Interior Design articles from September 2003

Interior Design archives from September 2003

Update: catch these events in October and November.
September 1, 2003... 1. In his first solo show, "Perspectives 139: Abraham Cruzvillegas," the Mexican artist enlivens the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston with sculpture and assemblages drawn from diverse materials and ready-made elements. El Desnivel, 2003, is...

Extra Oxo.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... "We are all tiring of the overly minimalistic," proclaims designer Wayne Hemingway, a judge for this year's Oxo Peugeot Design Awards in London, and the 2003 winners do indeed display a fanciful touch. Ryan McElhinney's plump yet lightweight...

High art.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... Real-estate developer Minoru Mori's new mega-project, Roppongi Hills, has a hefty agenda. To revive downtown Tokyo as a 24-hour live-work community, Mori has built apartments, shops, restaurants, cinemas, a hotel, an amphitheater, parks,...

Petra's poetry.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... Current events in the Middle East have focused American and European on the troubled region, the ancient city of Petra has fascinated Westerners since 1812, when it was rediscovered by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt. New York's...

Art of Texas.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... The long-awaited Nasher Sculpture Center is coming to Dallas's Arts District, adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano designed the center's 54,000-square-foot building, defined by travertine slabs,...

What goes around.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... In a bid to educate consumers about the furniture and decorative accessories posted on eBay--1 million of them daily--six designers furnished a New York apartment with items purchased almost entirely from the on-line auctioneer at a total cost...

SOFA so near.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... Celebrating its 10th anniversary in the Windy City, Sculpture Objects & Functional Art has grown from a grassroots gathering of design visionaries to a "vibrant international art community with its own developing critical discourse," says...

Berlin story.(news desk)
September 1, 2003... Some 95 galleries from 21 countries are gearing up for the eighth Art Forum Berlin fair, herd at the Messe Berlin fairground. Of previous participants, 74 percent are returning. Most first-timers hail from Australia, Canada, and Slovenia, and...

Wide open.(news bytes)
September 1, 2003... A city known for its velvet-rope exclusivity, New York is instituting a two-day open door policy for normally off-limits architecture during Openhousenewyork. Tour the Pratt Institute Power Plant, the Grand Lodge of the Masons, and the High...

Photo finish.(news bytes)
September 1, 2003... The star of The Lord of the Rings, A Walk on the Moon, and 28 Days, Viggo Mortensen likes to get behind the camera, too. His new series of large-scale panoramic photographs, shot during the filming of his forthcoming Hidalgo, opens September 13...

Out of this world.(news bytes)
September 1, 2003... Talk about one giant leap. Science wasn't the only field invigorated by man's first walk on the moon--the space age also had a far reaching artistic and cultural impact. Roy Lichtenstein, Donald Judd. Andy Warhol, et al., prove the point in...

Walk of fame.(news bytes)
September 1, 2003... Vitra, Knoll, and 13 other Los Angeles home-furnishings show-rooms are keeping their doors open after hours for the first Santa Monica Design District Walk, sponsored by Interior Design. The October 2 event kicks off at Boffi on Fourth Street...

Pucci on nine.(news bytes)
September 1, 2003... Not only a byword for top-caliber contemporary furniture, Ralph Pucci International is also known for its fab New York penthouse. A second space, Gallery Nine, opens September 15 on the ninth floor of the building. The debut exhibit is a...

Love affair: racy reds set the mood.(pin ups)
September 1, 2003... 1. Domino 102822 cotton-viscose blend by Quadrille. circle 300 2. Horizon 10024-01 viscose-cotton by Donghia Furniture/ Textiles. circle 301 3. Osaka 7062-03 Trevira CS by Boussac Fadini. circle 302 4. Zodiac JHT15-545 polyester-cotton blend by...

Top of the line: next stop, brights with more than token appeal.(pin ups)
September 1, 2003... 2. Pinata 10052-01 Sunbrella acrylic by Donghia Furniture/Textiles. circle 305 R. Swirl 20391-007 acrylic by Scalamandre. circle 306 4. Action Fabric AF43-8 recycled polyester by Maharam. circle 307 B. Paladru F1089-11 cotton-viscose blend by...

