All apartment photos byAshok Sinha

Wid Chapmans parents were profound modernists, his father an architect who worked for Marcel Breuer, and his mother an artist who studied with Josef Albers.The career that Widhas built for himself as an architect and interior designerwho specializes in hospitality design is uniquely his own but showcases the influences of his parents. When it came time to design his personal apartment on the Upper East Side, it was his own family who influenced the renovation. Providing space intimate enough for our small immediate family but room for an extended one, the project reconfigures and reshapes extant spaces to defer to the apartments sweeping Central Park views, said Wid, adding that color and materiality were also central tothe project. Ahead, take a full tour of this one-of-a-kind apartment and hear from Wid about his background and career and the specifics of the renovation.

A Bubble chair by Eero Aarnio lends a playful touch; the dining room table is anEero Saarinen

How didyour parentswork and passionsinform your career?

Well, before my father worked for Breuer, he began his career working for another Bauhaus legend, Walter Gropius, at TAC (The Architects Collaborative), in Cambridge, MA. My mother, after studying with Albers, went to work for TAC as their in-house color consultant. Thats where my parents met. So these circumstances informed my whole life, as you can imagine. Later, my parents moved to New York, and my father worked for Breuer (my mother for the architecture firm Perkins and Will).

Architecture permeated my upbringing. My father had a firm in Cambridge, which was a very dynamic place for design at the time. In 1969, the glassy new building, Design Research (DR), opened up on Brattle Street. It was a retail mecca for all that was new and modern in interior design and furniture. I used to love going into Cambridge to both my fathers office and to DR.

My mother later became a painter and art teacher. Albers was indelibly important to her teaching and was strongly reflected in her paintings. In college at RISD, I took the Albers color theory class (taught by another alum). That course opened my eyes to the subtleties of color and their complex relationships with one another.

Now that you have your own firm, how would you describe yourprofessional design style?

I dont think I have a specific style, more a point of view. The final form reveals itself as you synchronize with your client and their goals. We design a lot of restaurants and are guided by cuisine, identity, location, etc. So, while each one might have a different theme, the process we enter into is very consistent. Our process for each design is one of filtering, abstracting a concept that honors the clients intention while bringing creativity and architectural harmony to the project. We really focus on the shaping of space as opposed to demarcating individual rooms. We layer and layer to create distinctive zones and changes in experience that are integrated and seamless.

Would you describe your personal style differently?

Well, personal style implies how and where I live, which is inherently different than designing a restaurant. It also is a place where I live with my wife, a son, and more transiently, older children, and both of our extended families. So, home is a very unique design brief, with very particular needs and functions. The design of our apartment was a rich collaboration with my wife, Shachi.

Your apartment is in a historic Emory Roth building. Did that inform your architecture and design choices when renovating?

Its a fine historic building, but much of the Roth features had been gutted by the renovation of the building in 2006. The apartment plans had been maintained but, in our mind, no longer relevant for modern living. The size and spaces allocated to kitchens and bathrooms felt inadequate, the gathering spaces too formal and too rigid, and the views of the park overly restrictive. We felt the grandeur of the views and the elegance of the building required a complete re-think of the apartments internal design.

The apartment is on the 14th floor

Tell us more about how youdesigned the apartment withits Central Park views in mind.

Following the previous point, we were determined to eliminate most vestiges of the extant layout. The original apartment was broken up into many small rooms. There was no hierarchy. In the process of renovating, we removed all the walls except the exterior and structural columns. In putting back walls, we extensively modeled the negative space along with the positive space. Along the west Central Park side, we created one comprehensive area for kitchen, dining, and living. The east walls of this large space are all shaped and angled to form an embrace of the dramatic views.

Youve mentioned that your family likes to entertain. How did this play into the renovation?

The kitchen, on the south side of this great room, is completely open to the living and dining areas. The south back wall of the kitchen is where many of the typical functions are housed.

A faceted shaped floating island contains the flush cooktop. A higher counter on the dining side disguises the cooking zone from a distance while providing a bar area for drinks and a more casual repast. It also allows for more interaction and collaboration while cooking and preparing food. This whole area is open and spacious and a place we imagined (and it has come to bear) that eight to10 people at a time might be gathered around the island on both sides, cooking, eating, drinking, chatting. At the same time, the entire back wall of the kitchen can be concealed with discreet folding doors that transform this functional area to a flush set of silver-finished oak panels.

At the other end of the room, theres a sculptural wall in the same formal language (and Venetian plaster finish) as the island. The shaped wall embraces a large, custom-made sofa that mirrors the facets of the wall. This area alone has been known to seat15 people at a time. The nearby window seats, taking advantage of the park views, provide for even more seating.

Your home has a lot of pops of bright color.How didyou decide which colors to incorporateand where to use them?

