LA Home - Launch Issue

LA HOME /

LAUNCH ISSUE

$6.99 | LAUNCH ISSUE 2015

HOME + LIFE IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

MOBY KISHANI PERERA

MEGAN WEAVER

MAURICIO UMANSKY & BILLY ROSE

Contents 10/TRENDING

What’s hot in this season’s home decor.

12/MORE COFFEE ALFRED Alfred coffee shops are creating quite a heady buzz.

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20

Welcome to Los Angeles. Moment Factory is the company behind the jaw-dropping, interactive graphics which greet visitors at the LAX international terminal.

Megan Weaver from Bravo’s Flipping Out at her Los Angeles home.

A DREAM STATE

FLIPPING OUT h

HOME

27/THOMAS LAVIN A conversation with the man behind one of the most prolific showrooms of contemporary furniture, furnishings and art in Los Angeles.

34/KISHANI PERERA The interior designer to many Hollywood stars has an eclectic and vintage specialty.

40/CORY PERNICANO A tour of the Mid-City home of the Design Director of the Pacific Design Center.

45/AN ORGANIC TREE HOUSE The next generation of tree house is organic and contemporary.

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47 i MOBY

The iconic musician talks about his new album, downsizing and the environment.

REAL ESTAT E

74/OAK PASS ROAD A stunning contemporary home which sits atop a ridge in Beverly Hills, amongst 130 oak trees.

78/GARY GOLD The Vice President of Hilton & Hyland discusses changes in real estate over the last two decades.

86/NICK COLLINS Pacific Palisades insights by long time resident and realtor, Nick Collins.

92/SECRET PLACES Realtors reveal their favorite places in Los Angeles.

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66

Celebrating the repeal of Prohibition, the 1933 Group creates vintage themed bars.

The Agency is challenging the status quo in real estate.

A FINE VINTAGE h

AGENTS OF CHANGE i

LIFE

93/OUR FAIR CITY After a long hiatus, the World Fair is set to come to Los Angeles in 2022.

96/PACIFIC DESIGN CENTER More than just a trio of primary colored landmarks, the PDC has designs on becoming the cultural center for creatives.

102/JULES MUCK The street artist retains her integrity as she becomes part of the establishment.

104/ADAM DE BOER A travelling artist translates the culture of each country he visits into his artwork.

106/PHOTOGRAPHY LA life through the lens of an amateur photographer.

108/TECH Technology in home design.

110/THE ART OF ORGANIZING Amy Suddleson helps declutter your life and home.

112/LANDMARKS A slice of history.

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LA/HOME E D I TO R I A L Publisher Andy Waldman/andy@lahomemag.com Editor-in-Chief Mark Castellino/mark@lahomemag.com Managing Editor Jacqueline Gunn/jacqueline@lahomemag.com Tech Editor Jenna Atchison/jenna@lahomemag.com Design Editors Cory Pernicano Erin Castellino CON TR I B U TOR S Photographers Dhrumil Desai Benjamin Ariff Priscilla Rodriguez Mara Breene Videographers Sally Colon-Petree Dalen Muster Writers Matthew Shaww Josh Byron-Lee Preston Schlegel Adam Mefford I N QU I R I ES Advertising & Subscriptions: hello@lahomemag.com Submissions: editor@lahomemag.com Events: events@lahomemag.com

LA HOME is printed 4 times a year by Focus Media Agency, ISSN 2378-5381, and is available on newsstands, and also strategically placed in upscale locations throughout Los Angeles.

FOCUS MEDIA AGENCY 149 S. Barrington Ave #178 Los Angeles CA 90049 All rights reserved. LA HOME is published by Focus Media Agency. No articles, illustrations, photographs, any other editorial matter or advertisements herein may be reproduced without permission of the copyright owner.

Focus Media Agency does not take responsibility for the claims provided herein.

Cover photo: Dhrumil Desai

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Who, What,

STYLE

DINING

FITNESS

INTERVIEWS

PERFORMANCE

ART

DECEMBER 2013 focusmag.us

COMMUNITY POWERED

HANGING OUT WITH ACTRESS NICOLE CANNON

ALLI WEBB

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH THE FOUNDER OF DRYBAR

A GOOD GUY

EX ‘SOPRANOS’ LOUIS LOMBARDI HITS A HIGH NOTE

A HAPPY PLACE THE SENSORY WONDERLAND THAT IS HAVEN & Co.

CATT SADLER/ANDREA SCHRODER/MARK STEINES/BROOKE ANDERSON/EDEN SASSOON/APRIL BEYER/MEGHAN MARKLE/TRACY O’CONNOR/LAURIE DAVID/HEATHER BILYEU/VICTORIA TENNANT/ALLI WEB/BRANDE RODERICK/SANDRA TAYLOR...

NICHE DEMOGRAPHIC, AVERAGE INCOME $113,000, AVERAGE HOME $1 MILLION. MEDIA KIT AT FOCUSMAG.US/ADVERTISE OR EMAIL:

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REAL ESTATE

OPENINGS/PRODUCT LAUNCHES

CHAUTAUQUA BLVD Pacific Palisades

Video coverage of the preview party for

HERITAGE WINES STORE OPENING 9400 S Santa Monica Blvd

Partners Trust to reveal a new construction property for sale.

Coverage of a wine store opening in

Video coverage/photo gallery

Video coverage/interviewer/photo gallery

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Beverly Hills. focusmag.us/tv/heritagewines

CHARITY EVENTS A NIGHT TO INSPIRE Beverly Hills

Red carpet coverage of the Catt Sadler hosted, Women of The Agency event in Beverly Hills.

Co-branded/banner/Red Carpet/ Interviewer/ Video coverage/Photo gallery focusmag.us/inspire

Magazine and video coverage to make your event unique.

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EVENTS focusmag.us/events/focusevents B E L A I R | B E V E R LY H I L L S | B R E N T W O O D | W E S T H O L LY W O O D | S A N TA M O N I C A

/

E D I T O R S

P I C K S :

H O M E

D E C O R

High Lights Helio Pendant Colorful pendants which highlight the bulbs too. $550 nichemodern.com

Twisted Gloss Table Lamp Adjustable and playful 2-part lamp in different colorways. $355 pablodesigns.com

Push Me, Pull Me Per Se Basin Faucet Set with Malachite Lever Handles Liven up your faucets with something funky.

Shown in Sterling Silver finish. $5,245 kallista.com

Hung Up Hanger Chair A tease of a chair. Fold it and hang it up when you’re done sitting. $200 umbrashift.com

On The Tiles Geode by Andy Fleishman. Circles pattern shown in blue. $111 sq ft.

Lux collection Sultan pattern shown in silver. $75 sq ft. annsacks.com

Out and About The light and colorful Fay chair from the debut outdoor collection of designer Heather Ashton. $595 empiricstudio.com

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Reveal Shown in bronze. $60 sq ft. annsacks.com

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MORE Coffee ALFREd STORY BY MARK CASTELLINO PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARY COSTA

N

ot, as you might imagine, the name of an English butler, Alfred Coffee is named after Alfred Street, where owner Josh Zad once lived, and just around the corner from the original Melrose Place location.

Josh, who works in commercial real estate, had a couple of realizations almost simultaneously. One: that the neighborhood where he lived had no coffee shops in walking distance. Two: that he had a disused part of a building he owned on Melrose Place. The rest is history, or at least the beginning of one for Alfred Coffee.

A graduate of Yale and UCLA in business and entrepreneurship, Josh Zad has a keen sense of the business side of operating a string of coffee shops. It also allows him to explore the hitherto dormant, creative side of his nature. The design owes more in style to a coffee shop you might come across as you wander the Left Bank in Paris than the utilitarian Starbucks. The self-designed interiors in Melrose Place, complete with open fireplace and wallpaper, create an atmosphere of home for the wifi hungry coffee shop workers to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams.

The Alfred ‘But First Coffee’ has become a memorable mantra-to-tagline. In a move that created an instant marketing hit, Alfred stocks produce from established artisanal companies like Farmshop, Pressed Juicery and Compartes chocolates. The coffee itself, is provided by Stumptown.

Taking a cue from the high-end retailers on Melrose Place, Zad commissioned Rag & Bone to create custom designed uniforms for the staff.

The social media popularity – 45k followers, and counting, on Instagram, – owed more to his sister’s selfies than a swanky digital agency.

The playful coffee cup sleeves; the now infamous mustache logo which spawns a thousand instagrams, all needing no hashtag to be instantly recognizable.

Appealing to locals, celebrities and tourists alike, Alfred shows innovation can be successful. Their chocolate dipped, waffle cone coffee cups are a big hit, as are the nitro cold brew and Kombucha on tap. The coffee places are all within walking distance in upscale neighborhoods.

With 3 coffeeshops now, and one in Studio City in the works – Alfred shows no sign of slowing down. Fast forward 10 years, and maybe there will be an Alfred on every street corner, duking it out with the equally fictional Starbuck from Moby Dick.

Alfred, more coffee please.

Alfred Coffee {Melrose Place} 8428 Melrose Place Los Angeles CA 90069

alfredcoffee.com

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Alfred Coffee {In the Alley} 8509 Melrose Ave. West Hollywood CA 90069

Alfred Coffee {Brentwood} 11908 San Vicente Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90049

A DREAM STATE

BY PRESTON SCHLEGEL PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN ARIFF

Welcome to Los Angeles. A visionary, interactive experience greets visitors at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX.

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W

arm sun kisses the skin as seagulls call overhead.

Gentle waves rolling in from the Pacific Ocean carry a cool breeze, crisp and sweet, to tickle toes.

Quickly, bury them in the soft sand. It could all be a dream…

There is a sudden jolt.

Knees ram into the seat ahead and tires squeal as the airbus A380 jerks to a stop on the tarmac. The flight-attendant, barely audible over the intercom, announces arrival at LAX. A child begins to wail. The plane is at the gate – just open the door! Carry-ons and elbows fly while even the elderly shove, claw and clamber over one another for the first breath of the LA air.

Oh to still be dreaming.

Los Angeles is home to approximately 3,800,000 people – with around 18,000,000 in the greater Los Angeles area. Men and women from 140 countries speak 224 different languages – a majority of which most people probably have never even heard, and may not as long as they live.

There are over 8,000 people per square mile. The idea that this sort of diversity can exist in one city is almost inconceivable. How and in what way could it ever be expressed on a walk through the Tom Bradley International Terminal?

Descending the escalator after clearing passport control an enormous, eighty foot tall, LED display glows as images of revitalizing water cascading from top to bottom are reflected off glass walls. Everything changes. The water is transformed into a glittering tower of crystal. It is a beacon welcoming travelers from around the world to not only the new Tom Bradley International Terminal, but also to all the vitality, excitement, and wonder that is Los Angeles.

This “Welcome Wall” is merely one of seven massive media experiences; the likes of which exist nowhere else. The reconstructed, $1.9 billion, Tom Bradley International Terminal opened to the public in September of 2013 bringing with it a new energy. To bring back a time when the notion of air travel was magical and romanticized; not just a burdensome means to an end, Los Angeles World Airports commissioned the expertise of Moment Factory. Collaborating with MRA International’s President Mike Rubin and Marcela Sardi the President of Sardi Design, Moment Factory created the most immersive integrated multimedia environment constructed in any airport throughout the Americas.

Moment Factory of Montreal Canada is comprised of approximately 120 men and women from 20 different countries. After its inception in 2001, Moment Factory quickly became an industry leader within the field of multimedia entertainment. Specializing in creating memorable interactive environments it partnered with Cirque du Soleil in its early years. Together Moment Factory and Cirque du Soleil created The Beatles REVOLUTION Lounge – a contemporary envisioning of The Beatles era - located at the Mirage in Las Vegas. It is widely considered one of the most innovative bar designs in the world. The team of designers, animators, producers, programmers, engineers, and architects has drawn the attention of performing artists, corporations and cities alike. Within the last decade Moment Factory has garnered clients such as Madonna, Microsoft, Nine Inch Nails, the City of Barcelona, Disney, and Sony Pictures.

