THE EIFFEL TOWER VANISHED?

Last October I spent two weeks in Paris and rented an apartment in the 7th arrondissement with a wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower. At night, when it was lit up, it was magical, but every hour when the lights started to twinkle, it was breath taking.

When I lived in Paris for four years during my student years, I never paid much attention to it, to me is was just a tourist attraction and a bit "kitschy". But now, it has come to symbolize Paris to me. I never went to the top until I went back to Paris as a tourist with my husband and he wanted to see the view of Paris from the top. To my great horror I discovered that I had a fear of heights when we arrived at the top. My knees started shaking and I had to literally crawl down backwards the top stairs. The fear of heights has staid with me, unfortunately. Now I am content to see the tower twinkling at night with my feet on the ground.

The photo above was taken the night before I flew back to Los Angeles.

When I woke up early the next morning to catch a flight to Los Angeles, I could not believe my eyes. The Eiffel Tower had vanished!

But slowly it started to emerge from the fog.



And before I said good bye to my apartment and Paris, I was reassured that the tower was still there.

PASADENA SHOWCASE HOUSE 2012

Pasadena Showcase House 2012 is on its way! The house is a 1927 Spanish Colonial Revival, by John Winford Byers, a self-trained Santa Monica architect and builder. On June 26, 1927, the Los Angeles Times described the house as "a sixteen -room villa...which will grace an estate site of approximately two acres."

I am very excited having been selected to design the Dining Room, shown above, in it's "before" condition. The room is 15' by 20' and has many interesting original architectural features which I will retain, such as the beautiful coffered ceiling.

The rendering above, by Alex Dorfman, shows how I will be transforming the space. The two side windows are quite short, to elongate them I am adding a valance above each window to stretch them visually. The room is also somewhat dark, so I am using reflecting surfaces, for instance I designed the dining table with an antiqued mirrored glass top to reflect the light from the chandelier.

The house is called "Casa de las Puertas", House of the Doors. There are indeed many unique doors, starting with the front door, above.


Another view of the Dining Room, showing the beautiful arched doors, detail below.




Detail of the ceiling corbel.

I will keep updating the progress of the transformation of the room. The Pasadena Showcase House will be open to the public from April 15 through May 13, 2012.