In the living and dining areas, blues are most prevalent in the textiles and the rug. This choice was informed by the sky outside, which has such a strong presence. In terms of wall colors, throughout this space, we selected a quiet tone of snow that would allow the eye to be drawn to the view, the sculptural object, and the art. This color expands into the gallery hall and provides a beautiful backdrop to our art collection. Elsewhere, in the master bedroom and media room, we chose a very deep blue-green. We wanted to create a more intimate, cocooning quality to these spaces. This also creates a different relationship between the wall color and the art on display in these rooms in that the wall color is no longer neutralits an active participant.

Whatis your favorite thing about your home?

The dramatic relationship to the Central Park view. Im equally mesmerized by it when I wake up to it on bright spring mornings as foggy winter ones. We are immersed in nature in all seasons and all times of day. The late spring evenings produce incredible skies with stunning rich and varied dyesboth an intensity and mellowness of light that illuminates and bounces off the angled, shaped wallsincredibly dynamic and captivating.

The winter nights bring out the lamps that light and twinkle along the paths in the park in a magical in a Narnja like way. As you can tell, living here makes you an avid observer of your surroundings, something we have come to cherish, especially during this period of quarantine.

What are your familys favorite things about it?

I think that varies. My son loves the swing chair in the living room. But hes also spends a lot more time now in his own room, studying, reading, and resting. His room is a different deep color of blue that affords him his own cocoon and privacy, something that has become more important to him as he just turned 12!

Are you viewing your apartment differently since the quarantine began? Has it made you realize that youd like to make any changes?

Well, I never would have thought Id be spending so much time, non-stop, in my home. We have truly used the space in all the ways we envisaged and many more. We spoke of the joys of living with a view of the park but the sounds of it have come into a life of their own. The wildlife has exploded, and the usual cacophony of traffic has been replaced by bird song. The apartments spaces were designed to provide endless configurations of use, and in this time of being sequestered, we have enjoyed the variety and playfulness it provides. One of the unexpected challenges weve faced is noise mitigation from three Zoom calls going on at the same time! Its working out okay, but there is no doubt quarantine will produce some valuable learnings for architects to apply to their future projects.

The master bedroom

What brought your familyto the Upper East Side?

It was the proximity to the park. My wife is a Londoner and missed the green spaces she grew up knowing, but she is also a city dweller, so being anywhere outside the city would have been impossible to imagine. As he gets older, having the green space right on our doorstep makes such a difference for my son. The location provides all the benefits of city life while being peaceful, green, and open.

What are your favorite things to do in theneighborhood (post-quarantine)?

Were near the museums, and so in normal times, we enjoy immersing ourselves in all they have to offer. Being next door to Mt. Sinai Hospitalnoteworthy in this pandemichas been both reassuring and humbling to see the dedication of healthcare professionals and volunteers. There is also a discrete enclave of commercial venues along Madison Avenue that give the area a unique charm. It has a clear history, but theres also some welcome transformation occurring.

Wid and his family in the apartment, Courtesy: Wid Chapman

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All apartment photos byAshok Sinha

Tags : Wid Chapman

Neighborhoods : Upper East Side

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My 3000sqft: Architect Wid Chapman renovated his Upper East Side home using color and openness - 6Sqft

Fashion is fast living, but it gives an indication of what is possible if you dedicate a certain amount of time and development, said Belinda Gnther, Mercedess head of color and trim. Furniture needs to survive for a number of years, so from a durability perspective, its interesting to see what is possible there.

Both of these industries are exploring greener fabrics and procedures. Sustainability is definitely a growing trend in the fashion industry, said Rachel Cernansky, the sustainability editor for Vogue Business. Whether its growing at the scale it needs to is another question.

Ms. Cernansky pointed to the increasing use of upcycled polyester and nylon in high-end clothing, though she questioned whether these products were doing enough to stem our insatiable appetite for new objects.

Its problematic because it cant be recycled again, she said.

Ms. Cernansky is more compelled by companies like Tyton BioSciences and Natural Fiber Welding because theyve created the capacity to turn fibers into fibers. This, she said, allows new fabric to be made from the huge amount of clothing in the world that is not being worn, so we dont need to harvest new resources. But for now these companies are small, and scaling their tech will be costly.

Sustainable materials are also finding their way into high-end housewares and dcor. Clients, especially families, really like a lot of these recycled products because they wear well theyre extremely durable, said Young Huh, an interior designer in New York. A lot of these solution-dyed recycled fabrics, because the dye is in the fiber, the colors dont change, so you can bleach them.

These characteristics are also useful in health and hospitality situations, like a Ronald McDonald House that Ms. Huh designed. Ronald McDonald Houses provide apartments for families near hospitals where their children are being treated, and the rooms previously had to be superheated after each stay to sterilize them. That cant be done effectively with some natural fibers, but is possible with Xorel fabrics made from sugar cane by Carnegie Fabrics.

