tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29946038443320554502024-03-13T08:58:21.559-04:00I on DesignA portal to the world of modern architecture, interior design, and allied arts—and possibly other things, too, by writer and editor Michael LassellMICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-60429283642489144472010-11-04T16:33:00.018-04:002010-11-05T20:01:13.939-04:00DESIGN 100, THE BOOK: A SNEAK PEEK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNLon6JTA_I/AAAAAAAAAaI/pe8pWbSF-9k/s1600/D100COVER.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNLon6JTA_I/AAAAAAAAAaI/pe8pWbSF-9k/s320/D100COVER.JPG" width="255" /></a></div><div style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-size: x-large;">It is with great pride</span><span style="color: #0b5394;"> and more than a little satisfaction (not to mention relief) that I officially announce the "latest edition to my family," </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Metropolitan-Home-Design-100-Interiors/dp/1933231998/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288905870&sr=1-1"><b style="color: #cc0000;"><i>Metropolitan Home DESIGN 100: THE LAST WORD IN MODERN INTERIORS</i></b></a> <span style="color: #0b5394;">(Filipacchi Publishing), which came into the world on October 13, 2010, weighing 2.8 pounds (according to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Metropolitan-Home-Design-100-Interiors/dp/1933231998/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1288905870&sr=1-1">amazon.com</a>). It is just over eleven inches long—small for a baby, but about average for a design book, coffee tables being what they are.</span></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">People who know me are doubtlessly sick of hearing about this book, but—oddly enough—not everyone knows me, and I think it only fair to offer the rest of you the opportunity to peek inside this (my third) book for Filipacchi, the book publishing arm of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., the parent company of the late lamented <i>Metropolitan Home</i> magazine (my employer of some 18 years), which ceased publication in November of 2009.</div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">As fans of <i>Met Home</i> know, the magazine ran an annual "Design 100" issue, which was a look at the best in the world of design, from public buildings and private homes to hotels, furnishings, accessories, ideas, and creative individuals. The <i>DESIGN 100 </i>book takes up this tradition with 100 of the best residences that have either appeared in the publication or that were photographed but never had a chance to run. Among the latter are this New York City apartment by designer, entrepreneur, and most humble potter, Jonathan Adler (photograph by Joshua McHugh).</div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNLt5MuCsfI/AAAAAAAAAaM/9tlhr_z9wN0/s1600/D100ADLERLivingRoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNLt5MuCsfI/AAAAAAAAAaM/9tlhr_z9wN0/s400/D100ADLERLivingRoom.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The Adler project is No. 2 in the book, and the citation reads: "Most Singular Penthouse on the Upper West Side" (that's in Manhattan, in case you aren't familiar with the neighborhoods on our fair isle). The text reads, in part: "When a forward-thinking young couple bought this penthouse, they called in design guru Jonathan Adler to create a comfortable and playfully glamorous home. Aiming for 'hotel-ish opulence and squishiness,' Adler tried to make the new place look as though it had been around for a while, 'but not in a traditional way.'" Most of the furniture is custom, but the towering lamps are vintage. The decorative tiles on the far left entry wall are glazed in (what else?) <i>platinum.</i> For more <a href="http://jonathanadler.com/">Jonathan Adler</a> designs, follow the link to his web site.</div><br />
<div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's the bedroom from the same apartment (that fabulous black-and-white hassock is by Madeline Weinrib for ABC Home):</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNMDAEwPGeI/AAAAAAAAAaw/mvEspwM-05I/s1600/Adler+bedroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNMDAEwPGeI/AAAAAAAAAaw/mvEspwM-05I/s320/Adler+bedroom.jpg" width="237" /></a></div></div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The entries in <i><b>DESIGN 100</b></i>, by the way, are not presented in a hierarchy of "bestness," so No. 1 isn't "best-er" than No. 66. The order, in fact, was determined by the book's designer, Keith D'Mello, and his colleague, Jeffrey Felmus. </div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
<div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The 100 homes in <i><b>DESIGN 100</b></i> are located in 26 states as well as in Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. They include reality-based, accessible homes as well as places like Gianni Verace's fabled beach house in Florida, Madonna's "Hollywood Glamour" bedroom in New York City, Betsey Johnson's color-saturated SoHo living room, and Vidal Sassoon's midcentury rambler in Beverly Hills. Among the designers whose names you may recognize are Barbara Barry, Diamond Baratta, Darryl Carter, Jamie Drake, Christian Duc, Kelly Hoppen, Kara Mann, Todd Oldham, Karim Rashid, Michael Smith, Kelly Wearstler, and Vicente Wolf.</div><br />
<div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Here's a little montage of photography included in </span><i style="color: #0b5394;"><b>DESIGN 100</b></i> <span style="color: #0b5394;">from the Introduction to the book:</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNMFlvqt_CI/AAAAAAAAAa0/6SGotdSlHZ4/s1600/Montage+Page+from+Intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNMFlvqt_CI/AAAAAAAAAa0/6SGotdSlHZ4/s320/Montage+Page+from+Intro.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top row, from left: No. 65, Dale Chihuly's studio in Seattle (photo by John Granen); No. 92, a restored Joseph Eichler home in Marin County (photo by Shaun Sullivan); No. 69, a stunning William J. Reese house in the Hamptons (photo by Antoine Bootz). Middle row, from left: No. 97, an Aspen, Colorado, home by Hugh Newell Jacobsen (photo by John Granen); No. 48, a home on the Baja Peninsula by Marsha Maytum of Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects (photo by Luis Gordoa); No. 56, a kitchen addition in Litchfield, Connecticut (photo by Tim Street-Porter). Bottom row, from left: No. 12, designer Doug Meyer's 1941 home in Miami, Florida (photo by Mark Roskams); No. 28 a timely kitchen designed by Glenn Heim in Miami (photo by Quentin Bacon); and finally...</span></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNLzqieQXQI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/82NyMD1u3cw/s1600/D100MIN:DAYRedBath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNLzqieQXQI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/82NyMD1u3cw/s320/D100MIN:DAYRedBath.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">That attention-grabbing orange shot in the lower right-hand corner (by John Reed Forsman) is No. 7, the "Brightest Idea for a Boys' Bath," from a vacation home by architects Min|Day (that's E.B. Min and Jeffrey Day), whose offices are in San Francisco and Omaha (the lakefront property is on the Iowa/Minnesota border). The clients' three sons share the bathroom, but there's no fighting over sinks, since there's one for each of them. Min and Day are fabulous architects, so although this is the only picture of the place in the book, I thought I'd let you see a few other shots of the house from the <a href="http://www.minday.com/">Min|Day</a> web site (photos by Paul Crosby). I have to say I love the way the house cantilevers over the sloped grade to the water. </div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNL2x2pO3jI/AAAAAAAAAaU/OV2INHKY9jU/s1600/Min%7CDay+Exterior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNL2x2pO3jI/AAAAAAAAAaU/OV2INHKY9jU/s320/Min%7CDay+Exterior.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Color is great, but white is still madly popular for interiors. White paint outsells any other shade, tone, or hue by a huge margin. But there are all kinds of white interiors, and there are a variety in <i><b>DESIGN 100</b></i>. For starters, there's one of my favorites, No. 33, the ultimate white-on-white Miami home, designed by <a href="http://www.tobyzackdesigns.com/">Toby Zack</a> (photo by Carlos Domenech):</div><br />
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</div><div style="background-color: #f3f3f3; color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Have a good sense of humor? Designer Marjorie Skouras has. She brought a whole new meaning to "bringing the outside in" with No. 45, a master bedroom in—where else?—Los Angeles (photo by John Ellis).</div><br />
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</div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There are restorations of homes in <i><b>DESIGN 100</b></i> by such famous architects as Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson, but one of my favorites is a home designed in Maui by the late great Italian modernist <a href="http://www.sottsass.it/">Ettore Sottsass</a> with Johanna Grawunder. Not only do I love the design of entry No. 23, but I got to go to Hawaii to write the story. And who parceled out the writing assignments at <i>Met Home, </i>you may ask? Oh, it was me. What a coincidence! (The photo is by Grey Crawford who also found the assignment terribly inconvenient.)</div><br />
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<div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And since we're on the subject of celebrity designers, have a gander at No. 95, the "Best Master Bath in Britain" (photo by David Garcia). This is the 30-by-30-foot spa retreat of no lesser design royalty that <a href="http://www.conran.co.uk/">Sir Terence Conran</a> in his Berkshire country home.</div><br />
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Okay, I'm almost done.</div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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No. 34 is a wilderness compound in Colorado by architect <a href="http://amdarchitects.com/">Ron Mason</a> (photo by Frank Ooms). It consists of a number of individual pavilions which, taken together, make up the entire house. This is the most recent building:</div><br />
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From the rustic we go to the ultimately refined with this <a href="http://www.bnodesign.com/">Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz</a> Manhattan apartment, No. 39 (photo by Antoine Bootz). Benjamin was called in by the client to refresh the place after a fire in a neighboring apartment caused some damage. It was originally designed by his mentor (and former employer), John Saladino.</div><br />
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<div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Choosing the photos that went into <i><b>DESIGN 100</b></i> and writing the texts was a real labor of love. It was fun and exciting, but bittersweet in the wake of <i>Met Home</i>'s demise. Along with the rest of the magazine's staff, I wanted to offer our faithful fans an appropriate farewell—a bread-and-butter gift, if you will, from a grateful house guest—but the collection needed to be more than just a valediction, so <i><b>DESIGN 100</b></i> was conceived as a working sourcebook of great ideas for home design, even for people who have never read an issue. We hope it will inspire creativity in fashioning personalized living spaces you can live in and love.</div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">For now, for one parting shot, we meander to Williamsburg, one of the trendier sections of the Borough of Brooklyn (my very first home town), to see No. 94, a collaboration between the owners, designer <a href="http://www.ccinteriordesign.com/">Christopher Coleman</a> and his partner, fashion designer Angel Sanchez (photo by Annie Schlechter). This kitchen shot, with its colorful custom-designed wallpaper, happens also to appear on the back cover of the book, which seems to be an appropriate place to say <i>adios</i>—for now. <i>—Michael Lassell</i></div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNMdRPrp5iI/AAAAAAAAAa8/6MDIAqBcuQc/s1600/Coleman+kitchen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TNMdRPrp5iI/AAAAAAAAAa8/6MDIAqBcuQc/s320/Coleman+kitchen.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><div style="color: #0b5394; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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<b>TO ORDER <i>DESIGN 100: THE LAST WORD IN MODERN INTERIORS</i> just click on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933231998/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0Q2Q5EEHV2Z9EMWEA70C&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846">amazon.com</a>!</b><br />
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</div><div style="color: #0c343d;"></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-13239934129796056652010-08-03T15:49:00.000-04:002010-08-03T15:49:46.487-04:00"INTERNATIONAL," The Film, Not the Style.<span style="background-color: #cc0000; color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #f3f3f3;"></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Well, here it is, the summer of 2010, which means I'm just getting caught up on cable with movies from 2009, so this may be Old News, but I had fun.</b></span></span><br />
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</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The man in the photo,</span> in case you don't know, is the British actor </span><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Clive Owen,</b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> star of last year's </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The International, </i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">a globe-hopping thriller directed by Tom Tykwer. Clive plays an Interpol agent with his teeth into a banking scheme to profit from world-wide terrorism by controlling the debt associated with large-scale weapons sales (the film, alas, is inspired by a true story). </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The International </i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">got mixed reviews, but I say any movie with Clive Owen in it is worth seeing, possibly twice, especially a movie that also features so much great architecture.</span></div><div style="color: #0c343d;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, I am the person who sits quietly watching a film and then suddenly gasps, as if shot by a poison dart, "Oh my God." If a companion should happen to ask, "What's wrong?" I have to answer, shamefacedly or even unapologetically, "Nothing, but there must be a hundred thousand dollars worth of Fortuny lamps on that set." Movies to me are not about design, but many a mediocre movie has been enhanced by great art direction. </div><div style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><span style="color: #0c343d; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>The International</i> opens (on a closeup of Clive in the rain) outside the <b>Berlin Hauptbahnhof</b>—that's the main train station. And here it is: </span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhPKCDIJzI/AAAAAAAAAYA/9gwqIdogAiA/s1600/image_preview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhPKCDIJzI/AAAAAAAAAYA/9gwqIdogAiA/s320/image_preview.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It is not the only modernist assemblage we will visit on our fictional journey to real places. There is, for example, the <b>General Secretariat of Interpol</b> in Lyon, France:</div><div style="color: #073763;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhRSGH9SfI/AAAAAAAAAYI/nPZ2avDxwsE/s1600/85216-004-5EA2E837.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhRSGH9SfI/AAAAAAAAAYI/nPZ2avDxwsE/s320/85216-004-5EA2E837.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">But the real modernist marvel of the film is Volkswagen's </span><b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Autostadt,</b><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> a visitor facility for automotive enthusiasts adjacent to the VW plant in Wolfsburg. It's the work of several architects and consists of a number of pavilions, including a central hall with the largest glass doors to be found anywhere on the planet. It's used in the film as the headquarters for the bad bank. Happily for lovers of modern architecture, this is not a film where only the villains are associated with modernism, a very peculiar quirk in the collective consciousness of filmmakers worldwide. There are villains everywhere in this film, in buildings of all kinds.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhS3PJGToI/AAAAAAAAAYY/weZYIf_vv9o/s1600/image-78367-me_pano-fqfj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhS3PJGToI/AAAAAAAAAYY/weZYIf_vv9o/s400/image-78367-me_pano-fqfj.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #073763;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There's some nice historic architecture in the film, too, notably the Piazza Cordusio in Milan, as well as that city's wedding-cake train station in the Piazza Duca d'Aosta and the adjacent beaux art hotel (currently Le Meridien). Here's the <b>Milan Central Station</b>:</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhUUDuAS_I/AAAAAAAAAYg/Xgj4nvCSl7I/s1600/station_aerial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhUUDuAS_I/AAAAAAAAAYg/Xgj4nvCSl7I/s320/station_aerial.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There is even a brief encounter in the famed <b>Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II:</b> </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhU7pXQUZI/AAAAAAAAAYo/sHNYhNfz9Qc/s1600/1.1259497266.1_galleria-vittorio-emanuele.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhU7pXQUZI/AAAAAAAAAYo/sHNYhNfz9Qc/s320/1.1259497266.1_galleria-vittorio-emanuele.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><br />