Home run: these stripes are out of sight.(pin ups)
September 1, 2003... 1. Oakdale LCF22011F cotton by Ralph Lauren Home. circle 311 2. Medford Stripe LFY26006F cotton by Ralph Lauren Home. circle 312 3. Eastcliff Stripe LFY21673F cotton by Ralph Lauren Home. circle 313 4. Zina Stripe HF-1001-B cotton by Albert...

A cut above.(walk through)
September 1, 2003... CHARLES WORTHINGTON WAS once a hairbreadth away from becoming an architect. "But after three years of school, I knew it wasn't for me", says London's favorite celebrity hairstylist. "The gestation period was too long. With hair, you can...

The proof is in the pudding.(walk through)
September 1, 2003... PETE MOCEO IS A CULINARY man of mystery, unwilling to discuss his restaurant background or other professional qualifications. He reveals little more than the fact that his current enterprise owes its existence to an Italian vacation he took...

Going for the bronze medal.(walk through)
September 1, 2003... THE TRUMP WORLD TOWER IS a building of superlatives. Apartments with $17 million price tags. Celebrity residents Derek Jeter, Bill Gates, and Sophia Loren. And the World Bar, a lobby watering hole that serves the World Cocktail: a $50 flute of...

Where push comes to shove.(walk through)
September 1, 2003... AT ANY GALLERY, ART NATUrally takes center stage. It's not often, though, that the stage set can be altered between acts. Which is precisely what distinguishes the Kashya Hildebrand Gallery's de rigueur white-box look from that at neighboring...

Alpha bet.(market)
September 1, 2003... Exclusively employing artisans with HIV/AIDS, the Alpha Workshops has executed fantastic hand-painted finishes and produced custom fabric and wallpaper for designers Christopher Coleman, Sam Botero, and Jamie Drake. The atelier launched its...

From dresses to divans.(market)
September 1, 2003... When Vera Wang needed a gorgeous hand-painted silk chiffon for a floor-length halter dress, she called on textile designer Astrid de Saint Anthost to supply the goods. Now the French native has launched her first line for the interior design...

Beyond bamboo.(market)
September 1, 2003... Bart Bettencourt has come a long way since receiving a D in middle-school shop class. The self-taught woodworker learned carpentry firsthand, working as a house framer in Boston after college. (What else do you do with a BA in English?) After...

Forging a partnership.(market)
September 1, 2003... A Brooklyn loading dock became the launching pad for Shelton-Crane Studios when sculptors Gabrielle Shelton and Matt Crane met there fortuitously. Both had worked for metal fabricators around New York and had recently struck out on their...

Innovations in wallcoverings.(market eco)
September 1, 2003... Allegory Vine defines organic elegance. Stylized foliage--based on the distinctive texture and sheen of spring leaves--characterizes this modern damask, a 50-50 blend of polyester and wood pulp from managed forests. Available in seven colors....

Urban archaeology.(market eco)
September 1, 2003... Glasstone has grit and glamour. Made of Portland cement, fossil shell, and recycled glass, this flooring and countertop product is tough enough for interior or exterior use, versatile enough for dry or wet applications--and sufficiently...

El: environmental language.(market eco)
September 1, 2003... Eco-friendly and design-savvy aren't mutually exclusive. Case in point? Jill Salisbury's El:1 furniture collection, governed by environmental consciousness and commitment to lasting style. Tailored upholstered pieces combine natural latex...

Constantine.(market eco)
September 1, 2003... Terra makes the ground beneath your feet stylish and sustainable. Composed of Solutia Renew post-industrial recycled nylon, the carpet features a sophisticated small-scale grid pattern in a choice of seven colorways. 525 Callahan Drive, Dalton,...

