Ruins to Renaissance
Read morethe power of love + a house = Enchanted Hill
Oh how worlds collide. Ok or, at least how my seemingly endless curiosity with historical details/real estate info. need- -to-know immediately, and ensuing research spiral I’d inserted myself into tends to collide into interesting things. A 6-Degrees- of-Kevin Bacon-like collision-…on to what I would uncover to be Enchanted Hill. Funny enough, I recalled the story whilst watching Columbo. A show I never wanted to watch, yet was convinced to, out of boredom-and of course, I would then become the biggest Columbo fanatic ever. I take notes while watching it- not to learn how to evade criminal activity, but their filming locations were top-tier for an architecture and design obsessive like me. Also, I loved how near every fabulous home, there was always a wet bar! So chic.
Moving on-
I’d take these long walks- hikes, really in LA speak, given the terrain. The hills were very much next level; kids do not trick-or-treat up here, ok? In and up and all around this lovely LA canyon I lived in for 13 years, I walked and walked, often alone and usually to get away from my day-to-day thoughts & general BS that needed to be set aside for some sort of daydreaming and distraction. My wandering and wondering of what the stories of these homes were motivation to keep walking. So many questions I’d ask myself. (or eventually Google) Who lived here? Who did their landscape work? Ok, those are super chic exterior lanterns. Magical landscape lighting! How is that entire linear acre of wall always so pristine white?! or Oof if only they spent a few bucks on non-vinyl window replacements! (cheap windows will aesthetically wreck a house! ) For some of these properties and their outsized price points- truly, such a shame. Maybe I could start a go-fund-me (for them) Why did they choose that nacho cheese or liquid foundation colored hue for their home and top it off with cheesy pre-cast moulding and an out of context set of Ionic columns? Should I leave my card or a note and offer to color consult for them, complimentary? Like a design superhero & savior that just wanted to fight the ugly? This house deserves better! It’s not the residents fault, really. It’s mine. My line of work is a blessing and a curse sometimes. I could go on- I’ll definitely write more about that wildness later.
I digress…This particular story would ultimately write itself and this LA woman would share it with you. One day I decided to lunge my way up to the top of this hill-it was more of a mountain ridge, but I wanted/needed to see where it ended. And good lord, it seemingly never did end, but I had to keep going until then- I needed to know, check the views, check the box and move on, because I’m thorough like that. The journey to the inevitable top did not disappoint, though my lungs had different ideas. I figured as long as I had reception on my mobile, I could chopper out on a Life Flight or something like that, if need be. I get to the top, and this cul-de-sac, peppered with Pines and Palms-typical of the landscaping identity crisis of Beverly Hills/LA area. I arrive to gates. There’s cameras. Ugh. Also typical. I mope my way downhill, knowing I’d have to walk all the way back up the other hill- to the poor section of Bel Air, as I usually referred to it-to my odd ball Mid-Century house at the time. My motivation to get to my desk, due to unresolved curiosity was brisk. Let the research spiral begin.
Enchanted Hill- Looking out to Angelo Drive, Los Angeles
So, how is it that storied architect Wallace Neff, 1920’s era actress Mary Pickford, wildly successful Oscar winning screenwriter Frances Marion, one-time man of the cloth-turned- military serviceman-turned silent film actor Fred Thomson, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Google tech titan Eric Schmidt and yours truly, come crashing together? How?
ENCHANTED HILL. That’s how. The house was a love story. Prolific screenwriter of the silent film era, Frances Marion and her dashing husband, cowboy actor Fred Thomson- who met through late actress Mary Pickford (we need to talk about Pickfair! ) and within 10 days, were planning their wedding. One could suppose this is a case of when you know, you know. It would be her 3rd marriage at that point, she was 31 years old, so she had to know, right? The lovebirds initially lived in a modest Hancock Park area home, and as their love and success grew, so did their aspirations for building quite the compound.
High up Angelo Drive, the dynamic duo commissioned a striking and unbelievably sprawling Wallace Neff designed estate, complete with mahogany floored stables, lodging for the stable hands, two riding rings, a 100 foot pool, guest cottages, an aviary and 5 acres of LAWN, perfectly laid upon what would eventually encompass 120 acres, on top of Beverly Hills. They would entertain friends and folks from all walks of life from artists to scientists, actors and explorers, to the random bon vivant and socialite. Of course it would appear in Architectural Digest. The AD publication was also born in Los Angeles, and does not exactly resemble the publication it is today, though it was quite impressive in those early years, as their archives will show.