<div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Film makers invariably take advantage of the way in which a city is defined by its architecture by framing their establishing shots to include signature buildings. Having dropped a few bodies in Milan, however, <i>The International</i> is finished with Europe and moves on.... to New York CIty—you can't have a thriller without it, apparently. And where better to stage an epic gun battle than in the <b>Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum</b>, that iconic inverted beehive of Frank Lloyd Wright's. </div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, the first Guggenheim turned 50 years old in 2009, which was fairly frightening to me since I not only remember visiting in its early days, but I remember them building the place. And here is a sketch by the master himself:</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhV2jS7ddI/AAAAAAAAAYw/oLYRB7AsUoU/s1600/Guggenheim+ext.+drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhV2jS7ddI/AAAAAAAAAYw/oLYRB7AsUoU/s400/Guggenheim+ext.+drawing.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="color: #073763;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Before my first visit, a school trip, I had learned that the interior was deployed around a continuous spiral, so I arrived with a handful of marbles and let them loose at the top, assuming they would roll all the way to the ground floor. My experiment was a dismal failure. The marbles rolled only as far as the elevator on the floor below, thanks to centrifugal force, about which I was then as sadly ill-informed as I was about museum etiquette. (You will remember this anecdote while watching </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The International</i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> vis-a-vis a wheelchair.)</span></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, I don't want to give away too much plot, but suffice it to say that there is a gun fight in the Guggenheim that does a great deal of damage to the building, or at least seems to. Oddly the caretakers of the actual museum weren't too keen on automatic weapons going off inside the place, so they agreed to let the crew shoot there for one day only—with no explosive special effects. And here is the crew shooting in the actual (first) Guggenheim, the one on Fifth Avenue:</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhXlMeDA2I/AAAAAAAAAY4/pWCBaN1Hu2A/s1600/Int.+GUGGENHIM+Film+Crew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhXlMeDA2I/AAAAAAAAAY4/pWCBaN1Hu2A/s400/Int.+GUGGENHIM+Film+Crew.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Meanwhile, back in the <b>Babelsberg Studios in Berlin</b>, a nearly full-scale replica of the interior of the Guggenheim was constructed (it's 98 percent the actual size). Here is the set during production:</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhYYmyEASI/AAAAAAAAAZA/lioUF11n208/s1600/Guggenheim+SET.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhYYmyEASI/AAAAAAAAAZA/lioUF11n208/s400/Guggenheim+SET.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The art you see in the set is by German video artist <b>Julian Rosefeldt</b> (b. 1965), who studied architecture in Barcelona and now teaches at the Bauhaus-University Weimar. Among the images you can see in the film are several from his 2001/2002 series, <i>Asylum,</i> which is a nine-screen projection of mesmerizing, slow-motion images. And here's a still from one of the video tracks:</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhZMtlO0II/AAAAAAAAAZI/I_6cf781j_I/s1600/Rosefeldt+ASYLUM+2001:2002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="221" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhZMtlO0II/AAAAAAAAAZI/I_6cf781j_I/s400/Rosefeldt+ASYLUM+2001:2002.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">To wrap up this sequence, here's a still of Clive in <i>The International </i>with Jack McGee as NYPD Det. Bernie Ward. (This is the Guggenheim set; you can see a Rosefeldt image behind the actors.) </div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhaGgpoRUI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/2HrNijHLX1o/s1600/Int.+GUGGENHEIM+FILM+-+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhaGgpoRUI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/2HrNijHLX1o/s400/Int.+GUGGENHEIM+FILM+-+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;">But dust off your passports, we're on our way to Istanbul, where we'll visit the subterranean Basilica Cistern and the Suleymaniye mosque before paying a visit to the <b>Grand Bazaar,</b> the world's largest covered market, and another site where I have dutifully left behind a wad of tourist cash. Here's a terrific photo of the interior of the bazaar by British travel photographer Darrell Godliman (whose work can be viewed, and purchased, at www.dgphotos.co.uk.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhl1lXzUqI/AAAAAAAAAZY/8PsGflSkOBs/s1600/Darrell+Godliman+FLIKR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhl1lXzUqI/AAAAAAAAAZY/8PsGflSkOBs/s400/Darrell+Godliman+FLIKR.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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<span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And I will be forever grateful to director Tom Tykwer for a chance to get up on the roof of the bazaar, someplace I have, alas, never been, but it's faboo. Here's an aerial shot:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhwIlFlHiI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/qqS-cBVjtu0/s1600/ROOF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="366" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhwIlFlHiI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/qqS-cBVjtu0/s400/ROOF.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;">And here's a shot from the film, with our anti-hero in hot pursuit of the villain:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhnHc1ylPI/AAAAAAAAAZo/uOCZpyGo_is/s1600/CLIVE+ROOF+BAZAAR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhnHc1ylPI/AAAAAAAAAZo/uOCZpyGo_is/s400/CLIVE+ROOF+BAZAAR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;">I have to say this is my favorite film set (at least partly) in Istanbul since <b>Topkapi</b>, and I can't wait to get back.</div><div style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, how would I rate <i>The International</i> overall? On a scale of one to five, I'll give it a grudging 3.5. It held my interest, but at least two of those points are for the art direction and cinematography. The acting was about what you'd expect. Naomi Watts is in it, but she didn't add much. The script needed some help. Still... an enjoyable way to spend a hot afternoon in New York City. And I did watch it twice.<i>—ML</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhon_UhtQI/AAAAAAAAAZw/xHQcQ0F1Qa0/s1600/hr_the_international_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TFhon_UhtQI/AAAAAAAAAZw/xHQcQ0F1Qa0/s400/hr_the_international_poster.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-37347720055657569692010-06-22T17:44:00.004-04:002010-06-22T18:24:30.996-04:00RAINBOWS ALL AROUND!<span style="color: red; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEi2Qh3LnI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/0RR4iPCS4zc/s1600/METAL+RAINBOW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEi2Qh3LnI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/0RR4iPCS4zc/s320/METAL+RAINBOW.jpg" width="169" /></a><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;">Well, it's now officially summertime, and the living is… suddenly sultry, requiring large quantities of icy beverages to slake our significant thrist.</span><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;"> Back in the days when we boomers were babies, imbibing in the sizzle season frequently involved anodized aluminum tumblers in a rainbow of colors, like the vintage items pictured at left (the image has been, um, borrowed from a gentleman known as weshallmeetonthebeutifulshore, who publishes a lot of festive photos on Flickr).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #e69138;"><span style="font-size: small;">So in honor of Gay Pride Month, I decided to scout the Web for attractive means of raising a toast to the season while lowering one’s body temperature.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEkbWdgneI/AAAAAAAAAWY/bwboin4AKRA/s1600/duraclear-margarita-glasses1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEkbWdgneI/AAAAAAAAAWY/bwboin4AKRA/s320/duraclear-margarita-glasses1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: #f1c232;">If you’re planning to serve margaritas for your Gay Day brunch, consider these nearly indestructible "glasses" from DuraClear at </span><a href="http://www.williams-sonoma.com/" style="color: #f1c232;">Williams-Sonoma</a><span style="color: #f1c232;">. Made of tough polycarbonate in New Zealand, a multicolored set of six costs $49.95 (although you can find them for less if you scout around). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCElBjHDzEI/AAAAAAAAAWg/ig7GcZ7A19A/s1600/A60339_AG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCElBjHDzEI/AAAAAAAAAWg/ig7GcZ7A19A/s320/A60339_AG.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #6aa84f;"><span style="font-size: small;">Or consider these updated <i>Club</i> martini glasses from <a href="http://www.sagaform.se/">Sagaform</a> in Sweden, a forward-looking fun company. The were designed by Matz Borgström, and—considering they’re hand blown—are a real bargain at $29.95 for a set of four, although they are not dishwasher safe. They come in other festive shapes, too, which include a dedicated schnapps glass. Can something be so wholesome-looking and yet decadent at the same time? You know the answer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCElm4b0xXI/AAAAAAAAAWo/cnqVnZt0gtI/s1600/wob.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCElm4b0xXI/AAAAAAAAAWo/cnqVnZt0gtI/s320/wob.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Speaking of fun, offer your guests their potable of choice in one of these 7-ounce </span><i style="color: #0b5394;">Wobble</i><span style="color: #0b5394;">s by Monica Lubkowska Jonas (2007). Unlike most glasses, they don’t have flat bottoms, so they roll around a bit on the table, making your guests wonder, perhaps, if they’ve had one sidecar too many. They're glass, made in Poland, and come in sets of four, either cool colors (top) or warm colors (bottom); $40 per set at the </span><a href="http://www.momastore.com/" style="color: #0b5394;">MoMA store</a><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEmlADlnLI/AAAAAAAAAWw/lRuq0weGWNM/s1600/m_34386.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEmlADlnLI/AAAAAAAAAWw/lRuq0weGWNM/s320/m_34386.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #351c75;"><span style="font-size: small;">Also at the <a href="http://www.momastore.com/">MoMA store</a> are these now-classic jewel-toned <i>Curved</i> glasses by Leonardo (1997). They’re not only rainbow-colored, but they have an arc in their architecture. Made in Turkey, they come in 8-ounce and 12-ounce sizes, in sets of six for $70 each. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEm3mZFtqI/AAAAAAAAAW4/GoOBUMpC4fs/s1600/148853.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEm3mZFtqI/AAAAAAAAAW4/GoOBUMpC4fs/s320/148853.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another reconsideration of traditional shapes comes in the form of refined Murano glass: These square-ish highball glasses are hand blown by the master craftsmen of Nason Moretti in Venice. We’re clearly moving up-market with these beauties: They cost $420 for a set of six, highball or old fashioned size, at the famed <a href="http://www.gearys.com/">Gearys</a> of Beverly Hills (someplace I have actually worked). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEnuXg7bgI/AAAAAAAAAXA/NIxOg52G19w/s1600/ETCHED:Murano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEnuXg7bgI/AAAAAAAAAXA/NIxOg52G19w/s320/ETCHED:Murano.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEoiom8wfI/AAAAAAAAAXI/9X7Cc6gTxd8/s1600/MOSER+Tipsy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEoiom8wfI/AAAAAAAAAXI/9X7Cc6gTxd8/s320/MOSER+Tipsy.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #cc0000;">Speaking of Murano glass, </span><a href="http://www.michaelcfina.com/" style="color: #cc0000;">Michael C. Fina</a><span style="color: #cc0000;"> offers these Gino Cenedese e Figlio </span><i style="color: #cc0000;">Etched</i><span style="color: #cc0000;"> highball glasses (lowballs also available), for $202.50 per glass. They are part of the Battuti collection, which includes the giraffe-like patterned version shown as well as entirely clear or entirely etched versions (see genedesegino.it). Whatever you do, don’t smash one into the fireplace in a moment of unbridled enthusiasm. You can play Zorba the Greek with the Crate & Barrel barware.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: #e69138;">Also from Europe, from the Czech Republic, to be precise, come these quirky yet highly refined Bohemian crystal </span><i style="color: #e69138;">Tipsy </i><span style="color: #e69138;">glasses from </span><a href="http://www.moserusa.com/" style="color: #e69138;">Moser</a><span style="color: #e69138;">, designed by Jirí Rydlo in 2002. They come in many shapes and variations; the frosted double old fashioneds pictured are $160 each, or $985 in sets of six. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEph17ArPI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/vVbDvskm0pE/s1600/Saint+Louis+Cosmos+W.+Gob..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEph17ArPI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/vVbDvskm0pE/s320/Saint+Louis+Cosmos+W.+Gob..jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #f1c232;">You can hold on to your rainbow even if you’ve been sweating over a hot steam/induction oven to prepare a fully formal sit-down dinner, thanks to the <i>cristalleries</i> of France. Note, for example, these water goblets from Saint Louis Crystal, founded in 1586; approx. $190/stem through </span><a href="http://www.michaelcfina.com/" style="color: #f1c232;">Michael C. Fina</a><span style="color: #f1c232;">. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1324996940" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEp2zo3_PI/AAAAAAAAAXY/Zo29kG535L0/s320/Saint+Louis+.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.michaelcfina.com/" style="color: #6aa84f;">Michael C. Fina</a><span style="color: #6aa84f;"> will also be happy to sell you some of these extraordinary hock glasses from Saint Louis at $240 each.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEqckGmRGI/AAAAAAAAAXg/UwpqZuxM3fo/s1600/bacc_vega_flutissimo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCEqckGmRGI/AAAAAAAAAXg/UwpqZuxM3fo/s320/bacc_vega_flutissimo.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">Last but not least in the realm of luxury rainbow glassware are these towering </span><i style="color: #0b5394;">Flutissimo</i><span style="color: #0b5394;"> from Baccarat's Vega collection of full-lead crystal, hand-crafted stems; $225 each through </span><a href="http://baccarat.neimanmarcus.com/" style="color: #0b5394;">Neiman Marcus</a><span style="color: #0b5394;">.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCErrp69B2I/AAAAAAAAAXo/Cfwm0r2Jl9s/s1600/Leonardo+Rainbow+Glasses.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="191" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/TCErrp69B2I/AAAAAAAAAXo/Cfwm0r2Jl9s/s400/Leonardo+Rainbow+Glasses.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: #351c75;">To bring things back to the attractive but realistically affordable, consider some ice tea, a gin and T, or a Tom Collins in one of these flirty </span><i style="color: #351c75;">Rainbow</i><span style="color: #351c75;"> tall glasses by Leonardo; 10 ounces, only £3.60 or approx. $5.50 each from </span><a href="http://www.madeindesign.co.uk./" style="color: #351c75;">Made in Design</a><span style="color: #351c75;"> in the U.K. </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47;"><span style="font-size: small;">So whether you’re spending the summer lounging beside the pool, sur la plage, on deck, in the woods, alfresco, under the trellis of a garden gazebo, from a penthouse terrace, or overlooking the grounds of a country home here or abroad, you can, keep your rainbow connection alive. After all, in the words of Kermit the Frog, “Rainbows have nothing to hide.”—ML<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #741b47;"><br />