This quality could become even more relevant in the coronavirus pandemic. You can wipe down vegan leather with sanitizer, Ms. Huh said. You cant do that with leather.

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Luxury Cars Go Sustainable From the Inside Out - The New York Times

The Global Interior Design Software Market report consists of the latest discoveries and technological advancements recorded in the industry, along with an analysis of the factors and their effect on the markets future development. The report focuses on the current businesses and the present-day headways, and the future growth prospects for the Interior Design Software market.

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AutodeskDassault SystemesTrimbleSmartDrawDecolabsRoomtodoSpace Designer 3DPlanner 5DHome Hardware StoresRoomSketcher

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Residential SectorNon-Residential Sector

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Interior Design Software Market (2020-2027) Report Offers Detailed Insights about Different Players Operating Within The Interior Design Software...

Alexandra Champalimauds career as an interior designer had a dramatic beginning. In 1975, she, her husband and their young son fled Portugal in the wake of the countrys Carnation Revolution. They arrived in Montreal, knowing no one, without jobs or connections. But Champalimaud, who spoke French, began looking for work as a designer. She found it, eventually starting her own small firm, an endeavor that brought her to New York in 1994 to reimagine the Drake Hotel. In the States, a promising career received an injection of rocket fuel.

Alexandra ChampalimaudCourtesy of Champalimaud

Theres nothing like the United States in terms of opportunities, she says. Its extraordinary, the momentum that one can have.

Indeed. Champalimauds eponymous company has designed some of the worlds most iconic hotels, from The Plaza in New York and the Bel-Air in Los Angeles to the recently completed Raffles in Singapore. On the latest episode of the Business of Home podcast, Champalimaud shares the story of her meteoric rise and she and her firms CEO, Ed Bakos, discuss how theyre addressing the challenges of the COVID-19 era.

This episode was sponsored by Buildlane and Industry West. Below, listen to the episode and check out a few takeaways from the conversation. If you like what you heard, subscribe to the podcast (free of charge!) to get a new episode every week.

ReinventionWhen Bakos joined the firm seven years ago, he reimagined the companys internal structure. Rather than a collection of siloed teams, he implemented a flat management system, where everyone worked on everything. Rather than see ourselves as a small group thats subdivided, [we came] together around something we called one studio, says Bakos. It was the idea of this creative collective, a workshop mentality. Wed all be involved with making things at all levels.

Champalimaud CEO Ed BakosCourtesy of Champalimaud

The change isnt without its challengesit can be difficult to find the right team members and coordinate the efforts of a large group. But the benefits are many: Champalimaud is more nimble than ever, says Bakos, and able to capitalize on a diverse group of talents (the 50-person staff speaks 14 languages among them).

Zoom is good?Like all other New Yorkbased design firms, Champalimaud has been working from home for months now. There are difficulties, and both Bakos and Champalimaud expressed enthusiasm for a return to in-person design meetings. But the socially distanced era, they say, has changed the dynamic of the firm in positive ways. There is a freedom of expression. There might be others who, in my presence normally in a conference room, they might not want to be quite as involved, says Champalimaud. But when their job is to talk about X, Y and Z of this project, they do so. People feel they have been set free in some ways. They have to be more expressive to get their ideas across. Bakos agrees, adding that theres a benefit to client meetings where the entire staff is able to sit in on Zoom and pick up on nuances that would normally go unheard behind conference room doors.

React, dont overreact In contemplating the effect of the pandemic on her own firm and the industry at large, Champalimaud cautions against overcorrecting. [Its essential] that we take into consideration this incredible point of view, of complete health and wellness for the guest, she says. But its something to be taken in carefully measured steps. Buildings have lobbies and restaurants, and I believe versions of all of that are going to remain forever. Attitudes are changing every day. What we are not lacking is creativity. Common sense will prevail.

Link:
Alexandra Champalimaud on what will (and won't) change in hospitality design - Business of Home

Gale Taylor had never seen a cross on the side of the road.

She never had to place a roadside memorial in her front yard even after her 5-year-old daughter, Penny Jo, was struck by a vehicle on Memorial Day in 1979.

I can see her right now with those long, skinny legs running up the driveway and across the road, Taylor said. I saw the car coming and I knew it was going to happen. When the car hit her, she went up in the air a good 20 feet, and she looked like a rag doll. I thought she was dead.

I never thought about a cross then because I had never seen one on a road, but I thank God every day that she was alive.

Penny Jo Noble Strain, 45, died at 10:02 a.m. Wednesday, March 4, of this year after she crossed the center line on Cunningham Road, hitting an ABF Freight System Inc. tractor trailer head on, according to the accident report. A white cross mysteriously appeared on the same day in the curve where Penny died.

