment District.
In addition to the recognition he has received for his restaurants and hospitality projects, Mr. Nathanson is the recipient of numerous personal awards and recognitions, including an honorary doctorate degree in Business Administration from Johnson and Wales University in Providence, RI, and Pawtucket's Rotary Club Person of the Year Award in 2002.
Mr. Nathanson was a founding member of the Trinity Repertory Theater in Providence and the Pawtucket Foundation, where he serves on the Executive Committee. He is an active board member on other major civic initiatives in Pawtucket, including the Pawtucket Armory Performing Arts Center, the Pawtucket Riverfront Commission and Pawtucket 2020 Mayor's Commission. He has served as a commissioner under the direction of Antoinette Downing on the Providence Historic Commission. He has taught design courses at the Rhode Island School of Design and served as a design consultant for Joseph Paolino, the former Mayor of the City of Providence.
A member of the Providence Arts Club, Mr. Nathanson is also a highly-regarded professional painter with numerous exhibitions in Providence and New York. He received a BA in fine arts from the University of Miami, and did graduate studies in theater arts at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Many of the award-winning projects designed by his office are published in leading books on hospitality design.