The world has its eyes on China this week for the beginning of the Olympics. Sharing the spotlight with the athletes will be the quite-incredible National Stadium in Beijing. Designed by the duo Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, the stadium has been given the rather appropriate nickname of “bird’s nest.” The resulting structure is breathtaking and as complex as the nation it’s housed in. The New York Times has a slideshow here.
Christie’s “Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale” is one of the premier events of the New York auction world. On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, the event – which is an art auction – included a house. Listed in the catalog between auction item 41, Shot Salesman, a painting by Richard Prince, and auction item 43, I’m in Love for the First Time, a painting by Damien Hirst, was auction item 42: the Kaufmann House. Christie’s estimated the house to sell for $15–25 million, and it sold to an unnamed buyer for $15million (or $16.8m with commission). UPDATE: The sale fell through. On May 23, the president of Christie’s said that “the contract has been terminated by the seller by reason of a breach of its terms by the buyer.”
Designed by Richard Neutra in 1945, this Palm Springs, California, house was originally the home of Edgar J. Kaufmann. In 1947, Julius Shulman photographed the house, and those widely reproduced images turned the house into a symbol of mid-century California living. After Kaufmann’s death in 1955, the house went vacant for a few years, before going through a handful of owners (including Barry Manilow) and several renovations. In 1993, Beth and Brent Harris purchased the house, which was then considered a teardown, for $1.9 million. The couple spent five years restoring the house to its original condition, using Shulman’s 1947 photographs and Neutra’s original sketches as their guides.
In the spring of 2007, we photographed the Design Within Reach catalog at The Kaufmann House, and earlier this year, we were back in the neighborhood to photograph our assortment at the Loewy House, which is next door. Click here to see an aerial view. (The Kaufmann House is on the north side of the street, to the left of where Mapquest puts the red star. The Loewy House is to the left of the Kaufmann.) As for the paintings by Prince and Hirst, those were each estimated to sell between $1–2 million. Results: $1,161,000 and $1,273,000 respectively. The evening’s top seller was a 1952 painting by Mark Rothko, at $50,441,000.
We often write about museums here at Design Notes, but none have gotten me as excited Nestlé’s Chocolate Museum in Mexico City. I am a chocoholic and I must make this trip.
The museum is also an incredible modernist structure that was built in less then three months. Conceived by Rojkind Arquitectos, it is reminiscent of a giant, red origami worm. It leaves me wondering if I’d be more impressed with the building’s design or its sugary contents.
Wendy Scuccimarra, an account executive at DWR’s Greenwich Studio, forwarded me some information on the possible demolition of Philip Johnson’s Alice Ball House in New Canaan, Connecticut. The house, what Johnson called his “little jewel,” was built for a single woman and rests on 2.2 acres. The current owner, Christina Ross, is trying to sell the home for an asking price of three million. Hopefully, someone will pony up, pay the three million and restore the home. It would be a sad day to lose the structure, especially within the same city limits of the Glass House. The Stamford Advocate has more on the issue here.
We’ve written some on this blog about the Palm Springs location shoot last spring that resulted in some of the fantastic photography in our summer catalog. (The one with the nice Bertoia Diamond Chair on the front. You know, the one that made you want to go swimming?) One of the most utterly hip places we shot is known as Twin Palms, which was built for Frank Sinatra starting in 1947. According to the Twin Palms historical page, architect E. Stewart Williams recalls that “Frank came in with a white sailor hat and an ice cream cone and said ‘I want a house.’” The result is simply stunning. As a proofreader of the catalog, I was somewhat traumatized to learn that we mistakenly printed the wrong website for this piece of mid-century modern history. Learn all about Twin Palms (including a contact to actually book it) at sinatrahouse.com.
Apartment Therapy posted recently about colorful houses in cities across the world. I thought it complemented the discussions here recently about Schnabel’s pink Manhattan building. The collection of homes at More Ways to Waste Time, found via a Flickr image search, illustrate my opinion that there are too few of these bright-hued homes amongst us. These pictures are fun and refreshing. And being a Baltimore native I am very interested in tracking down the home in the above picture. Baltimore is full of red brick row houses and I’d love to discover this block the next time I’m home visiting Mom.