And after her mother searched for the person who placed it there through asking family members and joining a social media group, she finally discovered who put the little white cross at the site of her daughters fatal crash.

Sandra Buck was merely driving down Cunningham Road on the day Penny died to visit friends when she saw a cleaning crew sweeping debris from the wreck.

Knowing her Facebook friend, Penny, had died there, Sandra turned her car around and headed to Roses Discount Store on Herritage Street.

I went to buy a cross. I found one with Christmas flowers on it, and I replaced the flowers with roses, Sandra said. The ground was so hard, but the cleaning crew helped me place it in the ground.

Sandra sent Penny a friend request on Facebook a little over a year ago after she saw pictures of Pennys pug posted on her page and both shared a love for pets.

I found out she died and I was in shock, Sandra said. I didnt know her personally, but I wish I had met her because we would have been close friends.

Sandra read the Free Press article on June 3 regarding Taylors search for the person responsible for the cross and quickly messaged Taylor.

I had to do something, Sandra said. I didnt do it to be a hero. Im just that type of person. I try to do acts of kindness all the the time.

Sandras act of kindness touched Taylor.

Right this minute, when there is so much unrest in America, Sandras act of kindness gives me hope in mankind, Taylor said. That cross means something to me. It represents my childs life and death.

Penny was born on July 28, 1974, on a Sunday morning as Taylor felt a little guilty she wasnt in church but was excited to see her firstborn.

The young mother and her husband, Larry Noble, tried to have a baby for almost a year and Larry had already picked out the name Penny and Taylor added Jo.

She was my first child. I came home, jumping up and down. I was 21 and I was so thrilled, Taylor said. I remember the first time I felt her flutter in my tummy and I laid down on the floor so I could feel it better so I could get all the little flutter feeling that I could because I was so excited.

Taylor eventually gave birth to two more daughters, Amber and Julie.

She held her baby Julie while nearly 3-year-old Amber played in her room as Taylor called 911 on Memorial Day 41 years ago.

Penny was searching for a ball that had rolled across Neuse Road in a curve when she was struck by the vehicle.

I was playing with my Little People house and I knew something had happened, Amber Hoyt said. I got about halfway in the driveway when my mom told me to go back into the house.

The rotary phone cord stretched until it lost its spiral as Taylor spoke to the 911 operator outside her house and watched her daughter lying in the middle of Neuse Road. After speaking to the operator, Taylor ran to the road to see her daughter.

Taylor watched her daughters legs swell, causing her shorts to tighten. Penny broke her pelvis, suffered a concussion, and had internal bleeding.

It seemed like it took forever for the ambulance to get there though. I thought she was going to die before the ambulance ever got there, Taylor said. But when they got there and loaded her up, they didnt turn the siren on. I was in the ambulance with her and I was like, Why dont we have the siren on? My child is dying. I really thought that they knew she was going to die and didnt bother to turn the siren on.

She didnt die.

Penny stayed in the hospital for one month.

I still have flashbacks, Taylor said. It took a long time to recover from that.

Penny graduated from South Lenoir High School in 1992 and took general business classes at Lenoir Community College. Afraid of immunization shots, Penny avoided four-year colleges and chose to take night classes at North Carolina Wesleyan College. She received her masters degree in business at East Carolina University.

She worked at Moen and MasterBrand Cabinets as either a supervisor or a materials manager and went on to become a self-employed interior designer before her death.

She was great with interior design, Taylor said. She could make something out of nothing.

Taylor retired from education after teaching at Kinston High School and Woodington Middle School. She moved to Raleigh seven years ago with her husband, Keith Taylor, to be near her two granddaughters.

She received the call of her daughters death around 11:30 a.m. on March 4.

Her dad called me that morning, and he hasnt called me in 25 years, Taylor said. I knew something terrible was wrong because I dont ever remember him calling me.

Amber was working in Raleigh when her father called her. She walked to her office and began crying.

I fell apart, Amber said. I asked him if he had called my mom and Julie. He had, so I went to see my mom.

Its hard to believe that somebody you love and that was inside of you is dead. And Im never going to see her again on this earth, Taylor said. That part is hard because anything can remind you of her.

Penny was buried in a plot beside her great grandmother at the Deep Run Original Free Will Baptist Church.

Taylor contacted Rice Monuments, Inc. in Kinston for a headstone and spoke with sales manager Lisa Casteen, who worked with Penny at MasterBrand.

I didnt know her but I remembered working with Penny at MasterBrand, Casteen said. I told her I go by the cross every day on my way to work.

Taylor asked her family if they had placed the cross on Cunningham Road but no one had. She then joined the Word of Mouth Kinston Facebook group on May 15 and asked if anyone knew who put the cross there. No one knew.

