Architects and Artisans

Actually, it makes a great deal of sense. When it came time for Campion Platt to publish his first monograph, he didn’t turn to just anyone for its foreword.  No, the architect and interior designer who strives to take the edge off modernism with his trademark soft palette sought out an old friend, Jay McInerney. The [...]

With the East Coast’s first AIA-sponsored tour of homes scheduled for October 2, the AIA Triangle Chapter is about to make a serious statement on the nature and value of North Carolina’s special twist on traditional vernacular design. For centuries, the foundation of that design was largely agrarian.  But a revolution of sorts came about in the 1940s when Henry [...]

Laura Joines of California’s Domu Architects works from the inside out, designing spaces that make people happy. “As architects, we want people to have a satisfying experience,” she said.  “It’s not about the flash or the outside – to me, it’s all about the inside.” In the case of an extension to the Teixeira House [...]

From Walker Evans to Helmut Newton to Steve McCurry and every photographer in between, the fine art photography at Hamburg Kennedy Photographs in Manhattan runs the gamut. “We want a spread of work,” said Suzanne Hill.  “We believe people want a selection.  Some may be dedicated to a collection, and others to an artist.” Currently located at [...]

Raleigh native George Smart and his quickly-growing posse of aficionados for the modernist way of thinking are picking up quite the head of steam.  On Saturday, Sept. 25 at 1:00 PM, they’ll be rolling through town in nine buses toting more than 500 mid-century modernistas.  George and his Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) have organized another of his inside-the-beltline tours of city’s [...]

Mosaic artist Julie Richey spent two excruciating months working to bring a mannequin to life. She started with a tiny torso that a jeweler might use to display precious gems.  She added carved Styrofoam, then fiberglass mesh and a skim coat of Thinset. Then came the marble flecked with golden yellows, followed by the Carrara [...]

In Vienna, Austria, a student architecture competition seeks to link music and nature at a compelling urban site. The House of Music is to be located at the Stadtpark on Vienna’s historic Ringstrasse.  It’s close to the oldest part of the city, and in the middle of a park along two major avenues, aligned with a [...]

Two barns for a 2,000-acre farm, designed by Louisville’s DeLeon & Primmer Architecture Workshop, are setting new standards for sustainability in the Kentucky countryside. “It was a test for us: how to apply LEED criteria to prime farmland,” said Roberto De Leon, principle in the firm.  “That was counterintuitive to LEED, and the first of [...]

FER Studio’s newly renovated Cummins residence in West Hollywood is actually two houses – one public and one private – that intersect at a chef’s kitchen. That makes perfect sense, since the firm’s client is partner in a company that owns a series of South Pacific-themed restaurants. “He wanted a Balinese-styled house, but a modern and [...]

It was a symbolic moment of cultural transparency for China and the West. In 2005, Henry Ng, executive vice president of the World Monuments Fund (WMF), and Nancy Berliner, curator of Chinese art and culture at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), stood in the garden of The Qian Long emperor in the Forbidden City in [...]