“Media today is a new medium in architecture; that if used properly, gives you the opportunity to integrate content related to the experience you are creating. And that you cannot do with other mediums. If you fit it really well within the pieces of architecture they become alive.”

– Marcela Sardi Adding to the challenge of such an ambitious undertaking, construction of the new Tom Bradley International Terminal had already begun when Moment Factory, Sardi Design and MRA International were approached about designing the multimedia world within LAX. Over

a year of work went into creating the Integrated Environmental Media System with eight times as many megapixels as an IMAX theater. Every step of the $60 million project was under intense scrutiny from LAX’s CEO, executives, management; the Board of Airport Commissioners and even the Mayor. Consisting of 12,000 square feet of LEDs and hundreds of LCD screens each of the platforms has its own unique identity and is comprised of nearly five hours of original content. In addition to studio production involving dancers and actors – human and animal – the team was taken to three continents. Some 300 people contributed to the 30 plus individual pieces of content.

Within the Great Hall outgoing travelers no longer need squint to read drab, outdated departure boards. Fifty-feet in the air exists LAX’s global marquise, the “Destination Board.” Bookending departure times on the immense Destination Board, presented with dynamic graphics, are real-time data connected to live feeds ranging from weather in and flight plans to worldwide locations. Only fourteen hours and no stops to Sydney, Australia where there is not a cloud in the sky. Eleven hours to Tokyo, Japan where it’s mostly cloudy with good a chance of showers; should have packed an umbrella.

D

emanding awe and stretching more than 120-ft across the western wall of the Great Hall is the “Story Board.”

Integrated into the architecture already existing within the Tom Bradley International Terminal, the Story Board is designed in relation to the narrative story boarding seen in graphic novels and used within the film industry for which Los Angeles is renowned globally. Making movies is what LA does. Hollywood has become an ethos not just a place. Film affects peoples’ lives on a subconscious level.

It lives in the soul. No doubt, many of the 15,000,000 people who have passed through Tom Bradley International Terminal’s Great Hall since the addition of the integrated multimedia experience, thought of Hollywood when they witnessed the Story Board. In all likelihood, those ending vacations and returning to their points-of-origin; have pictures of the iconic sign on their cameras.

Skateboarders ride the bowl at the skate park on the Venice Beach strand. A riderless board twirls in slow-motion suspended in the clear blue sky. Enormous fragmented screens create one narrative with the Story Board. Multiple vantage points from within the terminal offer a different perspective on the same story. Just as the near four million Angelenos experience the same Los Angeles everyday but have such amazingly different experiences; LA has its own incredible story to tell. How that story is heard and what awesome revelations can be made is entirely dependent upon the listener and their place in time at any given moment.

Cars rush along highways, arteries flowing life in and out of a gleaming, night time LA. Brilliant red parrots whip through the green canopy of some far off, surreal jungle. The Story Board connects the world within the context of travel through images real to hardly imaginable, yet universally recognizable as something more than flashes on a screen.

It’s 6:19 p.m. in Los Angeles. A man dangles from the minute hand of a wire-framed clock tower. It’s 3:19 a.m. in Paris. He could fall at any time. Has to be about 9:19 a.m. in Hong Kong. Is that Buster Keaton?

No, no, it must be Harold Lloyd. The “Time Tower,” centerpiece of the Great Hall, is designed in part as homage to the silent era of film. It evolves from the classical appearance of historic railway stations to an ultra-modern look. Each of its arms, representing twenty four time zones, is live-sequenced with world clocks. It is the first four sided seamless LED structure ever created. Built around the existing elevator, the Time Tower extends to over seventy feet tall and is comprised of 6,480 square feet of LED surface. Striking the hour the Time Tower breaks into a lively display. Dancers from what could be the LA Ballet twirl atop floating, spinning gears. The whole pageant is reminiscent of the Glockenspiel at Marienplatz in Munich, Germany. The production spreads to the Story

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Board as well as the Destination Board. Filling the Great Hall with energy and movement, travelers become a part of the immense spectacle. It’s so much that the weak of heart and mind could be lost, swallowed up by the grandiose.

Los Angeles is a city constantly moving and innovating with a people doing the same. This is a city always progressing. It, and Angelenos, never move back. Be this for good or ill. If there is a stumble or a fall; hell even broken bones, Los Angeles and its people become all the better for it. It, they, have earned these scars. From these damages comes something new, often improved. Identity is owned – albeit plastic at times.

Los Angeles is and will be. It exists in the here and now, the physical and explainable, but also in a realm that can be felt however not defined.

The ethereal is real and the real ethereal. A dream state. Los Angeles is, was, and will be Los Angeles. For decades this city has been a mecca for citizens of the first, second, and third-world alike. Many arrive with just a few dollars in their pockets and the clothes on their backs. Hopes and dreams fuel this city. By no means is real life as kind as a dream, and having hope is the easiest way to be let down. But… how dull this world would be without hopeful dreamers. No art, no science, no math, no music. A world with no music is no world at all.

Days, a week, a month seem as minutes. There is more to Los Angeles than can be experienced, or explained, or understood in a single life – let alone a vacation or business trip. There is but one main take; LA is home. It is home to millions, with more and more people arriving every

day. These are people like any other – seeking an ideal, chasing a dream, and ultimately pursuing happiness and security. Home is the universal representation of all this. Travelers departing Los Angeles from the Tom Bradley International Terminal, either from home or back to wherever home may be, encounter the “Bon Voyage” wall and the interactive “Portals.” Everything is familiar. Angelenos bid farewell from the Bon Voyage wall upon passing through security. It is one final depiction of a timeless ideal perpetuated by those seeking it. Interactive Portal towers spin with images foreign to some and wholly familiar to others as people approach their gates; heading home, leaving home. Leaving Los Angeles for Peru, Australia, Japan, France, wherever, anywhere, somewhere.

These images suspend time, if only for a moment. They stir recent memories of sunny days and temperate nights amongst the mysticism of LA. It is a city chaotic at times yet so vibrant, so eclectic, and of such cultural import to the world that it has become timeless. Forget the temporary inconveniences of security checkpoints, lines for the toilet, ten dollar bottles of water, and the less than comfortable seat that waits. The mind’s eye sees only the near endless cityscape from atop Mulholland Drive at dusk; everything washed in a phosphorescent, purple glow. It’s a fleeting experience so deep that it will be felt a lifetime.

momentfactory.com

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Tom Bradley International Terminal 1 World Way, Los Angeles, CA 90045

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LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

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IN CONVERSATION WITH JACQUELINE GUNN PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN ARIFF

FLIPPINGtuo

Interior Designer, and one of the stars of Bravo TV’s Flipping Out, Megan Weaver, in conversation at her Los Angeles home

Jacqueline / How did you get involved in interior design?

Megan / The funny thing is, growing up my mom would buy a house, decorate it, get it perfect and then move out. And then we built another house and then she decorated that and made it perfect and then she’d move out. So I was sort of born into it. She didn’t do it as career, it was what we did.

She would get bored; she’d want to find a house and re-decorate it. And I remember as a kid my room was a big deal. I know, as a kid, your bedroom is a big deal but for me it was a huge deal.

I’ll never forget my 10th birthday. I had a regular room – the walls were yellow, and I had a Holly Hobby bedspread. My mom sent me away for the weekend and when I came back, I walked into the house; it was like one of those design shows before it was... before there were ever design shows on TV. I walked into my room and she had completely re-done it. It was a rainbow room.

Rainbows were a big deal back then so she did the whole room with big rainbows and the bedspread had a big rainbow. She changed the light, she changed the carpet and she painted the walls and it was one of those defining moments I think, as far as childhood memories go. Also, I thought, “this is cool – we can change rooms like this?” It was a whole new deal. When I look back, that was the impetus, that was the thing that made me realise that I love this.

Obviously you didn’t start when you were a 12 years old?

I didn’t start designing houses when I was 12 years old. I went to college, and right out of college I went to work for Steven Spielberg for about ten years. I thought I wanted to be a film producer.

Megan Weaver Interior Designer Born and raised in Los Angeles, Megan Weaver inherited her eye for design from her mother who turned their modest houses into beautiful homes. After graduating from Loyola Marymount University, she worked for Steven Spielberg at Amblin Entertainment. While she enjoyed the process of feature film development and production, Megan was more often decorating the assistant’s offices to keep up with the Michael S. Smith designed offices of the President and VP. As a Ford model, Megan traveled the world on photo assignments, before she finally established Megan Weaver Design. She has since designed homes from the ground up in Hancock Park, Malibu, Bel Air and the San Fernando Valley. Megan’s rooms have an intuitive, inviting feeling to them. Her design style is clean, light and airy – contemporary chic combined with elements of traditional coziness. As she designs for many families, she ensures that rooms are easy to live in with kids and dogs… but never sacrifices style.

What changed your mind?

The Internet! The gold rush of the Internet happened and it was so exciting that I decided to leave the movie business and I actually went and ran the acquisitions department of Steven Spielberg’s internet company. He started an Internet company right when it was sort of the gold rush, like the call of the internet happened. He started a company called pop.com with Jeffrey Katzenberg, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. I would travel the world to film festivals and buy short films for a thousand dollars. It was like a theater. It was YouTube before YouTube. Because we were working with geniuses; Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Ron Howard. Of course they invented YouTube before YouTube was even a thing. So, it was premature but they had the right idea and it was really fun, it was a really fun job.

How long did that last?

It lasted for about a year and then the dot com started to collapse. There was too much money too fast. So that ended and then I got into modelling. I modelled for a while, I went to New York and I signed with Ford Models.

You can’t go from a dot com to all of a sudden being a model. How did that happen?

It was really weird. Somebody approached me, kind of one of those stories when somebody said, have you ever thought about doing this? Like “hey you look good at pictures, can you have a milkshake with me”. It was a woman who did modelling and she said, I think you should come to New York and interview with a bunch of agencies and see if it sticks. So I did that for a couple of years.

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So then what happens after modelling?

I started working for Al Pacino and Beverly D’Angelo. They just had babies. Beverly was a friend of mine and she needed help. I started up as a personal assistant and Beverly was very into design and decorating – we would watch all the home shows. We would end up doing these crazy projects at her house. I mean “let’s go dig a hole in the backyard and build a retaining wall but the let’s turn it into a pond”. I mean just crazy things...

She was absolutely out of her mind in a good way so she’d come up with “let’s pad and fabric the walls”. She had all these really fun design ideas and I got along with her like a house on fire. It was great and I ended up going to New York to help her decorate their home, not knowing that it was meant to be – that was my calling.

It’s not like being game for anything is how you’re succeeding in life, I’m thinking of all these amazing opportunities on your way.

Well, I have a zest for life and I enjoy people. You know I’m a people person and I think that this career that I’ve chosen or that has chosen me – I’m not sure which came first – is very much about people pleasing and making everybody happy and being creative, spending time every day with a different person. It’s not the same people, it’s not the same job, it runs the gamut of all personalities, and that’s fun for me.

When did you make the leap from Beverly to actually doing your own design?

When I left Beverly, I got married and I became a mom and I was a mom meaning I raised my children, my husband was and is (he’s not my husband anymore) but he is a television composer, so he was very busy, very prolific, very accomplished, and I raised my kids and he scored television shows. I took a break for a while, and my family and I built a little beach house in Malibu at Paradise Cove. We built a freestanding, incredible little cottage at the beach. It was so beautiful and that was like a fantasy... I get to build and decorate a beach house? I had the ideas for years on how I would do that and it was so fulfilling, so much fun, and it was ours. We got to enjoy the fruits of our labor, and it was one of the things that made me think, “yeah, I want to do this all the time”. I have a friend who bought a house in Hancock Park and she wanted my help, and she said, ‘could you come over and just give me some ideas?’ By giving her a few ideas, she actually ended up hiring me because I was there so much. I designed this beautiful ranch-style home in the middle of Hancock Park and that turned into a job. So it was my first real job being an interior designer, or a home designer.