I got emotional because thats where my baby died and someone cares, Taylor said. I texted Pennys dad and asked my daughters and no one put the cross there. I then joined that group thinking someone on there might know but no one said anything.

Lisa said it could have been the truck driver.

ABF sent a white orchid to Taylor after her daughters death, and she wondered if the truck driver, 50-year-old Mark Shane Donathan, placed the cross on the side of the road.

Taylor now knows who placed the cross in the curve on Cunningham Road.

She now has some peace.

I miss my precious Penny more than there are words in the unabridged dictionary, Taylor said. But, somehow, now my burden has been lightened.

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Mother finds person who placed cross at the site of her daughters fatal crash - Kinston Free Press

Drake, in a Kapital sweatshirt and 1017 ALYX 9SM pants, with Rafauli in the lounge

Remember the chintzy, pimped-out McMansions that were a staple of the long-running MTV series Cribs? The Toronto home of mega recording artist Aubrey Drake Graham is something else altogether. Measuring 50,000-square-feet, with amenities such as an NBA regulation-size indoor basketball court crowned by a 21-square-foot pyramidal skylight, Drakes astonishing domicile certainly qualifies as extravagant. But instead of vast expanses of cheap drywall and mountains of ungainly furniture upholstered with a hot glue gun, stately Drake Manor, as envisioned by Canadian architectural and interior designer Ferris Rafauli, is a marvel of old-world craftsmanship, constructed of limestone, bronze, exotic woods, and other noble materials. Every detail of the sprawling property has been meticulously conceived and executed. And there isnt a Scarface poster in sight.

Dubbed The Embassy, the house takes its cues from traditional Beaux Arts architecture, distilled and slightly abstracted to imbue the classic idiom with a more contemporary spirit. In form, materials, and execution, the structure is a proper 19th-century limestone mansion. But the exterior profiles are more minimal and the lines are a bit cleaner, says Rafauli, who heads his own namesake luxury design/build firm based in Ontario. This isnt stucco, paint, and fake gold. Thats not what Drake wanted, and thats not what I do.

Once youve chosen a certain style, you can dance within that style, the designer observes. Drake insists, Its overwhelming high luxury. That message is delivered through the size of the rooms and the materials and details of the floors and the ceilings. I wanted to make sure people can see the work Ive put in over the years reflected from every vantage point.

The scale of the rooms set the tone for the home experience from the moment one enters the vast entry hall. The epic great room, which soars to 44 feet high, pumps up the volume even further. At one end of the space, a bespoke concert grand piano by the venerable Austrian piano maker Bsendorfer designed in collaboration with Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and Rafauli sits nestled within a portal defined by floor-to-ceiling panels of macassar ebony set alongside bronze screens fronting more antique beveled mirror. Drakes world completely revolves around music, so he wasnt going to buy just any piano. This prized possession is an authentic marriage of artistry, craft, and quality, Rafauli notes.

In the great room is Lobmeyrs iconic Metropolitan chandelier, originally designed by Hans Harald Rath for the Viennese maker to decorate the Metropolitan Opera in New York City in 1963. With more than 20,000 pieces of hand-cut Swarovski crystal, the dazzling light sculpture is the second largest installation of its kind in the world. The furnishings, here as throughout the home, were all custom designed by Rafauli in materials that range from dyed ostrich skin and mohair to macassar and bronze.

The bedroom is where I come to decompress from the world at the end of the night and where I open my eyes to seize the day, he says. The bed lets you float, the shower lets you escape and gather your thoughts, and the closet makes you want to talk to yourself while youre getting dressed. As always, God is in the details. The bed and bed base, which weigh roughly one ton and cost more than many peoples entire homes, is from Rafaulis new line for Hstens, called Grand Vividus. The headboard, accented with antique mirror and channel-tufted leather, encompasses a whiskey-and-champagne bar on the reverse side. The nightstands feature mother-of-pearl inlays, and the bedding incorporates an Alexander McQueen hummingbird tapestry from The Rug Company.

10 photos of Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerbergs California Home

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15 photos of the Toronto mansion of superstar rapper, Drake - Architectural Digest India

Designer Adam Nathaniel Furman has picked out 10 projects that represent the New London Fabulous movement of "designers who resolutely seek out beauty, complexity and joy".

They include works by designers Yinka Ilori, Camille Walala and Morag Myerscough, architect Space Popular and artist Rana Begum, as well as Furman himself.

Other projects are by Lakwena Maciver, Edward Crooks, 2LG Studio and Katrina Russell-Adams.

Furman defined the movement in a live interview with Dezeen last week. He described the style as "design and architecture as a visual and cultural pursuit, which is highly aesthetic, sensual and celebratory of mixed cultures".

The movement is a backlash against the minimalist style that has dominated architectural discourse in the media and schools, Furman said in the interview.