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</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-59288974278681261842010-05-21T15:33:00.009-04:002010-05-24T19:27:24.289-04:00WIDE-OPEN HOUSES<div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: #6aa84f;"><span style="background-color: white;">O</span></span>nce upon a time, when I was two,</span> Philip Johnson was finishing up his now world-famous Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. And here it is:</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_a9MFw6tcI/AAAAAAAAATw/6xKOF2CpY1g/s1600/800px-Glasshouse-philip-johnson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_a9MFw6tcI/AAAAAAAAATw/6xKOF2CpY1g/s400/800px-Glasshouse-philip-johnson.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I remember</span>, quite specifically—at what must have been a very young age—seeing black and white photographs of this house in <i>Life</i> magazine. And what I remember thinking is: "Yikes, that's a lot of exposure," or whatever the kid equivalent of that expression might have been in the suburbs of New York in the 1950s.</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I would like to say that the Glass House inspired me right then and there to become an architect, and maybe it did, although I did not turn out to be an architect. I started down that path, but I diverged and time marched relentlessly forward. I forgot about glass houses until I moved from my native East Coast to Los Angeles and found out what mid-century California modernism was about: Neutra and Schindler and Eames<i>—oh, my! </i>Here, for example, is Richard Neutra's 1947 Kaufmann House in Palm Springs (built for the same clearly visionary man who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water): </div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_a_f9SMjUI/AAAAAAAAAT4/lHMo3R_XXSA/s1600/neutra+kauffmann+desert+house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_a_f9SMjUI/AAAAAAAAAT4/lHMo3R_XXSA/s400/neutra+kauffmann+desert+house.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Living on the Left Coast, I found that indoor/outdoor architecture was having its way with my core beliefs. I began to covet my neighbors' house. I lusted after a home that steamrollered the lines of demarcation between the interior and exterior. (This is not the same thing as "having no boundaries," which was an issue in therapy, but that is not for this time and place).</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here is another lovely domicile, the world famous Stahl House by Pierre Koenig:</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bFT2sqagI/AAAAAAAAAUA/VZvFm66jYYY/s1600/js05b1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bFT2sqagI/AAAAAAAAAUA/VZvFm66jYYY/s400/js05b1.jpg" width="327" /></a></div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">If any single building of the Case Study period deserves the term "iconic," the Stahl House is it (thanks largely to photographer Julius Shulman). <br />
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A friend of mine, the late Bruce Eicher, lived in a John Lautner house that had an outdoor swimming pool that slid under a glass wall into the living room. The main, elevated seating area, facing the view, had a wall on wheels that could be rolled out of the way for greater access to the out-of-doors.</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One of the more interesting things about living in L.A. is that the houses have inspired so many later, still practicing architects. Some of the best of the West have not only assimilated the lessons of their predecessors but have been called upon to renovate and expand the houses themselves. Here, for example, is a 1948 Neutra house on the beach below the Santa Monica bluffs with an addition by an architect still very much in his prime, <a href="http://www.s-ehrlich.com/">Steven Ehrlich</a>: </div><div style="color: #274e13; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bG5IIWw1I/AAAAAAAAAUI/xvL4kJMY-H0/s1600/EHRLICH+NEUTRA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bG5IIWw1I/AAAAAAAAAUI/xvL4kJMY-H0/s400/EHRLICH+NEUTRA.jpg" width="400" /> </a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I love how the vaulted roof of the addition's outdoor dining room echoes the living room window bay. This house, by the way, has a pool enclosed by a wall that is retractable so that when you're sitting on the deck you look straight out onto the beach and the Pacific beyond. Nice. I want it. I'll take it. Sigh.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here's a house Steven built from scratch up on a ridge near enough to the ocean to see it:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bIDMplgtI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/OdD_31j6vzg/s1600/CARRILLO+EHRLICH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bIDMplgtI/AAAAAAAAAUQ/OdD_31j6vzg/s400/CARRILLO+EHRLICH.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And just so you know he practices what he preaches, here is Mr. Ehrlich's own house in Venice (not the one in Italy):</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bIlTGZEtI/AAAAAAAAAUY/1dSmMqotfUQ/s1600/EHRLICH+LIVING+ROOM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bIlTGZEtI/AAAAAAAAAUY/1dSmMqotfUQ/s400/EHRLICH+LIVING+ROOM.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> The first time I saw this house, it was still under construction. Even then it was magical. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now, as much as I love Steven, I would have to consider a few other firms if I were building my dream house. Look, for example, at this shot of an Idaho home built by <a href="http://www.olsonkundigarchitects.com/">Olson Kundig Architects</a> in Seattle (the first time I saw it my jaw just about dropped):</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bJ4g9ke5I/AAAAAAAAAUg/3Ak5ax2-xhs/s1600/Chicken_Point_Cabin_BB_004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bJ4g9ke5I/AAAAAAAAAUg/3Ak5ax2-xhs/s400/Chicken_Point_Cabin_BB_004.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Partner Tom Kundig was the design principal on this little gem, but Jim Olson shares the aesthetic, even when working in a city setting, as in this Seattle loft:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bKoO9GRcI/AAAAAAAAAUo/F2asNhlJ3zY/s1600/Ferguson-BB-002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bKoO9GRcI/AAAAAAAAAUo/F2asNhlJ3zY/s400/Ferguson-BB-002.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And here's one of my favorite projects of theirs, a cabin in the woods (near Skykomish, Washington), where the walls open on hinges to let nature in:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bMBc37nFI/AAAAAAAAAUw/w3yWQnLDhWI/s1600/KUNDIG+CABIN.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="370" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bMBc37nFI/AAAAAAAAAUw/w3yWQnLDhWI/s400/KUNDIG+CABIN.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This little "wooden tent on a platform," as the architects modestly call it, reminded me of another leafy location, the renovation by <a href="http://marmol-radziner.com/">Marmol Radziner</a> of architect Cliff May's "Experimental Ranch," which he built in a Los Angeles canyon as his own residence in 1952. (The photograph is by Joe Fletcher.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bO0Ryn-cI/AAAAAAAAAU4/jJETew-3xrU/s1600/CLIFFORD+MAY+LIVING+ROOM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bO0Ryn-cI/AAAAAAAAAU4/jJETew-3xrU/s400/CLIFFORD+MAY+LIVING+ROOM.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">This was a dream assignment for Leo Marmol and Ron Radziner, who established their firm in 1989 and have since mastered the art of making environments for a "transparent" life style no matter what the architectural idiom. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Check out two views of their prototype prefab house in Desert Hot Springs. It's got 2,000 square feet of indoor living space with an additional 2,000 square feet of covered outdoor space among, amid, and between—oh, and views that go a lot farther than you'd want to walk. (Photographs by David Glomb.)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bZ_mrayPI/AAAAAAAAAVY/8VuIocwS3jU/s1600/MARM+PREF+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bZ_mrayPI/AAAAAAAAAVY/8VuIocwS3jU/s400/MARM+PREF+1.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_baJk6fL5I/AAAAAAAAAVg/ggZy0_4p63I/s1600/MARM+Pref+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_baJk6fL5I/AAAAAAAAAVg/ggZy0_4p63I/s400/MARM+Pref+3.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">I could go on like this all day, so I think I will. The firm of <a href="http://minday.com/">Min|Day</a>, conveniently located in both San Francisco and Omaha, created this lovely lake place:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bSlfjd3uI/AAAAAAAAAVI/wmRQSjlNxtg/s1600/MIN+DAY+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bSlfjd3uI/AAAAAAAAAVI/wmRQSjlNxtg/s400/MIN+DAY+1.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> I love how the end of the house cantilevers subtly over the grade, making the living room a floating vitrine. The firm is named after two architects, E.B. Min and Jeffrey Day, and I totally love the bathroom they did in this house for the family's three sons:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bT7pxoICI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/sELpKBckTII/s1600/MIN+DAY+BATHROOM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bT7pxoICI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/sELpKBckTII/s400/MIN+DAY+BATHROOM.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div style="color: #274e13;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">It</span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> just goes to show how much fun you can have while being absolutely modern and highly practical—and the window, cut to frame the tree and the view of the lake behind it, is an object lesson in the art of fenestration.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In closing, I'm just going to offer up a portfolio of images of a house in Palo Alto, California, by Bay Area architect <a href="http://www.fougeron/">Anne Fougeron</a>. Beautiful, sophisticated, transparent, it's a winner on too many levels to list.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbI2n_FUI/AAAAAAAAAVo/G7NnYwMiWUs/s1600/FOUGERON+EXT+DAY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbI2n_FUI/AAAAAAAAAVo/G7NnYwMiWUs/s400/FOUGERON+EXT+DAY.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbPb4gWWI/AAAAAAAAAVw/xTVd8Q1C6h4/s1600/FOUGERON+EXT+NIGHT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbPb4gWWI/AAAAAAAAAVw/xTVd8Q1C6h4/s400/FOUGERON+EXT+NIGHT.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbV8_8KCI/AAAAAAAAAV4/dMLrHPKqj70/s1600/FOUGERON+INT.+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbV8_8KCI/AAAAAAAAAV4/dMLrHPKqj70/s400/FOUGERON+INT.+1.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbc_NLCKI/AAAAAAAAAWA/NxmX95Uu5YU/s1600/Fougeron+5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S_bbc_NLCKI/AAAAAAAAAWA/NxmX95Uu5YU/s400/Fougeron+5.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><i>What can I say? </i><i>More later!—ML</i></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #274e13; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-38996339521969013372010-04-27T21:50:00.005-04:002010-04-29T12:23:20.621-04:00DESIGNING WOMEN<meta content="" name="Title"></meta> <meta content="" name="Keywords"></meta> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"></meta> <link href="file://localhost/Users/michaellassell/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eEZIekzzI/AAAAAAAAAS0/dPK2pDcqK5w/s1600/large_Dixie.JPG.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eEZIekzzI/AAAAAAAAAS0/dPK2pDcqK5w/s320/large_Dixie.JPG.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">The recent passing of actress Dixie Carter reminded me how much I loved her TV show (if you have to ask which show, you aren’t reading this blog). Those Sugarbaker sisters and their loopy cohorts may not have been great modernist designers, but they sure were fun. And there wasn’t too much in the way of “design television” in the days before HGTV.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">SO… here is salute to Designing Women—not the show, but ten actual women who make the world beautiful for a living. Besides their talent, they have two things in common. They all had their work published in METROPOLITAN HOME while I worked there, and they all have web sites, so you can just click on their names to see oh, so much more. I mean, really: embarrassment of riches. I couldn’t choose. I <i>did</i> choose, but it wasn’t easy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eE-JgXuHI/AAAAAAAAAS4/_TOTJwdIZnk/s1600/Dorothy_Draper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eE-JgXuHI/AAAAAAAAAS4/_TOTJwdIZnk/s200/Dorothy_Draper.jpg" width="146" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">So before we get to the ladies of today, here’s a designing woman from the past: It’s Dorothy Draper. If you don’t know who she is, go directly to Google. Do not pass GO, etc. Your design education is hanging in the balance.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">So, we begin…</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nibahome.com/">NISI BERRYMAN</a> is the proprietor of the forward-looking NIBA Home, one of the great design shops in Miami. Her own home is small in size but, like Nisi, huge in personality thanks to her passion for pink and the all the fruity colors of the tropical market rainbow. I love the living room (it’s one of my favorite colors) and the contrast with the dining room in the back—is it a chocolaty plum, would you say, or espresso aubergine? That feathery “chandelier” is from <a href="http://abyulighting.com/">ABYU</a> a.k.a. And Bob’s Your Uncle.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eFoPKL-qI/AAAAAAAAAS8/u2EKamuxT90/s1600/BERRYMAN,+Nisi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eFoPKL-qI/AAAAAAAAAS8/u2EKamuxT90/s400/BERRYMAN,+Nisi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">What a difference a client makes! <a href="http://www.burnhamdesign.com/">BETSY BURNHAM</a>’s project for MET HOME was a fairly masculine, Asian-infused home for a single man living in one of the upmarket neighborhoods of Los Angeles. It was polished, subtle, quiet and altogether inviting. So look what else Betsy can get herself up to: Color on color on color, multiple patterns, a chromatic whirlwind. It takes enormous talent to throw this many high-octane fabrics and finishes at one room and not have it look like the pasha’s attic. I’m pretty conservative about color, but I love this home office. Not for me, but for someone I like... a lot.</span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eG3V4cl-I/AAAAAAAAATA/vRY4HROUHMw/s1600/BURNHAM,+Betsy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eG3V4cl-I/AAAAAAAAATA/vRY4HROUHMw/s400/BURNHAM,+Betsy.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.torigolubinteriors.com/">TORI GOLUB</a> was a fashion stylist before she turned her considerable talents to interior design. Her Manhattan-based residential firm has attracted a long list of devotees thanks to her “comfort modern” aesthetic. The bedroom here, in the Hamptons, has sweet dreams written all over it—and not too many pillows (the homeowner is a single man). If you think the bedroom is great, what about the bathroom that goes with it? Bottom line: I want it!!! That sculptural circle thing is an antique child’s hoop and stick.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eHkbglDAI/AAAAAAAAATE/h6HVbdb55wc/s1600/GOLUB,+Tori+-+Hamptons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eHkbglDAI/AAAAAAAAATE/h6HVbdb55wc/s320/GOLUB,+Tori+-+Hamptons.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eH7A6wYoI/AAAAAAAAATI/yKdzOJ1H8Qs/s1600/GOLUB+Bathroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eH7A6wYoI/AAAAAAAAATI/yKdzOJ1H8Qs/s320/GOLUB+Bathroom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small;"> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.lorigrahamdesign.com/">LORI GRAHAM</a>’s work appeared in MET HOME more than once, thanks to the Washington, D.C. designer’s broad range and considerable mastery of her medium. The pearly bathroom is from a home in the capital’s Kalorama neighborhood. Every single piece is perfect, and the juxtapositions are inspiring. The bedroom is from a different place, a condo in TriBeCa, New York CIty, which is just a mile or two south of my own apartment, so moving it up here wouldn’t be too difficult, now would it, Lori? Maybe you should ship the bathroom up from D.C., too.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eItVLT7iI/AAAAAAAAATM/9aMKTM-GJLM/s1600/GRAHAM,+Lori.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eItVLT7iI/AAAAAAAAATM/9aMKTM-GJLM/s320/GRAHAM,+Lori.jpg" width="253" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eI2HF7WAI/AAAAAAAAATQ/52HjqRMJoxg/s1600/GRAHAM,+Lori+-+Bedroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eI2HF7WAI/AAAAAAAAATQ/52HjqRMJoxg/s320/GRAHAM,+Lori+-+Bedroom.jpg" width="252" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Sometimes you just get lucky with clients. </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.malecahlin.com/" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">JUDY MALE</a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">, who is half of the Male-Cahlin partnership, found art collectors with an enormous penthouse duplex overlooking the water and, let's face it, a bank account to make their Miami dreams come true. Male made all the right moves to show off the Midwestern couple's museum-quality art and to pair it with furniture of comparable provenance. Still, the place functions well for entertaining and as a family home. While all the rooms have drama, they also embrace man’s… and woman’s… need for comfort.