Design Post Update

I was thrilled to have lunch recently with one of my favorite bloggers, The Blue Remembered Hills, while he was traveling through DC. As so often happens when bloggers meet for the first time we began chatting at once like old friends and eventually the topic naturally veered towards design.
Both of us have 'pet peeves' with wordage, his being the incorrect use of the word couch instead of sofa (mine is the incorrect use of home vs. house). Above you see the famous couch of Madame Recamier.
The term sofa is what we normally are talking about, the article of furniture found in everyone's living room. It's not a 'formal' term or interchangeable with couch -they are DIFFERENT things. A couch is a specific term reserved for pieces of furniture on which one lies. I immediately thought of Madame Recamier, so well known for having been painted in repose by numerous artists.
While in the Louvre on my last visit I loved Madame Recamier's furniture made for her by Georges Jacob as well as 2 very well known paintings of her, in which she is lying on a couch.
 The rest of her furniture is really beautiful and I just had to have an excuse to post!
In the future think of Madame Recamier on her couch and the sofa you have at home; unless you have a fainting couch or daybed, well then that's another story!

My favorite square in Paris is without a doubt the Place Vendome.  I even have a painting of it in my bedroom by Moura Chabor!
The storied square is actually 26 separate buildings with a unified front designed by Mansart.   Based on the success of the earlier Place des Vosges in the Marais (a similar concept of different buildings looking as one),  it was fully complete by 1720.
The Hotel Ritz, which occupies # 15 ( and possibly 17? ), is currently under renovation and is covered by the scaffolding seen above. This also includes a full restoration of the column in the center of the square originally erected by Napoleon in 1810.
 To the right of the scaffolding you can see what the original mansion fronts look like.
 This corner of the square is still open so you can see the original intent.
Above each archway is a different face -this guy looks a bit constipated!  Notice the lovely ironwork on the guard between houses.
But what lies behind these grand facades? Hotels and businesses of course but at one time they were all private homes.  Go through the vaulted archways and you still find very residential scaled facades.
This little courtyard above would make the perfect Paris pied a terre!
This very grand staircase leads one up into the buildings from the porte cochere.
All of this 'stone' is actually plaster scored and painted to resemble the stone the facades are built of. This is outdoor space but at the same time protected so it wears well.
And a very blurry picture looking into one of these historic building's stair - whats not to like?!

Today I bring you Oheka Castle through a music video by Taylor Swift.  Oheka Castle on Long Island was designed by Delano and Aldrich in 1914 for Otto Kahn. The structure happens to be the 2nd largest private house in the United States after the Biltmore estate. The house is gorgeous and the song is really fun; I'll admit to being a big Taylor Swift fan!  If you're not into the music I still encourage you to watch the video on mute for the images of Oheka Castle alone. Enjoy!

Under heavy renovation and possibly finished by 2016, The Neues Palais (or new palace) in Potsdam is one of the more impressive structures in the area. Parts of Potsdam are basically a suburb of immense palaces, now nearly all museums.  There are many excellent books available on the many palaces and the area itself.
The Neues Palais wasn't meant as a home for the King when it was completed in 1769 but rather as official state apartments for entertaining other royals and ambassadors. Therefore it was built to impress and not necessarily be very homey for the monarch who retained a small apartment in the palace.
Opposite the palace (above) are the Communs (seen below), creating an entry courtyard. The Communs held the kitchens, service spaces, and offices for the palace - a sort of 'downstairs' if you will. The king had underground passages built connect the Palais to the Communs so servants could get between the buildings unseen but also undeterred by weather.
The ornate interiors are astounding. Designed in the Baroque style favored by the king they're beginning to show traces of upcoming Neoclassicism. Frederick the Great didn't like the strict lines of Neoclassicism so you have to look hard though!
The palace was originally designed by Johann Gottfried Buring.  Buring had completed other buildings in Potsdam for the king but was fired from the job after it was started after disagreements on the palace facade. Perhaps Buring wanted to bring in the 'new' Neoclassicm.
 I don't know, I think some of the rooms look pretty Neoclassical to me, wouldn't you agree? They could have been remodeled at a later date.
 The floors in the palace are stunning. The parquet floor above looks absolutely modern to my eyes.
 Carl von Gontard took over construction of the palace after Buring's dismissal.
 The salon above is really interesting -I love how the treatment continues to the ceiling.
Almost a sort of garden room. Also notice the modern light fixtures which are hung holding all of the modern necessities like security.
While these modern fixtures might seem strange to some, I like that they don't damage any of the delicate walls and finishes and stand separate and discreet as their own 'thing'. Europeans do this exceptionally well.
 More gorgeous parquet floors, almost like fine furniture.
 After awhile all of these grand rooms start to look the same; gold, gold, and more gold.
 I think we need to bring back the use of bed niches.
I imagine particularly in the 18th century Germany the alcoves felt really cozy and warm before central heating.
 More gorgeous painted paneling - chinoiserie here. No gold here!
The palace was later used by successive monarchs as a full time residence and it was therefore renovated with modern conveniences. I love the Victorian heat grate above.
But not all of the rooms are gold. A number of rooms are silver gilded like the bedroom below. I suppose the silver would reflect candlelight just as well if not better than the gold gilding.
As always thanks so much to my Australian penpal Neil for supplying us with these gorgeous images from his travels. If you find yourself in Berlin a visit out to Potsdam is really heavily encouraged: read more about visiting Potsdam palaces here.