Dreamy.
Enchanted Hill- apparently named by Greta Garbo, of course- fun, maybe fact either way. The architecture, design and grounds were incredible, lush and so romantic. The property can be entered through either Angelo Drive or Benedict Canyon. If you look at the map, you can see the terrain. As a younger lady, even after moving from Pasadena, I was a Volunteer with the Pasadena Heritage Society (I feel like it was previously called Historical Society?) and was thrilled to host a Wallace Neff home tour. The large, well-appointed Pasadena Neff home suddenly feels like a guest house compared to the scale of the Neff created, Enchanted Hill. The wonderful and enthusiastic group of Volunteers-many of which were several decades ahead of me, thought I was a bit of an odd-bird for wanting to hang out with them and do this, instead of beer pong or silliness, with people my own age! The beauty of Pasadena, California remains in my heart and on my mind- there’s an unbelievable amount of Architectural gold there. I am never, not impressed, every time I go back. I’ll get around to writing more about it one of these days…
Enchanted Hill, Angelo Drive Los Angeles/Beverly Hills
Back to the story!
Of course, all fairy tales do not have the happy ending we all want to hear. After nearly 10 years together, and just 3 years at this glorious estate, at only 38 years old, Fred Thomson stepped on a rusty nail, fell ill and passed away on Christmas Day 1928, from Tetanus. Frances would put the property up for sale within weeks. How could she possibly live there and not feel devastated at every turn? The beauty is what they built, together. So heartbreaking. It sold for $540,000 which was pretty hefty for 1929, to Oilman Legene S.Barnes, and later to Inventor Paul Kollsman in 1945, then finally sold to Paul Allen for $20,000,000 in 1997.
It keeps going…The entire property was completely and totally demolished by the late Paul Allen and has remained barren, save for a new road since. Why would he or anyone do such a thing? Heartbreak, beyond! A loving restoration, honoring this unbelievably rare property, was what should have happened, and clearly did not. It was more recently purchased in 2021 by Eric Schmidt at a discounted rate of $65million.-quite the steal as it was initially listed for $150 million…Of course, I remain deeply curious what the vision might be for the newest iteration of this spectacular property. All of this from a curious walk of mine! There is a story about a 6 degree connection to this place, but as long as certain parties remain alive and well, I’m going to have to annoy you and keep it to myself, until then!
New owner Mr. Schmidt can certainly ring Foundation Studio for a thoughtful envisioning of this property-I’d be delighted to assemble the troops and tackle this one. Maybe just like a break-up, its broken and you can’t go back. Until then, I think we can call it Disenchanted Hill… for now. A new love story is always possible!
A few others have written a bit about this property and a fantastic post by Writer Steve Vaught wrote a lovely article that is very well done. The loads of comments by very interesting people, really get into close and personal details about the property, as a real bonus. https://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/lost-hollywood-the-enchanted-hill-of-fred-thomson-and-frances-marion/
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Marion
Youtube -Enchanted Hill for sale
smokin h o t swedes 🔥
We are in March and its pretty chilly in Los Angeles-the rain has been relentless! The rest of the world laughs, as we Angelenos suffer with 40°weather. Its actually insanity in this neck of the woods. Freezing, really. What more could be done, except stay holed-up indoors and internet spiral on all things warm. Or hot.
I fall in love with the Swedish stoves, naturally. Kakelugn, specifically. Not available at Ikea & of course we’ll never (legally) have them in California, as they have banned wood/gas burning anything. sad. But everywhere else, I do believe you can and should swing one of these beauties and tuck them in somewhere in your space.
Interestingly enough, they are incredibly fast and efficient at warming a space, using the most minimal amount of wood and intelligent infrastructure. These beauties were born out of a crisis-often times the case with many things great. Inspiration or desperations pivotal. No pressure, no diamonds, right?