Selecting 10 projects for Dezeen, Furman expanded on his definition of the movement, which has not been coordinated but has arisen out of the context of contemporary London.

"In an age of closing borders, simplistic narratives, and shrinking horizons, there is a new generation of designers who resolutely seek out beauty, complexity and joy in the face of an adverse political and economic climate, who embody the cultural melting pot of London," he said.

"At a time when liberalism, internationalism and multiculturalism values embodied by the city are under sustained attack and vilification they are defined by their total delight in the liberating power of a kind of no-holds-barred aesthetic expression that collectively looks like a huge and extremely colourful 'fuck you' to all those calling time on diversity and the celebration of difference."

Perry Rise by2LG Studio, 2018

London interior-design duo 2LG Studio converted this south-London house into their own home and studio. The four-bedroom home in Forest Hill features a series of bright, pastel-hued rooms as well as areas with bolder colours, such as the sea-green sitting room.

2LG Studio was founded by Russell Whitehead and Jordan Cluroe. The duo describe their work as "simplicity, elegance, functionality and [a] signature use of colour."

How I Started Hanging out with Home by Space Popular, 2018

London duo Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg of Space Popular liberally reference historical forms in their riotously colourful projects, which often exist only in virtual reality.

This is done to ensure virtual environments are full of stylistic references that human users can relate to in cyberspace, which has no inherent form and would otherwise be alienating.

"In that world, style is almost everything," Hellberg told Dezeen in a live interview conducted as part of Virtual Design Festival last month. "Because if you don't have style in a virtual environment, if you don't allow yourself to speak any language that you might need to communicate something, then you'll be extremely limited."

How I Started Hanging Out with Home was an exhibition held at MAGAZIN in Vienna in 2018. In it, the London studio imagined a future where buildings the increasing agency of domestic appliances leads to buildings taking on human features.

Still I Rise by Lakwena Maciver, 2017

London artist Lakwena Maciver paints large-scale murals combining colour, pattern and type, often communicating messages of hope and faith.

Still I Rise is a 2017 mural at the Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas, USA, commissioned as part of citywide project that saw artists paired with local landmarks. Maciver's contribution is inspired by writer and civil rights activist Maya Angelou's poem of the same name.

Rosebank Arcade by Edward Crooks, 2019

Whitechapel-based Edward Crooks created a large-scale wall and floor installation to transform Waltham Forest's busiest pedestrian thoroughfare into a colourful artwork.

The piece is designed to appear like a fragment of a grand civic arcade, with arches pained on the walls and a 20-metre-long pattern on the floor.

Happy Street by Yinka Ilori, 2019

Yinka Ilori is a designer who combines colour and pattern based on his heritage. Located at Thessaly Road in Battersea, this was his first installation in the public realm. For the project, the British-Nigerian designerenveloped a railway bridge in his signature motifs.

Designed as part of the 2019 London Festival of Architecture, the permanent installation called Happy Street consists of 56 patterned-enamel panels that line both sides of the road under the bridge.

Temple of Agape by Morag Myerscough and Luke Morgan, 2014

DesignersMorag Myerscough and Luke Morgan created the colourful Temple of Agape for the Festival of Love, which took place at London's Southbank Centre.

The structure is adorned with neon signs displaying words relating to love, along with a quote by Martin Luther King Jr that reads, "I have decided to stick with love."

Furman described Myerscoughas "my hero" and said: "She shares her knowledge with younger designers and has really opened up the way for the type of work that we're doing now."

Salt of Palmar hotel by Camille Walala, 2018

French artistCamille Walalahas been based in London since she completed her studio at Brighton University in 2009 and is known for large-scale public installations.

For this project, completed at the boutique Salt of Palmar hotel in Mauritius, Walala combined the bold monochromatic stripes seen in much of her work with sea blues and sunny yellow to complement the island's landscape.

Gateways by Adam Nathaniel Furman, 2017

Furman designed a series of ceramic-clad gateways for this 2017 installation at London Design Festival to showcased the history of Turkish tiles.

The four four-metre-high structures were each clad in a different type of tile employing decorative hand-painted tiles, contemporary flooring tiles, colourful square tiles and bevelled metro tiles.

The tiles were decorated using a "500-year-old technique of hand painting," Furman told Dezeen in a live interview for Virtual Design Festival last month. tiles. "I think, at the time, this was the most photographed installation at the London Design Festival."

Haus by Katrina Russell-Adams, 2020

Southeast London printmaker and visual artist Katrina Russell-Adams abstracted symbols and shapes found on architectural plans to create a pattern pained across the facade of architecture firm BAT Studio.

The artist worked with the founders of BAT Studio to produce several black and yellow relief elements that are included in the installation, which was funded by community arts organisationWood Street Walls.

No. 700 Reflectors by Rana Begum, 2016

Artist Rana Begum creates artworks that incorporate geometric patterns, often inspired by Islamic art and architecture.

