Can you believe at one time Playboy magazine was an arbiter of style? Don't believe us? Check out this amazing article circa 1961, titled The Playboy Town House: Posh Plans for Exciting Urban Living. Compare this to the recently premiered Esquire House 360, and despite the high-tech goodness and futuristic amenities, we somehow believe the 1961 pad trumps the 2006, 17,000 square Italian villa in style with room to spare. [via Meathaus]
It's easy to explain perusing through vintage issues of Playboy, oggling gatefold spreads, when they're filled with design articles like this!
Alexis' Modern Glass House 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Tom Black Espadrille
20 Scrumptious Brunch Recipes 
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (6)
Playboy was always way cooler that Esquire.
I worked for Playboy's book division in the early 80s -- still have my copy of "Playboy's Guide to Moving Up in Style" -- will have to dig that out now!
PS -- author originally discouraged buying tacky trendy art like that of LeRoy Neiman -- had to edit that out since he designed the "femlins" and other graphics and art for Playboy!!!
That Playboy Town House is giving me a design woody. That's exactly how I want to live when I grow up.
How groovey!
I'll bet that one or two of these were actually built!
This is a little embarrasing, but not only do I remember this but I had a club membership when I got of college in the late 70's. I grew up in a world where three types of style seemed to dominate suburbia: traditional, colonial and Mediterranean (it was awful). My folks had Danish midcentury, but that was the exception to other families I knew.
Playboy had reviews of "pads" like those pictured but also had practical guides to high end audio equipment, stocking your bar (beer was not on that list), music (lots of jazz and blues) and ski resort reviews. Hip American bachelors and European bachelors where a lot different in life style and taste. Think James Bond vs. Matt Helm (granted they are exaggerated examples - but the point remains).
I had the joy of touring Playboys Chicago headquarters in 1986, just before daughter Christie sold the building and went with a standard office approach. It was a sight to be seen with desks that "swooped" out of the walls, support columns that where playfully sculpted to be erotic and millions of dollars of Vargas girl and Leroy Nieman originals hanging on the walls.
Bunny One, Hef's corporate jet, was a Boeing 727 painted gloss black with a white bunny logo on the tail - and you thought the Donald Trump's jet that sits at Marine Terminal was over the top!
This was a time when you could also smoke in the office, cars got 12 miles to the gallon, doctors handed out valium like candy and a woman co-worker was a "gal" - so it was not exactly an enligtened period either.
The coolest thing to have? A conversation pit around a fireplace...
thank you so much for posting this! My jaw dropped, we're looking at buying a "modern" house right now, and this certainly provides inspiration.
Yummy :)