I recently discovered that the Levi Morton house (1912) by John Russell Pope in my old neighborhood in Washington, DC, was for sale. For about a decade I lived a block away from this stunning mansion at 1500 Rhode Island Avenue, NW and always admired it.
For the past 75 years the National Coatings Association has been the (excellent) caretaker of this historic structure which has housed a former Vice President, a Russian ambassador, and even Alexander Graham Bell.
If you are familiar with a map of Washington, the regular grid of streets is broken by a number of Avenues which meet at traffic circles;  this creates some odd triangular building sites. The Morton house is within one of these odd shaped lots which explains the strange angles in the first floorplan above.
The gracious porte cochere sits on the north side of the property on Rhode Island Avenue. Pope cleverly used the irregular slanted front facade for service spaces, situating larger and more important rooms around the more regular square facades. In 1912 these rooms faced gardens which are now (partially) parking lots.
The odd service wing in the floorplan which included storage and servant apartments either was never built or was torn down at one point for more parking. I always wondered if the stucco part of the building which you see to the left of the photo above was original and apparently it was. It looks different than the elevation drawing earlier in this post and rather like an after thought. It houses the original dining room and butler's pantry.
The  (west) side facade above is the most prominent as it faces Scott Circle and affords beautiful views.
As with many parts of the city the area has changed significantly since 1912 and this mansion is surrounded mostly by large apartment buildings and hotels which you get a sense of in the above photograph or on google streetviews.
This existing house was an extensive renovation to an older red brick Victorian structure dating from 1879 designed by John Fraser, a well-known Philadelphian architect. The interior was completely redone by Pope in a Classical style which included this stunning staircase which includes Levi Morton's monogram.
The original fixtures are all extant and included with the sale offered by Lucia Wadeson of Cresa Corporate Real Estate. I can imagine this becoming rather grand condo's with a significant addition or ideally an embassy (Cuba?).
 Images are not my own: B&W Photographs and drawings from the book "Mastering Tradition" by author James Garrison and color images from this article in the Washington Business Journal.

Above is the courtyard of the Hotel Guenegaud, designed and built by Francois Mansart (father of the Mansard roof) between 1651 and 1655 in the heart of the ancient Marais district.
Much of the Hotel Guenegaud is sadly closed to the public however. The neighboring Hotel de Mongelas, which was extensively renovated and restored during the 2007 addition of the space to the museum, more than makes up for this closure.
The entrance into the museum is through the courtyard of the Mongelas which mixes the best of the old (built in the early 17th century although largely altered, possibly also by Mansart) with the best of the modern -much like the collection itself.
Like in much restrained Neoclassicim, the only ornament lies in the pediment which is highly sculptural.
 I love this shade of blue which contrasts so nicely with the limestone.
 The entry to the street features this pleasant face in the keystone.
Each room fronts onto the courtyard, much like a donut, with the primary rooms also facing the street with windows on 2 sides.
 The old if not original bronze window hardware is lovely, but more on that later.
 The collections are all over the map; dealing with animals and nature however loosely.
One could wander through these lovely rooms all day. Unlike many other museums in this city there are no crowds.
The rooms in the Hotel Guenegaud which are open to the public, on the 2nd level, were among the prettiest in the museum.
 I love these marble floors and these chairs, featuring embroidered hunting scenes, are fabulous.
I've been looking for LED picture lights just like this, I should have asked where they were from!
 No detail was overlooked -notice the trim on these curtains and those tiebacks!
Different contemporary artists exhibit works throughout the museum, mixed in with the collections. This artist had beautifully detailed works made of animal feathers scattered throughout the museum. Sadly I never caught their name.
This lacquered chinoiserie desk, the envy of most people reading this blog I'm sure (myself included), features a hunting scene as well as hoofed legs.
 Naturally (pun intended) there was plenty of taxidermy and other grisly animal carcasses to explore.
 This witty artist had made cans that featured endangered species, ala Warhol.
I loved this portrait of the Princess Beatriz de Borbon y Torlonia on her horse -one of many equestrian portraits.
One thing missing from the museum, which you could add to your own collection, is this amazing Porcelain Doll Head Cup with saucer at thestore.com. I like the black color best.
Notice anything about this electrified silver candelabra? The base is of a stag hunt, with grisly dogs.
 One of many contemporary exhibits was this bird car by Vincent Dubourg from 2006.
However the main 'exhibit' which impressed me the most was actually built into the building in the 2007 renovation. The artist Saint Clair Cemin produced all of the metal hardware (railings, door knobs, light fixtures, etc) which are to be found throughout the Hotel de Mongelas.
These wonderful bronze fittings were incredibly detailed -featuring textures such as bone or feathers which connect the building to the base of the collection.
Notice how the bronze door handles have a living finish and change (are polished) where handled daily by visitors.
 There must have been 100 of these lovely sconces lining the stairhall, each a work of art.
Notice again the living finish of the bronze -the way the detail gets polished over time as people rub against the railing .
 The end of the handrail is most striking.
 These panels at the top of the main stair double as guardrails.
This museum more than any other I've noticed goes to show that details matter: not just in the collection but in the building as a whole! On your next trip to Paris be sure to check out this gem, the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature in the heart of the historic Marais.