Eavesdrop CA 07
Johnston Marklee designed this pop-up shop at Collette in Paris for Justin Timberlake's clothing line. Brick-and-mortar stores are coming soon.
BRINGING SEXY BACK
Johnston Marklee was already one of the hippest architecture firms in LA. But now they’ve catapulted several spots up the ranks. How, you ask? By designing new stores for Justin Timberlake’s clothing brand, William Rast, that’s how. The firm has already designed pop-up stores in London, Paris, and New York (to a chorus of screaming girls when Timberlake came by) and is designing more in Palm Springs and San Jose. And in November, the firm will open the brand’s flagship store in the Century City Westfield Mall. The architects haven’t met Timberlake yet, but will finally see him at the Century City opening. “I hear he’s very nice,” said principal Sharon Johnston, coyly concealing any desire to start screaming and desperately trying to rock JT’s body, as she darn well should. Read More
Eavesdrop NY 15
A full-scale mock-up of Calvin Klein's new home in Southampton—just to be sure nothing is out of place. (Sara Hart)
CHINS UP FOR CHARLIE
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Rogers auditorium (cap. 708) was overflowing with New Yorkers wishing to bid farewell to Charles Gwathmey, who died on August 3. And as impressive as the spoken tributes were by son Eric Steel, director Steven Spielberg, fashion designer Ralph Lauren, and anchor Brian Williams, not to mention by Peter Eisenman and Robert A.M. Stern, the real jaw-dropping detail was that Charlie could do 1,300 sit-ups in 10 minutes. We all knew he was dedicated to ideal proportions, but only suspected he was made of steel. He didn’t need to be made of such solid stuff to earn a permanent place in our admiration. Read More
Eavesdrop NY 14
Gwathmey out front of the home he designed for his parents in the Hamptons. He was buried nearby. (Courtesy DansHamptons.com)
THE PLOTS THICKEN
Did The New York Times learn nothing from its error-riddled obituary of Walter Cronkite this summer? The famous newsman was 90 years old and in failing health for some time. His obituary should have been in the can for years. And yet there were seven inexcusable errors, which prompted a lengthy correction, which prompted a lame mea culpa from the public editor, which prompted an avalanche of snarky comments from readers. Back to the question, did the newspaper learn from this embarrassment? It did not. The obituary for Charles Gwathmey, who died on August 3 (according to the Times), was revised with a correction regarding the architect’s education. Turns out, that correction was incorrect and therefore had to be corrected. A correction of a correction spun the needle right off Eavesdrop’s Cringe-O-Meter. Read More
Welcome Home Winka
Dubbeldam
We were surprised and delighted Monday upon reading in Page Six (okay, on Curbed, since we only read the Post when we’re feeling kinky) that one of our favorite designers, Winka Dubbeldam of Archi-Tectonics, will be designing a new club in Amsterdam (you know what that means!) for her fellow Dutchwoman Amy Sacco of Bugnalow 8 fame. Not only is this not the best time for clubbing, but now our dear Winka was cooler than ever, even that nifty condo of hers (aren’t they all?) down on Greenwich Street. We wrote Winka with a whole list of queries about renderings, locations, and lurid nightlife tails. Sadly, all we got back was this, presumably in reference to our dreams of a cool, crazy, possibly tropical design: “Not yet 
” For now, then, we’re left with our bated breath to keep us warm on those cold MePa nights. Do save us a spot on the guest list, won’t you Winka?
Brad Pitt Thinks This Is A Game
The $70 million Pitt-Jolie estate in the south of France, which doubles as a stress reliever for the hunky actor. (Courtesy sawf.org)
Or a puzzle. At least that’s what New York mag said the would-be-architect said to Parade mag this weekend. To be more precise:
Architecture is like play to me. As a boy, you play with Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, Legos, and you get interested in how things are made, like cars and drills and all that. Years later you come back around to what interested you as a boy. Now, if I have something that I’m dealing with that’s causing me a lot of stress, my mind goes to architecture. I walk around the yard and start thinking about what I need to do to the house structurally. It’s similar to puzzles in that way, like a crossword puzzle or anything else I can put my mind into. It’s a relief for me.