Quite an accident!

Completely by accident. The beach house in Malibu, the house in Hancock Park and then my own home – the house that we’re in right now, also happened around the same time and even though the beach house was for my family, this house was for me, the Hancock Park house was for my friend, it really dawned on me, “hello this is what you’re supposed to be doing” and then I started doing it, people started calling me and it just sort of happened.

Let’s talk about your design aesthetic. Why are people drawn to you?

My design aesthetic is a clean, yet chic, yet comfortable. It’s sort of transitional modern style. I like to design for families and I like to design really well-curated rooms that are comfortable and that dogs and kids can live in. You really do want to be able to live in your home.... and not be precious about the surface of a forty thousand dollar sofa which no one can sit on it. You have to live in your home and so I try to make it affordable.

I like to take my clients to stores and buy finishes and furniture that are not astronomical. I think that’s why people are drawn to me because I’m not showing them things that they can’t afford.

How does the process happen for a first time client – do you create a Pinterest board together? How do you determine their style ?

I usually ask a new client to send me inspiration photos. So what are you drawn to? Go on Houzz and let me know what piques your interest, what designs and what kind of rooms really speak to you, and then I’ll get a better idea. Also, just knowing who they are and going to their home is really very telling. I have clients that run the gamut from a single mom in Bel Air to an Indian family just starting out in downtown LA, you know much younger. I have a lot of Persian clients just because of the school I go to, and everybody is so different and I think that just trying to get to know who they are and being in their home and seeing how their family works, if they’re starting a family. I always start out with the consultation.

I go to their home, get to know them, see if they like me and if I like them.

It’s like going on a date with somebody you know.

Do you go to the stores with your client?

It depends on the job. Some jobs that I do are just plain decorating- people want to change the look of their living room, dining room and it’s really just paint, window coverings, flooring and furniture. That’s decorating – and then there’s actual design, where somebody wants to do a remodel of their master bathroom or their kitchen – maybe they want to do three rooms in the house. That’s a little more in-depth and we have to find an architect and contractor. Then we go and pickup finishes, flooring, sinks, all sorts of plumbing fixtures.

So there’s design and then there’s decorating. Decorating is just the surface?

Right. It’s sort of an old fashioned term calling yourself an interior decorator. People like to call themselves designers instead of decorators but I guess it applies... but that’s how I differentiate, you know “do you want me to just come in and decorate or do you want me to work with an architect and the contractor and design the space?

What really inspires you then? Do you really like to just decorate or do you like to design?

I’m always inspired by a major remodel. I just think it’s a way to get your hands dirty, to get in there and sort of mold the space into exactly what you want for your client. I find it so rewarding; tile and bathroom fixtures and frameless shower doors and new kitchen ranges.

And with all the different stores that you take your client to, to look for the tiles, the woods and all of that, which are your favorites?

Oh wow there are a lot of them. For plumbing fixtures I go to Snyder Diamond, for flooring I go to a place called Plaza Floors. There are a lot of stores that sell the same things. There are a million flooring stores in L.A; a million plumbing fixtures stores in L.A. What happens is that you start building relationships with your vendors and I don’t want to go anywhere besides Plaza Floors because they give me a good deal. They are nice people and we have a rapport and it’s easy – they know what I like.

Same with Snyder Diamond. I love Mitchell Gold in Beverly Hills which is a furniture store. HD Buttercup is another furniture store that I love.

You just build these relationships and you know how to work with these vendors and that’s what keeps you going back!

I see you are currently on TV, Flipping Out with Jeff Lewis? How did that come about?

It’s actually a funny story. I was a fan of Flipping Out, and it had been on maybe two seasons. Like everybody else who watches the show, you think you know Jeff Lewis because you’re in his life, you’re in his world, and you feel like you want to be his friend. I went to dinner one night and walked into a unisex bathroom at a swanky restaurant...and there he was.

I introduced myself and I told him I was a fledgling interior designer. He actually brought me back to his table to meet his friends.

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25 LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

Megan Weaver in conversation with LA HOME editor Jacqueline Gunn, at her home in Los Angeles. lahomemag.com/tv/meganweaver

He brought you back to the table after meeting him in the bathroom?

Yes, yes. Jeff is very... if he likes you, he likes you and he knows pretty quickly and I met him and I sort of interviewed with him and he hired me. He lit the proverbial fire under me. I went to meet him and he loved my portfolio, and we decided that we would work together. I did a little bit with him on Season 4, although it wasn’t featured very much.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do in Season 8?

It’s another wild ride with Jeff Lewis and Jenny Plulos. It’s a lot of fun and a lot of antics. One of the things you’ll see on this season of Flipping Out is our involvement in Living Spaces. Living Spaces is this wonderful store in Southern California and Jeff is the creative director. Jeff is upping the brand. He’s bringing higher-quality furniture into Living Spaces, more design forward. He’s elevating the kind of customer who comes in and it’s been a lot of fun, and we’re heavily involved.

I work with Jeff on all of Living Spaces catalog shoots and it’s an incredibly thrilling and exciting job. We rent super amazing locations. We are in a loft doing one shoot, we are at a horse ranch on another shoot. Our first catalog was shot in this house. I help Jeff style the catalogue and pull everything together.

In the future, is there anything that you’re really looking forward to doing with either Flipping Out or with your own ventures?

Flipping Out is kind of an accident to be honest with you. The thing I’m very excited about is my own business, and finding those clients who want to do remodels – bigger projects with bigger budgets – that’s what I’m most excited about.

I get to see all the showrooms and people who are fashion-forward, trending furniture styles, lighting and textiles. Mixing metals is a big trend right now, decorating with chromes and golds – mixing everything together, it’s something that was so taboo in the past. Everything had to be brushed nickel, and now mixing metals even in plumbing fixtures – your shower is chrome and your sink faucets are gold. And before, that was ‘uh uh’, and now it’s awesome!

What other items do you think are on trend now?

I think that people are moving away from the darker wood floors and getting back into the lighter wood floors – the greys. Grey has been on trend for quite a while now – white, plain grey floors, and grey leathers. It’s one of our favourite colors to work with. Hides; you see a lot of, not only cow hides, but lamb furs and pelts being used on chairs and on ornaments.

That’s a big trend right now, as well. Lucite is always in vogue.

You’re seeing that a lot lately.

Absolutely, I actually have a line of furniture – tables that I’m making with an artist, and my company is called Alteria Motif. We’re doing a series with our images printed, wrapped around acrylic tables. We’re in a few stores in LA right now – Plantation, Interior Illusions... This is a conversation piece, it’s not for everybody. I can see it in high-end hotels. We want to turn it into coffee tables, side tables we want to expand, but right now we’re just testing the waters.

Do you want to get into the flipping business yourself?

I would love to get into flipping. Jeff and I have talked about doing something together and he’s been like a big brother to me. He wants to show me that this is something else that can be quite lucrative for me and he thinks that I would be good at it. Oh yeah, I’m looking for a flip!

Do you think you’d ever come up with a line yourself?

I’d always thought that there’s a need for textiles. It’s hard to find great rugs, great pillows, great window treatments. That would be a fun thing to get involved in.

Who would you love to collaborate with?

I’d love to collaborate with Jeff Lewis. We work really well together, we have very similar aesthetics, similar personalities. He’s one of my best friends and I adore him. I just think he’s incredibly talented and a great business man and there’s a lot to learn.

You’re talking to people daily, you’re doing this catalog. What’s really trending in interior design right now?

I go to the market four times a year to buy furniture for Living Spaces.

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meganweaverdesign.com

Thomas Lavin is a leader in bringing an international range of exclusive highend home furnishings, fabrics, lighting, and accessories to Los Angeles.

Thomas Lavin

LA HOME editor, Jacqueline Gunn, interviewed Thomas Lavin at his Los Angeles showroom at the Pacific Design Center.

IN CONVERSATION WITH JACQUELINE GUNN PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK ISHMAN

Jacqueline/Thomas, how did you get your start in interior design?

Thomas/Oh, wow, ...the, the real story? I was working for a publicist after I got out of college, who was the meanest man in the world. I’ve never said this on record. He used to scream and shout and throw things, and so one day when he was throwing something, he said you should go work in interior design and – boom, I did it. I got a job working for a family firm in Venice and I loved the milieu, the creativity, the experience, the range of processes that go into interior design. I stayed with them for a few years. Then a small recession hit and I got a job working for a Fortune 500 company. I’d really cry on the way to work every day. The design forum called me, there was an opening for sales in a showroom was I interested and I said yes. I got a job doing sales and I’ve never looked back.

I read somewhere that your grandfather lived in the Palisades?

Yes, my grandfather came from a family of doctors. My great-grandfather even had diseases named after him, so it was understood that my grandfather would become a doctor. He went to Stanford and called his mother right after he arrived and he said I can’t do this, I really want to be an architect. He switched to USC, got his degree in architecture and then went on to be an academy award nominated art director. His most famous movie is Miracle on 34th Street.

He was very well known in the industry, he met Walt Disney and they became great friends. He went on to become the first COO of Disney and established what later became Imagineering. He was responsible for all of the design for Disneyland, Disneyworld, Tokyo Disney Epcot.

That was his job but he lived in the most amazing houses. When I was a child, I was always surrounded by the most incredible wallpaper, furniture, antiques and art and it was juste milieu in which they resided. And I think that rubs off on you when you’re growing up.

Is there anything particular that stands out in your mind, that you really felt was new to interior design when you were at your grandfather’s house?

Well, I was a kid, so everything was new. It was a house that he designed in the style of Cliff May, so it was a really open ranch, built in 1952.

27 LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

He would open the front doors and he had silver tea paper on the entry hallway, flown in from an artist in Japan. The Japanese did the most extraordinary wall painting on it. I remember every time I’d walk to the house, there was this beautiful entry and then you would turn around the corner and be in the family room onto one of the bedrooms. I was really connected to the space of simple luxury and just what a house was supposed to do.

When did you move here, how did you establish this interior design showroom?

I was working for somebody and I wanted to have a bigger experience and I wanted to know more. So, I wrote a business plan, and if you see the evolution of my business plans, the first one was really pretty. It was on beautiful paper, it was charming. It was on this wonderful thick paper; and it was useless. And so there was an evolution of business plans and I finally learned about the SBA (Small Business Administration), and they helped me write a business plan with enough detail that I could take it to a bank and get a loan. When you get a loan from the SBA you have to have backers. My father called me and he said well this is really smart, we’ll back it, and I was just completely floored. My parents were living in New York at the time, I didn’t know they would be that interested in what I was creating, this dream, and so we worked together. I started in 3000 square feet on Beverly Boulevard with some small lines. I expanded to 5000 square feet on September 11th 2001, which was not a good day to open your doors. The phone didn’t ring and nobody came in shopping.

So I had this complete breakdown that it was going to be the end of my business. And it was a great lesson to learn that we can go through hard times and we can overcome them. The Pacific Design Center reached out to us around the end of our fourth year and invited us to come look at a space. We’ve been here for 10 years. We started off in 10,000 square feet, we just remodeled and expanded to 13,000 square feet and we’ve also opened an outpost in Orange County. I look at my beginnings and it was 1 employee with a small space. Now we have two spaces with 30 employees. It’s been kind of a wild and unexpected ride.

Do you want to talk about what you curate for the showroom?