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="382" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eKQ3GYa1I/AAAAAAAAATU/VpsweYusupU/s400/MALE,+Judi.jpg" width="400" /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">I first heard of </span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.karamann.com/" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">KARA MANN</a></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">, interior designer and showroom owner, when MET HOME ran pictures of her own extraordinary apartment in Chicago (which also appeared in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Glamour-Making-Modern-Michael-Lassell/dp/1933231564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272416973&sr=1-1">GLAMOUR: MAKING IT MODERN</a>). I loved her high contrast, dramatic world of whites and dark, dark browns with its Goth details. I liked the next place of hers I saw, too, a renovated and expanded Victorian with this monochromatic dark-grey living room alive with subtle metallic accents and Asian resonances. It's unexpected and altogether winning. <i>Plus</i> there's one of those Chinese warriors in the corner. I <i>love</i> that! It makes me want to go back to China.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eMNQuNbyI/AAAAAAAAATY/kBcc7-dtDR0/s1600/MANN,+Kara+-+Living+Room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eMNQuNbyI/AAAAAAAAATY/kBcc7-dtDR0/s400/MANN,+Kara+-+Living+Room.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.vpinteriors.com/">VALERIE PASQUIOU</a> made her MET HOME debut with the L.A. canyon home she designed for singer k.d. lang (it used to be a “retreat” for movie star Rock Hudson). The place was comfortable, natural, and highly meditative, a fresh twist on Zen, with lots of Japanese details and floaty fabrics. So imagine my surprise when the next Pasquiou project I saw was this incredibly sophisticated wide-open loft in New York City. Valerie, who is French and has offices in Paris as well as New York, obviously has a lot of Gallic versatility up her sleeve. UPDATE: Valerie's latest project, a loft in the East Village of Manhattan was published in the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/garden/29location.html"><i>New York Times</i></a> Home section on April 29, 2010!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eM5CmDrKI/AAAAAAAAATc/WE3DbDJBpxM/s1600/PASQUIOU,+Valerie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eM5CmDrKI/AAAAAAAAATc/WE3DbDJBpxM/s400/PASQUIOU,+Valerie.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.rajirm.com/">“RAJI” RADHAKRISHNAN</a> of Washington, D.C. (principal of Raji RM & Associates) is a quirky, eccentric, eclectic designer with a great eye for the unexpected. She gracefully manages to balance the grand gesture and absolute refinement, which is no mean feat. One of the things she does that speaks to my photo-heart is to turn scale on its ear with enormous photo enlargements of details from works of art, as in this living room just outside the capital district.</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
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<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.jillvantosh.com/">JILL VanTOSH</a> is the municipal equivalent of a “national treasure” in the city of Atlanta. This dining room, which ran not only in MET HOME, but also on the cover of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Glamour-Making-Modern-Michael-Lassell/dp/1933231564/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272416973&sr=1-1">GLAMOUR: MAKING IT MODERN</a>, is one of my favorite rooms ever. It’s not exactly “my style,” but it’s amazing enough for me to consider changing styles. For those of you who like white on white (and variations of the themes), Jill is a master of the ultra-pale. She has a broad range, and her rooms are deeply layered and meticulously detailed. Is it wrong to fall in love with a shade of blue? It's not. Right?</span><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
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<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">One of my favorite locations in MET HOME was a radically pure white home that <a href="http://www.tobyzackdesigns.com/">TOBY ZACK</a> of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, designed for clients in Palm Beach. Every single living room textile was the exact same shade of white, and they all matched the walls, ceiling, and floor. The only color came from the art—vibrantly primary and modern. The room was visually compelling and not the least bit cold. So I was delighted in doodling around the web to find this gleaming kitchen, which is not just hot, it’s smokin’—and super cool, too. If you like Italianate sleek, this will put you over the moon!</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eQE_8xK2I/AAAAAAAAATo/xycvgsyptss/s1600/ZACK,+Toby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="281" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eQE_8xK2I/AAAAAAAAATo/xycvgsyptss/s400/ZACK,+Toby.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">Good stuff. It makes me happy. But before I close, here is one last picture.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eQtnR_meI/AAAAAAAAATs/Dp6rF8Egpl8/s1600/rosalind_russell_20080731-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S9eQtnR_meI/AAAAAAAAATs/Dp6rF8Egpl8/s200/rosalind_russell_20080731-2.jpg" width="177" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">That, of course, is Mame Dennis, as portrayed by Rosalind Russell in <i>Auntie Mame</i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">, the designing woman of my childhood. Got a problem? Feeling down? Then just... <i>redecorate!!!!</i> Everything I ever learned about interior design begins with her!—ML</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-3211633404097198922010-04-19T20:36:00.007-04:002010-04-22T08:21:50.631-04:00IT'S A CONRAN WORLD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zwrnqsMSI/AAAAAAAAAPw/8-Nj-S2N34U/s1600/SirTerenceConran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zwrnqsMSI/AAAAAAAAAPw/8-Nj-S2N34U/s320/SirTerenceConran.jpg" width="260" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">In honor of today's opening of the New York City <a href="http://www.conranusa.com/">Conran Shop</a> in it's new location—at <a href="http://www.abchome.com/">ABC Carpet & Home,</a> the epicenter of design in Manhattan, at least at the retail level—I have decided to offer a salute to Sir Terence, who set up his first design business in 1956 and has been charging like the Light Brigade ever since. With three of his four adult children following in his footsteps, you might well say he is as dynastic as he is dynamic. (The portrait of Old Smokey was taken by Dara Flynn for <i>The Sunday Times</i> of London in December 2009).</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; font-size: small;">I first met his Designship at his duplex atop the company's offices on Shad Thames (that's a street on the formerly unfashionable south side of the river, east of the Tower Bridge). Once upon a sailing-schooner time, this was a thriving commercial area for trade in tea, coffee, and spices, but by the mid-1990s the magnificent red-brick warehouses, with their impressive above-the-street gantries, were empty and the cobbled streets abandoned. Here it is back in its first prime:</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zxE__x_TI/AAAAAAAAAP4/ipRXOHoHt_o/s1600/EHShadThames.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zxE__x_TI/AAAAAAAAAP4/ipRXOHoHt_o/s320/EHShadThames.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> By the time Sir Terry and his fellow investors got hold if it, "Butler's Wharf" wasn't used much, except as a location for films that were set in (a) a scary place or (b) a historic place or (c) both of the above—films (and TV shows) like <i>Dr. Who, The Elephant Man, The French Lieutenant's Woman,</i> and, of course, <i>Oliver! </i>Dickens lived not far away in his salad days (although he probably didn't eat much salad).</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Now the area is chic rather than cheap or cheeky. It's full of cafés and restaurants, high-end lofts, and the Design Museum, founded—you should not be surprised to learn—by Conran and a few like-minded artful dodgers in 1989. And here it is now, in a lovely evening photo by Luke Hayes:</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zxZ8ixuuI/AAAAAAAAAQA/tQN3FjBQXLE/s1600/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zxZ8ixuuI/AAAAAAAAAQA/tQN3FjBQXLE/s320/image.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Conran, as anyone who has met him can attest, is charming, erudite, witty, and charismatic. If he didn't smoke cigars, I'd want to be around him all the time. Not content to be the king of the design hill (sorry, Prince Charles, but it is <i>not</i> you), TC is also a restaurateur, hotelier, architect, interior decorator, author, and publisher. In fact, his best-selling <i>The House Book </i>(1974) is something of a <i>Joy of Cooking</i> for the kind of people who love to rearrange their furniture:</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zyDtUSdKI/AAAAAAAAAQI/wWuYDUoWt7s/s1600/THE+HOUSE+BOOK+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zyDtUSdKI/AAAAAAAAAQI/wWuYDUoWt7s/s200/THE+HOUSE+BOOK+JPEG.jpg" width="166" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">There have been many sequels and collateral tomes over the years, the latest of which, proving the old gent has a lot of young ideas, is <i>The Eco House Book</i> (2009):</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zyQol-BkI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/Mlf-Fb_MiQ0/s1600/475_Eco_House_Book%2Bby%2BTerence%2BConran.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zyQol-BkI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/Mlf-Fb_MiQ0/s200/475_Eco_House_Book%2Bby%2BTerence%2BConran.jpg" width="178" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Whenever I'm in London, I try to get to the Conran Shop there, the one in Chelsea, partly because it's adjacent to <a href="http://www.bibendum.co.uk/">Bibendum</a>, the restaurant the good Lord installed in the 1911 Michelin building on the Fulham Road. Have a look. If you haven't been there, go!</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zyqgL7trI/AAAAAAAAAQY/o9t_HEkaK88/s1600/photo-lrg-michelin-house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zyqgL7trI/AAAAAAAAAQY/o9t_HEkaK88/s400/photo-lrg-michelin-house.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Bibendum, in case you didn't know, is the name of the Michelin Tire Man:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zy3j_F2rI/AAAAAAAAAQg/2Leu0njFiMU/s1600/32261bc575fdeaad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="158" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zy3j_F2rI/AAAAAAAAAQg/2Leu0njFiMU/s200/32261bc575fdeaad.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
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</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here, as a relevant design aside, is a picture of the <i>Bibendum</i> chair, designed by Eileen Gray, one of Conran's chiefest inspirations. I think you can get why she gave it the moniker.</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zzsTb7AGI/AAAAAAAAAQo/0qmyj1lR73U/s1600/bibendum_armchair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8zzsTb7AGI/AAAAAAAAAQo/0qmyj1lR73U/s320/bibendum_armchair.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">The first time I ever heard of Eileen Gray was from the man himself. He had a Gray settee in the entryway at Shad Thames. The apartment itself was an awakening. The natural light nearly knocked me over, and the combination of Conran designs, classic modernist pieces, and beautifully but casually displayed idiosyncratic collectibles really set the tone for a generation. The lightness, openness, transparency, and layered exposures of the design were everything (thankfully) Victorianism was not. The article I wrote about the meeting and the apartment ran in <i>Metropolitan Home.</i> (Have I mentioned today that <i>Metropolitan Home </i>is no more?)<i><br />
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</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Here now are some of the Big T's own furniture designs (lest you think he is only an entrepreneur): </span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z0CYyhPiI/AAAAAAAAAQw/V1yzjkweB5A/s1600/2290.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z0CYyhPiI/AAAAAAAAAQw/V1yzjkweB5A/s320/2290.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z0NOnk8aI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/waMrvq5zD0A/s1600/alvis+chair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z0NOnk8aI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/waMrvq5zD0A/s320/alvis+chair.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z0ZNFITII/AAAAAAAAARA/yhVwfRKAiU0/s1600/boomerang-dining-table.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z0ZNFITII/AAAAAAAAARA/yhVwfRKAiU0/s320/boomerang-dining-table.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">Meanwhile, at the New York <a href="http://www.conranusa.com/">Conran Shop</a>, in the lower level of the <a href="http://www.abchome.com/">ABC Home</a> building (888 Broadway, at 19th Street, New York, NY 10003; 212/473-3000), you can choose among and between designs by Conran himself, those by such mid-century masters as Eames, Saarinen, Noguchi, and Panton, living legends like Philippe Starck, and the anonymous craftsmen who make some of the shop's most affordable pieces. Conran was and is a pioneer of the notion that the humble may live quite comfortably among the aristocratic. Many things in the stately home outside London that he shares with his wife (Mrs. Sir Conran #4) are more common than couture. It's how they are used that makes the whole seem so swell.</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">To tantalize, here are some of the pieces you might find at the new store, which—like a good bistro that uses only the freshest seasonal ingredients—is featuring outdoor furniture and accessories:</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z7QxbC_KI/AAAAAAAAASI/jIdVMwRA6hw/s1600/purcupinedesk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z7QxbC_KI/AAAAAAAAASI/jIdVMwRA6hw/s320/purcupinedesk.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z02xEqv3I/AAAAAAAAARI/7Tp2UoDU2ZE/s1600/31808.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z02xEqv3I/AAAAAAAAARI/7Tp2UoDU2ZE/s320/31808.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"></span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z1C2VaJ6I/AAAAAAAAARQ/CL28rIkVv3M/s1600/Squint+sofa+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z1C2VaJ6I/AAAAAAAAARQ/CL28rIkVv3M/s320/Squint+sofa+JPEG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z1-BLh0rI/AAAAAAAAARw/rUDpFHriy3A/s1600/31040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z1-BLh0rI/AAAAAAAAARw/rUDpFHriy3A/s320/31040.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z1yXRuGaI/AAAAAAAAARo/InQiEdQ794Y/s1600/30797.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z1yXRuGaI/AAAAAAAAARo/InQiEdQ794Y/s320/30797.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"> </span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z2OnX1LZI/AAAAAAAAAR4/hAYHKstEIG0/s1600/29720.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z2OnX1LZI/AAAAAAAAAR4/hAYHKstEIG0/s320/29720.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">In closing, I'm going to let you have a little peek at the bathroom <i>chez</i> Conran, a room far larger than my apartment in New York, indeed larger than the footprint of the house in which I grew up. This image (by photographer David Garcia) is from <i>Metropolitan Home DESIGN 100: The Last Word in Modern Interiors,</i> which will be published by <a href="http://shop.hfmbooks.com/">Filipacchi Publishing </a>in September 2010-ish.</span></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z2cpMUKqI/AAAAAAAAASA/dDMnqw9fvNE/s1600/CONRAN+BATHROOM+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="367" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8z2cpMUKqI/AAAAAAAAASA/dDMnqw9fvNE/s400/CONRAN+BATHROOM+JPEG.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;">And have I mentioned that the book is being written by... me?—ML</span></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-16171292055798044602010-04-12T18:16:00.012-04:002010-04-13T11:05:14.702-04:00DESIGN ROCKS!<div style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><meta content="" name="Title"></meta> <meta content="" name="Keywords"></meta> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"></meta> <link href="file://localhost/Users/michaellassell/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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</style> </div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OMQyzjHoI/AAAAAAAAANI/JqQk3TORj-g/s1600/design-rocks-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OMQyzjHoI/AAAAAAAAANI/JqQk3TORj-g/s320/design-rocks-1.jpg" width="214" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Once upon a time, all furniture was made of rock. This is when people lived in caves, essentially spaces between rocks. Rocks were uncomfortable and impossible to rearrange, but they were inexpensive and readily available (no delivery fee). Eventually people moved out of caves and started building furniture of wood, although homes and other buildings were still made of rock. For example:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OMcbK3q3I/AAAAAAAAANQ/Rq3k2LjEBMk/s1600/great-pyramid-sphinx.