In the 1700’s the forests in North Eastern Europe were near depleted and a wood shortage was a big problem for a truly chilly climate. In 1767, Swedish King Adolf Frederick (interesting story with that man…) held a contest of sorts- the winner and whiz was Carl Johan Cronstedt, an architect, redeveloped the traditional warming stove and made these gems 10x more efficient than the old stoves. One tiny fire and a few pieces of wood, would warm the space for half the day! The beauty of ceramic, is that it holds the heat-vs. a fireplace, where the majority exists through the chimney.That and the zig-zagging of the interior structure that slows the heat movement.The next level beauty is the gorgeous and vibrant tiles that decorated these stoves- outlasting any plaster or wallpaper finish. Fabulous florals, classic blue and white, saturated pigments, brass and gold details and more- see below! When central heating moved in, the Kakelugn, largely moved out. Many of the old estates and handfuls of homes still have these in place and working. a spiral of your own is absolutely approved. While a trip to Scandinavian regions would be dreamy, you can see examples of these in Minneapolis-naturally, as there is a pretty large community of Swedish Americans! The ASI- American Swedish Institute has the largest collection of Kakelugn in North America, all housed in the most charming Turnblad Mansion, turned museum.Wonder if they have Swedish pastries hanging around…If you’re in the market for one, www.gabrielkakelugnar.com (a few of their lovelies below!) is a seemingly authentic source in Sweden and in the US,New York based retailer, www.nycfireplacestore.com has some pretty ceramic stove options as well.
If you’re looking for a place to stay and experience one authentically, the Eta Hem in Stockholm is looking like a stellar choice! www.etthem.se Designed by Ilse Crawford/photo by Paul Massey
Ett Hem Hotel/ Ilse Crawford. photo by Paul Massey
doing it all for the N O O K-ie-the Office Edition, inspired by home. And Carlo Scarpa.
Nooks. Alcoves. Secret spaces and funny places. Los Angeles has loads of amazing character riddled homes and apartments with lots of charming nooks and prohibition era hidden bars and hiding places. I cannot get enough! My own home still has a dairy delivery door bill into the wall near my front door. You could turn the dial and order cream, milk, cottage cheese and more- obviously Uber Eats or GrubHub doesn’t deliver to that lil cubby, but its fun to have a historical element like that to amuse me.
When it came time to embark on a massive renovation for our newly acquired Offices & Studio space in Beverly Hills, the possibilities, spiraling, fully commenced. The nook and alcove love withstanding, it started specifically with Architect Carlo Scarpa. Funny enough a curved wall opening from his Venice project- Tomba Brion set me off. Its in a cemetery for the Brion family + sits next to the municipal cemetery in Venice Italy. The curved-(not ached!), Asian inspired (Oriental was written historically),organic opening, see below, really got me going for inspiration for the nook to come.
With our space being housed in a late 1930’s commercial building- with its original Art Deco beginnings(-how it started-) yet restrained industrial/ WW11 era primary and final aesthetic, (- how it ended-) the gilded and opulent full on Art Deco look wasn’t going to feel correct. I leaned into the industrial look, yet needed more for the space, to create division, cozy spots and places for co-workers and clients to break away. NOT a fan of open concept spaces, especially at work! Have you ever tried being on the phone or even concentrating while someone is next to you carrying on? Just, no. I wanted to separate my own office room and create a lounge nook or maybe even put a daybed with library shelving flanking either side that particular room of the Studio. So a room, within a room, within yet another room! Ala’ Scarpa.
I was recently in New York at the Guggenheim and was stunned to see another similar silhouette…Frank Lloyd Wright. The Reading Room. Curves on Curves. So now it is set- I kind of need to go in this direction, now that the worst part of the renovation is over. I hope.
Now more than ever, as we are moving back into the office, we want our office space to feel kind of home-like. Minus the typical home life and neighbor sounds, but keeping with many of the comfortable features. Cozy lounge areas, not so aggressive lighting, natural light, places other than desks to work & chat with clients and vendors. No systems furniture in sight for me- if you can help it, lucky you. Home is where the heart is and you can bring a little(or a lot) of that to the workspace!
I’ll upload the images and renderings of the FS H.Q. in a couple of days- max!
#foundationstudiola #beverlyhills #officedesign #workabledesign #workplacedesign #justsaynotostystemsfurniture #cozyoffice
Toile/Tone on Tone/Tansey
The connection with art and home has long been a thing for me. Art is the lipstick & the frosting for spaces and places!
