As a transplanted born and bred New Yorker, our valentine to what we've come to love about design in Los Angeles would include: a fascination with midcentury, a concern for the environment, flea market kitsch, and indoor-outdoor living. The Los Angeles Times Home & Garden section examines some of those elements this week: a look at an update of a midcentury home, a pop-art-on-steriods condo makeover, the future of the indoor and outdoor fireplace in Los Angeles and the rooftop garden of a popular restaurant. More, pix and links, after the jump...
Shulamit Nazarian brings a modern touch to a 1973 A. Quincy Jones home: In updating her 1973 Holmby Hills home, designed by architect A. Quincy Jones, former dean of USC's School of Architecture, widely regarded as one of Southern California's midcentury greats, the goal was to preserve the architecture without making it a museum to midcentury. Check out the results.
Highlights from the World Market Center Las Vegas: Highlights from the winter show, which shuttered February 13, and included offerings from more that 1500 manufacturers.
Remodeling fireplace habits in Southern California: WIth new regulations governing wood-burning fireplaces, what's the future of the hearth in southern California?
Joan Currie's condo makeover: Joan Currie wanted a home that vibrant, colourful and a little chaotic. We'd add imaginative and fun to the list.
At Blue on Blue at the Avalon Hotel, a rooftop garden is born: Five Earthboxes grow some of the garnishes that decorate the plates of food coming out of Blue on Blue, the restaurant at the Avalon Hotel. It's the start of an experiment that the restaurant's manager Ryan Hoffman and executive chef, Scott Garrett, would like to expand.
[image: Christina House for LAT; Issac Brekken for LAT; Spark Modern Fires; Bob Chamberlin for LAT; Gary Friedman for LAT]
I almost bought a Quincy Jones House at the time it was 300,000.00 but needed about 100,000. to make the kitchen, bathrooms livable and not to the degree of what she did here. I think she did a great job, there are some areas a little too cluttered and not appreciating the architecture. Overall I would want to live there and easy to critique what's not yours.
He always positioned his houses on the properties at an angle which made every area outside usable.
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It seems a lot of these very nice older homes designed from the likes of Quincy Jones etc seem not always to escape poor design practices in the kitchens and/or bathrooms but the older the home, the likely it had had either poor remodeling or maintenance over time.
That being said, I love the feel of this house and it's spaciousness. All that wood brings a warmth to the large and tall spaces such as the sunken living room but I also love how he also had white walls to help keep it from getting too dark and to allow contrast to the medium toned paneling. And I love how he provided walls for those of us who enjoy art.
I do agree that from what I could see, this current owner of this lovely Quincy home did a nice job of paying homage to the home's era (early 70's) and yet updating it for the new mellinium as well and that's how remodeling/updating should be done to worthy homes such as this one.
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