The proprietors of DWR Studios in the Southwest had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Eames House last week. A bit off the beaten path, it took a couple of U-turns we finally made it to our destination in Pacific Palisades. We set up our picnic lunch under the shade of the eucalyptus trees swaying over the meadow. Bernadine Styburski, the executive director of the Eames Foundation, entertained us with stories about the history of the house and the legacy left by Charles and Ray.
The Eames House has recently been designated a National Historic Landmark. A public announcement was made at the Eames House on June 17, 2007 – which would have been Charles Eames’ 100th birthday. This is exciting because it protects the home and its site, ensuring future generations the opportunity to experience the spirit of the Eames House. Built in 1949 as part of the Case Study program, it was one of the first homes in the U.S. to use industrial materials in a residential setting. As such, it was an experiment in materials, technology and, ultimately, a way of living that came to define the post-World War II era. It represents an idea of a possible way to live, rather than simply a model to be replicated.
If you're in Southern California and want to visit, call 310.459.9663 to make an appointment.
Posted by Susie Cordes, Proprietor-DWR Beverly Boulevard Studio.
Artist Julian Schnabel has come under fire in recent weeks as he’s finally unveiled his new residence on Greenwich Village’s West 11th street after lengthy renovations. The building, a Mediterranean-style high-rise, showed its true colors once the tarps came down. It’s adventurous and daring, sitting between two glass Richard Meier towers, pretty in a wash of bright pink.
While some like Andrew Berman, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s director, find the building “a nightmare,” I could not disagree more. It is playful, thoughtful and totally in line with the counter-culture that’s thrived in that part of Manhattan for decades. Whether the artist has painted the building to peeve the area residents who opposed his building permit or if he truly desired a perfect, pink palace I don’t care. I simply love Schnabel’s refusal to play it safe.
The worlds of modern architecture and classical music have been thrust together in recent years with projects such as Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Herzog & de Meuron's Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg and Jean Nouvel's new Paris Philharmonie project. The International Herald Tribune took a look at the phenomenon last week. The most intriguing issue is that of acoustics and the how the science of sound is partnered with the aesthetics of these buildings. Not only do these buildings need to look good and function as communal spaces, but they also have to sound right. That’s a tricky thing.
In the article, Frank Gehry discussed early conversations and arguments between acousticians about the Disney Concert Hall, saying "I realized it was like art. You could make it great, but it was intuitive. There wasn't a formula for it." That philosophy seems like such a gamble though. There are major problems if the acoustics of the buildings don’t work. As Christoph von Dohnanyi, the chief conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony, states in the article, “If you mess it up, the orchestra will be a mess. There are some orchestras that don't sound good because they play all the time in a bad hall."
Hamburg’s Elbe Philharmonic seems the most interesting of the new crop of projects. As the photo above shows the hall is slated to be built on a warehouse on a pier in a downtrodden harbor. It’s a tip of the hat to the neighborhood and a look to the future all at once. The concert hall will appear almost ship-like, floating in the harbor. Let’s just hope the musical notes float equally as beautiful.
During my recent visit to Paris I made my way over to the Cartier Foundation, primarily to see the David Lynch exhibit. Secondarily, I was interested in the building itself, as it was designed by Jean Nouvel, though earlier in the week I had passed the L'Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab Institute) and found it interesting but not quite earth shattering. I had some trouble locating the Cartier Foundation, but once I found it, it was unmistakable. A long horizontal grid of steel and glass, it’s surrounded by a planting of trees which are then surrounded by another wall of glass that is supported from the main building by long steel rods. It gives the appearance of a large greenhouse or arboritum, but the true function isn't clear until you are inside and realize that the main gallery is surrounded on all sides by glass, allowing natural light to pour in. Trees act as a back drop behind some of the work, creating a nearly seamless blend of nature and structure. Adding to this artificially natural scene are sculptures by artist Giuseppe Penone, whose use of bronze to cast the organic forms of trees is subtle yet striking.
In the days following my visit I began to notice that Nouvel's steel and glass aesthetic is slowly spreading through the streets of Paris. One of my favorites was the La Maison des Adolescents – Maison de Solenn by Ibos & Vitart, it is much more severe and angular than the Cartier building, but the influence of Nouvel's materials was evident. Also, Nouvel’s concept of opening the ground levels of the building in order to create less of a division between building and public space. A Nouvel idea indeed...
(La Maison des Adolescents – Maison de Solenn)