You NEED both. Lipstick. Frosting.✔️➕ (proverbial, relax)
I am and have always been into Toile. The Traditional and the funky ones- even with the Traditional Toiles, there’s always something a little cheeky going on. I think it can be very modern or traditional- its all in the application.Of course, not all toiles are created tone on tone or TOT, but in these examples, that is where I’m going.
f o c u s
There’s also a consistent theme of tone on tone…monochromatic if you please- the previous post of my DIY florals shall confirm this! Something just works when you go the TOT route. The dot connector this case with the art is Mark Tansey- an artist whose work I’ve long admired and first gazed upon at the Broad in Los Angeles; he has also exhibited at the Gagosian. His signature style is in one hue or tone and it makes me bananas! His pieces go for mega cha-ching, so I will carry on with Toile + TOT until that unicorn client with Tansey art in their collection shows up to our studio needing our niche expertise in this area!
The first row is artist Mark Tansey magic Take a look! (*also I realize I cannot take a straight picture for the life of me-you’ll still get the idea though)
(2) Toile goodness from Mulberry in Torridon Teal used in a recent project- had to settle on the powder room/ washroom, but it went EVERYWHERE. I even put it on the ceiling. Go big or go home, ok? Also, this is an iPhone shot & I did not style this nor approve the florals or jazz on the counters. The deer hook (from Rejuvenation), yes. The lighting (from Perigold), also yes.
Various Toiles that um, spark joy: Timorous Beasties, Mind the Gap, Schumacher, Lee Jofa, Flavor Paper, Thibaut, Gucci + some vintage goodness…
In the valley below: Animated Toile Art by Brigette Zieger. Projecting this on the wall. Or maybe just Apple TV it on the bigger screen. Maybe from 10 years ago? but hasn’t left my thoughts…xxj
#toile #toneontone #tot #tansey #marktansey #art #artfulhome #foundationstudio #thebroad #gagosian #mulberry #wallpaper #torridonteal #brigettezieger#thibaut #gucciwallpaper #timorousbeasties #mindthegap
because I’m that extra: Toile art by Brigette Zieger. #toile #toileobsession #cantstopwontstop
tone on tone! the floral edition
Want to know the easiest way to make your floral arrangements look super pro (and not cost an arm & a leg!)? You gotta go with tone on tone. I cant always make my floral orders from the grower on time or even get to the Flower Mart in DTLA when I want- (event planning aside!) but my no fail approach is always to go tone on tone. (aka TOT) Pick one color for your arrangements and you literally cannot go wrong. If you have Cabernet colored Dahlias, add fillers and smaller florals in reds or even a little pink- its in the tone family! Sometimes I do a bunch of greens and call it a day. Or 1 type of flower only. Sometimes I go purist and stick to light or white. Or I just pick one color and do the greens in various tones! Add fruit! Figs, Grapes, Kumquats! Sculptural and non-fussy is a typical vibe for me.
I have bought flora and fauna at Trader Joes many times and pulled off some super chic looks. Just don’t skimp on quantity or your arrangement will look… skimpy. One bunch is never enough. Generally 2-3 bundles of the flowers and about the same for the filler. Consider the opening size of your vase or vessel and purchase accordingly- or bring it with you to the store if you’re not sure! Take a look at the pics of some of the easy+ simple floral creations I’ve made. Some are from styling sets, events, my showroom & studio, some are at home- and 1/2 of them are flowers and fillers bought from Trader Joes, Gelsons or Bristol Farms! You got this xxj
#toneontone #tot #floralarrangements #diyflorist #proflowers
feeling the look, concretely
self proclaimed ‘outsider’ Architect, Ricardo Bofills {massive} family home/design studio-converted from an abandoned cement factory-just outside of Barcelona is landmark level. Perhaps more recently known for his futuristic/Squid Games meets Minecraft style of architecture, this is probably my favorite project. He passed away this year at the age of 82, but clearly the the magic lives on. I’d say this qualifies for a rather solid adaptive reuse project! e x c e l l e n c e xxj
Photos: Salva Lopez
#architectureofspain #placeswelove #adaptivereuse #modernarchitecture #spain #espana
the bathroom bender continues...
Never really done with research when it comes to design…its ongoing! This round is a bit more moody & masculine and it is working! But down the Pinterest spiral we went, looking for standout looks we love. White is always easy, but is it fun? One needn’t go all out with maximal everything, (though maximal fun!) selecting one standout element is a-ok -that one element can easily make an impact; be it the tub, vanity, tiles, countertops, backsplash or lighting, the creative freedom is endless.