Again, it’s the evolution of the business that has been fascinating. In one of Hemingway’s books, one of the protagonists is asked how he lost all of his money and he says ‘gradually, and then suddenly’. And I feel like the evolution of my business has been the same. We started with small companies, very boutique oriented and as we’ve grown, we’ve added to it.

We’ve always had furniture, we used to have a little bit of fabric and we had some lighting. Art was always a very important component of what we were doing. And as we’ve evolved and grown we got a reputation for running an excellent agency, taking really good care of our customers, managing our manufacturer expectations and needs in the territory, and then I also really take care of my staff. So, in that time we’ve been able to curate the most important fabric collections in the industry, period, as well as furniture lines. We have someone on staff who curates all of our art for us and she works with some galleries that I’m very fond of. We also conduct important research for art for our customers. So, we really want people to come in and have a fully fledged experience of what it’s like to work with trade goods from beginning to end.

Who are some of the designers that you’re carrying currently?

Some of the great stories that I have, for example Juin Ho from Fuse Lighting. Both Juin and Kevin from Fuse and I started at the same time.

I was their first showroom – they had very small collections – and we’ve grown up together. We’ve been working together for 15 years. Fuse Lighting has gone on to become one of the most important lighting collections in the country. Kevin Kolanowski is always coming up with new materials. One year he was working with gems, the next year he started working

with wood and then cast glass. Juin Ho – same thing, if you look at his collections, every collection is inspired by a place he’s traveled to. And he’s a veteran traveler, Africa, Bhutan, Antarctica. The furniture that we have right now was inspired by his trip to Antarctica. We were fortunate about 4 years ago to bring on the internationally renowned Christian Liaigre who does interiors and furniture, yachts, and he’s the person to whom we just gave their own space It’s the first free standing Christian Liaigre boutique that’s not incorporated in North America.

In terms of fabrics, Romo and Zimmer + Rohde came to us right when we were transitioning into the Pacific Design Center. They are two huge European brands, and with Romo we’ve been able to grow them from what was really a small company in America. Now I think they have 6 subsidiaries. And then again was Zimmer + Rohde was a company that was not as well known 10 years ago, and now it is incredibly well known and doing national advertising. So, we have that range of the boutique companies that we still maintain, as well as the large European companies.

It’s interesting, sounds like you’re really helping launch careers because your name is well known.

Thank you.

I know that you’re branching out too. You mentioned Orange County earlier. How did that come about?

We’ve always had a good customer base in Orange County and when we analyzed the numbers, we kept thinking that maybe there was more down there. They say Orange County has the highest real estate values in the country. So we looked at it for a while, did some research and we decided to go ahead and do it. We opened in September 2014 and it has been fascinating. There are customers down there who do not come to Los Angeles but want to have beautiful products. People have thought of us as expensive and so now people in Orange County are learning, as well as our friends in Los Angeles, that we have fabric which starts at $20 a yard. My sales staff in both locations is really about service and education. When we work with new designers, who maybe don’t have the experience with trade goods, we do what we can to stick with them through the process, helping them to be the best for their clients. We always say we’re an extension of their office.

It’s fascinating that you’re educating people in that way. I think that’s such a great legacy to leave to designers who are just starting out.

It was my experience when starting out, to find that people were so generous with their time. Now, I never turn down a meeting, I never say no to someone. I’ve had people come by to talk about a line they are designing, and I give them feedback. It’s a fascinating experience, because sometimes I meet with somebody and they’re on it, and we can help launch that and bring them on. Other times, someone comes to me and they have an idea for what they think is groundbreaking, and by the time we finish the conversation they realize they should keep their job at the bank.

There’s a range of experiences – even in my own staff – they range from 19 to 72. We have a wonderful diversity in age and I’ve taken it upon myself to mentor the young people who are coming up. And it’s great fun.

I’ve read also, that you do a lot of philanthropy within Los Angeles.

I always think that it’s important for everyone to be philanthropically engaged, I’m so concerned that we continue to move into a society or world where it’s all about – what can you do for me. I encourage my staff, and certainly my friends, to give back. I was on the board of directors of Outfest, the LGBT film festival, but it’s really so much more. Outfest works with at-risk-youth. Twice a year, they invite 15 youths to submit scripts and from those scripts we will make four movies. Everyone who submitted a script, even if it wasn’t made, will participate. They can be an

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Beauregard Mirror Ironware $4,200

Saphira Print Collection Romo $105

Cairo Triple Pendant Fuse Lighting $3,200

Octave Sideboard Altura $12,100

Consulat Chair Christian Liaigre $7,425

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Photo: Grey Crawford

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Christian Liaigre Showroom

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Thomas Lavin is in conversation with LA HOME editor Jacqueline Gunn, at his showroom at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles. lahomemag.com/tv/thomaslavin

art director, set director, or they could be the director itself. We had one woman who was not quite 20, from a very broken family. She was homeless and living in a shelter. She submitted a script which we didn’t make but she became a grip, and she didn’t know that it was actually a career she could have. After she finished the film, we hooked her up and she’s now working as a professional grip and has her own apartment.

Oh, that’s fantastic.

It’s things like that which change the lives of LGBT people across the world. We’re working on digital content now so people in any part of the world can see films and see stories about their lives. If we’ve saved a young person’s life in Oklahoma because they don’t kill themselves for being gay, it feels like we’ve made a difference in the world. Another program that we engage in is storing films at UCLA. In conjunction with UCLA we have stored over 30,000 films, and I think we’ve restored about a dozen including the 1919 Different Than The Others, which is the oldest existing LGBT movie from Weimar, Germany and it’s fascinating to see what the world thought at that time – not everything had been destroyed.

So, you’re talking about inspiring other people. What inspires you?

I’m inspired by so many things. I went to the William Turner exhibit at the Getty, and I’m always blown away by Turner’s paintings. One of the things that occurred to me when I was looking at them, is that he was maligned, misunderstood, criticized rigorously when he was alive; although I do think that it was ironic that he died a very rich man. When I was looking at his paintings I couldn’t help but feel the reason he’d been so maligned is that he was a genius, and that he was ahead of his time. And it goes back also to Van Gogh. People couldn’t understand what he was doing because it was outside of their oeuvre, outside of the vocabulary that they were familiar with.

So paintings for sure. I could become one of those investor collectors and have my house filled with things that I curated – so much that I don’t have two feet between the hallways. I take inspiration by going out into the world. Looking at art, certainly – travel, food, fashion – anything visual. The other thing that lights me up is working. For example, we were talking about mentorship earlier – my junior sales person had his biggest sale ever today. And he was so excited sharing that with the rest of the staff that we were all able to be excited and supportive for this great venture that he’s engaged in.

Who are your favorite designers within your showroom, and what pieces are your favorite at the moment?

Well, they’re all here because they’re my favorites. I think that I’m so fortunate to work with some of the finest designers in the world. Within each collection I have favorites. For example I have a piece by Michael McEwen, called Vellum and it’s all glass. It looks like floating light, it’s absolutely magical. And I remember once we had a client and he said that it was too expensive but I thought we could sell it if I could get more detail. So, Michael sent us a whole range of photographs and wrote us

on how he makes it and I could not believe how complicated it was to make. And so all of a sudden I got in touch with how difficult some of the things we represent are to produce. And what’s also cool is that so many people that I represent are making their own product like Michael. Jim Magni ,who’s a very famous interior designer, has a series called Paris and Colette. They’re all hand cast, bronze, cast glass and he really gets into the sort of jewel-like aspect of his furniture. In fact, once he laughed at me and said ‘Why aren’t you selling my regular chairs, you’re just into beautiful things’. And I said well, we’re selling something. You know, it’s okay.

I have a woman that we represent, Marian Jamieson, when I first opened, and she left me for another showroom but came back because we’re such a rigorous sales organization. And again, she’s someone who makes her own product and so we have these wonderful dialogues about what we think will work, what does the market want. She’ll ask my opinion on what we might do about scale, she has a piece – it’s a bronze tubular piece, really stunning. That’s a favorite. In the fabric realm, we just started working with a guy who is a sixth generation from Laos, and he came with this idea for a home furnishings fabric which is laser cut leather, woven with silk. It’s all hand done and it’s incredibly sophisticated. No one is doing anything like it. And it’s only for the very rich because it’s so expensive but it really is amazing. So we like to look for things like that, which you can’t find anywhere else.

Everything here is very tailored and sophisticated.

It’s an evolution – if you came in a few years ago it looked like a junk shop.

Oh, no I’m sure not. Talking about evolution, what are your plans for the future? Are you working on anything that you can share with us?

I have always felt that we needed to have our own line. So, I’ve been working on my own furniture and lighting line about five years. We were speaking earlier about passion and being lit up, and I kept pushing myself to do furniture and lighting and I wasn’t lit up, therefore nothing was happening with it. So, somehow, six months ago I got into the fabric business. My sister is my partner and we started a line called Lavinder.

Right now, we’re working on high performance fabrics which can be used for indoor or out. The collection is made completely with Sunbrella yarn so you can bleach it. It won’t stain, it won’t mildew, it won’t fade. And you can hose it down. We’re using an interior color palette, so it’s a range of white, beige, taupes, greys It really looks like it blends itself more into interior but you can use it exterior because of the content. What we’re really excited about is that we’ll start distribution later this year. We have showrooms that are going to represent us in San Francisco, Florida, New York, Chicago, Denver and Arizona. So, the future is that we’re going to play with product and this is our launching pad.

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thomaslavin.com

Photo: Grey Crawford

Lavinder by Thomas Lavin.

An indoor/outdoor fabric made by Sunbrella

33 LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

Finding Treasure

KISHANI PERERA

BY MATTHEW SHAWW PHOTO BY MARCIA PRENTICE

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W

e all know that taste is subjective, right? Or is it? Interior design is one of those fields which can actually make you question that idea. When you find a designer who is able to consistently please their clients, their success is usually not an accident. And Kishani Perera, owner of Rummage in West Hollywood, is VERY successful. So successful, that one is tempted to believe it is possible for good taste to transcend subjectivity.

Creativity permeates every fiber of Kishani’s being, and it started at a very young age.

“It’s something I always sort of did. When I was younger, I didn’t realize that I was designing. I was always redoing my room, rearranging, finding vintage furniture from thrift shops and redoing them.”

She also helped friends and family with their home design. It wasn’t until her early twenties – after exploring acting, writing and fine art – that a close friend, noticing that she had a very good eye for design, suggested that she pursue it as a career.

“Every one of my friends said that it was so obvious what I should be doing. They told me that I should be an interior designer. I didn’t agree at first, but they pointed out that I was redoing everyone’s apartments. So, I got to thinking about it.”

Kishani enrolled in UCLA’s interior design program, and within the first hour of her first class she knew she had found her passion.

As a fully fledged designer, she had the great fortune to have Molly Sims as one of her first clients. Molly decided to give Kishani a shot and boy did it pay off.

“I started working with Molly and then she told her friends. Then those friends told their friends.” And the rest is history.

Molly was so impressed that she became a vociferous advocate for Kishani. Before long, Kishani was helping some of the biggest stars in film and television design some of the coolest living spaces in the world. She loves collaborating with their creative minds.

Kishani’s design aesthetic is very eclectic, but also balanced with traditional and modern. First and foremost, she draws inspiration from her rich Sri Lankan heritage.

“Travel inspires me. Different cultures inspire me. So, there are a lot of ethnic touches in everything I do. Whether it’s Moroccan, or Indian, or Sri Lankan like my family’s heritage. Where my family comes from everything is rich and colorful, the women wear beautiful bangles. So even though I haven’t spent a ton of time there, it definitely has an influence on what I do.”

Interior design is an interesting field. There is no right or wrong answer. It’s like fine art. But it’s also not like fine art. Clients don’t hire interior designers to just “do their thing” to a room. Well, maybe sometimes.