Eavesdrop NY 13
COOPER SCOOPER
Eavesdrop held a glass to the emergency-exit door of the Cooper-Hewitt and heard rumblings that a ten-member, Smithsonian-led committee was about to announce a new museum director to succeed Paul Warwick Thompson. It sounded as if the committee was down to two candidates—Paola Antonelli and Aaron Betsky. The latter volunteered to a source that he was not in the running, but we think he was merely trying to throw us off the scent. Our olfactory sense is too highly tuned to be distracted. Expect an announcement any minute. Read More
Eavesdrop CA 05
A ROYAL BRUSH-OFF
Condé Nast’s Women’s Wear Daily reports that Jeffrey Nemeroff, Architectural Digest‘s longtime art director, has parted ways with the magazine following a contretemps with editor-in-chief Paige Rense: “Nemeroff, who like much of the magazine’s editorial staff is based in California, is also a painter who recently had a show at the Neuhoff Gallery in New York. In May, New York magazine’s Daily Intel blog reported that Rense had called designers to discourage them from attending Nemeroff’s opening and celebratory dinner. Rense told New York’s Steve Fishman that designers believed Architectural Digest was directly involved and felt pressured to purchase a painting. She also said she had been ‘blindsided’ by the event, though the gallery owner was quoted saying Rense had given the show her blessing months earlier.” Nemeroff is not talking, but others are. A couple of designers told Eavesdrop that “pressure” flows in both directions. They said that Rense “encourages” the inclusion of renowned color-field painter Kenneth Noland’s work in photo shoots for the magazine, and his work has appeared on at least one cover. (Noland is her husband.) Double-standard alert! Read More
Eavesdrop NY 12
The Four Seasons celebrates its 50th. Can you spot Phyllis? (Hint: She's in Canada.) (Courtesy PaperMag.com)
No Room at the In Place?
Eavesdrop was thrilled by a friend’s “plus one” at the June 11 gala celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building. We all know Mies and Philip’s icon, so we’ll skip the background and move on to name-dropping. The 800-person guest list was so diverse we concluded that it must have been gleaned from the reservations book. Read More
A Slat in the Face
Here's another good idea for ya'.
Metropolis contributor Jeff Speck wrote an open letter to Dwell magazine about its “wood-slat” issue. Eavesdrop laughed and laughed, then wondered aloud, “Why no diagonal slats?” You can read the letter after the jump. Read More
Eavesdrop NY 11
Meier In A Box
Pin-Up: Magazine for Architectural Entertainment features Richard Meier in
its Summer 2009 issue. Turns out “architectural entertainment” is not an oxymoron after all, at least not at Pin-Up. Meier poses on the cover with the box containing his $1,800 limited-edition lifetime opus from Taschen. Box placement and the architect’s sheepish grin remind us of that infamous Justin Timberlake/ Andy Samberg SNL video skit. You know the one. It’s that musical DIY about how to create an extremely personal boxed gift. Coincidence, or is Pin-Up just living up to its tagline? Buy the issue and tell us what you think. Buy it now. Read More
Eavesdrop: Bueller? Bueller!
(All photos courtesy Sotheby's)
Part of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986) renown as a classic truancy film and Chicago landmark travelogue is the über-modernist glass and steel house with the disaster-inviting garage from which Ferris launches the priceless 1961 Ferrari belonging to friend Cameron’s father. The house (and garage), of course, is a metaphor for Cameron’s sad and lonely home life. As Ferris, the budding architectural critic, explains to his vaguely suicidal foil, “The place is like a museum. It’s very beautiful and very cold, and you’re not allowed to touch anything.” Read More
Eavesdrop: Conventions Go CABoom
As promised, here’s Sara’s inaugural Eavesdrop ALERT. Have at it.
CA Boom, which grandly bills itself as “North America’s Only Multi-Discipline Non-traditional Design Show,” will be exhibiting for the sixth time over the last weekend in June at a larger venue this year in Beverly Hills. That very same weekend, Dwell Magazine will return to the Los Angeles Convention Center with its own heavily branded trade show, Dwell on Design, billed less grandly as “The West Coast’s Largest Modern Design Event.” An embarrassment of riches or a conundrum for vendors who can’t be in two places at the same time? Read More
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