As part of the redevelopment of King's Cross she combined 30,000 white, red and orange reflectors to create the 50-metre-long No. 700 Reflectors artwork that stretched the length of Lewis Cubitt Square.

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Ten projects that represent the colourful New London Fabulous style - Dezeen

Can it really be thatQueerEye(Netflix) is on to its fifth season already? After a brief trip to Japan, the Fab Five have gone back to basics, although any notion that the whole-life-makeover experience they bring to deserving strangers is something basic really does their work a disservice. This is a deep dive into finding out who people are and what they need, and it is always as moving as it is entertaining.

By now, their brand of self-love, self-care, self-improvement and self-acceptance is laser-focused. There is nothing that can surprise the gang except maybe the mid-episode reveal that one participant is the brother of a famous pop star. The only real change here is that the headquarters have moved from Atlanta to Philadelphia. Jonathan Van Ness remains eternally watchable, even when hes simply shouting We love safety! and I love an alley! (That is alley, and not ally, though Im sure he loves both.) Food expert Antoni Porowski even shows up in a T-shirt emblazoned with Nothing irrational about my love for the National, a knowing nod to his seemingly endless supply of band T-shirts. This is a format so good that the five of them know it doesnt need a makeover.

In the opening episode, they meet Noah, a pastor who runs an evangelical church, who is struggling with his identity as a gay man. Through numerous heart-to-hearts, he learns to cook for himself, keep his appearance tidy and, crucially, he gets some major work done on his dilapidated parsonage. Most of the participants in this show need some new furniture and a lick of paint, but in this case, the walls are quite literally crumbling away.

Even though there is a reveal, they resist milking it with any hugely dramatic before-and-after moments, instead showing most of the tweaks as they go along. Still, its narrative of transformation gives it the irresistible appeal of Changing Rooms combined with What Not to Wear, with the added benefit of 20 years of social progression.

But its the life-coaching that ramps up the emotional intensity. Usually thats up to Karamo Brown, whose range of slogan T-shirts rivals Antonis collection of indie band merch (Cry today, smile tomorrow reads one). In the heavyweight opener, though, its mostly left to interior designer Bobby Berk to talk to Noah. When they meet, Berk makes his disdain for the church known. I was pre-warned, which is why I wore my fireproof suit, he jokes, dryly. Regular viewers will know his painful history with organised religion. The pair bond over their experiences of homophobia in the church, and both come to a new understanding about their place in the world. It would take a hard heart to deny the power of conversations as frank as this one. Its a reminder that for all of its positivity, the show is not afraid to ask difficult questions and offer difficult answers.

If this is an accurate portrait of the US, then it is a hopeful one. There is a mobile dog-groomer who is the tallest woman in her family at 6 3, a newly qualified paediatrician who gave birth six weeks before her final medical residency and an earnest teenager fully embracing politics and activism who is in danger of burning out. Ryan is a DJ on the Jersey Shore, at least by night, though by day he is a property manager for the family firm.

The nice thing aboutQueerEyeis that it pushes your feelgood buttons in the way you would largely expect the transformative power of a nice haircut, some carefully chosen and well-fitted clothes, a living space that suits the persons needs is clearly not to be underestimated but it also takes the occasional swerve into the surprising. You might be forgiven for thinking that the advice to Ryan would be to knuckle down, now that he is in his late 30s and wants to find a family, but instead, they encourage him to follow his heart, into the club.

This fifth season arrived with such haste that I checked my Netflix to see if I had finished the fourth. I still had three episodes to go. Five seasons of any show is a lot, in such a short period of time (the first run aired in 2018), but the beauty ofQueerEyeis that its adaptable and could run for years. Perhaps it will. It seems churlish to object to a show as wholesome as this on the grounds that there is too much of it. Its not as if there is an excess of love and understanding in the world. In its most poignant moments, and there are many, this show is compassionate, humanising and completely heartening.

Continued here:
Queer Eye season five review makeover show remains a thing of beauty - The Guardian

When downtown L.A. restaurant Red Herring updated and upscaled its former Eagle Rock iteration, the project also became a bold debut for interior designer Marissa Zajack, who used her background in film and television to tell a vibrant and transportive visual story.

The relocated Red Herring opened in December 2019, the love child of husband-and-wife team Dave Woodall, the chef, and Alexis Martin Woodall, president of Ryan Murphy Productions. Zajacks credits include graphic design for shows and movies such as Zombieland, New Girl, Bombshell and the upcoming The Boys in the Band on Netflix.

Martin Woodall met her when they worked on Murphys 2006 movie Running With Scissors, and since then has tapped Zajack for design advice and small jobs at the old restaurant, which closed early last year. The scope and undertaking of Red Herring 2.0 was new territory for them both.

