Modern Fireplace Idea Ignited in Arlington

When it comes to contemporary fireplaces, Spark Modern Fires ignites the passions of many area designers. The idea for this Connecticut-based company began as a vision of co-founder and chief executive officer Tom Healy, who lived in Arlington for 11 years.

A custom home builder at the time, Healy became frustrated by the lack of innovation and imagination among fireplaces available to clients. These clients wanted something more modern than the typical colonial offerings in Northern Virginia. In 2005 he launched Spark Modern Fires. Clarendon Home Invasion recently interviewed the former Arlington resident about what he believes makes his designs burn brighter than the competition.

Patch: Your company states it’s bringing the gas fireplace back to the focal point. What do you mean by that?

Healy: Well, I hearken back to the reason we got involved in this industry. I was a custom home builder. It seems there were a number of years, about a decade or more, where gas fireplaces sort of had a false start in the marketplace...

Of course, you had the traditional wood-burning fireplace and then gas as a heating source came into its own and then it sort of evolved into...  Well, the reality is that most fireplaces aren’t really a heating source. Dating way back, of course, they started that way, and also were used for cooking. But the reality is they’re meant to be focal points.

Patch: You talk about poor gas fireplace design and point to the late 1980s and early '90s. What was wrong about those designs?

Healy: Early attempts at making gas fireplaces focal points really were not that well done. The technology back then, both from the mechanics of what the fireplaces were made of and what the interiors looked like, were really a mock, fake fireplace, complete with mock logs -- mock charred logs even. And it just got to the point where it was so kitschy. But there was nothing else other than a more convenient gas fireplace. Innovations such as operating one from a wall switch or by remote control kept the momentum going, really, with poor design aesthetic.

Patch: I’ve had some designers describe your fireplaces as art and they seem thrilled with the options they have as designers. What makes a Spark Modern Fires product designer-friendly? 

Healy: The first run at being the focal point was really kitschy and put in by default, as opposed to the fireplaces we design and we’ve created have become really a design apart. People put them in truly as a focal point. Per my design attempt at the beginning, more often than not it just resets as a dark hole in the wall and disappears as opposed to original gas fireplaces that were kitschy in all light. They were kitschy when they were on and kitschy when they were off. And we wanted to pair it to its simplest elements, starting with the beauty of the flame itself and the more modern geometry of the boxes. Most of our boxes are more linear. 

Patch: You have many competitors promoting similar products. How do you separate your fireplace from the competition?

Healy: Spark Modern Fires was the first company in Northern America to offer these linear fireplaces. Of course we have a legion of copycats out there now -- talk about being progressive and modern and so on. The truth is most of them were almost a decade behind us.