All in the family.(city living)
September 1, 2003... SCOTT SPECHT AND LOUISE Harpman, principals of Specht Harpman, and the namesake principal of S. Russell Groves owe one of their most recent residential jobs to a real-estate miracle. Creative director of apparel company White + Warren, Barbara...

Call of the wild.(city living)
September 1, 2003... MARIANO PUENTE LEFT HIS NATIVE Argentina more than 18 years ago, but the designers heart and sensibility remain rooted in his homeland's aesthetic--both of them. "I grew up in Buenos Aires, surrounded by modernism. Yet it was a modernism mixed...

Tate modern.(city living)
September 1, 2003... "LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCAtion" is the perennial mantra in real estate, but it often takes more than a trendy address to close a deal, especially for anyone preparing to ante up $3,500 per month for a one-bedroom. Evocative branding can also...

Downsizing, uptown.(city living)
September 1, 2003... IT CAN HAPPEN TO EVEN THE MOST devoted urbanite. The namesake principal of Donald Billinkoff Architects and his physician wife, Sharon Lewin, were both long-time city dwellers, having lived in Manhattan for 25 years. Then, one day, Billinkoff...

Home screening rooms.(city living)
September 1, 2003... AS LOFTS COLONIZE EVER LARGER swaths of New York real-estate, design-build firm Atlas Industries has made a thriving business from a growing necessity: stylish partitions You name it--Atlas creates It, from a cherry-wood breakfast-nook...

A double dose of modern.(city living)
September 1, 2003... MOST DESIGNERS DEVELOP THEIR aesthetic in school of via an apprenticeship. Few hone their eye in the manner or identical twin sisters Jayne and Joan Michaels. Growing up near retrochic, cocktail-era Palm Springs, California, they spied on such...

Blackout 2003.(seating)
September 1, 2003... Where were you sitting when the lights went out? Dune David Khouri's Thor dining chair in solid mahogany. 88 Franklin Street, New York, NY 10013; 212-925-6171; duneny.com. circle 327 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] DDC Franco...

212-stu-dios.(at work)
September 1, 2003... WANT A better view of what makes New York's leading residential designers tick? You could page through their portfolios, but be prepared for the occasional disclaimer. ("That Canterbury Tales mural was the client's idea, not mine.") Meanwhile,...

A dance to the music of time.(at work)
September 1, 2003... "I NEVER SIT DOWN AND SAY, 'IT'S going to look like this,'" Paul Siskin explains of his work. "My favorite spaces aren't so 'decorated.' I prefer them to evolve." And that's certainly true for Siskin Valls's two-room office--750 square feet in...

Raw talent.(at work)
September 1, 2003... HEADING A FIRM THAT WORKS in branding and media as well as interiors, Mark Zeff is used to finding the essence of something and bringing it out. That also applies to Zeff Design's Chelsea office, located in a former manufacturing building....

View from the top.(at work)
September 1, 2003... "PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK, 'WHAT'S YOUR style?'" says Victoria Hagan. "Well, we do have a point of view. We're open. We love the modern, we love the traditional, and we love being able to work with all of it." Bringing together jute and damask,...

Open sesame.(at work)
September 1, 2003... QUESTIONED BY A VISITING client about the price of the 1930's glass vases arranged on shelving behind his desk, Bruce Bierman responded that they weren't for sale. "Then she asked me, 'But why are they here?'" recalls Bruce Bierman Design's...

Color lab.(at work)
September 1, 2003... NOT ONE FOR STARKNESS, JAMIE Drake painted his firm's door lime green. "My concept was a laboratory of design--with notes of Jamie Drake whimsy," says the fearlessly colorful principal of Drake Design Associates. And so, in addition to a...

Coming up Trump: how the Donald and designer Richard Mishaan experienced a meeting of minds at the Trump World Tower at United Nations Plaza.(cross lines)
September 1, 2003... RICHARD MISHAAN'S NAME AND THAT of his Madison Avenue furniture gallery, Homer, are synonymous in certain circles with a particular well honed aesthetic, one defined by clean shapes and quietly luxurious materials--light and space in lieu of...