But the really good interior designers don’t bring preconceived notions to a new project. They arrive with a blank slate, ready to receive inspiration from their clients. This is Kishani’s tactic.

“I really spend some time getting to know the clients first. I tour their house and ask them what they like about what they have, and what they don’t like. Then I start to understand what they’re going for.”

Next, she asks her clients to use Pinterest to make collections of reference photos. This may seem like a daunting task to someone with no formal training, but Kishani makes it easy on the client. She has them put any photo in the collection that makes them feel good. She lets them trust their instinct.

Then Kishani looks through all of the reference photos to find the common threads of inspiration. It’s not always as simple as shared color palettes, textures, or time periods. She has to use her intuition and personal taste to get to the heart of what the client really wants.

It’s like a whole other form of communication. The client has an

idea or a feeling about what they want to do with the space. They find reference photos that give them hints at that feeling. Then, Kishani dives into a deep well of experience and creativity and divines the feeling from the photos.

Once she has a firm grasp on that feeling, the hunt begins. She scours flea markets, vintage stores, and even Ebay.

She also has an ace up her sleeve: Rummage. Her store on Beverly Boulevard is where she keeps all of the cool pieces that don’t fit into her current projects. If you are ever in the LA area, you should drop by and check it out. Just make an appointment online first. You can also shop at her online store rummagehome.com.

Her stock is constantly changing and most of her inventory is unique and vintage or one-off, so don’t forget to check in frequently to see what’s new.

“It’s changing all the time. I don’t necessarily have specific dates for buying. Just come all the time because you never know what’s going to be here. I’m always out shopping and looking at options. If I find something amazing that I think that people are going to love, I buy it.”

To find out more about Kishani and her work, check out her inspirational book VINTAGE REMIX, released by Abrams Books.

kishaniperera.com

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rummagehome.com

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37 LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

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SHOP THE LOOK lahomemag.com/kishaniperera

Large Kilim Pillow $210

Vintage Moroccan Star Pendant $2500

Lucite Barstools $950

Blue Ombre Murano Lamp $1900

1970S Chrome Bucket Chair $1600

Vintage Anatolian Rug $2700

Modern Rectangular Brass Sconce $1500

Italian Espresso Cup Set $400

Art Deco Peacock Bedframe $10,000

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Cory Pernicano

BY MARK CASTELLINO PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN ARIFF

40 LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

The Director of Design at The Pacific Design Center is at home with his European style of living.

C

ory Pernicano’s house is hard to find. It’s in Mid-City, in what, by all accounts, is an area either undiscovered or up-and-coming. Or both. It is hidden in the middle of a 6 house lot, which is situated on a walk street similar to what you might find in Venice Beach. His assistant comes out to show us the way and once you enter the side gate, which is also the front gate, you are transported into a charming and bohemian haven.

From the front door of the house, which was built in 1937, you can walk 20 feet across to the back door. It’s compact and homely in a way that pays homage to the architecture. “It’s a Californian Ranch with a touch of French Revival”, he says, and you certainly get the impression of European architecture, or at least that sense of relaxed living – reading the Sunday papers, playing with his dog Giuseppe, (a.k.a. Joey), and eating croissants – without the feeling that anything warrants an effort.

The original alcoves remain, along with a balcony alongside the upstairs bedroom. Everything else has been remodeled after being shuttered for 17 years because of a family dispute. Cory lovingly restored the interior, keeping true to its origins, and adding his own eclectic collection of decorative pieces. There are quirky artworks collected on his travels and vintage housewares, mostly with stories attached. His favorite item,

for instance, is a doughnut shaped chair that once belonged to a elderly lady for whom he did chores when he was 14 years old. Originally a place where her dog sat, she told Cory he could have it when the dog passed away. Re-covered many times over, it now has pride of place in his house as a comfy chair, slash chaise. A painting of Joey, his own dog, hangs on the wall behind. “The best present I was ever given, “ he says. It hangs side by side with a 2 piece painting of a nude that he found in New Orleans, and which he hung legs side up.

Cory Pernicano is a renowned interior designer but he is also Director of Design at the Pacific Design Center. He finds himself in that role in a coincidence that first saw him pulling sample fabrics there in his 20s, for the now defunct Bradbury Collection. His task is to manage the design referral program, which means that he liaises with anybody who phones the Pacific Design Center (PDC), to hire a designer or to inquire about a line or collection from one of the 100 or so showrooms there. And apparently, quite a few people do. Cory interviews them as to their needs, and then refers them to one of the 15 designers on his roster. He also handles the callers who want to buy the odd yard of fabric or piece of furniture they saw fleetingly on HGTV. The PDC is open to the public but the showrooms only sell to the trade, meaning other interior designers.

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Cory knew instinctively that he was going to be an interior designer when he was 8 years old and decking out his playroom, while the other boys were playing football. His grandmother took him shopping and piqued his interest in beautiful things but it wasn’t until he was a student in London – an English major – that he met a girl who introduced him to the wonders of the interior design industry. She took him shopping for specific fabrics, silks, furniture and accessories, and he was smitten by everything he saw. He gave up his studies and turned to interior design, starting by pulling fabric samples on memo at the PDC, and eventually landing a job at a major interior design firm.

That gave him his grounding in celebrity clients with enormous budgets but it also trained him in the business side of things. Not long after that he set out on his own.

A successful designer now, he designs for many different clients. “My style is eclectic and respectful”, he says. “I stay true to the architecture of the house. I won’t take on a project where they don’t respect the historical nature and integrity of the building”. He has done Traditional, Modern, Japanese Zen, Hollywood Glamor and sustainable green designs – “Even to this day when I’m watching a movie from the 40s or 50, I’m looking at the sets. Oh my God, the bouclé on that lounge chair is amazing, where can I get some thing like that?”

“I always joke that they put me on this planet to make the world a more beautiful place. One house at a time!”

Who are his dream clients? “Bachelors”, he says in all seriousness. “They have a certain element of style and they usually just want a show piece and leave it pretty much up to me. Women are more fun to work with, though!”

His dream project would be in France or the Middle East. He likes French Revival, smaller cottages, which allow him to have fun creating vignettes. His projects have taken him to New York, Colorado – client’s second homes but he would like to do more work abroad.

And for the future, what are his plans? “A multi-line showroom”, says Cory – an aspiration which keeps him rooted in the PDC a building he feels at home in and loves– and he cites Thomas Lavin as his inspiration. “I like the way he finds new artists and designers. I’d like to do that, show all the beautiful things out there, and also give a voice to emerging artists and designers.

My own brand at Target someday, would be nice too”, he laughs!

If his house is an accurate reflection of his personality, you get the impression Cory Pernicano will achieve his dreams, pretty much as he imagines them. His disarming smile and laid back SoCal manner will surely win him many friends on his journey. Here’s hoping he finds his way easier than we did today, and if he really knows what he’s talking about, let’s all set off now, to find our own piece of land in Mid City. corypernicano.com

Channels wallpaper in plum/ oatmeal on the stair wall, designed

by Kelly Wearstler from Lee Jofa. leejofa.com

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Page 47 Dining Room: ‘Spider’ Chandelier by Brooklyn sculptor Lou Blass.

This page (top to bottom) Bedroom: Custom designed black cork fabric headboard by Cory, made by Cisco Home. Drapes made from pinstripe wool men’s suiting. The kitchen objects are salvaged from Pernicanos, the family’s mid-century, Italian restaurant. ‘La Petite Maison’ sign by Dominic Dettore, who also painted the picture of Joey the dog in the living room.

Antique roll-top desk, blue cane chair from Pindler & Pindler, lamp from Decorators Walk. Converted 1950s heatlamp next to vintage London Underground poster.

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44 LA HOME | SUMMER 2015

AN ORGANIC TREE House

BY ADAM MEFFORD PHOTOGRAPHY BY BENJAMIN ARIFF

WINE COUNTRY

The golden rolling hills of Sonoma County north of San Francisco are punctuated by ancient oak trees. These beautiful trees have all the character of a Japanese bonsai, only larger.

Because they stand alone in the center of vast fields they develop in more balanced, less inhibited ways. Looking at these majestic trees one wishes to somehow participate in their stoic grace.

Homeowners Chris and Susie had recently finished a new home outside Healdsburg atop one such golden hillside. They looked upon a fine, massive oak standing near their new home and considered how they might make use of this beautiful tree. What kind of transformation could be possible given this natural asset?

Chris and Susie have become acquainted with design and build group O2Treehouse through family friends. Based in the East Bay and active around the globe, O2Treehouse is essentially a specialized architecture firm founded in 2005.

O2 is headed by Dustin Feider to pioneer what he calls ‘tree architecture’. For a mental image of Dustin, just picture Peter Pan with a design degree.

A NEW HOPE

The path which lead to Chris and Susie working with Dustin and O2Treehouse began over ten years ago at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Dustin was earning his BA in Furniture Design when he fell upon the work pathbreaking work of the American architect Buckminster Fuller. Best known for viewing the world as interlocking systems, Richard Buckminster Fuller promoted a harmonious relationship between man and nature. Dustin drew from Fuller inspiration for both structural forms and a larger philosophy for how design can advance our relationship with the natural world.

While finishing his training at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Dustin expanded upon Fuller’s signature structure, the geodesic dome, by applying it to the design of a treehouse. The geodesic structure is a sphere made from flat triangles which disperses a load evenly.

Dustin’s insight was that this would be an ideal approach for working with the irregularities of a tree while looking to create a strong but light platform to be enjoyed at altitude.

Over the following decade Dustin’s courage for new design challenges connected him with a series of commissioned treehouse projects. As is often the case for passionate outliers, the only resort was to commit to carving a place for treehouse architecture in the broader culture, and O2Treehouse was born.

PATH TO MASTERY

The path to running a successful business only makes sense when seen in hindsight. The process of linking each separate opportunity for a treehouse project into a coherent body of work took time and a fair amount of luck. Dustin was willing to tackle anything provided it somehow involved new approaches to building and relating to nature. The results included designs in copper which could withstand the winter in Minnesota to temporary platforms made from bamboo for a music festival in Portugal. In California the growing firm constructed platforms which were connected by swinging bridges and more traditional treehouse with straight edges and beautiful polished details. One project in particular would have made Buckminster Fuller proud, a massive geodesic dome encompassing an full-grown tree known as the Honey Sphere.

With each successive project Dustin and his team were able to gain experience with a new component of an expanding set of design solutions. Using the latest technology from the architectural trade, laser scanners were now available to capture a detailed point cloud of the subject tree to make a perfect model to reference when designing using a computer. Other solutions were born from necessity, such as working in a centralized studio where components could be welded and fitted together, and shipped to a remote location for easy assembly.

The pieces were coming together nicely for remarkable new ideas to take shape. g

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Working with geometric forms “sketching” in the computer is an easy way to quickly visualize various compositions and structural concepts. This is one of the many conceptual compositions done in the computer.

Once a composition strikes a balance between visual beauty, structural stability and integration within the trees branches a final computer model is created reflecting final material choices. From this “working Model” the structure is fabricated.

BRINGING IT TOGETHER

The chance for Dustin and O2Treehouse to work with Chris and Susie presented several advantages. Centrally, the client was open minded and was willing to embrace an ambitious vision for the structure. They presented ideas for how they wished for the treehouse to add to their living space, similar to how a more traditional architect would consider the programming needs of a building. They wanted to see space for yoga and room for overnight guests, plus an observation deck for hosting large numbers of friends.

Working from a grid pattern is a common approach for how to organize and relate spaces in a structure. For this design Dustin considered many different approaches to a dimensional grid system which would allow for both the necessary support and a balanced aesthetic to compliment the tree. From many design directions explored in the CAD software Dustin was able to give his clients a clear idea of his many ideas. The final direction was an ambitious multi-tired structure which is explored as guests move from one level to another by short vertical climbs.