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OMcbK3q3I/AAAAAAAAANQ/Rq3k2LjEBMk/s320/great-pyramid-sphinx.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Years ago, I visited the home of artist César Manrique on Lazarote in the Canary Islands (off the Atlantic coast of Morocco). César built his landmark home in the underground lava tubes that were left beyond by long-ago volcanic eruptions. In some places the house looked pretty much like a cave. In others, it looked a lot like a hip club of the 1970s in a Manhattan basement.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8ONuHY1UZI/AAAAAAAAANY/FtTXMF5pJwQ/s1600/house3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8ONuHY1UZI/AAAAAAAAANY/FtTXMF5pJwQ/s400/house3.jpg" width="400" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OOWc1Gj6I/AAAAAAAAANo/D8TfZC0fh5k/s1600/ian_blasco_metamorphosis_press.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OOWc1Gj6I/AAAAAAAAANo/D8TfZC0fh5k/s320/ian_blasco_metamorphosis_press.jpg" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <o:p></o:p>As you can see, César had the good sense to put cushions on his rock furniture. Although, what could be more appropriate than this <i>Metamorphosis</i> chair made by <a href="http://www.coroflot.com/ianblasco">Ian Blasco</a> (a RISD grad who lives in Colorado)? <o:p></o:p>It looks like something carved out of lava, but it’s really layered polypropylene. So it’s not as good for exfoliating as the real thing, but it's better for sitting.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Actually, my inspiration for this little post is twofold. First is a home that ran in METROPOLITAN HOME before the magazine was assassinated in November of 2009. It’s a restored Eichler house in northern California, and it sports this living room with organic-shaped furniture by Jean-Marie Massaud for Cassina and Cappelliini and a spectacular <i>tapestry</i> by <a href="http://www.alanmagee.com/">Alan Magee</a> called “Stones.” Good title. (The photo is by <a href="http://www.shaunsullivanphotography.com/">Shaun Sullivan</a>), </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OPK29RoYI/AAAAAAAAANw/keEoUk2lFBE/s1600/SAKELLARIOU+LIVING+ROOM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OPK29RoYI/AAAAAAAAANw/keEoUk2lFBE/s400/SAKELLARIOU+LIVING+ROOM.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">And the second inspiration was this amazing set of sheets from GAN, the textiles division of <a href="http://www.gandiablasco.com/">Gandia Blasco</a>, the noted Spanish furniture company.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OP8Qto0dI/AAAAAAAAAN4/i3O1rwffCf8/s1600/GAN:Gandia+Blasco:ROCK+SHEETS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OP8Qto0dI/AAAAAAAAAN4/i3O1rwffCf8/s320/GAN:Gandia+Blasco:ROCK+SHEETS.jpg" width="277" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There is no explaining personal taste, of course, but when I saw this picture, I just went “I want them!” It was visceral. Not a hint of superego involved. It was id at first sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">As lovers of history know, the ancients made art out of pebbles:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8ORFgIVc2I/AAAAAAAAAOA/Il6tniQe2Mo/s1600/ROMAN+MOSAIC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8ORFgIVc2I/AAAAAAAAAOA/Il6tniQe2Mo/s200/ROMAN+MOSAIC.jpg" width="193" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8ORY5qlR6I/AAAAAAAAAOI/VwbEAMzs1SU/s1600/dark_ocean_pebble_tile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8ORY5qlR6I/AAAAAAAAAOI/VwbEAMzs1SU/s200/dark_ocean_pebble_tile.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now you can make artistic décor with the help of pebble tile. They install like ceramic tile, so you don’t have to create that backsplash or shower stall with individual pebblettes. These, from <a href="http://www.stratastones.net/">StrataStones</a> cost about $15.99/sq. ft. but happen to be on sale right now for $10.99/sq. ft. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To furnish your rock-sold residence, you may want to consider something from the Livingstones collection by <a href="http://www.smarin.net/">Stéphanie Marin</a>. This is gorgeous, comfortable interior couture.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OhQ-gtTWI/AAAAAAAAAPg/4UCOj2SXdqs/s1600/livingstones-furniture-001-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OhQ-gtTWI/AAAAAAAAAPg/4UCOj2SXdqs/s400/livingstones-furniture-001-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Or how about this console table from <a href="http://www.jamesmurphydesign.com/">James Murphy Design</a>, which is made of black-lacquered American white oak, tempered glass, and sea stone. It’s 72”l x 18”w x 33”h and can be custom-sized.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OhiPNHRcI/AAAAAAAAAPo/U053pl7dJEE/s1600/stone_console_black-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OhiPNHRcI/AAAAAAAAAPo/U053pl7dJEE/s320/stone_console_black-1.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;">For some heavy duty pieces, consider this table by Belgian artist/designer <a href="http://www.lexpott.nl/">Lex Pott</a>. It’s made of bluestone and it’s not going to wobble, although it might make some deep impressions on your carpet.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OSMud6muI/AAAAAAAAAOg/AbSLzB-yH4M/s1600/lexpott-181009-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OSMud6muI/AAAAAAAAAOg/AbSLzB-yH4M/s320/lexpott-181009-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Another heavyweight is this stunning chaise, originally designed for outdoor use. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OTCbj4GyI/AAAAAAAAAOo/O8uYCR8KwGw/s1600/natural-stone-chaise-travertine-stone-forest-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OTCbj4GyI/AAAAAAAAAOo/O8uYCR8KwGw/s400/natural-stone-chaise-travertine-stone-forest-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
It’s cut from a single piece of travertine and measures 26”w x 63”l x 22”h and comes in Silver Travertine and Travertino Romano (<a href="http://stoneforest.com/">stoneforest.com</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">South African textile designer Ronel Jordaan has set up a women’s workshop that produces Felted Wool Stones that range from 12” x 14” x 5” up to “31” x 27” x 16”—big enough for sitting (<a href="http://vivaterra.com/">vivaterra.com</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OTVtsEs5I/AAAAAAAAAOw/o9fl6VHihOg/s1600/3432250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OTVtsEs5I/AAAAAAAAAOw/o9fl6VHihOg/s320/3432250.jpg" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">The German company, <a href="http://www.architectpaper.com/">Architects Paper</a> even makes wall coverings that mimic the look of various stone surfaces. They're pretty convincing, especially at a distance.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OTlrd_3HI/AAAAAAAAAO4/J5jWB3jbRfM/s1600/arch_paper-1-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OTlrd_3HI/AAAAAAAAAO4/J5jWB3jbRfM/s200/arch_paper-1-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you dip and doodle around the Internet for a little while, you’ll find rock/stone/pebble lamps and place mats, candlesticks, cake servers, area rugs, pretty much anything you could want. But restrain yourself. You don’t want to look like you live in a Flintstones theme park.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">And remember, just because something exists...</span><br />
<br />
</div><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OWdOSL5II/AAAAAAAAAPQ/Xkp9YztONSc/s1600/pebble914l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S8OWdOSL5II/AAAAAAAAAPQ/Xkp9YztONSc/s200/pebble914l.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Trebuchet MS",sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">...</span><span style="font-size: small;">doesn't mean you have to have it! <i>—ML</i></span><br />
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</span></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-33226806808667788422010-04-02T12:30:00.002-04:002010-04-02T12:40:31.592-04:00THE ART OF THE CARPET<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #cc0000; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YRY91HfpI/AAAAAAAAALI/HV2NcPEfhPg/s1600/Heim-Salon1824-Louvre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YRY91HfpI/AAAAAAAAALI/HV2NcPEfhPg/s320/Heim-Salon1824-Louvre.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">When I was a lad, spending more time than I ought designing imaginary rooms, my idea of perfection involved white walls, modern furniture, big works of art, and a spectacular Persian carpet. How things change. Now, while I still love the ancient Asian rug tradition, I’m a sucker for splashy modern weavings to cushion my tread.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is my notion, hardly original, that most good modern paintings would also make great rugs. Take a Mondrian, for example. Any Mondrian. Why, here's one now!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YR3AnA1hI/AAAAAAAAALQ/TQHZKBjGXP0/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YR3AnA1hI/AAAAAAAAALQ/TQHZKBjGXP0/s320/images.jpeg" width="211" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Or a festive Alexander Calder.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YSE3Y5V7I/AAAAAAAAALY/UGcBaPXywV8/s1600/calder+rf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YSE3Y5V7I/AAAAAAAAALY/UGcBaPXywV8/s320/calder+rf.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> I grant you, designing around such a powerful carpet would be challenging, but, hey, that’s half the fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">One of my favorite sources of color inspiration, the late great Richard Diebenkorn, would also be my go-to guy for carpets, especially his “Ocean Park” series, which he painted while living in Santa Monica. Take this one in mostly blue—how great would it be to build a room around this?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YSdvpVLOI/AAAAAAAAALg/TtrYmepNmsM/s1600/ocean_park_128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YSdvpVLOI/AAAAAAAAALg/TtrYmepNmsM/s320/ocean_park_128.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Of course, you can choose a more muted Diebenkorn, too, like this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YSrjuYfDI/AAAAAAAAALo/cBXVvCT3mBs/s1600/1141454873_large-image_1065187265_largeimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YSrjuYfDI/AAAAAAAAALo/cBXVvCT3mBs/s320/1141454873_large-image_1065187265_largeimage.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> And, since it’s a fantasy anyway (unless you are a very lucky designer or homeowner, indeed), you can always change the colors. After all, it’s an homage, not a Xerox copy.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Just as I have never met a Mark Rothko painting I did not like (well, love, actually), so too have I never met a Mark Rothko that I didn’t think would make a great rug—for example:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YS8CywHKI/AAAAAAAAALw/6oNtgvQhd6o/s1600/rothko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YS8CywHKI/AAAAAAAAALw/6oNtgvQhd6o/s320/rothko.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Of course, putting a painting on the floor doesn’t have to be literal. Calvin Klein Home Collection (<a href="http://calvinklein.com/">calvinklein.com</a>) has a line of carpets called "Luster Wash." They do not reproduce Rothke paintings, but they are very similar in feeling (and far less expensive than translating canvas into pile as a one-off).<o:p></o:p></span> </div><br />
<div style="color: #cc0000;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YXWFmH3TI/AAAAAAAAANA/1YDB704ia94/s1600/905877_GE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YXWFmH3TI/AAAAAAAAANA/1YDB704ia94/s320/905877_GE.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">This Richard Pettibone would make a great carpet. Since it reminds me of pinstripes, I picture a lot of men’s suiting fabrics in this imaginary room: gray flannel, camel cashmere, that sort of thing. Maybe some silk throw pillows in bright colors as "ties."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YT775NogI/AAAAAAAAAMA/zASW_kmFI2Q/s1600/RichardPettiboneBlackStella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YT775NogI/AAAAAAAAAMA/zASW_kmFI2Q/s320/RichardPettiboneBlackStella.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I was thinking that this Jackson Pollock would make a great rug (Pollock's paintings were, after all, done on the floor):</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YUeAbN5dI/AAAAAAAAAMI/-fy9Gx-Glvg/s1600/hb_1982.147.27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="244" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YUeAbN5dI/AAAAAAAAAMI/-fy9Gx-Glvg/s320/hb_1982.147.27.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Then I came across this little number from Stephanie Odegard (<a href="http://odegard.com/">odegardinc.com</a>) It’s by artist Michael Somoroff and is called the Somoroff II.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YU_aXMP_I/AAAAAAAAAMQ/kbCzkjK_jp0/s1600/somoroff+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YU_aXMP_I/AAAAAAAAAMQ/kbCzkjK_jp0/s320/somoroff+JPEG.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> I’m fond of this Brice Marden work, too, and thought it would be as great underfoot as it would be on the wall:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YVUTmpa4I/AAAAAAAAAMY/6ZoY9Q-JsP8/s1600/CRI_69379.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YVUTmpa4I/AAAAAAAAAMY/6ZoY9Q-JsP8/s320/CRI_69379.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Further Googling revealed designer Kelly Wearstler’s carpet for The Rug Company (<a href="http://therugcompany.com/">therugcompany.com</a>), which has a whole line by well known designers, including fashionistas like Vivienne Westwood and Paul Smith.</span><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YVucjEnFI/AAAAAAAAAMg/b0BjB_pXAv4/s1600/dc_kelly_tracery_f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YVucjEnFI/AAAAAAAAAMg/b0BjB_pXAv4/s320/dc_kelly_tracery_f.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Here’s another stunner from The Rug Company. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YWBl8PyHI/AAAAAAAAAMo/U2Xgn3O0i_k/s1600/tube-0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YWBl8PyHI/AAAAAAAAAMo/U2Xgn3O0i_k/s320/tube-0.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It’s by Tom Dixon, and it’s just crying out for a pair of Mr. Dixon’s practically perfect wing chairs. I see an extremely sleek modern fireplace… and floor-to-ceiling silk drapes in a deep bottle green. But I digress.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Just to prove I am not alone in my obsession with laying all of MoMA’s painting collection on the ground, here’s a shot from a 2006 show house by Messrs. William Diamond and Anthony Baratta (aka Bill and Tony), who like to design the carpets for all their projects (<a href="http://diamondbarattadesign.com/">diamondbarattadesign.com</a>).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YWZWHtO1I/AAAAAAAAAMw/KlcnqDua0Fs/s1600/04-19-ED1-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YWZWHtO1I/AAAAAAAAAMw/KlcnqDua0Fs/s400/04-19-ED1-.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">They couldn’t have found a better inspiration for the blue-on-blue carpet here than the signature work of Mr. Frank Stella.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And one final image… just because. I don’t approve of leftover mammalian parts as decorative objects, but this is pretty fabulous as a photograph from an altogether different rug tradition!<i> </i>It looks like art to me.<i>—ML</i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YWvwEb_PI/AAAAAAAAAM4/6prl6gMQeVU/s1600/jean_harlow-120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7YWvwEb_PI/AAAAAAAAAM4/6prl6gMQeVU/s400/jean_harlow-120.jpg" width="312" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-55752203030404428592010-03-29T15:39:00.012-04:002010-03-29T16:23:17.117-04:00DINING WITH CY TWOMBLEY<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Start with a bedroom. Not just any bedroom, but this highly chic sanctuary designed by Raji Radhakrishnan. </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7EFykscHSI/AAAAAAAAALA/SzEFiOHqTtU/s1600/RAJIBED.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7EFykscHSI/AAAAAAAAALA/SzEFiOHqTtU/s320/RAJIBED.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Raji was inspired by the paintings in the king's bedroom at Versailles (and why not? say I) to have a detail converted into a sepia-toned photo mural. (You can check out Raji on her blog, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://designdossier.net/">designdossier.net</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">, or web site, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://rajirm.com/">rajirm.com</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">.)