April 14, 2020 | Stephanie Booth Shafran
Author and Los Angeles Tastemaker and Hostess
“Brilliantly Executed parties at Home”
Book: You’re Invited: Classic, Elegant Entertaining
March 10, 2020 | Carmela Spinelli
Fashion Historian, Savannah College of Art and Design
“The History of Black in Fashion”
February 11, 2020 | Kathryn Herman
Principal, Kathryn Herman Design
“The Allure of the Garden”
October 8, 2019 | Madeline Stuart
Interior Designer
“Restoring a Modern Masterpiece; The Cedric Gibbons/Delores del Rio House”
Book: No Place Like Home
Madeline Stuart is a leading member of the Los Angeles design community whose wide-ranging clientele comes from the entertainment industry and the world of business and finance. Equally at ease designing a 1920’s Hollywood hacienda, a Fifth Avenue Manhattan apartment or a Rocky Mountain retreat, Stuart stresses, above all else, the fundamental marriage of integrity and beauty. Her projects reflect a collaborative relationship between architecture and furniture, function and form, client and designer.
Her elegant decorating is predicated on the notion of timeless design, be it modernist or traditional in inspiration. Each project is informed by Stuart’s keen understanding of history and craftsmanship. To all her homes she brings grace, scale, proportion, and balance. These features, along with her unexpected combinations of furniture, fine-art, and decorative elements, result in richly layered interiors that feel authentic to their period and place, while always remaining relevant, modern and beautiful.
A significant portion of the firm’s work focuses on architectural restoration and remodeling. Having established a reputation for meticulous attention to the myriad details of interior and exterior architecture, Ms. Stuart’s firm has been responsible for reversing years of neglect and damage to properties originally built by such well-regarded architects as Sylvanus Marston, Paul Williams, John Elgin Woolf, and Gerald Colcord.
Over the past 25 years, the work of Madeline Stuart & Associates has been featured in numerous publications including, Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, House & Garden, House Beautiful, Town & Country, and Veranda. The firm has been distinguished by its inclusion on the AD100, Architectural Digest‘s prestigious list of the top 100 design & architecture firms. In 2010, the inaugural debut of Elle Décor’s A-List featured Madeline as one of the leading 25 designers in the country, and the firm has been on ED’s list ever since. In 2006 she was awarded the Star of Design by the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles.
The firm recently completed an extensive restoration of the iconic Cedric Gibbons/Delores Del Rio house as well as a ground up residence influenced by the architecture of Greene & Greene.
MSA is currently working on a significant project in La Jolla, to be designed in the Hispano Moresque style. Other projects include a contemporary glass house in Montecito, the restoration of a historic residence in Pasadena and a beach house in Seaside, Florida.
No Place Like Home, published by Rizzoli, is the first book from Madeline, who writes with insight and wit about her design process on eight distinctive projects, from initial vision to execution.
Ms. Stuart lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband, writer Steve Oney, and Beatrice and Mr. Peabody, professional Jack Russell terriers.
November 12, 2019 | Timothy Corrigan
Interior Designer
“The New Elegance: Stylish, Comfortable Rooms for Today”
Books: The New Elegance: Stylish, Comfortable Rooms for Today and An Invitation to Chateau du Grand Luce
April 9, 2019 | Tichenor & Thorp
Architects
Designing from the Outside In
The husband-and-wife team of M. Brian Tichenor and Raun Thorp founded their namesake, multi-discipline, Los Angeles-based design practice in 1990. Since then, they and their talented, dedicated staff have completed more than 400 projects nationwide and are currently designing the new Los Angeles Times headquarters amongst many other projects. In 2017, Vendome Press published the pair’s first book, Outside In: The Gardens and Houses of Tichenor & Thorp.
Tichenor and Thorp emphasize craft. Licensed architects and AIA members, they are fluent in all aspects of the building arts, history, and precedents of American architecture. The firm is widely recognized for original, artful designs in both its residential and commercial projects which beautifully integrate large-scale structures and their surrounding landscapes. The partners deftly parlay traditional Mediterranean and American vernaculars and the modern forms of the California Tradition into gracious, supremely functional, luxuriously detailed environments. Equally adept at both historic preservation and restoration, they also undertake the occasional interiors project.
