June 23, 2020

OKA Celebrates 21 Years of Extraordinary Design

Summertime—and the living is easy. And in celebration of its 21st birthday, OKA, the London-based furniture company that’s synonymous with good taste and excellent English style, aims to make sure it’s festive and gorgeous, too. Whether you plan to enjoy the season indoors or out, OKA’s newest offerings are sure to bring both substance and style to any summer setting. For a glimpse of OKA’s new and classic furniture and accents, including some stunning handcrafted champagne flutes, visit its website. To further brighten the spirit of any summer soiree this year, OKA collaborated with some its friends, such as The … Read Post

February 14, 2018

Rising Star—Zaha Hadid’s new One Thousand Museum luxury condominium in Miami

Miami

The developers of Miami’s newest landmark, One Thousand Museum—a new luxury condominium and the last structure in the western hemisphere designed by the late Dame Zaha Hadid—celebrated the topping off of the building last night at a soiree on the rooftop of the nearby Frost Museum. To highlight the major construction milestone, the building was illuminated against the night sky and the spectacle followed on the heels of the airing of Impossible Builds, a PBS documentary highlighting One Thousand Museum as one of the world’s most complex builds. The people behind the development—Gregg Covin, Todd Michael Glaser, Louis Birdman, Kevin … Read Post

January 11, 2018

Art de Vivre

Furniture

Anyone looking for a touch of France in Miami would do well to visit the new Roche Bobois showroom on Biscayne Boulevard in Miami. The French furniture maker hosted an event here during Art Basel last month showcasing the vision of tennis star/designer Venus Williams, whose firm V Starr Interiors sportingly turned out the showroom for the exclusive dinner party with a lively mix of furnishings from some of its newest collections. Known for its new and classic pieces by big name and emerging designers from all over the world, Roche Bobois has worked closely with renowned designers, such as … Read Post

April 7, 2016

The Kampong—Historic National Treasure, Reimagined

Events

Much has changed since Dr. David Fairchild, one of America’s most influential horticulturalists and plant collectors, bought a property in Coconut Grove in 1916 with his wife, Marian, and named it The Kampong—the Malay word for village. Not long after purchasing the waterfront acreage, he enlisted the architect Edward Clarence Dean to design a Mission-style house there, which was completed in 1928 and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. Over time, he experimented on the grounds here with an “introduction garden” of plants he collected on his expeditions around the world and he loved to share his knowledge of the plants he cultivated in the … Read Post

April 5, 2016

Innovative Products and Appliances at the AD Design Show

Products

Luxury brands from around the world recently gathered at the Architectural Digest Design Show in New York to share their curated design inspiration to approximately 40,000 design aficionados. Marking its 15th year, the design event showcased the wares of more than 400 brands, and luxury appliance innovator Jenn-Air teamed up with the talented New York-based architect and designer Campion Platt to highlight some of the show’s top picks this year. Click here to get a behind-the-scenes video snapshot of highlights at the show, or connect to this link to see some of the luxury products and innovations from Jenn-Air.

February 25, 2016

The Ambiguous Lightness of Being

Works

In an homage to Milan Kundera, the Diana Lowenstein Gallery in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami has mounted an extraordinary exhibition of works of 12 artists, who have produced sculptures and mixed media that explore the dimensions of lightness and weight. More than 14 years in the making, the exhibition was curated by Ombretta Argó Andruff, whose efforts here were triggered by a rereading of Kundera’s masterwork, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In the 1984 classic novel, Kundera writes: “The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground. But in love poetry of … Read Post

October 11, 2011

A Lovely Living Room by Beth Foley

Interiors

In the Normandy Manor show house in Long Island, a livable and lovely living room by Beth Foley, an interior designer in West Hempstead, New York, brings cheer with its happy colors and beautiful abstract landscapes by a local artist. To find out more about Beth Foley, click here.

October 4, 2011

A Beautiful Room by Designer Kate Singer in the Normandy Manor Show House

Interiors

Among the most beautiful spaces at the Normandy Manor Show House in Centerport, Long Island, is a dining room by Kate Singer. The manor was designed in 1917 by New York City architects Warren & Wetmore, who were most noted for their design of Grand Central Terminal. It was built for the superintendent of the Vanderbilt estate to use as his own quarters (the architects also designed William K. Vanderbilt II’s 24-room Spanish Revival mansion and other buildings on the estate, which Vanderbilt called Eagle’s Nest). Kate Singer, a talented designer based in Huntington, Long Island, created the jewel box of a room … Read Post

September 29, 2011

Creative Ways to Stow Books

Projects & Tips

Before you part with a collection of favorite books, consider these creative ways to stow them offered by writer Megan Fulweiler. She and her husband began what she calls “a new chapter” in their life-long love affair with books: We’ve come to the conclusion our books are a lot like our relatives. There are those we love, those we like, and a good many we, well, tolerate. Still, we could no more sever relations with the last group than we can—it’s obvious—winnow down our books. Both the relatives and good-but-not-favorite reads are family. Someday we might have better communication—more time, more … Read Post

September 25, 2011

Walking the High Line—a Living New York Landmark

Landscapes

The International Furnishings and Design Association hosted horticultural walking tour recently to raise money for its educational foundation. The High Line is a lovely two-mile-long park perched above New York City, starting at Ganesvoort Street in the Meatpacking District and winding through Chelsea all the way to the Javitts tradeshow center along the West Side Highway. Originally built in the 1930s as part of a massive public-private infrastructure project called the West Side Improvement, the High Line hoisted freight traffic 30 feet in the air to remove dangerous trains from the streets of Manhattan’s largest industrial district. After ceasing to function in its … Read Post