The treehouse coils up and around the given structure of the old oak tree. At each successive platform the logic of Dustin’s design is experienced as space is framed by a geometric pattern. The surprising balance of open and enclosed rooms give plenty of safety and stability while always feeling fresh and open to a sense of real connection with nature.

There’s a beautiful serenity to the space afforded by the design, a place apart from distractions where it is only natural to be fully present.

o2treehouse.com

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New Beginnings

MOBY IN CONVERSATION WITH ERIN CASTELLINO PHOTOGRAPHY BY DHRUMIL DESAI

MOBY

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The iconic musician Moby, is an avid photographer, animal rights activist and architecture enthusiast.

In this candid interview, he talks about his philosophy and musical process.

Erin Castellino/ I want to talk to you first, about moving from the East Coast. What brought you to LA? Moby/Well, I was born in New York, on 168th Street. Growing up, I thought that I would spend my entire life living in New York, or somewhere near New York because in the 70s, in the 80s it was the most exciting, dynamic, city on the planet. Then a few things happened. One: I had this sort of LA epiphany that I think a lot of New Yorkers have; you come to LA, expecting it to be the land of Baywatch and plastic surgery, and vapid agents, and what not. And instead, you actually find it to be this gentle and wonderful place. So seven or eight years ago, it was New Year’s Day and I was having brunch outside in Los Angeles. 74 degrees and blue sky, and I got back on the plane and went to New York where it was 34 degrees and sleeting. All of a the sudden synaptically, I realized that most... a lot of suffering is optional. I just thought to myself “why do I live in a cold place New York, that’s becoming increasingly gentrified; the artists, the writers, the musicians, the people who make New York interesting are all being pushed out financially. And many of them are moving to LA.” So to make a long story longer, I basically decided that I wanted to live in a place that is warm in the winters, and which was largely populated by artists, writers, and musicians.

Do you think that the music scene in New York had anything to do with you staying in New York? Did it change when you moved to LA? Growing up in New York, one of the things that kept me there was the music scene. In the 70s, that meant...Max’s, CB’s and the punk rock world, hip-hop world, house music, electronic music. Musically, in the 70s and 80s, New York was a really fascinating place. In the 90s, it was the rise of a lot of interesting indie rock bands, like TV On The Radio, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. And it really piqued and held my interest. But then, to state the obvious, to be engaged in a lot of creative disciplines, you need space.

Like the abstract expressionists – they had huge studios. That was when the Lower East Side... you could be artist and have a 4000 sq. ft studio for $200 a month. But as real estate in New York has become prohibitively expensive, musicians, the artist, the filmmakers, the photographers have all either had to be go to places where they could have bigger studios or make really tiny art. You think of the abstract expressionist with 10ft by 15 ft canvases, as opposed to lot of art coming out of New York now, which is really little and delicate in manner, like it’s made by some kid at his little desk, in an apartment he shares with seven other people. So, musicians need space in which to make music. And a whole lot of them have had to leave New York because the recording studios and the rehearsal spaces keep shutting down. It’s almost like this weird syndrome where revenue in the music world has plummeted as real estate costs have gone up. Almost every musician I know in New York has had to move somewhere – usually Los Angeles.

Or maybe Austin?... there’s a big music scene.

It’s almost like other cities’ loss through gentrification is our gain. There are even people finding Austin too gentrified because they have Texas Instruments and all those high-tech companies there, so that they’re being priced out of Austin. Every bad thing about LA is a double-edged sword.

Meaning most cities actually have a relatively small footprint, special more conventional cities like New York, Boston, London (which has a big footprint but it still has a very cohesive central core). LA County has this massive footprint and it’s like a petri dish, meaning it just sprawls, which can create a lack of cohesion but it also means there’s always going to be somewhere inexpensive for artists to have studios, and musicians to have studios. Also, for example, New York, London, a lot of cities have great public transportation. The downside of that is that gentrification happens where there is public transportation. You can’t gentrify a neighborhood if people don’t have access to public transportation. LA with its inadequate public transportation doesn’t gentrify around subway lines. It just gentrifies towards where you can drive to. As a result, it just means that there’s so much real estate here that is still not prohibitively expensive. It’s a very much a double edged sword. It makes LA a vast chaotic place but it also means anyone can live here.

When you decided to move here, how did you choose the neighborhood that you were going to live in?

First, I decided to leave New York – which was weird because I was born and raised there. I had my list of criteria, I thought... okay I want to live in a place that’s warm in the winter, filled with artists, and has easy access to nature. My three main criteria – and LA was the only place that satisfied all those criteria. And then I said okay, but LA’s the size of Connecticut.

Where in this vast county do I want to live? And my first thought was I want to live by the beach. Oh, the Pacific Ocean... and then I learned some things about the beach. It’s cold. Why would I leave a cold place and move to the beach where I can’t actually go swimming. And I love the Pacific Ocean and I love all the coastal communities, though no one goes swimming. You need a full wetsuit or a day in September when water gets above frigid. Also, the coastal communities are amazing but they’re super far-away from the creative communities. I did a demographic look at LA and I realized 90% of my friends lived in Eagle Rock, Echo Park, Highland Park, Silverlake. So I thought, I want to be near my friends who live on the East side, but I also want to be near film studios, music studios, and that’s why I picked this area. I guess this is Los Feliz?

When you first moved here, did you first move into Los Feliz or did you live somewhere else?

The first house was in West Hollywood, in the Bird streets. And I realized I didn’t know anyone there, and there wasn’t the community I was looking for. One of the things I love about the east side of LA is that it

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was developed before the advent of the car, so there is still a cohesion to it that I really like. I feel that when they were building East LA, they carved out Griffith Park – almost like in the era of Teddy Roosevelt – ‘nature is important for people so give the people this 4,000 or 5,000 acres of park’.

And that is one of the things that really led me to want to be here.

Here, being the Fern Dell area?

Yeah, technically I live in about seven different neighborhoods – East Hollywood, Los Feliz, Franklin Village, The Oaks, Fern Dell, Griffith Park etcetera. People ask me – where do you live, and I say, “East Hollywood...I don’t know.”

Although your home is lovely, and I was lucky enough to see your other homes, it’s smaller. Is there a reason that you went from bigger to smaller?

When I first moved here, I moved to a 4 acre estate in Beechwood Canyon and it was beautiful. It was a castle from 1927, there’s a John Lautner guest house and it was big and grand and impressive, but then I realized, on a day-to-day basis, I didn’t use much of it. I’m just one person, I don’t have a family. I don’t really like having house guests, and most of the house and most of the properties never got used. It seemed like such a waste – to have limited resources in terms of time and attention, and using them to sustain something that I didn’t really use to its full capacity.

Also, I think, (and this may be a little more esoteric), that question of the choices that we make, are we making them for ourselves based on actual empirical experience on what it’s like to be alive, or are we making them based on some assumption of what we should be doing. Like when someone builds a 20,000sq.ft house, is it really meeting their needs as a person?

Is it going to inform their quotidian experience for what it’s like to be alive? Or are they simply a rich person who thinks that they’re supposed to have a 20,000sq.ft house. When I moved here, Puff Daddy moved to somewhere like a $30 million estate in Bel Air, and I thought to myself well, he’s got this 20,000 sq.ft house but he’s still just going to sit at the kitchen table logging into Facebook. And I think that it’s not something that we’re good at. We’re good at analyzing the things in our lives from a status perspective, we want to impress people with our choices, but that’s a very small part of our life. Most of our life is waking up, taking a shower, going to the bathroom, doing dishes etcetera. And in those things, status doesn’t really inform you. Fanciness actually compromises an individual’s ability to happily experience those things.

I agree with you; I do see, (even in my field, being an interior designer), people are scaling down because they want to be able to use their homes. The clients that I had before, who were building these enormous homes realized that they were basically paying staff to take care of a space that never got used, and/or if it did get used, it was for parties. I think that they’re wanting more land, smaller houses so that they can be outside... or use all the space that they do have.

That was one of the realizations that I had, in my old house. It was 3 or 4 acres of my own land. I had access to Griffith Park, but it was private land that I owned, which is absurd as it’s land that is a couple billion years old – you can’t own it. Then I asked myself “what do I value about this land?” What I value is having access to nature, being able to be in the natural environment in the city, which then made me think – I can have my couple of acres or I can avail myself of the 5,000 acres of Griffith Park which are at my front door. If what’s important is nature, it doesn’t matter who technically owns it. I don’t care. I’d rather walk around 5,000 acres that is publicly owned. ...with a bunch of people too, seeing dogs and kids and families.

When people have excess space, it can be oddly isolating. One of the things I really like about living here is that I see other people. Some friends of mine who live way up in Nichols Canyon, Mulholland, they don’t encounter other people, and I think limbically, we are gregarious people and when we don’t have human contact, we go insane. They call it Ted Kaczynski disorder, the Unabomber disorder. Neurochemically, things go awry, when you’re not having human contact (even if it’s with “say hi to your neighbour”). And this is a very neighborly neighborhood.

Everyone walks their dogs, everyone goes to Trails cafe, everyone’s hiking.

And, continuing our conversation about the amount of space people have, and whether they actually use it. In my old house I had a really big, beautiful dining room and a really big living room that never got used.

The dining room, I used one or two days out of the year, the living room, five days out of the year. So when I moved in here, there was a dining room that I turned into a library, because I’m more likely to use that, and the living room I’ve left empty because, well, we’re Angelenos, we go on yoga retreats. And normally when you go to retreat, there’s a multi-function space that they use for meditation, yoga, events and what have you.

And so I’ve left my living room empty as a multi-function space rather than saying: “here’s the couch, you just sit here and do specific things,” – saying it’s empty, it can be used for anything.

It goes along with that thing about the status quo, of you talking about having space that is more for a look than it is for how we actually live.

And then this idea of people pursuing, (I’ve been guilty of this), status and wealth. Most people want everyone to know that they have status and wealth. Their home becomes an advertisement of status and wealth which, from a utilitarian perspective only accomplishes a few things.

One: It makes your friends who don’t have status and wealth feel bad about themselves and resent you. Two: It attracts the sort of vapid people who are attracted to status and wealth, and Three: It compromises your day-to-day living. If I go to someone’s house and they have an original Rothko, I simply say to myself: “Really, that’s the best thing you could do with $25 million, you couldn’t think of anything more interesting than a Rothko, which every other rich person has.” It’s a canvas with paint on it.

It’s nice, but have you considered a poster? Because for $100 you can get

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“We’re good at analyzing the things in our lives from a status perspective, we want to impress people with our choices, but that’s a very small part of our life.”

one on Ebay and spend the other $24million on something a little more interesting. // Let’s talk about that, because you have quite a few collections and you have some interesting art. When you’re paring down your world, your life and your space – are there still certain things that you like to collect?

The key for me when collecting things is to have some connection to it.

All of the art that I have is made by friends or by me, or random stuff I find on the street. I don’t want anything expensive in my house. The moment you have something expensive you have to worry about it.

The only expensive things that I have are a few pieces of musical equipment that I sort of need for my work. Like this couch... if a dog jumped on this couch, and started chewing it, it’d be annoying but then.... eh, who cares, because it’s $1000. I don’t want anything that I have to worry about. And when you have very expensive art or very expensive clothes or very expensive anything – you are buying anxiety. Like, “Oh, I’m on vacation, I have to worry about my million dollar painting or I have to worry about the silk that’s on my couch, and if a dog jumps on it, ‘my life is ruined’. Why not just relax? I was actually having a conversation with a friend of mine recently about why people, when they make money, don’t try to make their lives easier. I was guilty of this as well. I started having some success and I started to think – ‘oh I want more complicated things in my life’. And once you have complicated things, you have to take care of it. Why not just get rid of stuff, have less stuff, and the only things in your life should be things that you have a connection to, that don’t create more anxiety.