Currently on the boards are large-scale residential projects ranging from Brentwood, Carmel and Pebble Beach, to Malibu, Laguna Beach, Santa Barbara, and the Santa Ynez Valley. Major commercial projects include the design for the new Los Angeles Times headquarters, the expansion of NantWorks’ Culver City and El Segundo campuses, and The Chan Soon-Shiong Institute for Medicine at Mariposa.
Tichenor & Thorp gained an early reputation for sensitive, highly informed restorations of historically significant houses and landmark commercial structures by such noted California architects as Paul R. Williams, Gregory Ain, Roland Coate, John Byers, H. Roy Kelly, and Harwell Hamilton Harris. Memorable projects in this area of expertise include the Cecil B. DeMille residence (recently purchased by Angelina Jolie); the former William Powell Estate (now owned by designer Kelly Wearstler and her husband Brad Korzen); and Hollywood’s landmark Capitol Records building and grounds.
Native Californians, Tichenor and Thorp both received their Masters’ in Architecture from UCLA. Prior to co-founding Tichenor & Thorp, Tichenor worked as a project designer and manager for Moore Ruble Yudell. As a joint venture partner with landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power, he subsequently completed more than 100 gardens worldwide. Currently on the faculty of USC’s School of Architecture, Tichenor is a Fellow of the Garden Conservancy and actively involved with The Cultural Landscape Foundation. He has lectured at the Los Angeles Conservancy, The Huntington Library and Gardens, and The Society of Architectural Historians, among others. His renderings have been widely published and exhibited at the Cooper Hewitt Museum and Max Protech Gallery, among other prestigious venues. Tichenor holds a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from UC Santa Barbara.
Thorp, in tandem to her multi-faceted design work, oversees the firm’s interiors department, business development and operations. Additionally, she heads Venue 66, a flexible events venue in the storied La Cachette restaurant space, housed on the ground floor of the firm’s own recently completed office building, near Century City. Currently on the Board of Directors of Big Sunday, a national non-profit, she is a Fellow of the Garden Conservancy, and a member of The Society of Architectural Historians, The Los Angeles Conservancy, and Las Doñas at UCLA. Thorp also served for many years on the South Carthay Historic Preservation Board. Prior to co-founding Tichenor & Thorp, she worked with several noted architectural firms, including The Russell Group Architects, Moore Ruble Yudell and Peter and Allison Smithson. Thorp holds a Bachelor’s degree from Bryn Mawr College in The Growth and Structure of Cities.
Among its recent accolades, Tichenor & Thorp Architects received Big Sunday’s distinguished honoree award for the national non-profit’s Second Annual Gala in 2017. The award-winning firm’s work has been featured in numerous publications such as The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Architectural Digest, Town & Country, House Beautiful, and Elle Decor, as well as on various television shows. Completed projects have also appeared in more than 20 published books, including Fisher Weisman’s Artful Decoration, Douglas Wood’s The California Casa (Introduction by Brian Tichenor), Classic Homes of Los Angeles, Paul R. Williams: Classic Hollywood Style, and Suzanne Rheinstein’s At Home.
photos courtesy of Tichenor & Thorp Architects
*Cancelled: April 9, 2019 | Carolyne Roehm
Style Icon and Lifestyle Maven
Carolyne Roehm: Design & Style: A Constant Thread
*Due to unforeseen circumstances, Carolyne Roehm has had to cancel the remainder of her book tour and will not be able to present at the Decorative Arts Society April lecture. We’re pleased to announce that Tichenor and Thorp Architects will take her place as speaker for this date. We look forward to seeing you soon.
Carolyne Roehm’s bestselling lifestyle titles have been a source of inspiration, pleasure, and education for thousands of readers. Now for the first time, she shares lessons from her life in style, from her small town Missouri childhood to her New York fashion career that began with Oscar de la Renta and culminated with her eponymous line, to her role as an author, hostess, and tastemaker in her thirteenth book Design & Style: A Constant Thread.
