a few scenes from my trip...

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Micheal Smith and his dream job.

Michael Smith has been dubbed the white house decorator. Although he isn't my normal taste, It oozes with what I picture East Coast style being. It makes me long for a laid back weekend at the Greenbrier and horseback riding, tea at my aunts in the woods or hanging out with my uber preppy outfit with my friends.

We all deserve to escape right? I think he will do well in the White House, you can follow the Micheal Smith saga at Domino.

scenes from the weekend

Lunch at Bolsa.
Stroll through Bishop Arts District.
Windows at Niemans.

hostel on the list

I am sooo pissed that I didn't know about this hostel when we went to Denmark in May. Featured on Apartment Therapy today this youth hostel [DanHostel Copenhagen] should definitely be on anyone's list traveling through Copenhagen. And then please write me and tell me how awesome it was.

The good news is that Gubi furniture is attainable and you too can get this look.

Nature meets Architecture

One of the partners at my firm sent this article through this morning. I'm in love with this house, especially because if they hadn't said it, I never would've known it was in NYC.

barcelona anyone?

I saw Vicky Cristina Barcelona on sunday.... besides renewing my want (need) to go to Barcelona it was a truly fascinating, thought-provoking, lovely movie.

The cinematography was incredible, "very golden" as my friend Lindsy described it. The thing is, i could begin to describe the plot of the movie but the truth is it sounds sleazy until you go and see it for yourself. A story of adventure and Love... go see it this weekend, seriously. and Javier Bardem is hot... need I say more (and the actresses too... if you are into that.)

ABC carpet and home

ok, so if you have been to this legandary place you know about the 6++ floors of brilliance in the two buildings. You also know that there is a lovely merchandising scheme that keeps you discovering new things around every corner. You are aware of the groovy merchandise from all over the world. But mostly you are wondering when you finally found this glorious land of things for home.... why you had never been there before?

This was the thought in my head as I went to ABC carpet and home while I was in NY. I felt like I was a kid in a grown up candy shop (substitute candy for lovely home and crafty goods and a few pieces of clothing as well!) And there is a kids section too... I am sure they would be just as delighted.

I floated from floor to floor and if I were rich with a place to put anything at all it all would have come home with me... or better yet I would have just moved in. but alas, I brought home a pretty cool wood-cut stamp to try out some new printing ideas from Lena Corwin's book that Ben picked up. How fab is that gieant bowl I dug through to find the perfect one.

[the mercer] kitchen

While I am on the subject of restaurants in NYC, I have to talk about our lunch at [the mercer]Kitchen. First of all the space was incredibly lovely. It was underground but the glass lights from the sidewalk above filtered in the most wonderful midday light. The colors were slightly subdued except the pops of purple grey booths and the orange menu. But the exposed brick and upside down umbrellas were just cool.

Then there was the food, and the presentation. If you like the process of eating (which lets be honest, I love it!) then you will love this place. I got the tomato soup which sounds ordinary but they pour it over lightly grilled sourdough with Parmesan cheese at your table. Delightful.

The nest... and happy friday!

image from nbc.com (games start at 7.30-6.30 tonight)

08.08.08.... prosperity as the Chinese say.

I am so psyched about the games tonight. (despite human rights issues I am not so happy about). But you have to admit, although there are farmer's without water so that China can look good.... China looks good. The nest (main stadium) in particular is pretty RAD.

GO TEAM USA!!!

image from nbc.com

sinfully good....

I just arrived back from Las Vegas late last night. I thought I would do a little recap of things we did when we weren't busting it to finish the black, white and yellow bonanza in time for market.

Here you go:

1. Visited the Hoover Dam

2. Had drinks at the new groovy Sushi Samba at the Palazzo

3. Checked out the model condos for the new LEED accredited CityCenter Las Vegas. They had these rad Chihuly glass sculpture reeds in the fountain outside.

Now I could go on and elaborate about these things but I think a little visual candy will do just fine. You can check out more on my Flickr site.

FLW

I just got back from Chicago, hence the no posts. Although alot of these trips are all work, no play... we busted it so we could do at least one fun thing while there.

We did the whirlwind tour of Oak Park. Which for those of you who don't know is the Mecca for Frank Lloyd Wright. We barely had enough time (after getting on the wrong train) to go to the Unity temple and FLW home and studio. On the in between, we saw a few houses by FLW on Forest ave.

