Most people could have torn it down,” Al Ravitz says of the 1929 country house he shares with his wife, Sue Ravitz. The property, which sits on three and a half acres in Wilton, Connecticut, had been owned for more than five decades by the president of a regional hosta society who was mostly preoccupied with the landscaping. “The house was in really bad shape inside,” Sue says.

The couple—he a painter and psychiatrist, she a self-taught fiber artist who has shown with the gallerist ­Patrick Parrish—own a studio apartment in Tudor City. They saw the derelict fixer-upper as a weekend home where they could host their grandchildren.

A year or two into their renovations, they cleared out the area above the garage, which had been divided into four small bedrooms. They made it one great room that Al uses as an office and studio. Their contractor created a wood structure to support the cathedral ceiling, which was finished with plaster by professional church restorers.

“They would bring little spray bottles of water and then smooth it with their hands. It was spectacular watching them,” Al recalls. “We have photos of the material underneath. It’s incredible.”

The Ravitzes, who spent 30 years in ­Chicago, where Al was on the faculty at the University of Chicago, met in the 1970s at a disco in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where Sue grew up. Al was already a hobbyist buyer of Maxfield Parrish prints, beat-up old oriental rugs, and velvet ­Victorian furniture, and collecting soon became a joint effort.

“We really didn’t know anything,” says Al. “The bigger, the louder, the better. That was our philosophy then.” Later, they came to appreciate conceptual art. “We’re interested in things that are reductive and in the way that objects interact with one another or evoke a sensation that can’t be characterized verbally.”

Sue’s own practice came late in life. “I was always doing handiwork, and when the kids left for college, I started obsessively knitting little squares, doing these color combinations,” she says. “And then I did blankets and rugs.”

Her pieces are scattered around the home, where their furniture adheres to a pared-down modernist aesthetic. “We just want to find stuff that nobody else has,” says Sue, who adds that Al has more than 400 alerts on auction sites. One of them recently turned up a chair by the Dutch company Droog for $1,500. “Not everything has to look the same,” Al says. “But it has to feel the same.”

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The Library The stained glass is original. The light is by Castiglioni. The wall sculpture is by Jesse Hickman. The paintings on the top shelf are by Al, and the throws are by Sue. The large artwork above the Otto Zapf daybed is by Alain Biltereyst.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Living Room The artwork above the Theo Ruth sofa is by David Schell. The painting behind the Sarah Burns armchair is by John Dilg. The side table is by Erwine and Estelle Laverne. The chandelier is by Castiglioni. The piece above the stairs and the two rugs are by Sue.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Sitting Area The painting above the 19th-century Dutch chair is by Elise Ferguson. The storage is by Otto Zapf. The wall light is by Kristen Wentrcek and Andrew Zebulon, and the painting to its right is by Stacy Fisher. The circular painting is by Edward Movitz. The painted weaving on the wall in the background is by Sky Glabush. The rug below it is by Sue, who curates the Ravitzes’ gallery near Bryant Park, 57W57 Arts.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

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The Kitchen The red cabinets are original. “The real estate agent said, ‘Everyone hates this kitchen. You’re going to change it, aren’t you?’ We thought it was so cool,” Al says. The dice chairs are unattributed and the artwork above the windows is by Celeste Fichter.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Bathroom The penny tile was added during the Ravitzes’ renovation. The artwork on the right is by Al and the pink piece is by Letitia Quesenberry.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

The Primary Bedroom The artworks are (from left) by Gwenn Thomas, Martí Cormand, Al, and John Dilg is over the bed. The bed is flanked by Dutch midcentury wall lights. The table next to the Chris Rucker chairs is by Roy McMakin.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

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The Landscaping “When we bought it there was nothing but hostas,” Sue says. “We must have some very rare specimen hostas.” The pool was already in place.
Photo: Annie Schlechter

The BDN Opinion section operates independently and does not set news policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com

David Costello of Brunswick is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

While many, including most in the press, have essentially declared Maine’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary over, there’s still time for voters to consider whether the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee is the best person to take on Sen. Susan Collins in November. Perceptions of political viability can, and often do, change overnight.

I believe that my personal story, education, and government experience contrasts more sharply with that of Sen. Collins than does Graham Platner’s. My lived experience is rooted in many of the same challenges working-class Mainers face every day, and my extensive government service is broader, deeper and more hands-on than Sen. Collins’. Moreover, I believe that my experiences equip me with the kind of knowledge and perspective sorely needed in Washington today.