Roehm reminisces on the influential figures from her past, including her grandmother, who sewed beautifully and ran a successful shop; her mother, who taught her that women need clothes to suit the many roles they have to play; and her mentor, Oscar de la Renta, from whom she learned the fashion business. Roehm tells the story of launching, running, and ultimately, closing her own fashion line, and her subsequent reinvention through books, gardening, entertaining, and décor. Through it all, she shows how the constant threads of character and creativity, and a passion for nature, color, quality, and classicism have informed her work and style, and, ultimately, transformed her life.
Sharing both iconic and never-before-seen photographs, Roehm reveals her creative process through images of her interiors, floral design, and tabletops juxtaposed with stunning photos of herself, her home, and her clothing to reveal the true source of inspiration behind her style and fashion aesthetic. Design & Style is a truly original work that interweaves memoir and universal lifestyle lessons resulting in an inspirational book for her legion of devoted followers.
About the Author: Style icon and lifestyle maven, Carolyne Roehm has been a part of American design culture for more than four decades, with a storied career spanning the world of fashion, decorative arts, gardening, entertaining, and publishing. Finding a mentor in Oscar de la Renta, Roehm worked alongside the couture great for ten years before launching her own fashion house in 1985. A discerning eye and passion for beauty led her into the world of flowers, where her books on the subject have been hailed as the best in their field. She is the author of thirteen books, including Flowersand At Home with Carolyne Roehm, which have cemented her position as one of America’s lifestyle experts. A former president of the Council of Fashion Designers in America, with appearances in both the Who’s Who of Women in America and the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame, she has been honored by Manolo Blahnik with a show in her name, and hailed by the late design legend Bill Blass as “the ultimate tastemaker.”She is a frequent lecturer at garden clubs, botanical gardens, junior leagues, and women’s organizations. She divides time among her homes in Manhattan, Connecticut, and Charleston.
Design & Style: A Constant Thread by Carolyne Roehm, Rizzoli, 2018. www.rizzoliusa.com
Books by Carolyne Roehm: At Home in the Garden, Flowers, A Passion for Interiors,A Passion for Blue & White, A Passion for Parties,Presentations, At Home with Carolyne Roehm, Summer Notebook, Fall Notebook, Winter Notebook, Spring Notebookand A Passion for Flowers.
March 12, 2019 | Lea C. Lane
Curatorial Assistant, Decorative Arts and Design, Cincinnati Art Museum
“Of the People: Folk Art in America”
Kentucky native Lea C. Lane is a specialist in American folk art. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Virginia, she worked for Dr. Wesley Cowan, a celebrated folk art authority, Americana auctioneer, and Antiques Roadshow appraiser. Lea earned her Master’s degree from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, where she authored an award-winning thesis, A Marvel of Taste and Skill: Carved Pipes of the American Civil War. Through positions at the Winterthur Museum, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, and her current work at the Cincinnati Art Museum, Lea has continued to research, lecture, and publish. Her projects have ranged from English embroidery to contemporary Japanese ceramics, but Lea is most passionate about sharing the rich story of folk art in America.
Portrait of Amanda Clayanna Armstrong, Asa Ames, Evans, New York, 1847
Blanket Chest, Johannes Spitler, Shenandoah County, Virginia, 1800-1805
Sand Art Bottle: From Nannie to Nellie, Andrew Clemens, McGregor, Iowa, July 27, 1883
The Peaceable Kingdom, Edward Hicks, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1844
Housetop Quilt, Rita Mae Pettway, Gee’s Bend, Alabama, ca. 1990
February 12, 2019 | Gil Schafer III
Architect
“Creating Places to Call Home: How Tradition, Style and Memory Can Inspire Ways of Living”
Award-winning architect Gil Schafer III, AIA has focused his career on residential projects for more than 25 years. Prior to establishing G. P. Schafer Architect, PLLC in 2002, Gil worked in several distinguished traditional residential architecture practices including Ferguson Murray & Shamamian Architects, where he remained for nearly a decade, and worked on large-scale projects around the country, in places including Tulsa, Palm Beach, and Nashville. Over the last twenty years, Gil’s work has involved him in projects in numerous and varied locations around the country including New York, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Vermont; and in scales ranging from under 1,000 square feet to nearly 40,000 square feet.