</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_676098626"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Add to this idea my own pointless fantasizing about an ideal dining room, pointless because I don't have a dining room. To which we add my current obsession with a Cy Twombley painting called </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Quattro Stagioni </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">(</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">A Painting in Four Parts)... well, actually it's "Estate," one of the four parts. It's over ten feet tall and is owned by the Tate Gallery in London, an institution not known for giving away its holdings just because someone asks. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D7Iznau2I/AAAAAAAAAKQ/6K3TRSVNcTw/s1600/cytwombley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D7Iznau2I/AAAAAAAAAKQ/6K3TRSVNcTw/s400/cytwombley.jpg" width="272" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">I am not going to own this painting. Not now. Not ever. S</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">o it is my fantasy that I could somehow transfer "Estate" from </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Quattro Stagioni</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> onto my imaginary dining room wall—not as a simple photo mural (oh, no, that would be way too easy), but as a Venetian plaster installation so that the grafitti-like scrawling and dripping splotches of yellow were actually </span></span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">in</span></span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> the layers of plaster, embedded behind its smooth-as-glass finish. I have no idea how this could be accomplished (I'd probably need Cy Twombley himself and a planeload of Venetian craftsmen), but when it was done, here is the sideboard I'd put in front of it.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D7mbzn2LI/AAAAAAAAAKY/yyf6Q23VEH4/s1600/IMPERFECTION_4_ON.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D7mbzn2LI/AAAAAAAAAKY/yyf6Q23VEH4/s320/IMPERFECTION_4_ON.jpg" width="320" /></span></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">It's from Jimmie Martin, my favorite beyond-the-pale furniture designers (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://jimmiemartin.co.uk/">jimmiemartin.co.uk</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">). They're Scandinavian, but they work in London, Everything they make is one-of-a-kind and costs about as much as a peerage.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">The rest of the room would have to be simple, of course, so I'd paint the opposite wall in some kind of sympathetic yellow, leaving the rest of the "envelope" white. For a table, I'd go with the classic </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Saarinen </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">table from his 1956 "Tulip" series for Knoll (2010 is Saarinen's centennial, after all, and this table is so ubiquitous it's almost invisible, which means it won't be pulling a lot of focus)... </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D785wzdYI/AAAAAAAAAKg/uaMUweomf6c/s1600/Eero-Saarinen-Saarinen-Dining-Table-Laminate_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D785wzdYI/AAAAAAAAAKg/uaMUweomf6c/s320/Eero-Saarinen-Saarinen-Dining-Table-Laminate_2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D8SXjQYgI/AAAAAAAAAKo/Q1ZqAp_LWTM/s1600/more-xo-slick-slick-chairs-Yellow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D8SXjQYgI/AAAAAAAAAKo/Q1ZqAp_LWTM/s1600/more-xo-slick-slick-chairs-Yellow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D8SXjQYgI/AAAAAAAAAKo/Q1ZqAp_LWTM/s200/more-xo-slick-slick-chairs-Yellow.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: Times,sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">... and some simple polypropylene </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Slick Slick </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">chairs by Phiilippe Starck (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://unicahome.com/">unicahome.com</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> is selling four of them for $468 at the moment). </span></span></span> </span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Then I'd hang a small, but classic yellow crystal chandelier... or maybe it should be black. OR it could be this so-called </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">Paper </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">chandelier, a witty take on the classic in far humbler materials, designed by Studio Job for Moooi (</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><a href="http://moooi.com/">moooi.com</a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D8tf1pnKI/AAAAAAAAAKw/eXA4C6Q2brQ/s1600/paper+chandelier+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D8tf1pnKI/AAAAAAAAAKw/eXA4C6Q2brQ/s320/paper+chandelier+.jpg" width="300" /></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">And do you think it would be too much to add this contemporary work of art by a British chap who goes by the name of Famous When Dead? Personally, I think it would be fine.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D-ayZFfeI/AAAAAAAAAK4/iFbuU76eTAs/s1600/Famous+when+dead.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S7D-ayZFfeI/AAAAAAAAAK4/iFbuU76eTAs/s400/Famous+when+dead.jpg" width="276" /></span></span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">And that's what I call a dining room. Not everyone will want to eat here, but I will, and it's my house. At least in my own mind.</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999;">—ML</span></span></i><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #999999; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',sans-serif;"><i><br />
</i></span></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-36771377756929505112010-03-28T12:26:00.002-04:002010-03-28T12:29:56.475-04:00GORGEOUS GLASS BY JOE CARIATI<meta content="" name="Title"></meta> <meta content="" name="Keywords"></meta> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"></meta> <link href="file://localhost/Users/michaellassell/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_IT_TsFI/AAAAAAAAAII/S-YT08KA0aM/s1600/14Iv.Brz_Group.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_IT_TsFI/AAAAAAAAAII/S-YT08KA0aM/s320/14Iv.Brz_Group.jpg" width="301" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Sometimes when you noodle around on the computer, you find something that just stops you dead in your tracks. That happened to me when I came across these unbelievably beautiful hand-blown glass pieces by Los Angeles-based JOE CARIATI.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And here he is, tattoos and all. The personal aspect is rock ‘n roll rough, but the glassware is pure refinement.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_YqYCOCI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/_DsqsJDs0s0/s1600/bio_joe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_YqYCOCI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/_DsqsJDs0s0/s320/bio_joe.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Cariati was born in Seattle in 1971 and is classically trained in Italian glassblowing techniques. He’s a painter, too. Here’s one of his paintings.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_kkdfbUI/AAAAAAAAAIY/qZXHKfgXYWU/s1600/p_czechfreight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_kkdfbUI/AAAAAAAAAIY/qZXHKfgXYWU/s320/p_czechfreight.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The paintings seem much more in tune with the personal gestalt, but it’s the glass I can’t get enough of (although these photos are probably as close as I’m ever going to get to one since they cost many hundreds of dollars each).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_00bAZ-I/AAAAAAAAAIg/nKKokbg5QdQ/s1600/petite_decanters_tn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S69_00bAZ-I/AAAAAAAAAIg/nKKokbg5QdQ/s320/petite_decanters_tn.jpg" width="273" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Joe sells his pieces at places like Barney’s, at Fred Segal in Los Angeles, and at the Museum of Art and Design in Manhattan. Also, happily, online at his own web site. Check it out for even more mesmerizingly gorgeous glass: <a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1241653983">joecariati.com.</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #7f6000;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="color: #7f6000; font-size: small;"> These things certainly are photogenic! <i>—ML</i></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-66082650086748909132010-03-17T15:51:00.005-04:002010-03-17T16:13:58.665-04:00GEHRY'S NEW THEATERS: An Inside Job<div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6EsZc23hkI/AAAAAAAAAHY/jpXkA9Qi1xQ/s1600-h/Frank_Gehry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6EsZc23hkI/AAAAAAAAAHY/jpXkA9Qi1xQ/s200/Frank_Gehry.jpg" width="146" /></a></div><div style="color: #666666;">Well, cheer up New York City architecture lovers. Manhattan is about to get another Frank Gehry project. Granted it’s a small one, and you won’t actually be able to see much of it from the street, but at least it will be there (from what I can tell from photographs of the very handsome models, I already like it better than the iceberg Mr. G. built for Brrrrrry Diller on the West Side Highway). </div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #666666;">The Signature Theatre Company has announced that, thanks to a $25 million grant from the city, its plans for a $60 million, 74,000-square-foot complex of three small theaters, two rehearsal spaces and a central lobby/bookstore/café—designed by the Titan of Titanium himself—will open in a building currently under construction at 42nd Street and 10th Avenue, former site of one of the Big Apple’s last authentic coffee shops (well, you can’t have everything). The developer had hoped to include a permanent home for Cirque du Soleil on the site, but the city decided that the Cirque was too commercial to qualify for municipal assistance and nixed the idea.)</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6EvlEpCRcI/AAAAAAAAAHo/w6R63p-xb8Y/s1600-h/LOBBBY+CROPPED+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="208" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6EvlEpCRcI/AAAAAAAAAHo/w6R63p-xb8Y/s320/LOBBBY+CROPPED+JPEG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #666666;">What was not so hot for the existential Canadian circus was a cool opportunity for the folks at Signature, including founding artistic director James Houghton). The Signature, a standout in the world of not-for-profit companies, was at one point scheduled to have a new home in the phantom building allegedly going up at Ground Zero sometime or other (as things are moving, not before the turn of the next millennium). The 2010–11 season is the Signature’s 20th, and it will be marked by a year-long look at the work of resident playwright, Tony Kushner; the festival will include the first New York revival of his three-part Pulitzer-winning <i>Angels in America </i><a href="http://www.signaturetheatre.org/">(signaturetheatre.org)</a><i><br />
</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6Ev5lt77RI/AAAAAAAAAHw/Fbah7vLcmnI/s1600-h/JEWEL+BOX+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="224" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6Ev5lt77RI/AAAAAAAAAHw/Fbah7vLcmnI/s320/JEWEL+BOX+JPEG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #666666;">As for his work in the affair, Gehry calls the project “elegant yet modest,” which is accurate enough. After all, they’re theaters; they function best in the dark. Still, there are some typical Gehry flourishes, and the center probably won’t be boring at least. The scheduled opening is 2012, but don't order your tickets just yet. The project has already been seriously delayed once by matters related to the economy.</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6EwR1ajnOI/AAAAAAAAAH4/npxqj6Qnw20/s1600-h/END+STAGE+JPEG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6EwR1ajnOI/AAAAAAAAAH4/npxqj6Qnw20/s320/END+STAGE+JPEG.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #666666;">And then there’s the impending tower itself, which may be the bad news that more than outweighs the Gehry good. Just what the up-and-coming skyscraper will look like is apparently a Big Secret. The developer, Related Properties, hired Florida-based Arquitectonica to design the building (they are the hands behind the Westin at 42nd and 8th Avenue and other, better-looking buildings, particularly in Miami). When pictures of the structure leaked to the web recently (from a posting on the site of the company subcontracted to produce the glazing), architecture buffs let out a collective howl of dismay at the soulless, anonymous glass box that will tower 59 unaffordable stories above one of the most congested intersections in Gotham (it’s virtually the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel).</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #666666; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6Ewfqp4JBI/AAAAAAAAAIA/IC4kbx9KnWY/s1600-h/440w42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S6Ewfqp4JBI/AAAAAAAAAIA/IC4kbx9KnWY/s400/440w42.jpg" width="270" /></a></div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #666666;">The pix were yanked within hours, but way too late. Related claims that they are out-of-date and do not represent the current building plan. But the building is already under construction. Don’t the developers know what it’s going to look like? Is this the equivalent of a movie studio trying to release a stinker of a film without letting critics review it before it opens? How bad can it be? Pretty bad if it’s anything like the picture: anonymous, cold, uninspired—not a feather in Arquitectonica's cap.</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #666666;">Bad design is probably not the best way to get people to move in or visit (it’s approved as a combined hotel and apartment building). At the moment the intersection is two <i>very</i> long blocks to the nearest subway, especially in bad weather. There’s a bus, but chances are that Mayor Bloomberg and his lunatic transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan, will shut it down and put up a few picnic tables in the crosswalk instead, as they have elsewhere in the city, making it next to impossible to move efficiently above ground. But that’s another gripe for another post. I wouldn’t want to be alarmist about the thing.—ML</div><div style="color: #666666;"><br />
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</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-74516096841238251082010-03-15T16:04:00.006-04:002010-03-16T01:23:17.409-04:00Dachshunds R Us<span style="font-size: small;"></span> <meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator"></meta> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator"></meta> <link href="file://localhost/Users/michaellassell/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link> <style>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56C1yjThAI/AAAAAAAAAFo/pdjlS2__VvA/s1600-h/Portrait-of-Maurice-Print-C10071325.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56C1yjThAI/AAAAAAAAAFo/pdjlS2__VvA/s320/Portrait-of-Maurice-Print-C10071325.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In the tradition of Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and, yes, David Hockney, I am the proud papa of a totally self-entitled<o:p></o:p> dachshund, even though I can't paint. The attentive canine in the picture is Warhol's Maurice. Mine is named Schuyler despite the best efforts of my family to get me to name her Schaatze—which sounded to me like something Eva Braun would name a dog. Schuyler is the cutest and sweetest dog in the history of the world. Really.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">When you own a dachshund, it turns out, people like to give you things shaped like hot dogs. Hot dogs with tails. Hot dogs with devil horns and tails. Hot dogs with angel wings and tails. After the third Halloween doggie costume—a hot dog <i>bun, </i>get it?—I decided that friends of wiener-dog owners clearly needed a shopping guide. So I looked around the world and the web and found some nice modern, non-corny <i>objets de doxie. </i></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I published that selection on <a href="http://pointclickhome.com/">pointclickhome.com</a>, and it was a surprisingly popular post. You can still find it there. But time marches on, and doxies do need the occasional gift, so, I offer this updated, amended, and/or improved list of things to get your favorite dachshund owner.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56FMr3_IYI/AAAAAAAAAFw/tNCXCVijUMU/s1600-h/product1_content_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56FMr3_IYI/AAAAAAAAAFw/tNCXCVijUMU/s320/product1_content_01.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Exhibit A: I give you the <i>Milki.