I do think there’s a movement with that. I hope – because I think we do so many things to de-stress. Certainly in southern California, with yoga and meditation and trying to get to a place that makes us feel as though we are without all that stuff. Maybe it will start to relate to actually having less stuff.

For example, a friend of mine who is a yoga teacher said that one of her biggest challenges is, and I thought this was so weird, sad and absurd.

One of her biggest challenges is trying to get people to not check their phones during Shivastna. She said during Shivastna you’re supposed to be calm – lying there, letting gravity hold you to the earth. She’s like – ‘everybody’s on their phones’.

We are a nation of addicts and it’s not even an addiction that is making us happy, (when people are constantly, compulsively checking their phones). At least with drugs, there are some benefits. If you are going to be an addict, shoot up or do something. At least, it’s awesome. The consequences are you get sick and you die but there’s at least some sort of, dopamine reward.

Well, it is sad that people are just going through the motions of yoga to say they are doing yoga but still do not understand that it’s about calming down.

You know, when I first started doing yoga, I unfortunately bought into the competitive yoga thing. I’m in the class looking at other people thinking, “Oh, I’m better than that person but not as good as her”, and then at some point, I realised that is not the goal of any sort of wellness practice. It’s never supposed to be competitive. Like ‘I’m the best meditator around’.

I want to talk a bit about architecture now. I know you have photographed and blogged about Los Angeles architecture. How did you start getting interested in architecture?

Part of it is that I grew up poor white trash and my mom and I, for a while, lived in Connecticut in one of the wealthiest towns in the world.

We were on food stamps and welfare, living in a garage apartment. So it made me aware of my space as opposed to other people’s spaces. Technically, we lived in a 1 bedroom. My mom slept in the living room and I slept in the small bedroom, and sometimes I’d sleep in the living room and my mom would sleep in the small bedroom, and my friends had 10 acre estates with tennis courts and horses paddocks. It just made me very cognizant of spaces, and how it is used, how it is perceived. Then when I moved back to New York, I bought a loft in the late 80’s. I started thinking about, now I have this empty, tabular roster of space and I can do whatever I want with it, what should I do? I started thinking of the elementary variables, like light, privacy, function and that’s what sparked my interest in architecture because the criteria by which Architecture are evaluated is both tertiary, meaning ‘how does it look, how does it photograph’, then it is also how does it meet the needs of the people who need the space.

Rarely is the criteria applied to other art because most other art is utterly elective. Architecture has this specific utility and I really love that aspect of it. Especially now, living in southern California, the vast majority of architectural choices are arbitrary. I think it’s so enduring and strange that we live in the desert and we have peep roofs on our houses. The only reason a house should ever have a peep roof is to keep snow off it. That’s literally why peep roofs were invented – because it was a cold place where it snowed, and if you had a flat roof, the roof would fall in. In Southern California, where you have Norman Castles and hacienda style houses – all these weird, different, architectural styles, bafflingly coexisting on the same street.

I was born and raised here so I love the architecture and the different styles. I grew up in a neighbourhood where there wasn’t a house that was the same. Whether it was Spanish or East Coast or French Normandy, people built the houses that they were inspired by. It’s one of the things I happen to like about the architecture here but it seems as though your interest lies within mid-century?

Actually, I like everything. I like crumbly little shacks, I like Neutra houses. For me the most remarkable architect ever – well I think Lloyd Wright

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was pretty interesting too –was Lautner. I think John Lautner had this understanding that everything is fluid and everything, ideally, could be playful.

If you look at the best Lautner houses, his choices don’t seem to reflect formal anxiety – like sure, ‘let’s make the window at this angle, let’s curve this. You want a swimming pool in the living room, let’s have a swimming pool in there. Let’s make this wall move this way. There is a playfulness to it that really seems like an extension of southern California. I also like the Schindlers, the Neutras, the formal almost Marcel Breuer inspired boxes which makes a lot more sense in southern California than a Norman castle with a peep roof. And it is these arbitrary choices that have to serve a specific utility in someone’s life. LA is also the land of people building monstrosities. I read an article about the war between the mega-mansion owners and the giga-mansion owners.

I didn’t even know that was a word...

The mega-mansions are the 10,000 square feet houses. The giga-mansions are the 20,000 square feet houses. The people in Bel Air, or wherever, who built their 10,000 square feet houses, are now upset that their neighbours are building 20,000 square feet houses. I thought, ‘you know what, you need a hobby. Have you considered becoming a big brother or big sister or volunteering in an animal shelter – because these are not real problems’.

Someone with a 10,000 square feet house arguing with a neighbor about building a 20,000 square feet house seems like clearly the apocalypse might have already happened, and God took his chosen people and we are what’s left. // You have a new album that you’re working on. How is that going? Are you touring anymore?

Well, sort of relevant to what we’ve been talking about is the question about why we do the things that we do. It should be the basic question we ask ourselves on a daily basis – am I doing things that are an extension of my values? Am I doing things that create benefit for me and other people – as opposed to doing things because we’ve already been doing them?

In philosophy, it’s called the ‘is-ought fallacy’ – because something is, it ought to be – which is fallacious but we still do that. We stay in a relationship because we are already in the relationship. We take a certain route to work because that’s the route we drive to work, even if it’s probably not the best route. Like that, I kept touring even though I hate touring. I realized in 1999 that I hated touring. It took me 10 or 12, 13 years to finally fully admit that I hate touring. I love playing music but interrupting my life, going to the airport, going to some stinky hotel, (even if it is fancy, they still smell weird)...eating compromised food, not seeing my friends,

not hiking. All the things that I value about my life can’t be had on tour.

Finally, I said that there’s no more touring. As little touring as possible.

So not back-to-back weekends? You would do a show at some point...

The longest tour I ever did was 18 months.

Oh my god, and how many shows a week?

I think like 5 or 6. This drives my manager a little crazy because the way the music business is in 2015, musicians make money from touring and make no money from actually making music. All I care is to make music so I’m finishing my next album and I don’t care if anyone buys it. I just love making them. If someone buys it, fine – or if they listen to it on Spotify or Soundcloud. If they don’t listen to it, that’s fine too. My sense of self, my quality of life isn’t really that affected by the opinions of complete strangers. It used to be but now I love being in my studio, working on music and putting it out into the world, and if someone likes it, that’s fine. Maybe this does exist within some disciplines, I feel like the criteria by which art was judged was how did it live in the world, how many units did it sell, was it a success on opening weekend. I think the more important criterion is, how did it feel when you made it.

Every record I’ve ever made, I loved making but I’ve also worried in the past about how’s it going to sell. What reviews it’s going to get. For me, it should be inconsequential. The most important thing is day-to-day – how do I feel about work that I’m doing and do I enjoy doing it, and do I feel like it is an extension a way of who I am and my world view. And maybe, will someone enjoy it? Music is very intimate and people bring music into their homes, into their lives and they use music in ways they don’t use other art forms. You don’t play a painting at a christening. You don’t go to a baptism and play a photograph.

No; which is why art and photography are very important. Music is such an intimate emotional artform put out into the world, and you have no idea how people are going to use it.

Are you excited about releasing it, and when might it be released?

I’m more excited about making a record than releasing it.

Is there a finalization – I finally got it all figured out, I can put it aside?

Actually hardly enough, if I’m being honest with myself. Finishing a record is the most disappointing part of making records because there is no more potential. I like the finished product but it is way more exciting when the song is half-finished, because you have no idea what’s going to happen. And almost observing the tension created by that, saying the song is half-finished. When it is done, it might be terrible, it might be mediocre and it might be great. Who knows? That is the most exciting part of making a record. Like being in my car, listening to unfinished music, just having this sense of potential and not potential like, yay it got a billion downloads. It’s more like the potential of creating something beautiful and you never know how or where that’s going to come from.

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“Finishing a record is the most disappointing part of making records, because there is no more potential.”

When do you think it will be released?

September, October. I’m my record label. That’s one of the things that is very weird and solipsistic. I make the record and I’m also the boss. In LA, many creative disciplines are so big and collaborative. In order to get a movie made or TV show or whatever, you have to get outside funding and approvals from all these different people, and gather up all these people. And I’m just one person.

My friends who are screenwriters, directors. For them to make a movie or TV show, it’s years of re-drafts and funding and they kind of hate me because I just wake up and do whatever I want to do – which doesn’t mean I’m good at it, it just mean that it’s a very different approach to pursue my art. It doesn’t cost me anything to make a record and the end result is no one else is really that involved. So, if it is good, that means I get to take a little more credit, and if it’s bad, I can’t blame anyone. If it’s bad, that’s just me. // Do you have any hobbies aside from music?

I’ve been a photographer since I was 10. My uncle had been a photographer for the New York Times and when I was 10, he started giving me his hand-me-down equipment. I worked in darkrooms, and started shooting because that’s just a way of going out into the world and looking at the world differently… like when you pass something that you’re not going to document, you can experience it but when you are documenting it, especially maybe more thoughtfully than just Instagram. I love Instagram but when you’re thinking about how you want to document something or represent it photographically, it’s almost like a weird form of mindfulness where you observe the thing more closely. So that’s a hobby – it’s actually also a job because I have a gallery which sells the works. I’m a professional hobbyist when it comes to photography.

Do you have shows in Los Angeles or all over?

I had three shows in LA and more over-the-year shows in most cities.

What about the restaurant that you’re putting together?

I am putting together the restaurant in Silver Lake, an organic vegan restaurant. Part of that is a different approach to entrepreneurialism because, traditionally, people do things entrepreneurially to make money.

There’s nothing wrong with making money but I think it’s a weird goal when you can accomplish so many more things through entrepreneurialism. I want to open a restaurant which supports organic farmers, puts a nice face on veganism, which maybe advances the cause of animal rights and provides a place for community. A place that provides healthy food which actually serves people’s nutritional needs, a space where artists, writers, musicians can meet, hang out or get a job. You can accomplish

all these other things and hopefully at the end of the day not go broke.

How long have you been a Vegan?

27 years Why did you become a vegan? Was it a health issue?

It was simply that I love animals, and in good conscience I just can’t be involved in any practise that contributes to animals suffering. Death is unavoidable, suffering is avoidable. If I am given a choice between one action that causes suffering and one action that doesn’t support suffering, I just think I need to choose the action that doesn’t cause suffering.

You are involved in animal rights activism?

For years now, I’ve worked with a lot of different animal rights organizations. Some local, some regional, national. From Humane Society to PETA to Compassion Over Killing to Mercy for Animals. I feel like one of the only good uses of fame and financial resources is helping causes that you care about. If fame is just self-aggrandizing, it is a complete offensive waste of time. If famous people in LA are just interested in self-aggrandizement, they don’t benefit from it – they don’t ever seem happy. If it made famous people happy, you’d see lots of smiling actors and you’d go to Beverly Hills ad it won’t be filled with divorce lawyers, plastic surgeons and whatever. So, I use whatever small amount of fame I have, to benefit the causes that are important to me.

We have a lot to learn from you because you’ve been able to figure out how to create your own space and function in place on the planet, taking care of your friends, people and animals and your health at the same time. A lot of famous people should learn from you, for sure.

I’ll be uncomfortable if they’re even learning from me. I guess the only bit of advice I have ever given anyone was “take a step back and figure out if the things you are doing are actually working”. What are the things that contribute to a person’s life? Community works, spirituality, health, causes, diet – and we do all these things that don’t serve our needs, our interests or the larger interest of our community. So why do we do them?

