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Showing posts from October, 2018

Interior Landmarks - Treasures of New York

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 Everyone is familiar with the many landmarks of New York City, but thanks to Judith Gura and Kate Wood (courtesy of the Monacelli Press) we are all about to become familiar with the landmarked INTERIORS of the city.  Since 1965 the New York City Landmarks Law has been protecting significant spaces across the city ranging from classical architecture to more unexpected masterpieces of the modern era. This book includes 120 landmarks and their locations which can be used as an architectural tour guide of the city as most spaces are open to the public. The projects range from the expected such as the Metropolitan Museum  by Richard Morris Hunt seen below -  To the lesser known such as the Loews Paradise Theater in the Bronx by John Eberson . The re-release of this book includes updated information with new additions so that you can explore these landmarks for yourself. I think a copy of this book is a must-have guide to the city with more interesting venues than...

Private Classical Baltimore home tour this weekend!

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This upcoming weekend I'm helping to host a home tour in Baltimore for our local chapter of the ICAA which I've decided to name Private Classical Baltimore .  Read here for a little information about this tour which I'm so excited for! The tour starts at the Homewood Mansion on Johns Hopkins University campus.  Built and designed by Charles Carroll Jr. for his family in 1801, the house has a Palladian 5-part plan. While planned and massed in the Georgian style of the time, it uses Federal-style detailing reflecting the influences of Robert Adam. The flatter details seen here distinguish the federal style from the English Georgian style and this is considered one of the best federal examples in the country.  Lunch will be served as part of the tour in the garden, weather permitting. After lunch the tour will progress to 2 beautiful historic houses in the Homeland neighborhood. The stone house seen here was designed by Palmer & Lamdin in 1928. They were the preeminent r...

Dior and his Decorators - a must have for any design library!

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To this day Christian Dior's name is associated with all that is elegant despite his passing 61 years ago. The post-war period in which he was most active is personally one of my favorite times to study as the output of the western world's artists was at a creative peak (similarly the same could be said of the inter-war period). Historian Maureen Footer has just released the book I have always wanted to read and it does not disappoint, Dior and his Decorators: Victor Grandpierre, Georges Geffroy, and the New Look .  While Dior may be a household name the artists working behind him, inspiring him, and sometimes providing him with his eponymous look aren't as well known.  As a reader of this blog you are probably already familiar with Ms Footer's previous book, George Stacey and the Creation of American Chic (also a must have!), and this book picks up where that left off by delving into the most chic interiors of the 20th century. On a side note, have you seen Ms. Foote...