I didnt exactly know what I was getting myself into, but was so honored that Alexis asked me, Zajack said. Years working in the art department on TV and film is similar in some ways to the interior design process, but there were definitely things that didnt carry over, which were new and exciting for me, like understanding building codes and the durability of materials.

Her background in graphic design, however, proved a huge asset for detailed aesthetic continuity she digitally designed the interiors, furniture, fixtures and marketing, and even handled the branding, down to business cards and way-finding signs.

Zajack commissioned artist Mike Willcox for the restaurants show-stopping mural, a colorful art deco-inspired jungle scene spanning the entire back wall of the dining room. She printed his artwork on wallpaper, then aged it to make it feel vintage less computer-generated and more painterly and unearthed with history.

Thematically, Zajack said the whole decor was about celebrating the spirit of California, past and present a place that was fun and sexy, timeless yet modern, where you could go day to night.

She even imagined a fun back story: Some fabulous woman owned it that had wonderful dinner parties for all of her fabulous friends; a Dorothy Parker type. Decadent, elegant and whimsical, but nothing too serious. It had to be joyful.

How did you get your start in design?

I grew up in Southern California; my dad was an advertising photographer and my mom worked in his studio. I went to college for fine art at ArtCenter in Pasadena, and then got interested in fashion and worked for Libby Lane in Beverly Hills. Then I segued to working in the art department for film and television for about 15 years. I was really interested in graphic design in film because you could really tell a story through the graphic elements, especially if youre working on a show or film thats based in a different time period.

What are some of your aesthetic trademarks?

The graphic element, like custom wallpaper and adding graphic geometry into a space. For furniture, I really like soft curves and use a lot of blush and brass elements. Ive called upon some of the artists I worked with on the restaurant in other projects, like the lighting designer Dora Koukidou, who is out of Greece. I loved her light fixtures and I wanted a custom piece for the bar area at the restaurant, for a bold statement.

The color scheme is amazing.

I love the way Mike Willcoxs work and the rest of the colors go together. Theres a delineation from the bar area to the dining area, which is a lot more jewel-toned because theres a lot going on with the mural. But in the bar area there are more pastels and washed corals. They feel cohesive but also two very different spaces at the same time.

What projects are you working on right now?

Im working on my own home at the moment, which is really exciting. Its in a historic building in Koreatown on Wilshire called the Talmadge. Red Herring was a full build-out, but this is working on a historic interior and beautifying something that is already beautiful. One of the first rooms you walk into is filled with molding and hidden bookcases; its pretty spectacular.

Because youre working on your own home during social distancing, could you offer any advice on ways we can all elevate our spaces during this time?

A lot of it is being super frugal and using whats on hand. Im organizing and finding treasures that might have been hidden in a closet. Or repurposing something out of the archives and breathing new life into your space. And water your plants, because you want to keep them around during this.

Read more:
Marissa Zajack jumped to interior design from TV and films - Los Angeles Times

Chet Callahan of Chet Callahan ArchitectureLos Angeles

Blending historical precedents with progressive ideals, architect Chet Callahan imbues spaces with what he calls romantic functionalism.

We create form through careful consideration of the natural, the built environment and the future uses of the site, he said. We aim to create environmentally sensitive buildings and enhance our clients and our communitys experience.

A case in point is Mr. Callahans renovation of a 1934 Spanish-style home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles to fit the needs of its new ownersa young family of four.

He preserved the historical architectural details of the house, including the plaster cove moldings, the wooden floors and the wrought-iron embellishments. And he made it one with the landscape by adding large picture windows to, as he said, bring green leafy views inside.

He treated the interior spaces as a blank slate, painting the walls art-gallery white to accommodate the familys colorful contemporary art collection and added sleek yet comfortable furnishings.

The living room, for instance, features a faux-beamed ceiling with plaster corbels that is illuminated by a glittering crystal chandelier reminiscent of a full moon. The furnishings, which include a plum-colored tufted sofa in velvet, speak of the past, while the spare white bookshelves, where volumes are arranged by the color of their covers, bring the room into the present tense.

The new interventions, he said, have been rendered with minimal ornamentation as a juxtaposition to the existing features of the home, the clients vibrant art and the surrounding garden.

Before opening his eponymous firm in 2017, Mr. Callahan, who is 39, worked for Marmol Radziner + Associates, XTEN Architecture and AGPS.

His firm has worked on a variety of projects, including a multi-generational compound in Culver City; an artists complex in North Hollywood; and the re-envisioning of Los Felizs oldest estate.

A two-time winner of Interior Design magazines Best of Year (2007 and 2014), Mr. Callahan, became interested in design at a young age.

I used to watch my dad build furnitureand just about everything else, he said. And I went antiques shopping with my mom.

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Interior Design Stars Around the World You Need to Know - Mansion Global