The birth of the modular: a novel idea won Harvey Probber his seat in the modernist pantheon.(matters of design)
September 1, 2003... ANYONE WHO'S EVER REARRANGED the modular sofa in the living room has Harvey Probber to thank. Probber, who died in February, came up with the concept (and named it) back in 1944. During a career lasting well over tour decades, he launched many...

Pipe dreaming: at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Sarah Sze revels in the fantasy of miscellany.(center fold)
September 1, 2003... JUST OUTSIDE THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF American Art, a denuded sapling peeks above the granite-concrete parapet surrounding the sunken sculpture court. This lone apparition is spray-painted in the exact shade of "safety" orange normally associated...

Only in New York.(letter from the editor)
September 1, 2003... I have a tiny confession to make. For each and every issue, I set out with almost Herculean resolve to cover the topics and locales dictated by our fair and balanced editorial calendar. Yet, almost every time, New York designers display an...

Color play: coordinating art and furnishings at a behemoth of a Chelsea loft, John Barman never found himself behind the eight ball.
September 1, 2003... "I'd never been in such a huge loft," designer John Barman says of this Chelsea duplex penthouse--all 4,000 square feet of it. "The main living area has 12 giant windows. It's commanding." It wasn't going to be easy to wrest control, but...

Bridge line: mid-priced but high-profile, West Elm furnishings come home to a DUMBO headquarters.
September 1, 2003... On an early episode of Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, designer Thom Filicia is extolling the virtues of the West Elm catalog, which lies open on a square West Elm cocktail table. On MTV's The Real World Paris, twentysomethings are...

Empire building: with a refurbishment at City Hall, Jamie Drake conquers still more municipal territory.
September 1, 2003... Sitting demurely amid shade trees in a small downtown park, City Hall is a surprising work of architecture. It's an 1812 municipal palace rendered in a French-influenced Federal style with a dramatic rotunda, a delicate facade, and perhaps the...

Mixed media: contemporary art meets Federal-style architecture at a West Village town house by Ghislaine Vinas.
September 1, 2003... Ghislaine Vinas never designs anything older than right-this-minute. Paige West runs an online contemporary art-gallery, Mixed Greens, in a Vinas-designed office in the Starrett-Lehigh Building. So when West hired Vinas's GV Interior Design to...

Oh so Soho: Ilse Crawford translate London's Soho House for the Meatpacking District.
September 1, 2003... "There's a pool a block from my apartment--and I can't get in," huffs Sex and the City's vampy publicist character, Samantha Jones. Samantha lives in the Meatpacking District, and the covered pool she can't dip her pedicured toe into is the...

Prize possessions: a bigger, brighter TriBeCa office by Specht Harpman is graphics firm Number Seventeen's latest acquisition.
September 1, 2003... Scott Specht once climbed into a Dumpster in the Garment District to rescue discarded rubber button molds. He and Louise Harpman, partners in marriage and Specht Harpman, cherish wooden patterns for locomotive parts and hair driers with...

It's curtain time: fur, feathers, and a giant lizard take center stage at a SoHo loft by Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz.
September 1, 2003... Royal Shakespeare Company board member Laurence Isaacson is passionate about acting, and his hunt for a New York pied-a-terre can only be described as Method in its truest sense: full immersion. Isaacson, also a London restauratuer and chairman...

Glitz and gravitas: at the Times Square headquarters of Ernst & Young, Gensler proves that opposites attract.
September 1, 2003... "What's better than Times Square for a signature location?" asks Gensler design director Keith Rosen. Now that the area's seedy character has faded--eclipsed by major media, entertainment, and finance--even the eminently respectable Ernst &...

All the right moves: with clever spatial solutions and must-have furnishings, Roger Hirsch Architect and interior design firm Tocar revived a tired TriBeca loft.
September 1, 2003... "It was a model job," says Roger Hirsch. No, not a fashion shoot. The architect was referring to a collaboration between his namesake studio and the design firm Tocar, hired by a pair of design-savvy art collectors. Tocar partners Susan Bednar...