</i> This illuminated dachshund is the work of a new design group in Korea called Wants and Needs (they seem to be working under the assumption that these are not the same thing). The most fun thing about these lamps is that you turn them on and off but tickling the dachshund under the chin, where a sensor activates the electrical circuit. At the moment these are only available directly from Korea for $150 plus $40 in shipping (air mail); just send an email to <a href="mailto:WNcart@gmail.com">WNcart@gmail.com.</a> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56GCtk2RkI/AAAAAAAAAF4/CWSx1lKdPAU/s1600-h/yhst-39900603339181_2082_3441103.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56GCtk2RkI/AAAAAAAAAF4/CWSx1lKdPAU/s320/yhst-39900603339181_2082_3441103.gif" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My friend Supon Phornirunlit is a Thai-born designer who lives in our nation's fair capital, where he runs several businesses. One of them, Naked Decor, has for some time offered a lovely <i>Happy Hot Dog</i> throw pillow with the noble nose half of said dog on the front and the tail-end on the back. You need a pair of them to display the whole dog, but at $45 each, that's not out of the question. Now he's offering the same split image as a two-part silkscreen designed to hang on the wall; the two 12" x 12" panels, in a limited edition of 250, are $150; <a href="http://nakeddecor.com/">nakeddecor.com</a>. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56HyCm1RjI/AAAAAAAAAGA/5gRGsdEjI7A/s1600-h/dachshundbookends2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56HyCm1RjI/AAAAAAAAAGA/5gRGsdEjI7A/s320/dachshundbookends2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">That half-a-hot-dog look is getting popular. Super potter Jonathan Adler has had a dachshund in his menagerie for quite some time, but he's added bookends. What better way to organize your dachshund-related literature? The set is 14" long, made of high-fired stoneware on a solid hardwood base, $150; <a href="http://jonathanadler.com./">jonathanadler.com.</a> My birthday is in July, but no need to wait for a special occasion!</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56VRB96W4I/AAAAAAAAAHI/qfT3PkZZkvI/s1600-h/HFdachs_l.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56VRB96W4I/AAAAAAAAAHI/qfT3PkZZkvI/s320/HFdachs_l.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Haseform, the German company, has a small ark-load of hanging coat hooks. The line is called <i>Tiergarderoben</i> (a play on the German words for zoo and wardrobe), and it includes elephants, octopuses, and reindeer, among others—and this dachshund, of course. If you've ever met a nursing doxie, you may think this item is funnier than if you haven't. They're available in white, black, or red for only $28; <a href="http://haseform.de./">haseform.de.</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56Kx82PgNI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/n0aCh6xSaXs/s1600-h/294655523v7_480x480_Front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56Kx82PgNI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/n0aCh6xSaXs/s320/294655523v7_480x480_Front.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Carry your doxie pride with you even in places were hounds are <i>verboten</i> with these travel mugs emlazoned with a variety of abstract little doggies. They're 7" tall and hold 15 ounces of hot or cold beverage; $22 from <a href="http://cafepress.com./"><i>cafepress.com.</i></a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Artist Kevin McCormick offers these droll, propaganda-inspired posters through his web site, Obey the Purebreed. Other dog breeds are available, as are posters touting the delights of c-a-t-s. The silkscreened posters measure 23" by 35" and cost $28; <a href="http://obeythepurebreed.com./">obeythepurebreed.com.</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56UiqDC4GI/AAAAAAAAAHA/IbJ-MHMXdFU/s1600-h/kevin-mccormick-dachshund.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56UiqDC4GI/AAAAAAAAAHA/IbJ-MHMXdFU/s320/kevin-mccormick-dachshund.jpg" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56L4X3DVGI/AAAAAAAAAGg/HE_SEyJvI5k/s1600-h/dax172_01-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56L4X3DVGI/AAAAAAAAAGg/HE_SEyJvI5k/s200/dax172_01-1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The <i>d-toro mini-dachshund</i> really is mini. It measures 7" long. You assemble it yourself, of course, from natural cardboard pieces. It's made in Japan, and yours for only $24.50; <a href="http://compactimpat.com/shop1.">compactimpat.com/shop1.</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56Vgyy6xzI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/LLm_HH4W7HI/s1600-h/LegoDachshund.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56Vgyy6xzI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/LLm_HH4W7HI/s200/LegoDachshund.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">You have to see this site to believe it, but there is an artist named Nathan Sawaya, a sculptor, who works exclusively in the medium of LEGO blocks. His doxie is 8" long. Sawaya will even accept commissions to create your precious pet in LEGO; visit this set even if you aren't in the market for a dachshund (this guy is off the <i>hook</i>); <a href="http://brickartist.com./">brickartist.com.</a></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br />
</span></span></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56N0JL8deI/AAAAAAAAAGw/YAu6BRDhYmY/s1600-h/dachshund+card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56N0JL8deI/AAAAAAAAAGw/YAu6BRDhYmY/s320/dachshund+card.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And in case you want to send me a note, I would suggest these handsome cards, hand screened by Orange Twist of Seattle. They're $3.95 each or $16 for a set of 6, two each of 3 colors, as seen plus sky blue; <a href="http://estycom./">esty.com.</a></span></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">That's about it for now. I'll post more fabulous doxie doo-dads when I find them. And, in closing, I leave you with a photo of the most wonderful dachshund who ever lived. Yes, it's my lovely rescued-from-certain-death-in-South-Carolina Schuyler (it's pronounced SKY-ler but spelled in the Dutch fashion, as well it should be for a resident of the town once known as New Amsterdam, more recently as New York). And she's all mine. Or I am hers. The jury's out.<i>—ML</i></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56PZ7DnB7I/AAAAAAAAAG4/0OfJ-c3PhtE/s1600-h/n1014153827_30361681_3702958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S56PZ7DnB7I/AAAAAAAAAG4/0OfJ-c3PhtE/s400/n1014153827_30361681_3702958.jpg" width="323" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-78898828416788384782010-03-13T12:20:00.005-05:002010-03-13T12:28:35.167-05:00All-American in HOME Miami<div style="color: #cc0000;">DIAMOND BARATTA: MALE PATTERN BOLDNESS</div><br />
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Bill Diamond and Tony Baratta have been turning out top-tier interiors for almost 30 years. Their Manhattan-based firm is now 25 years old, a cause for celebration. Enter <i>All-American: The Exuberant Style of William Diamond and Anthony Baratta</i>. It's a vibrant blast of energy between hard covers from Pointed Leaf Press, the boutique bookery founded by decor guru Suzy Slesin.</div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5vI0bwvMAI/AAAAAAAAAFY/tMbRFTF-WgU/s1600-h/Page+195.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5vI0bwvMAI/AAAAAAAAAFY/tMbRFTF-WgU/s320/Page+195.jpg" /></a></div><div style="color: #0b5394;">For the whole article (written by me) and a great portfolio of images, click on the link below. To order the book, click on the cover in the BOOKSHELF box, below right.</div><div style="color: #0b5394;"> </div><a href="http://www.homemia.com/articles/2010/03/male-pattern-boldness">http://www.homemia.com/articles/2010/03/male-pattern-boldness</a>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-66974949212689148212010-03-12T14:12:00.003-05:002010-03-13T00:23:37.550-05:00A IS FOR AALTO<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: small;"></span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">A is for Aalto, whose first name is Alvar, so he’s an A coming or going. He’s also a crossword puzzle favorite, as you can well imagine. (Secret History: His actual first name was Hugo; Alvar was his second given name.)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 18pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Finnish architect and designer was born in 1898—when Victoria still sat on the English throne, to put it in context—and lived until 1976. In his long building career, he created such structures as the Finnish pavilion for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City…</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qPgKE033I/AAAAAAAAAEY/3LWoPdT-0EA/s1600-h/447_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qPgKE033I/AAAAAAAAAEY/3LWoPdT-0EA/s200/447_1.png" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qPjqaXVBI/AAAAAAAAAEg/rFCMrI7niJg/s1600-h/7609a7d3bfe85aa2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qPjqaXVBI/AAAAAAAAAEg/rFCMrI7niJg/s320/7609a7d3bfe85aa2.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">… and Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, which was finished in the early 1970s.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQB1gWBiI/AAAAAAAAAEo/JUu6MS20uqs/s1600-h/hslg_20070323_134451_30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQB1gWBiI/AAAAAAAAAEo/JUu6MS20uqs/s320/hslg_20070323_134451_30.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">It is as a furniture designer that Aalto is most known today, at least in the U.S., where he is considered one of the fathers of Scandinavian modernism. Many of his pieces have become icons of the mid 20<sup>th</sup> century.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Chances are you’ve seen this little stacking stool. If you were at my place, you’d see one sitting next to my bed.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQb7VLMmI/AAAAAAAAAEw/fk3yMhiuI8Q/s1600-h/e60_alvar_aalto.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQb7VLMmI/AAAAAAAAAEw/fk3yMhiuI8Q/s200/e60_alvar_aalto.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Two of his most famous chairs are this two-towned bentwood <i>Paimio</i> chair of 1932 …</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQnm6dJ1I/AAAAAAAAAE4/CzzbPM9ZqfI/s1600-h/alvar+aalto+paimio+chair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQnm6dJ1I/AAAAAAAAAE4/CzzbPM9ZqfI/s320/alvar+aalto+paimio+chair.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">… and the upholstered <i>Armchair 400</i> of 1937, shown here in a festive zebra-print fabric. This image comes from Artek, the company Alvar and his architect wife, Aino, founded in 1935 (this family loved their A’s). Artek still makes Aalto furniture, as well as signature pieces by others in the Aalto tradition (see <a href="http://artek.fi/">artek.fi</a>).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQ0gU42gI/AAAAAAAAAFA/V3Y3-uWRFQQ/s1600-h/aalto-lounge-chair-4001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qQ0gU42gI/AAAAAAAAAFA/V3Y3-uWRFQQ/s320/aalto-lounge-chair-4001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p>Even if you’ve never heard of the man, you no doubt have seen this vase in one of its many manifestations. Originally designed in 1937 and called the <i>Savoy</i> vase, its descendants are produced in Finland to this day by the Iittala company (you can get them at the MoMa store, <a href="http://momastore.org/">momastore.org</a>).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qRGn6QktI/AAAAAAAAAFI/xk9uj_jLvJI/s1600-h/item_574.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5qRGn6QktI/AAAAAAAAAFI/xk9uj_jLvJI/s320/item_574.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Clearly it’s not an accident that aalto is the Finnish word for “wave"—as in "wave of the future." For more on Aalto, go to <a href="http://alvaraalto.fi/">alvaraalto.fi</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-57062021605343770802010-03-10T13:27:00.002-05:002010-03-11T00:24:19.631-05:00FURNITURE TO THE MAX<div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5faWAhCrBI/AAAAAAAAADw/VnWISej4dZA/s1600-h/3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5faWAhCrBI/AAAAAAAAADw/VnWISej4dZA/s320/3.jpg" /></a>Oh, look, it's <b>Maxine Snider,</b> graphic artist, painter, interior and furniture designer. I first met Maxine many moons ago when I assigned myself the job of writing about her home—a duplex in one of those classic Chicago apartment houses on the Gold Coast (so close to Lake Michigan you can practically hear the waves lapping the shore). The pictures we had taken for <i>Met Home</i> interested me, although I confess I might have given the writing assignment to someone else if it had not been for the incredible collection of black and white photography Maxine and her husband, Larry, had hanging in the stairwell. It was a stunning assembly of prints, most of them vintage.</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;">So off I flew to Chicago. I loved their house. I loved the Sniders. They are smart, talented, outgoing, modest, and gracious—a combination more common, I have found, in Chicago than other places I have lived. Among the pieces in their home were a few that Maxine had designed herself. Ms. Snider started her design studio in 1989. In 1998 she introduced her first collection of ten pieces inspired by her research in Paris. Dark and fairly formal, they reference antiques. But they're about as much like the original as Matthew Bourne's all-male <i>Swan Lake</i> is like the traditional Marius Petipa staging of 1895. The dance analogy is especially apt because Maxine, a bit of a minimalist, likes her legs long and lean, and those first pieces taper to nearly nothing, giving them the appearance of being poised pertly <i>en pointe. </i>Maxine is also pert and poised.<br />
<i><br />
</i></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;">Here's one of her first-wave of pieces, the <i>Grand Salon</i> table. The photographs hanging above it are by Karl Blossfeldt.</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><i> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5fdYjxJQnI/AAAAAAAAAD4/JUAmSt98Y6A/s1600-h/grande-salon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5fdYjxJQnI/AAAAAAAAAD4/JUAmSt98Y6A/s400/grande-salon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><i> </i></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;">My new most favorite Maxine Snider piece was inspired by more recent design history. It's called the <i>Bauhaus</i> console; it's made of quartered white ash (with nickel details), and it looks like this:</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #741b47; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #741b47; text-align: left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5feIerYyzI/AAAAAAAAAEA/NNGtC8DYmSk/s1600-h/bauhaus-console-th.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5feIerYyzI/AAAAAAAAAEA/NNGtC8DYmSk/s400/bauhaus-console-th.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;">There is something deeply satisfying about discipline, simplicity, perfect proportions, meticulous craftsmanship, and refined finishing! The mid-century-appropriate <i>Bauhaus</i> console is worthy of Florence Knoll in her prime. Unlike the Knoll line, however, Snider's furniture is not for mere mortals. The tables, chairs, beds, and sofas cost what you would expect to pay for a piece of finely made casework. You do not find the Maxine Snider line at Target. You find it at design centers.<br />
<br />
Maxine's company is small, compared to some brands, but she has managed to assemble a client list that includes celebrities (Mark Wahlberg, Oscar de la Hoya), major interior designers, like Orlando Diaz-Azcuy, and such prestigious architectural firms as Tigerman McCurry and Booth Hansen, as well as hospitality giants like the Four Seasons, the Ritz-Carlton, and even the Gaansevoort Hotel in the Meat Packing District of New York City (which is about two blocks from my apartment).</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;">It's definitely worth noting that the photograph above the <i>Bauhaus</i> console is by Maxine's husband, Lawrence K. Snider (aka Larry), a lawyer by trade but a world-class photographer whose work is being collected by American museums even as we speak. Larry travels (sometimes with Maxine) to shoot "vanishing cultures" in Asia and South America. He used to work pretty much exclusively in black and white, but he's added color. Following is a photograph by Larry that I actually own (well, I own a print of it). It's the only piece of art that I have ever bought at an art gallery opening (in Los Angeles), and I've been happy about that ever since.<i>—ML</i></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5fg3lbjDWI/AAAAAAAAAEI/zpPdgUCvsHQ/s1600-h/snider6-lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5fg3lbjDWI/AAAAAAAAAEI/zpPdgUCvsHQ/s400/snider6-lg.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><i>For more on Maxine, go to <a href="http://MaxineSniderInc.com/">MaxineSniderInc.com</a>.</i></div><div style="color: #741b47; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #741b47; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5fZwe06KhI/AAAAAAAAADo/t5ih399xnJE/s1600-h/maxine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-43893719983657901412010-03-09T14:58:00.001-05:002010-03-11T00:26:27.309-05:00RED ALERT<b></b><br />
