Jane Pauley Anchors Philadelphia By Design Episode for May 17
jane pauley is hosting CBS Sunday Morning’s annual design episode, “By Design,” when it airs May 17. The episode is anchored in Philadelphia for the country’s 250th anniversary, and it uses two locations that fit the show’s access-driven style: Ardrossan, a 38,000-square-foot Gilded Age mansion, and Chanticleer, a 48-acre pleasure garden on the Main Line.
Ardrossan and Chanticleer
Ardrossan stays a private home, which is part of the draw. The mansion inspired The Philadelphia Story, and its scale alone gives the special a different register from a standard design tour. Chanticleer brings the other half of the package: a 48-acre garden established on the Main Line a century ago, which gives the episode a second, more public setting without leaving the Philadelphia orbit.
“Mostly, I get to go past the velvet ropes,” Pauley said of her role hosting the annual special. That access has been the format’s real currency for nine years, and it is what lets the show frame design as something lived in, not just displayed.
Pauley’s renovation history
“decoraphobia,” Pauley said, is her own description of how she approaches home and design. She also said, “I absolutely do.” when asked whether she enjoys moving to a new place and transforming it, a useful contradiction for a host whose personal history is built around renovation rather than calm interiors.
“The things that Garry and I put up with during our renovations!” Pauley said, and the line lands differently once the details come into view. She and Garry Trudeau have navigated decades of renovation and three children, and she said a contractor once told her he had never worked with a family that lived through renovations the way hers did. Pauley also said her kitchen ceiling collapsed the night before her wedding, and that her bed was in the living room for months during another renovation.
Space, light, and layout
“Absolutely.” Pauley said when asked if she is affected by space, light, and layout. That lines up with the kind of access the episode is built around: the private rooms of Ardrossan, the open scale of Chanticleer, and the way both places let the show treat design as a sequence of choices rather than a set of static images.
She added, “I recognize the power of design to make you feel welcome and at home. But decisions are hard!” That is the cleanest read on why the May 17 special matters: Philadelphia is not just a backdrop, it is the organizing idea, and the episode uses the city’s architecture and landscape to fit an anniversary year without turning the hour into a generic house tour.
