La Jolla

One of my absolute favorite places to visit in the US is La Jolla, California.  This coastal town has just about everything -  luxury hotels, incredible beaches, great shopping and sophisticated restaurants.   If you want to be active there is incredible golfing, surfing, tennis and hiking. I particularly enjoyed playing Torrey Pines which has got to be the most amazing municipal golf course in the US.

It is often hard to find a vacation that provides a blend of  outdoor adventure,  spa like accommodations and cultural activities.  This destination really has something for everyone.   So, if your summer vacation plans are still up in the air, you now have my hearty recommendation.

Here are some photos to give you a glimpse of what LaJolla has to offer.

Torrey Pines

Hotel Parisi

San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art – La Jolla

Black’s Beach

Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery La Jolla

Have you been to La Jolla?  Let us know what you think.

Design Boston

While I am relatively new to the Boston blogging world Gradon Tripp has been blogging about the Boston design scene for over three and a half years.  Gradon’s blog Design Boston talks about all types of design work going on in Boston - be it interior design, art, graphic design and product design to name a few.  If you read his blog you will have a firm grip on what is going on in the Hub’s design community.  I found a  recent post where Gradon writes about his projection that the Boston design scene is about to experience a revolution. 

Here is what he had to say:

In last Sunday’s Boston Globe, Dushko Petrovich explored how Boston could find itself as the home of a new art revolution. In his essay, Dushko cites all that Boston has going for it: “several great museums, a superabundance of universities, many galleries, a highly educated and increasingly sophisticated audience, and a density that allows for the most important element in cultural life: interaction between creative people.” Dushko makes a pretty convincing job that this revolution is right around the corner, and he’s right. Kind of.

Kind of, because it’s not an art revolution that’s coming, but a design one. It’s been brewing for a while.

In 2006, the public was just starting to educate itself on design. ApartmentTherapy, DesignSponge, sfgirlbybayand others were showcasing creations coming out of New York and San Francisco. Boston had a large, energetic design scene, but people outside of the city thought it was a quaint, stodgy old town, not giving it the attention it deserved. I started DesignBoston to help get that conversation going. Three and a half years later — whether its architecture, interior-, product-, graphic deisgn or more — if you’re offering unique, thoughtful, innovative creations, we want to share it.

Click here to read the entire post.

Do you think Gradon is right?  Do you see evidence that the Boston design scene is coming on strong?

Bay Area Beauty

I loved this San Francisco apartment recently featured in Architectural Digest.  The designer skillfully balanced the needs of the homeowner’s  family demands  and their need to express their style.  Also, the collaboration between the designer and the couple in choosing interesting Asian art and antiques results in a home that is personal and beautifully designed. 

 

Like airports and railway stations, residences can be points of departure for life’s grand adventures. For a couple from Manhattan, she a psychotherapist and he a real estate attorney, the purchase of a 1,670-square-foot condominium overlooking the hills in San Francisco has been a chance to explore the city’s Pacific Rim culture and, perhaps more significantly, the terrain of the heart.

The couple was ready for “a new place and a new role for ourselves as grandparents,” the wife says of their decision to put down roots near their young grandchildren in San Francisco. (They commute from their primary residence in New York.) “We love the topography and ease of life, the Asian vibe. We wanted the residence to be emblematic of who we were in San Francisco.”

Longtime connoisseurs of contemporary art and architecture, the couple asked for a sophisticated apartment for themselves that would also function as a warm gathering spot for the extended family. “The Asian aesthetic is very sympathetic to ours,” the husband explains. “It’s all about simplicity, line and form.”

Of course, every difficult expedition needs a Sherpa. The couple, who “even deliberate on where to go to dinner,” says the wife, are still amazed by how easily they settled on The Wiseman Group and senior designer Judy McBride. They had researched the firm and admired the model apartments and interior fittings that Paul Vincent Wiseman had designed for the St. Regis Residences, where they now occupy a prime floor. Perhaps it was that fabled Bay Area karma.

“Their thing is modern,” says McBride, whose first in-depth design meeting with her well-traveled clients was held at the VIP lounge at San Francisco International Airport. “But this residence is about moving west, closer to Asia.”

For those desirous of architectural detail (and who isn’t?), even the most luxurious modern building can pose challenges. Here, the thorny issues were low ceilings and a structural beam beneath the windows running the entire length of the apartment. “It was tricky,” says Wiseman. “We wanted something bold yet simple.”

His solution took the form of a series of cantilevered alderwood shelves with Asian-inspired joinery and bronze hardware—a contemporary abstraction of the traditional Japanese tansu. The shelves visually anchor the interiors and, in the master bedroom, appear to float to the window’s edge. To further frame and define the space, The Wiseman Group designed a room divider between the master bedroom and the den that functions as a set of doors but reads like a paneled wall, establishing a strong architectural presence. “There was no detailing,” observes Wiseman. “So we had to create it.”

McBride and the couple scoured the Bay Area in search of fine Chinese and Japanese objects and works by Bay Area artists—expeditions that took them from Sausalito to Jackson Square. “We had a lot of fun going to places with Judy,” the wife recalls. “This whole new ancient world opened up to us.”

Click here to view the entire article.

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