The grandson and great, great grandson of architects, Gil grew up with a strong sense of how a well-built, thoughtfully-designed home can bring pleasure to daily life. Over the course of his childhood he was fortunate to be exposed to life in a variety of places, including the Midwest, the Northeast, Georgia, California and the Bahamas, each contributing to his sense of what makes places unique and how architectural traditions and lifestyle are influenced by context.
Following undergraduate studies in Growth & Structure of Cities at Haverford College and its sister institution Bryn Mawr, Gil graduated from Yale School of Architecture with a Masters Degree in 1988. While at Yale, Gil studied under several noted practitioners including Thomas Beeby, Robert Venturi, Josef Kleihues, Frank Gehry, and Benard Tschumi and was the recipient of the H. I. Feldman Prize, Yale’s highest honor for studio work, in his final semester.
In addition to his architectural practice, Gil lectures around the country on the relevance and livability of traditional residential architecture today and is the author of bestselling books, A Place to Call Home and The Great American House. He is a member of Architectural Digest’s AD100 and winner of Veranda’s “Art of Design Award.” His work and the firm’s projects have been widely published both here in the U. S. and abroad in both magazines and newspapers, including Architectural Digest, Elle Décor, House Beautiful, Veranda, Town & Country, Country Life, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, among many others.
Gil serves on several non-profit boards and advisory councils, including the Yale School of Architecture’s Dean’s Council, the Dutchess Land Conservancy, and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello. He lives in New York City and the Hudson Valley.
photos via G. P. Schafer Architect
November 13, 2018 | Constance (CeCe) Haydock
Landscape Architect
Let Them Eat Flowers: The Gardens of Paris
Paris gardens were originally inspired by the classical and romantic styles found in Italy and England. Over the past two hundred years, designers have created a uniquely Parisian look to the gardens, as they have become a cultural way of life. Today, Paris boasts of more than 400 private and public gardens, each one appreciated for its distinct place in the fabric of the city.
The tour will begin with such well-known parks as Luxembourg, Tuileries and Bagatelle, smaller gardens such as Monceau, Rodin, and Carnavalet, and also a few surprises such as Promenade du Plantee, Hotel du Sully and Mosque du Paris.
In Paris, a park is almost never a mere plot of grass reserved for leisure, and a garden is rarely a random selection of flowers and plants. Parisians pride themselves in making their city’s parks and gardens places of elegance, artistic detail, and symmetry– even the romantic gardens have been carefully planned to imitate nature.
CeCe Haydock is a graduate of Princeton University (BA English), and received her masters degree in Landscape Architecture from the SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry. After working for the New York City Parks Department, she worked for the firm, Innocenti and Webel in Locust Valley, NY, before starting her own practice, Constance T. Haydock, Landscape Architect, P.C. For the past 25 years, she has been working on predominately residential projects, as well as municipal parks and commercial sites. After completing her research on Edith Wharton and Roman villas in 2007 at the American Academy in Rome, she has lectured on the topic for Planting Fields, Princeton University, Hutton House (LI University) and numerous colleges and garden clubs. In 2010, she visited more than 25 gardens in and around Paris, and gave the warm-up lecture to the 2011 Philadelphia Flower Show “Springtime in Paris.
In addition, she is an adjunct professor at Long Island University, a guest lecturer at the New York Botanical Garden and Farmingdale State University (New York), and a vice-president of Planting Fields Arboretum Foundation, Oyster Bay NY, and a member of the International Council of the Preservation Society of Newport (Rhode Island) County. A LEED and SITES AP, she is collaborator with the firm Studioverde, which focuses on landscape sustainability.
photos: Constance T. Haydock