<div style="color: red;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5akz0Rx8UI/AAAAAAAAADQ/N62y7DYGk0I/s1600-h/Cardstock+8x8+Red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5akz0Rx8UI/AAAAAAAAADQ/N62y7DYGk0I/s200/Cardstock+8x8+Red.jpg" width="141" /></a></div><br />
</div><div style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: small;">If you ask me what my favorite color is, you may not get the same answer today as yesterday. Some days it’s a kind of mousy putty color with a lot of heathery lilac in it. Others it’s a bright shade of something like chartreuse that you might get if you could combine the petal color of a daffodil with the green from the first shoots through the spring snow. When I was a kid, the answer was much simpler and always the same: red. Oh, I liked dark blue and dark green well enough, but that red crayon was the first one worn to a nub. Crayola should have put two red crayons in every box. Children like red. It’s in your face. No hiding.</span></span><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The very first print of a work of art I ever bought, at the tender age of 8, was Charles Demuth’s “The Figure 5 in Gold” (1928) from the Alfred Stieglitz Collection at the the Metropolitan Museum of Art.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5agXw5SLRI/AAAAAAAAACY/OVX9asM8ixc/s1600-h/h2_49.59.1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5agXw5SLRI/AAAAAAAAACY/OVX9asM8ixc/s320/h2_49.59.1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">The painting is based on a poem by William Carlos Williams, and I didn’t need lessons in the interpretation of modern imagery to know that it was about a fire truck (of course, my father was the captain of the Manhasset Lakeville volunteer fire department, company No. 5, which might have given me a clue). Here follows a photo of the young me with my nextdoor neighbor, Bobby Cosgrove, visiting the fire house.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5ahQcIRbdI/AAAAAAAAACg/WI8cQOMWbt0/s1600-h/n1014153827_30302213_4382761.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5ahQcIRbdI/AAAAAAAAACg/WI8cQOMWbt0/s320/n1014153827_30302213_4382761.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">In design terms, I wouldn’t say I’ve never seen a red room I didn’t like, but I can certainly say I’ve never seen a red room that didn’t command my attention. This red dining room by Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz is one of my favorite photos (by Jeff McNamara) from my days at <i>Metropolian Home.</i> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5al4vfdu6I/AAAAAAAAADY/CoAfdjvHMQM/s1600-h/home-decorating-color-trends-fuchsia-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5al4vfdu6I/AAAAAAAAADY/CoAfdjvHMQM/s320/home-decorating-color-trends-fuchsia-1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Benjamin likes monochromatic spaces, and this one Is not fooling around. Red paint, by the way, is a bear to work with. You probably need six coats to get the saturation you want and to cover whatever was there before. Which may be why lots of people don’t rush into red rooms. I had a red room when I was a graduate student, but I used enamel paint, so it only took one coat on top of the primer (the landlord was <i>not</i> thrilled about it—kiss that security deposit good-bye).<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Designer Marjorie Skouras likes red, too. She uses it for clients and chose it for her own living room in Los Angeles, punching up the wall color with a lot of sass and a boldness (possibly inspired by red) to mix things up in a witty “new modern” way.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5amYcvhBlI/AAAAAAAAADg/7jcZPT50wfU/s1600-h/MASLR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5amYcvhBlI/AAAAAAAAADg/7jcZPT50wfU/s320/MASLR.jpg" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Red is many things—hot, sexy, passionate, intense—but it isn’t shy. Try to ignore this famous John Singer Sargent painting in a gallery room if you can:</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: red; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></b><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aiCR70e-I/AAAAAAAAACo/hrnhfesrtdM/s1600-h/dr_pozzi_at_home.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aiCR70e-I/AAAAAAAAACo/hrnhfesrtdM/s320/dr_pozzi_at_home.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Another artist who loved his red was Mark Rothko. Since I’m not likely ever to be able to afford an actual Rothko, I fantasize about turning his work into rugs. Just imagine this fabulous painting in deep pile underfoot. How much furniture would you need?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aiQk2_8YI/AAAAAAAAACw/1ZW7IM2lgKU/s1600-h/mark-rothko.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aiQk2_8YI/AAAAAAAAACw/1ZW7IM2lgKU/s320/mark-rothko.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Some people find red rooms to be too intense, but I think that depends on your notion of calm. Matisse obviously thought a red room was perfectly relaxing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aikJMYYfI/AAAAAAAAAC4/gEnUQd6Vx7w/s1600-h/henri-matisse-the-dessert-harmony-in-red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aikJMYYfI/AAAAAAAAAC4/gEnUQd6Vx7w/s1600-h/henri-matisse-the-dessert-harmony-in-red.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5aikJMYYfI/AAAAAAAAAC4/gEnUQd6Vx7w/s320/henri-matisse-the-dessert-harmony-in-red.jpg" /></a></div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="color: red;">Nowadays, perhaps, we might say it’s a bit over-designed, what with the tablecloth matching the wallpaper and all, but, hey, if you saw this in real life it might be actually be absolutely stunning.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Here’s a little house in Sweden that takes its red seriously:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5ai2N_88uI/AAAAAAAAADA/ztFPE9oq1J0/s1600-h/redhouse21-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5ai2N_88uI/AAAAAAAAADA/ztFPE9oq1J0/s320/redhouse21-1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Okay, I tell the truth: It’s actually an art installation—but if you saw it in Maine, would you think it was ironic—or a major outbreak of folk art?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">And this room is much too traditional for my taste, but the man reading the book seems to think it’s peaceful enough. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5ajHjC7kwI/AAAAAAAAADI/66nFxg1nO0I/s1600-h/red-room-2009-barack.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5ajHjC7kwI/AAAAAAAAADI/66nFxg1nO0I/s320/red-room-2009-barack.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Maybe every other room in his house is painted white.<i>—ML</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i>You can see more work by Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz at <a href="http://bnodesign.com/">bnodesign.com</a>.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><i>Marjorie Skouras is at: <a href="http://marjorieskourasdesign.com/">marjorieskourasdesign.com</a>.</i></span></span><br />
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</div></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-48876718036514735782010-03-08T15:09:00.001-05:002010-03-15T17:13:49.159-04:00Form Follows Function, or Geometry is Destiny<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VVZRFguHI/AAAAAAAAAB4/FMsu-F_B-2g/s1600-h/yale-university-residential-colleges-morse-college-view-of-tower-in-morse-college-yal-res-mors-00002lg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VVZRFguHI/AAAAAAAAAB4/FMsu-F_B-2g/s320/yale-university-residential-colleges-morse-college-view-of-tower-in-morse-college-yal-res-mors-00002lg.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">So I was toodling around the web the other day, as one does, when I came across an article from the <i>Yale Daily News</i> about the $150 million renovation of Morse College by KierenTimberlake, the award-winning, green-savvy Philadelphia-based architects who have done quite a lot of work for Old Blue. I have some very happy memories of Morse College (above) from my days as a grad student, and I was surprised that the building needed renovation, since it was only eight years old when I moved to New Haven. Alas, Morse is now 49, as is Ezra Stiles, its fraternal twin among Yale’s residential colleges. Most Yalies live in dorms with foundations laid in the ‘30s but with roots in Gothic, Renaissance, Tudor, and American Colonial vernaculars. Morse and Stiles, the only ones designed in a proto-modernist style, have always been heatedly controversial (note the use of the word “heatedly”—more on that later). </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">For those who have never been to New Haven, here is a peek at classic Yale:</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VVUyT4BUI/AAAAAAAAABw/Vui8PwP_jt8/s1600-h/yale_silliman_web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VVUyT4BUI/AAAAAAAAABw/Vui8PwP_jt8/s320/yale_silliman_web.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">Morse College (named after Samuel Morse, Yale class of 1810, inventor and disgusting anti-immigrant, pro-slavery human being) was built by Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen, most of whose work was done in the U.S. Eero, whose name is a favorite with crossword puzzle writers, is best known, perhaps, for the TWA terminal at JFK airport and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. A sculptor with a Yale architecture graduate degree, he designed the two modern colleges with ‘60s individualism in mind: "Our primary effort,” he said at the time, “was to create an architecture which would recognize the individual as individual instead of an anonymous integer in a group." (Grammatical note: That “which” should be a “that.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VWcxkVO7I/AAAAAAAAACA/aM6fy8irDLk/s1600-h/DSC01714.JPG.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VWcxkVO7I/AAAAAAAAACA/aM6fy8irDLk/s320/DSC01714.JPG.jpeg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">What this meant, in laymen’s terms, was a divergence from the right angle, a dastardly intersection of planes that shrieked of conformity. Oh, Morse and Stiles do have right angles, of course: The walls meet the ceilings and floors in the time-honored 90-degree fashion; but they meet each other in a series of acutes and obtuses that made for spaces that fostered personal identity. Sadly, not having shared Saarinen’s peculiar aversion for the invisible grid, the furniture did not fit against the walls.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VWqQHOC5I/AAAAAAAAACI/k3tGN5zD7QU/s1600-h/morse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VWqQHOC5I/AAAAAAAAACI/k3tGN5zD7QU/s320/morse.jpg" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Avant-gardely, Saarinen nixed anything as mundane as radiators, installing hot water pipes in the concrete floors. This system failed in the 1980s. Big oops. Trust me, you don’t want to live in New Haven without heat. Now the Morsels, as they are called (a group whose alumni include a loathsome U.S. senator named Joseph Lieberman), got an ad hoc system, but not a good, efficient one, and KieranTimberlake do love their Platinum LEED certifications. Trouble is, ducting doesn’t come in random configurations. Ducting is rectangular in section, so the much-vaunted individualized angles of Morse’s interiors are now in the process of being squared (see Morse as a reconstruction site, above).<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VWx6ULOgI/AAAAAAAAACQ/ARp8l3bftzc/s1600-h/26339_Saarinen-Eero.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5VWx6ULOgI/AAAAAAAAACQ/ARp8l3bftzc/s320/26339_Saarinen-Eero.jpg" /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"> </span></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal">The work will be finished by August, just in time for next year’s crop of students, and for Saarinen’s 100<sup>th</sup> birthday (he was born on August 21, 1910, which happened to be the birthday of his father, Eliel Saarinen, also an architect and designer). Sadly, Eero died, at the age of 51 during an operation to remove a tumor from his brain. Given the variety, vitality, and volume of his work before most architects ever get a commission, that death represents a major loss to architecture, even if he didn’t always have the right angle on things.<i></i><o:p></o:p><br />
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P.S.<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">If you happen to be going to New Haven between now and May, you can see the definitive “Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future” exhibition, a touring show that began in Helsinki in 2006 and reaches its final destination at Yale, through May 2, 2010, at both the Art Gallery and the School of Architecture, both conveniently located at the corner of York and Chapel streets (Note: The gallery is closed on Mondays; the School of Architecture is not open to the public on Sundays). A “catalog” of the show (by which they mean a coffee-table book with the same name as the show) was published by the Yale University Press and is available from all the usual sources.<i>—ML</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div></div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2994603844332055450.post-12536364530903506082010-03-06T15:02:00.001-05:002010-03-09T15:38:13.314-05:00GLAMOUR Keeps Busy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5K1HGZfXYI/AAAAAAAAABI/uxYJ9ylgx6I/s1600-h/n1014153827_30237588_7121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_xWtteR_kUHA/S5K1HGZfXYI/AAAAAAAAABI/uxYJ9ylgx6I/s320/n1014153827_30237588_7121.jpg" /></a></div><div style="color: #660000;">Granted this post will seem more than a little self-serving, but I have to start somewhere, and I'm figuring out the technology of the site as I go along. I'm working on a principle I've employed for years: When I first decided to study photography seriously, I expressed my fear of failure to my friend Gavin Dillard, who said simply, "Please, if everyone else can figure it out, so can you." Actually, he was not quite so neutral about "everyone" and may have used an expression some people might find more than moderately crude, but you get the gist. While there is a lot to learn in creating a blog, I assume that if "everyone else" can figure it out, so can I.</div><div style="color: #660000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000;">For this, my first post, I am paying tribute to my own most recent book, GLAMOUR: MAKING IT MODERN, which was published in May of 2009, just in time for Mothers Day. I am very happy to report that GLAMOUR is now in its fourth printing and is still listed by Amazon.com as the No. 1 title in interior design.</div><div style="color: #660000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000;">GLAMOUR was published by Filipacchi Publishing, which is owned by Hachette Flilipacchi Media U.S., which also owned Metropolitan Home magazine, where I was the features director for a very long time. The magazine closed in November 2009, after a run of some three decades, a victim of the struggling economy. I had the pleasure in writing and shaping GLAMOUR of working with long-time colleages at the magazine, in particular its former editor-in-chief, Donna Warner (aka "The Boss"), Creative Director Linda O'Keeffe, who had styled most of the photographs that appear in GLAMOUR, and art director Keith D'Mello, among others. Our publisher was Dorothee Walliser, who had published Met Home's previous book, Decorate (also written by me) and the one before that, Renovate, written by Met Home's senior contributing editor—and friend—Fred A. Bernstein.</div><div style="color: #660000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000;">The success of GLAMOUR pleases me enormously because it stands as something of an endorsement of the late lamented Metropolitan Home. Obviously we were doing something right. Happily, there will actually be one more Met Home book, a kind of "farewell to arms," which, as we are getting it ready for press, is tentatively called DESIGN 100: The Last Word in Modern Interiors. It is due in bookstores in the Fall of 2010. At the same time a German edition of GLAMOUR will hit the stands in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.</div><div style="color: #660000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000;">While I'm working on the DESIGN 100 book, a collection of the 100 best locations photographed for Metropolitan Home in the last 20 years or so (some of which never had the chance to be published before the magazine closed), I'll be blogging from time to time in my usual balanced and unbiased, understated and entirely fair way about design, architecture, and allied matters of the art. I'm hoping you'll enjoy the ride. Actually, I'm hoping I'll enjoy the ride.</div><div style="color: #660000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000;">So, welcome to "I on Design," which began its life on pointclickhome.com when I was a fully employed member of the Met Home staff (those entries are all still posted by the way). No matter what happens from now on, alles gut, as we say in German ("It's all good").</div><div style="color: #660000;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #660000;">Michael Lassell</div>MICHAEL LASSELLhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01309349775963899541noreply@blogger.com1