Back in the limelight: with the Desgrippes Gobe Group design for Chelsea nightclub Avalon, a Gothic tale gets a happy ending.
September 1, 2003... Louder than Sound Factory, more debauched than Danceteria. Limelight owed a lot of its original thrill factor to architecture. (The Chelsea nightclub occupied an 1840's neo-Gothic church by Richard Upjohn, who also built Trinity Church at the...

Walls on wheels.(Freeze frame: a closer look at the hottest solutions from September)
September 1, 2003... At Chelsea's 4,000-square-foot Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, Blue Architects principal Thomas Hildebrand doubled the display surface--despite the presence of 12 cast-iron columns. He did this by building four 32-inch-thick, 10-foot-high hollow...

Divide and conquer.(Freeze frame: a closer look at the hottest solutions from September)
September 1, 2003... To divide this TriBeCa loft's 2,000 square feet into zones, Atlas Industries partner Joseph Fratesi designed screens of walnut slats and stainless-steel poles. Sleeping quarters, however, required more privacy. The screen between the bedroom...

Screen saver.(Freeze frame: a closer look at the hottest solutions from September)
September 1, 2003... The namesake principal of Bruce Bierman Design, a Flatiron District firm, works at a custom desk topped in white plastic laminate, and the adjacent conference room's table is identical. For larger presentations, Bierman can easily push the...

Yeohlee: Work Material Architecture.
September 1, 2003... By Yeohlee Teng Mulgrave, Australia: Peleus Press, distributed by Antique Collectors' Club, $65 224 pages, 269 illustrations (233 color) Architecture is a word often used metaphorically, referring not only to built designs but also to any...

Stone Sampler.
September 1, 2003... By Studio Marmo with text by Marco Campagna New York: W.W. Norton & Company, $55 paperbound 132 pages, 576 color illustrations, CD-ROM Coverage of stone types, stone features, and quarrying and processing techniques introduces the heart of...

Dwellings: Living With Great Style.
September 1, 2003... By Stephen Sills and James Huniford New York: Bulfinch Press, AOL Time Warner Book Group, $30 224 pages, 200 color illustrations Stephen Sills and James Huniford founded their New York residential design firm in 1985. "In the beginning, our...

Art of the First Cities: the Third Millenium BC From the Mediterranean to the Indus.
September 1, 2003... Edited by Joan Aruz with Ronald Wallenfels New Haven: Yale University Press, $75 564 pages, 712 illustrations (535 color) "Art of the First Cities" closed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, on August 17. Because of the many...

What they're reading ...
September 1, 2003... Gere Kavanaugh Founder of a namesake Los Angeles firm that specializes in interior and product design The Parthenon By Mary Beard Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, $20 209 page, 32 black-and-white illustrations ...

Six degrees.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... What could have been a long, hohum San Francisco kitchen has been transformed into a striking design vision by angling the layout and adding unique custom crafted details. Steven J. Livingston, I.D. Furniture Systems, Inc., San Francisco, CA...

Apartment chic.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... "The kitchen was ugly and closed off from the living room. It is a small New York apartment and the client felt stuck in the kitchen while preparing meals without being able to talk to guests in the living room," says Clodagh, Clodagh Design,...

Bold bath.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... Though the Southampton, NY, Italian Palazzo style home designed by Bruce D. Nagel, Bruce D. Nagel Architect, P.C., East Hampton, NY, includes porches with archways and ceiling fans, the feeling of the architecture and design overall are more...

Elevate luxury with Delta Select[R] products for kitchen and bath.(Advertisement)
September 1, 2003... With dramatic elegance, functionality and luxury high on their lists, homeowners are searching for unique ways to customize their homes. They take great satisfaction in expressing themselves with creative choices in every aspect of design,...

Ultimate comfort.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... To design a warm, comfortable kitchen that looks as if it has been part of an old country home for years is the design vision Doug Durbin, nuHaus, Highland Park, IL, had to fulfill for his Lake Forest, IL clients. The twist is, the home is...

