Flaunting Your Support

On March 10, Los Angeles’ Architecture + Design Museum will celebrate its eleventh year with a fundraiser to benefit the museum, featuring an auction of wearable artworks by leading architects, including Richard Meier and Marmol Radziner, designers, graphic artists and others. The descriptions of the pieces are by their designers. For information, visit aplusd.org.

Elsa Mora, Frida Kahlo Necklace.  Handmade paper cut necklace.

wHY Architecture, “Four Eyes”
We developed a lightweight concrete mix and incorporated glass and carbon fibers to make one of our favorite materials (concrete) wearable. Our glasses incorporate a tightly spaced series of tic-holes that allow the user a new way to shield their eyes from the sun.  Made in an edition of four, there is a pair for each season, each one letting in the appropriate amount of light, depending on the time of year.

David Hertz Architect with Carson Leh and Krista Olfsen., Dress. "Dress inspired by re-use and transformation of repurposing. Channeling natural inspiration and unique industrial fastenings, transparent and translucent recycled plastic, bottles are riveted and formed together to create an abstract fashion formation."

Robert A.M. Stern, Robe. "Inspired by the Museum for African Art's Wearable Art exhibit."

Marmol Radziner, Jewelry. "These solid bronze rings and bracelets transform industrial remnants into personal, portable, architectural fragments. Each piece is handmade by master craftsmen in our workshop and designed to be as individual as the person who wears it. The patina of every piece evolves over time in response to the wearer and no two finishes ever start or stay the same."

Fentress Architects, Dress. "In seeking inspiration to create an unconventional yet beautifully-textured dress, the designer utilized materials that would emulate the signature look of Curtis Fentress, Fentress Architects’ Principal-in-Charge of Design. Fentress’ go-to attire is a sleek pin striped suit, accompanied by a vibrant red scarf. By weaving together strips of pin striped wool with flowing red chiffon, the designer was able to transform traditional masculine materials into a dress that is uniquely feminine, dynamic and elegant."

Eric Corey Freed, ClimateWear™ Daytime Helmet, 2011.

Diana Eng, Foxfire Necklace and Earrings

"Inspired by bioluminescent fungi in glowing wood called foxfire, this electronic necklace and matching earrings illuminate through the use of technology. Made from transparent navy colored acrylic and hand soldered LEDs and powered by batteries."

Modernist Bash

The Palm Springs Art Museum is offering tours of architect Albert Frey’s home, Frey House II (1963–64), during Modernism Week. Collection Palm Springs Art Museum. Photograph courtesy Gregg Felsen.

The eleven days of this year’s Modernism Week in Palm Springs promise an exciting lineup to celebrate midcentury design and architecture as well as the city itself, with its unmatched collection of midcentury homes and public buildings. Highlights include an opening night cocktail reception at the Elrod House, designed by John Lautner; house tours, including the first public tours of Sunnylands, the 1966 Annenberg Estate, designed by A. Quincy Jones; the four-day Modernism Show of vintage furniture and decorative arts; a modern garden tour; vintage Airstream, trailer and car shows; lectures, cocktail parties, bus tours, a silent auction and more. For information, visit modernismweek.com.

Collecting the Swedish Landscape @ Scandinavia House

Visit the Scandinavia House this Thursday, Jan. 12th to checkout their latest exhibition LUMINOUS MODERNISM. Then stick around for - Collecting the Swedish Landscape Then & Now: A Conversation with Michelle Facos & David Werner. For more information & reservations, visit: tinyurl.com/72e3cyt

A Desert Lautner Blooms Again

Photo by Dan Chavkin.

The Desert Hot Springs Motel, an intimate resort designed by John Lautner in 1947, has reopened as the Hotel Lautner. New owners and Lautner admirers Tracy Beckmann, interior designer, and Ryan Trowbridge, furniture designer, updated the landmark steel, raw concrete, glass and redwood building while conserving Lautner’s powerful design. Its four suites, which open onto private succulent gardens, are furnished with vintage modernist pieces by Milo Baughman, Harry Bertoia, Adrian Pearsall and others. Photographs, books and DVDs featuring Lautner and architectural photographer Julius Shulman abound. For reservations, visit hotellautner.com.

Neutra at Your Fingertips

Richard Neutra’s VDL Research Studio and Residences, where he lived and worked for 30 years, and which served as a laboratory for many of his ideas about the relationship between the built environment and nature, comes alive in a new iPad app created by Sarah Lorenzen, director of VDL, and David Hartwell, who live on the property; Lorenzen oversees the site’s maintenance, restoration efforts and tours and knows it intimately. With many photos, some by Julius Shulman; rotating 3-D models; and informative text covering, among other issues, design intent and materials, the $9.99 app sheds light on this groundbreaking Neutra design. Visit the iTunes store to download.

Artists in Motion

Brad Epley, Frank Stella and Elizabeth Lunning discuss Avicenna, 1960, during the artist’s 2006 ADP interview at the Menil Collection. © 2011, Menil Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

Since 1990, the Artists Documentation Program has filmed interviews with prominent artists, including Frank Stella, Lucas Samaras, Jasper Johns and James Rosenquist. Initiated by the Menil Collection in Houston to gather data on techniques and materials for conservation and restoration, the candid interviews became fascinating investigations into the making of art. Now the 33 interviews conducted to date — in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Harvard Art Museums’ Center for the Technical Study of Modern Art — are available to the public online. Visit adp.menil.org.

The Power of Eames

Charles and Ray Eames at home, c. 1970. © 2011 Eames Office LLC.

They made films themselves, some of them, like The Power of 10, as iconic as their furniture designs, but now there is a film about them. Eames: The Architect and the Painter takes a close look at the artistic collaboration and personal relationship of Charles and Ray Eames and the 40-year reign of their creative studio, Eames Office, through a rich trove of archival material, films, love letters, photographs, artifacts, and never-seen interviews with these almost unbelievably multidimensional designers. For screenings, visit firstrunfeatures.com.