Simple Beauty

Photo by Stephen Shore

Room 316, Howard Johnson

Battle Creek, Michigan

July 6, 1973

Craving Decadence..ASAP.

One would think with the whole 'recession' thing going on and girlfriend being sans salaried day job (save for my fortunate foray into real estate) I would be stock piling packages of Top Ramen like a mad woman and thinking of clever ways to make stylish belts out of cardboard. Quite contraire. For some reason I cannot stop hearing Robin Leach whispering in my ear "Champagne wishes and caviar dreams!"

What I wouldn't give for those gold lace printed lamps. Photos via Cattelan Italia. Damn those Italianos and their sexy ways...

Ray of Light

Here is my attempt at getting back into the swing of things. This past Friday I got laid-off, fired, let go, whatever...from my job of three years. Hence the lack of MCM Mondays post today. It sucks. The only thing that's worse than not having a job is looking for a job. Needless to say I'm working my way up to being my usual awesome self, so bare with me people.

In the meantime, these make me happy. Last month Diesel launched its first ever Living collection, which is set to reinvigorate it's already thriving brand which includes denim, accessories, fragrance and the recently added home textiles range. Here.

MCM Furniture Friday - Harry Bertoia

Italian sculptor, university lecturer and furniture designer Harry Bertoia displayed a unique stroke of genius with his patented Diamond Chair for Knoll International in 1952. Bertoia was an inventor of form and an enricher of furniture design with his introduction of a new material: he turned industrial wire rods into a design icon. Educated at Detroit Technical High School, the Detroit School of Arts and Crafts and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Bertoia taught metal crafts at Cranbrook. He worked with Charles Eames to develop his signature molded plywood chairs. Eero Saarinen commissioned him to design a metal sculptured screen for the General Motors Technical Center in Detroit. His awards include the craftsmanship medal from the American Institute of Architects, as well as AIA’s Gold Medal.

Baby Hairy Bertoia via Genius Jones

Trivia: Bertoia was the sculptor commissioned to create the Marshall University fountain in Huntington, West Virginia, to honor the university's football team in the wake of the plane crash that killed them on November 14, 1970.

He had a son and two daughters, a grandson and two granddaughters, and two great grandsons so far. Half of his offspring are artistic.

Cool Pools

Living in Texas and inching towards June means just one thing...it's getting freakin' HOT outside, people!

I'm very fortunate to have the ability to work from home, away from the confines of an office with fluorescent overhead lighting and not having to step foot inside of a 100 degree plus car rocks pretty hard as well. I am, however; faced with the challenging task of staying focused on work instead of staring out into the backyard daydreaming about where the pool will go one day and how cute it will be. To make matters worse, I get to hear the neighbors' kids across Shoal Creek enjoy their new pool and learn the rules are associated with each of their water games.

View from the dining room table at which I work. Look at that yard, just begging for a cool pool! Even my cat Boone is longing for one...

Since we're talking pools, which style of pool speaks to you?

Grandiose a la Hearst Castle?

Hearst Castle Neptune Pool

Hearst Castle Indoor Pool

Elevated?

Hemerescopium House

Poolside lounging at a hotel?

Hotel Saint Cecilia, Austin, Texas in the daytime...

...and at night. Bonus points for the neon sign!

Do you prefer a pool in an urban landscape?

Elle Decor

Round, private and wooded?

Dwell

Or a pool on lava from an active volcano?

Robert Trickey House, Big Island, Hawaii

How about chic and stylish?

Or are you like me and prefer simple and minimalist, like these babies?

Above, quite possibly my dream pool.

Elle Decor

No, wait! This one above. This is my dream pool.


Casa Kimball, Dominican Republic

Elle Decor

Austin Towers, Texas

Santa Ynez, California

Alila Ubud, Bali

So, which one will it be this summer?

MCM Mondays - Frank Lloyd Wright

June 8, 1867-April 9, 1959


"A brilliant psychologist, Frank Lloyd Wright, became the spokeman for American architecture around the world. He understood human needs and administered to them through his work. Above all he sought repose, a restful environment free of tension which catered to the mental health and happiness of the indweller. Born in Richland Center, Wisconsin, in 1890, Wright not only influenced this area with his Prairie Style architecture, but expanded to Los Angeles, Phoenix, New York, and eventually beyond the boundaries of the United States.

Wright conceived of the interior space in terms of rooms overlapping and interpenetrating--often at the corners. Use areas were defined by screening devices and subtle changes in ceiling heights. For Wright, spaces were defined rather than enclosed, and use was relative to the individual rather than absolute.

Until the outbreak of war in 1914, Wright continually evolved the prairie house toward greater abstraction in Oak Park, near Chicago. Roofs and balconies gradually became flat, hovering slabs, and a geometric interplay between verticals and horizontals replaced an emphasis upon wall. Even his non-residential work reflected this development: the Larkin Administration Building and Unity Temple reiterated geometric shapes and the uselessness of a visible roof.

In the 1920s in Los Angeles, Wright continued to develop his architectural vocabulary with cast blocks of concrete. Especially of note are the residences known as the Hollyhock House for Adine Barnsdall, the Freeman House, and the Ennis-Brown House in Griffith Park. Each house has its own distinctive signature block design, a natural form reduced to pure geometry.

In 1936 he designed and built both Fallingwater in Connecticut and the Johnson Administration building. Near Phoenix, Arizona, he built Taliesin West as a winter retreat. His last project during his long and illustrious life was the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan. A circular spiral of a building, the Guggenheim became an icon of New York architecture." via La Obscura.


Fallingwater

Interior of Fallingwater

The Massaro House, designed in 1950 at the age of 83 by Wright, is not quite as famous as the Fallingwater House but is a bit of controversial in the fact Wright never completed it before his death. According to this great article in NY Times Magazine, "In 1950, at 83, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a house for a private island on Lake Mahopac, about 50 miles north of New York City. He dreamed it might surpass Fallingwater, his 1935 masterpiece—but then the client ran short of funds, and the house was shelved for almost 50 years..." Eventually a local born sheet metal magnate, Joseph Massaro, set out to complete the house despite numerous obstacles and opposition. The Wright Foundation today does not recognize the Massaro house as one of Wright's accomplishments.

Wright’s design uses his typical juxtaposition of straight,low lines and sharp angles atop the tumbling rocks and reflective lake.

Layers of granite form the walls of the main bedroom; the triangle-hexagon pattern is repeated in the oxblood poured-concrete floor.

View from the main living room.

Photos by David Allee

And finally, the The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which opened on October 21, 1959, is Lloyd's crowning achievement and one of the 20th century's most important architectural landmarks.

Photo by Carol M. Highsmith

Photo by Jim M. Goldstein