Kitchen art.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... The design vision for this Hohokus, NJ, kitchen has been created to suit the client's favorite hobby as well as her elegant, contemporary personality. "The client has been an avid art collector for many years. Most of the artwork is beautiful...

Material riches.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... "I was pretty much given carte blanche as I know the clients and their style," says Elizabeth K. Spengler, ASID, president, Dorado Designs. "Since the space was quite small, my focus was on using solid, sophisticated materials that could stand...

Defining the new era in kitchen design: National Kitchen and Bath Association Design Trends Survey.(Advertisement)
September 1, 2003... Change spurs excitement. Today, the explosion in product options and technology, the increased accessibility of information, and social and political influences are factors that are changing the way consumers view design and are bringing a...

NKBA Continuing Education Unit (C.E.U.) credit questions.(Advertisement)
September 1, 2003... Please answer the following ten questions based on the article "Defining the New Era in Kitchen Design," and include a single short paragraph on how you, the reader, would use and relate the information in your business. This exercise is worth...

Paradox paradise.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... When it came time to enlist the talents of Fu-Tung. Cheng, Cheng Design, Berkeley, CA to design the complete renovation of this 1970s-built Oakland, CA, home, the owners' requests for the kitchen were that it be light and efficient. Cheng's...

Chicago loft.(Visions: creative concepts behind the design)
September 1, 2003... The client intended the Chicago loft to be a secondary residence where he could entertain friends in a setting that integrates his impressive collection of Inro, Japanese carved figurines from the 16th and 17th centuries. The design vision for...

New York bistro.(Connections: how out-of-industry concepts affect design)
September 1, 2003... Crafting connections between the friendly feeling and rich character found in a time-worn, neighborhood bistro and a residential setting is at the heart of the vision Robert Schwartz, principal/designer and Karen Williams, principal/designer,...

French chateau.(Connections: how out-of-industry concepts affect design)
September 1, 2003... Connections between historic architectural elements and kitchen design are made by Peter Ross Salerno, CKD, CBD, Peter Salerno, Inc., Wyckoff, NJ as he carries the French chateau exterior style of this newly constructed New Jersey home into its...

Spa style.(Connections: how out-of-industry concepts affect design)
September 1, 2003... The pampering spa experiences upscale clients enjoy when they travel to luxury resorts have direct connections to the luxury features they demand in their home bath areas. Creating an elaborate multi-room bath with a steam room as the...

Toto.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... Vernica Lavatories in eight colors art offered in 15 3/4-inch diameter round and 13 7/8-inch by 15 3/4-inch square models. Handcrafting techniques based on ancient Japenese methods produce a thick, lustrous glaze that contrasts with the fine...

Hastings Tile & Il Bagno Collection.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... From the Fantini Collection, the long, lean Zen cylinder showerhead, designed by F. Sargiani. circle 267 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Soko.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... The Hearst Castle Collection designs drawn from the opulent seaside estate of media-magnate William Randolph Hearst blend Renaissance and Moorish decorative influences. circle 266 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Grohe.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... The Freehander joins two showerheads into a sturdy tubular arm which pivots 180 degrees, allowing one-handed movement to convert the unit from showerheads in the up position to body sprays in the down position. circle 268 [ILLUSTRATION...

Blanco.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... The 18-gauge stainless steel drop-in sink from the Magnum Series fits standard cut-out dimensions. It measures 33 inches by 22 inches and is offered in 12-, 10 1/2-and 8-inch depths. circle 269 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Okite.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... The surfacing material, made in Italy by Seieffe, Srl., is 93% quartz and 7% resin. It resists heat, scratching and staining. Unlike some natural stones, Okite does not require sealing or polishing. It is offered in a wide array of colors,...

Kohler.(Inspirations: product options in design components)
September 1, 2003... The Memoirs Whirlpool with the Massage Experience feature delivers a true hydro-massage with Flexjets, back jets and neck jets to help bathers alleviate tension and rejuvenate tired muscles. Bathers monitor operations from tub-side mounted...