We saw pure evidence what detail he shows to every project from exterior to interior with the arcitecture to the furniture. Some call this unified fluidity, I call it control freak.

However, no matter what your stance on FLW is, he is a mastermind that gave alot to modern design and he has some truly inspiring design. I absolutely loved the design concept behind the Unity Temple and the experience you got from traveling from the outside into the sanctuary. GENIUS... if you have never been, you must go!

You can check out the rest of my photos of oak park here.

2 public spaces at its best

I remember in Iarc we watched this video in Anna Marshall-Baker's class about shared public spaces in urban environments. Since this video I have caught myself being way more cognoscente of these spaces.

While in Atlanta, I spotted this pretty groovy designed space near the Target in Atlantic Station. I love the vividly colored sunshades juxtaposed against the very hard lined concrete seats.

Another cool Public space I saw recently was in Aarhus, Denmark in the middle of all the shopping pedestrian streets. It has several different levels of seating spread out on the steps leading down to the canal.

surprise!

I am just getting back to Dallas from another jaunt to Atlanta, but it wasn't all work and no play.

Although it was a work trip, we were graciously given 4th of July off (believe me, this is a BIG deal) so I decided I would surprise my family by driving up to our farmhouse where they were having a big bash (found out later this was on sat. not fri.) but still got my immediate fam visit in.

Rental car keys in hand, I do not recommend the Chevy Aveo, I drove to Charlotte that night and then on to the farmhouse for the day on the 4th then back to Atlanta early saturday morn to work.

The only one who was truly surprised (as I had o give up my plan to dad and the brothers in order to see them) was my mom and aunt. It was good. Here are a few pics of the newly and wonderfully renovated farmhouse.

Dansk Design Center

One of the things that I insisted on us doing while in Copenhagen was go to the Dansk Design Center. It was a small museum but very cool and informative nonetheless. They had an interactive Living Wood exhibit going on which was really neat because you could go up and examine the way the pieces were made.

I bought one of those little wooden birds by Danish architect Kristian Vedel (although I got it later in Aarhus because I was obsessing over it. I knew I would be sad if one didn't come home with me).

My other favorite thing that I saw at the museum was the Stingray rocking chair by Danish designer Thomas Pedersen. You can read more about it here.

Then there was the Muuto Nordic design group that I learned briefly about... this one is definitely worth some more research.

River Thames... england denmark

ok... so after my computer crashed (for a week) and I made a quick 4 day jaunt to Las Vegas (more on that later) I am back in Dallas and have the second installment from the england denmark trip.

So we are still on the first day. As anyone who has been to London can tell you, there are quite a few tourist attractions along the River Thames. So we started at the Tower Bridge and weaved our way down until we got to the Tate museum hopped on the tube and popped out at westminster to find Big Ben towering over us. Now we did go on the London Eye the next day.

PreFab Now

Better Living through Design is always pretty interestting. This book is appealing to me because I am slightly obsessed with prefab houses. This one is goin on the wish list.

high school musical

On friday night I accompanied my friend Shannon to the annual musical at Woodrow Wilson here in Dallas. My friend Sean (Shannon's fiance) is the music director there so it was a real treat to see him at work. They performed Sound of Music. It was an incredible show. The caliber of detail they put out for the show was pretty spectacular. The costumes were phenomonal and the talent of the kids was awesome!! I was really impressed. I recommend to anyone to go and see their show next year no matter what it may be because this school puts forth its all to make it a great show.

Now the architecture of the school is a whole other category. They were put on the historical registry and the gothic detail in parts of the school were really impressive. read more about it here.

Guggenheim : Lithuania

I just came across this post on Prairie Mod about the "Guggenheim Trilogy." Somehow I missed the news that Zaha Hadid was designing the next Guggenheim for Vilnius, Lithuania. I'm sure it's a welcome progression into the story the Guggenheim architecture is telling, but I'm still incredibly partial to the original... thoughts?

ps: am I the only one who expected it to be designed by another frank?

gen 1 : frank lloyd wright, NY

gen 2 : frank gehry, bilbao, spain

gen 3 : zaha hadid, lithuania

wood and steel house

love... via dwell, read on here.

This calls for a trip to Japan!

Klein Dytham architecture created this beautiful Leaf chapel... and it is all green! located within the grounds of the Risonare hotel resort in Kobuchizawa it gives off a thought of serenity.

If you use it for a wedding chapel, the steel veil lifts as the brides does to reveal a beautiful pond. check out more pictures here.