I was born in Bangor and raised in Old Town by my mother and mill-working grandparents. My father, an Army veteran and labor organizer, died at the age of 31 due to hazardous working conditions he faced as a teenager. I know what it’s like to have to hustle to pay bills, compile years of debt and go long periods without health insurance and healthcare.

Like many in Maine, I began working at an early age and worked my way through the University of Maine, George Washington University and the London School of Economics. And I subsequently served for more than 30 years in senior-level government and non-governmental organization positions, both in the United States and abroad.

These positions included serving as a top aide to Maine’s secretary of state, the mayor of Baltimore and governor of Maryland; as a deputy and acting secretary of the Maryland Department of the Environment; and as a county program manager and regional team leader for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). These positions involved implementing and managing, not simply legislating or talking about, complex multimillion-dollar programs and operations.

These programs and operations included working closely with the U.S. Army, State Department, United Nations and foreign aid organizations overseas — and various state and local government agencies, businesses and non-governmental organizations in Maine, Maryland and elsewhere.

They are programs and operations that resulted in election and motor vehicle safety reforms in Maine; improved schools and family assistance programs in Baltimore; the implementation of ambitious job creation, education, healthcare, crime reduction and environmental protection programs in Maryland; and the completion of more than 3,500 peace and community-building projects in conflict-torn Cambodia, Haiti, Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo and Serbia.

I believe experience matters, but so too does my decades-long commitment to substantially reforming our nation’s governing policies, practices, and institutions and eliminating the excessive and corrupting influence that money, wealth and disinformation have over our politics and government. Like many Democrats, I am fully committed to enacting far-reaching legislative and constitutional reforms, among them: Medicare for All; universal childcare; expanded Social Security benefits; a national minimum living wage; increased taxes on the wealthy; a ban on gerrymandering; federal clean elections financing; comprehensive immigration reform; judicial and legislative term limits; codification of Roe v. Wade; an assault weapons ban; and an aggressive national climate action plan.

Reforms designed to not only salvage our democracy, but to also better protect our rights and freedoms and to enable us to finally tackle such pressing challenges as: unaffordable housing and healthcare; insufficient retirement security; economic inequality; gun violence; shoddy infrastructure; and climate change. Because only then are we likely to achieve the more perfect union envisioned by our most thoughtful founders and forebears.

A Massachusetts police officer’s “extraordinary courage” has earned federal recognition two months after he stepped into action and saved a woman’s life on the train tracks.

FBI Director Kash Patel has sent a certificate of appreciation to Abington Police Sgt. Stephen Marquardt for the veteran officer’s efforts in preventing the distraught woman from being fatally struck by an oncoming train.

FBI Boston’s Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks visited the department on the South Shore this week, presenting Marquardt with the certificate two months after the sergeant’s life-saving action.

“Back in March, Sgt. Marquardt demonstrated extraordinary courage when he stepped onto the railroad tracks,” FBI Boston stated in a social media post, “as a train was approaching, to rescue a woman having a mental health crisis.

“FBI Boston thanks him for his unwavering commitment to public service,” the post added.

The Abington Police Department responded to the gesture, stating that it “extends its appreciation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for recognizing Sgt. Marquardt’s bravery and dedication to public service.”

The recognition comes amid a difficult time in the Massachusetts law enforcement community, including the death of Massachusetts state trooper Kevin Trainor, who was struck and killed by a wrong-way driver on Route 1 in Lynnfield on May 6.

Marquardt has received heavy applause since responding to and saving the woman in crisis on March 6. On April 19, the long-time veteran of the Abington PD threw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of a Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

Weeks after his response, Abington Police Chief John Bonney presented Marquardt with a “Medal of Valor,” awarded to employees with a “total disregard for their personal safety to save the life of another.”

Body-worn camera footage that Bonney shared with the public in the days after the response went viral. In the clip, Marquardt is heard trying to persuade the woman to get off the tracks, but she initially resisted, as an oncoming train’s headlight comes into view.

“Come on. We are on the train tracks. I don’t want to get killed,” the sergeant is heard saying. “Come on, come on. … Please. … We are going to get run over if we stay here.”

Moments later, just after 6:15 the morning of March 6, Marquardt got the woman off the tracks. In just mere seconds, the train roars past.

“The willingness of police officers to sacrifice their own safety for complete strangers leaves me in awe every time I see it,” the police chief said at an Abington Select Board meeting on March 30. “Sgt. Marquardt was going to save this woman’s life or die trying, and the nobility in that is chilling. He saved both of their lives in that moment.”