Architecture
Park51
I’m trying not to get caught up in the political debate about the Islamic Center, Park51 Community Center, proposed near the World Trade Center site, but it is very controversial, particularly here in DC and I have my own firm views. Regardless of the political debate, I was taken aback by the official conceptual designs on Park51’s website, which I hadn’t seen until recently, described here by Philip Kennicott as an architectural review in The Washington Post. These are preliminary concepts by Soma Architects. Well, imagine my surprise as I tried to find their website, which surprisingly was hard to do, http://www.soma-architects.com/ and I discovered that they are literally right…
Atelier Oi’s Art Forms
After all of my interior design oriented posts last week, I thought I’d feature this picture on the cover of Interior Design Magazine. They describe it as “art forms,” which I agree but it also looks to me like a three-dimensional, hanging-from-the-ceiling mural that is fully integrated and actually “makes” the entire fantasy space. I find this enchanting. There’s more to the story here. This looks like such a happy place that I’m fully expecting fairies to go filtering across. I love the play with proportion. Here are more designs by the Switzerland firm Atelier Oi and their new headquarters in La Neuveville. Look how different this building can look…
Designer Show House for the Richmond Symphony Orchestra
Rothesay, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra League’s Designer Show House, is well worth the trip. My husband and I took a four hour round trip road trip to Richmond on a crisp, fall-like Sunday to view Mary Douglas Drysdale’s room in the RSOL Designer Show House. We arrived early to meet Mary there so we could take some pictures. Getting there before it opened to the public, allowed us to meet the day crew captain and volunteer staff and help them by turning on all of the lights in all of the rooms. There were so many rooms, that I lost count. You could tell it’s an older house, come to…