Why do we dig up petrochemicals from miles under the earth when there is all sorts of energy coming from the sun or the wind and water, constantly. Why do we process food and remove all its nutritional value when there’s healthy food just coming out of the earth? These are choices that we make, so I guess it’s very hard sometimes to figure out the right way of doing things. If we take a step back, it’s pretty easy to figure out how not to do the wrong things. What makes for good life I’m not sure but we do know what makes for bad life. Eating food that kills you, using products that make you sick, not having contact with people you care about, doing work that you hate, not being part of the community, not having access to nature. These are things that don’t work. So identify what doesn’t work, try and get rid of it and fill your life with things that do.

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Moby in conversation with LA HOME design editor Erin Castellino, at his home in Los Angeles. lahomemag.com/tv/moby

I hope everybody is listening to that. That’s great advice. Is there anything else that you want to talk about?

There’s a one thing that is very relevant and important to me. Water use.

It is the biggest issue facing people in Southern California. There is an instant solution to California’s water crisis. It’s the most obvious thing, and unfortunately I don’t hear anyone talking about it, which is Agriculture.

There are some types of agriculture that are very water responsible, for example, beans. There are some other types of agriculture that is egregiously water irresponsible, livestock, rice and cotton. If the State stopped subsidizing water use for livestock, rice, and cotton, we would have 50% more water.

It takes 10,000 gallons of water to make one pound of beef. It takes 100 gallons of water to make one pound of beans. When the State says “take shorter showers”, that’s a nice idea. You have to run your shower for a week to use the amount of water involved in creating one pound of beef. So I’m saying, there are types of agriculture that simply shouldn’t be in California. Livestock, cotton and rice. It uses so much water that if those three sectors of agriculture left California, we’d have 50% more water, maybe even 60%. California’s water crisis would simply end if livestock production, rice cultivation, and cotton cultivation left California.

There would be so much water for all the other types of agriculture that are sustainable and beneficial to people.

have been my name if I was a girl. Then I was born, and maybe I was an hour old in my mom’s arms, and she looked at me and said you know Richard Melville is kind of a big name for such a tiny little baby. My dad jokingly said “let’s call him Moby” because I’m related to Herman Melville, you know Moby Dick. You know it’s funny because I’ve done interviews where I’ve explained my name to people and I said because I’m related to Herman Melville...

People are like, “who’s that?”

I say okay, turn off the reality TV, and then perhaps go visit one of the many libraries. Yeah, so I’m related to Herman Melville, that’s the Moby Dick author, among other books, and that’s why I’m named Moby. It’s supposed to be a joke, and now 49 years later, I still have my infant joke name.

So how did you figure out those three things?

Research. I had to dig deeply. In the literature, the pie charts just say 70% goes to ‘agriculture’. It’s so easy you know, and no one is talking about it.

I’m trying to put together a coalition of different environmental organizations and public leaders to say here’s a solution: get rid of these three things, no more water crisis. Move them to other states that have plenty of water like Montana, Wyoming, and go to all those places where there are having floods. There shouldn’t be cattle and rice in a desert. That just is the most stupid thing ever. For sure it might benefit a few Cattle ranchers. Move. They’ve done it in other parts. They have done it in Australia.

They actually moved their cattle from dry, drought plagued desert, to places that have more water.

All the minicipalities say, ‘take a 5 minute shower’. Sure, that is a good idea but how about we first get rid of livestock, rice and cotton and then take a five minute shower. // In closing, I wanted to ask you about your name. Is that your given name, Moby?

My legal name is Richard Melville. My parents had decided before I was born that it was going to be my name if I was a boy. Clearly that wouldn’t

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moby.com

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A FINE VINTAGE STORY BY MARK CASTELLINO PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM BRADFORD

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F

orming their name from the year Prohibition was repealed, The 1933 Group is surely a name to make hedonists rejoice. With eight bars opening within the last decade, like a competitive drinker, they don’t seem to pause for breath. And each successive venue brings with it a different theme. All of them however, hark back to that bygone era of the early 20th century – if only to give Bobby Green, the designer, indulgence to scour the Mid West flea markets for the vintage items he is so passionate about.

The 1933 Group (left to right): Dimitri Komarov, Bobby Green and Dmitry Liberman

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Along with high school friends, Dimitri Komarov and Dmitry Liberman, Bobby Green completes the trio of owners with a passion for creating neighborhood hangouts. Thirsty Crow is a whiskey bar in Silverlake which attracts neighborhood celebrities like Scarlet Johanssen.

Bigfoot West, with its hunting lodge facade and decor consisting of antlers, taxidermy and log walls, sits harmoniously on Venice Boulevard – with not a mountain range in sight.

Each bar captures a large slice of Americana, with carefully curated, original pieces to create the right atmosphere. Oldfields pays homage to Barney Oldfield, a famous speed racer in the 1900s. Bobby Green’s passion is racing and vintage cars. The enormous bar fixture was found in Wisconsin, and is from the 1940s. The backroom doors are Parisian.

Sassafras, their Southern themed bar which hosts music in the upstairs room, is a whole house they found in Savannah. They brought it to Los Angeles and reassembled it. The bar itself, was found in Connecticut and dates back to the 1930’s.

The glamor of Old Hollywood was the inspiration for the cocktail lounge Harlowe, named after the 1930s pinup and original blonde bombshell, Jean Harlow. It’s an Art Deco lover’s delight with tufted banquettes, mosaic tiled floors and oil portraits of charming ladies looking down from the walls. There, you can also see an original soda fountain from 1850’s Montana, which the group brought back to Los Angeles.

Their most recent renovation is Idle Hour – a barrel shaped building which was painstakingly restored to its former glory, and which they opened earlier this year. “Then we got a call from the Petersen Auto Museum”, says Dimitri Komarov. “They were demolishing the first floor which was a depiction of an early 20th century LA street, with a replica of the Bull Dog Café. The Bull Dog Café was originally on Washington Blvd. It is in the shape of a French bulldog smoking a pipe. They gave it to us, and we had to disassemble the structure within 2 days. We have now reassembled it on our back patio of Idle Hour, as a private room.”

T

heir forthcoming project is the restoration of Mr. T’s Bowl.

Originally a bowling alley, it is probably more recently known as a punk rock venue. In the ‘30s, it was called the Highland Park Bowl, and naturally, that is the cue that they will take when recreating it, complete with the eight vintage bowling lanes. It’s due to open in early 2016.

The one thing that hasn’t changed over the years is that we still run each place as a family”, says Dimitri Komarov. “We tend to fight corporatism as much as possible.”

Bobby Green, says he feels like he lives in another era. He loves American heritage, handmade things and American products and his mission is to re-introduce the past to people.

It says something that the bars are packed each night with a generation who obviously enjoys the ambience, and is gradually being educated on a slice of American life that existed long before their memories were formed. It’s certainly more fun than studying history at school.

IDLE HOUR

February 2015 In 1941, the barrel-shaped structure derived as part of the “Programmatic Architecture” movement, which was a direct link to the rise of the automobile when business owners in the 20s and 30s designed their buildings to catch the attention of quick-passing motorists. This was not a problem prior, when customers walked or rode horses, so themed buildings popped up such as this barrel, a pipe-smoking bulldog, (which now resides on Idle Hour’s patio), large donuts, tea kettles, etc. Idle Hour is one of the last standing structures of this type in Los Angeles. It now serves Americana cocktails and fare that are a definitive time stamp, reflective of that original era.

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bigfoot WEST

THIRSTY CROW

Oldfields

Bigfoot West 10939 Venice Blvd.

Los Angeles CA 90064

Thirsty Crow 2939 W. Sunset Blvd.

Los Angeles CA 90026

Oldfields 10899 Venice Blvd.

W. Los Angeles CA 90034

2009 /A haven for whiskey lovers, boasting a selection of over 100 whiskeys including 60+ small batch bourbons. The cocktail program embraces sustainable, seasonal practices by utilizing techniques and recipes of bar masters from the days of yore, and using fresh squeezed juices, in-house infusions, homemade shrubs, sherbets, jams, purees and fresh seasonal ingredients from Culver City Farmer’s Market. Bigfoot West has become a local favorite thanks to its cabin-like feel with wood log walls, ceilings made of wood rounds, antlers, and taxidermy, and the comfortable, and “Cheers” like environment from the entry to the exit.

2010 /Thirsty Crow is a timeless, neighborhood watering hole that boasts a selection of over 100 whiskies, including 60+ small batch bourbons, and an array of cocktail creations that evolve with the freshness of the seasons. With a nightly presence of music and revelry, guests will feel at home whether drinking a Negroni or a Pabst Blue Ribbon.

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2011 /The home for classic cocktail lover. The bar’s cocktail program boasts over 20 refined cocktails, including a bountiful list of classic pre-prohibition cocktails. Oldfield’s offers a laid back, neighborhood-bar experience with an homage to decades past with dim lighting, French bistro barstools and white tiles. Utilizing the nearby local farmers’ for a sense of seasonality, Oldfield’s carries fresh, locally-grown fruits and vegetables to prepare the wide variety of syrups, shrubs, and infusions that are prepared in-house and rotated seasonally.

la cuevita

sassafras

harlowe

La Cuevita 5922 N. Figueroa Blvd.

Los Angeles CA 90042

Sassafras 1233 N. Vine Street Los Angeles CA 90038

Harlowe 7321 Santa Monica Blvd.

W Los Angeles CA 90046

2012 /A new, Old-World Mexican grotto set in the heart of the Highland Park, featuring traditional agave spirits, the bar showcases an impressive selection of tequilas and mescals, and distinctive concoctions and spirits that the 1933 Group team has become known for around the city.

2012 /In the heart of Hollywood, 1933 converted a Savannah Townhouse to become Sassafras, a warm, welcoming little piece of the South, highlighting deep-rooted southern history and distinct flavors through its décor, and cocktail and small plates menu. With a nightly presence of soulful jazz and blues music, guests are poised to enjoy a multi-faceted experience every night of the week. The design is reminiscent of the bayou, with plants flourishing throughout, wicker chairs, portraits of Southern patriarchs, antique mirrors, and a creaky conveyer belt above the bar that displays bottle-aged drinks that are in constant rotation.

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2014 /At Harlowe, the cocktails and décor illuminate the elegance and decadence of the Golden Age of Hollywood, with a playful list of classic and original cocktails, draft and bottled drinks, homemade libations, and more. The menu is rounded out by a selection of old-meets-new dishes, which elegantly complement Harlowe’s tastefully ambitious design. Harlowe contributes to 1933 Group’s diverse aesthetic, which demonstrates an elevated environment that evokes glamorous or exotic eras and locales.

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/ R E A L E STAT E

AGENTS OF CHANGE Mauricio Umansky + Billy rose IN CONVERSATION WITH JACQUELINE GUNN ILLUSTRATION BY NICHOLAS ENRIGHT

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“The one thing that cannot be copied, which allows us to be continuously innovative, is our company culture. That is something that will take any one of our competitors years and years to copy or to develop, because it’s uncopiable.”

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In just a few years The Agency has transformed the real estate industry in Los Angeles. Under the guidance of the founders, Billy Rose and Mauricio Umansky, realtors are encouraged to collaborate, not compete – and company culture and innovation are prioritized.

Jacqueline/What makes The Agency special?

Why bring a new agency to Los Angeles?

Mauricio Umansky/Well, we felt that we wanted to disrupt real estate. There was an opportunity in our history in real estate where we felt that it devolved not evolved. That it actually went backwards. We felt that it was an industry with tremendous opportunity because the competition was not acting in a fashion that we felt had great sources. So for example, Richard Branson did it in the airline industry, right. He still flies people from point A to point B but he changed the experience of flying and that’s really what we set out to do. We set out to change the experience of selling real estate – how you sell it, how you buy it, how you market it; really every facet of real estate, right?

Billy Rose/Sure. Historically, the real estate industry has been operated on an individual level, and it has never really been integrated on an organizational level. And it’s hard for us – any one individual to succeed. What we’re looking at, when someone is buying or selling houses, is the largest transaction they’ll probably undertake in their lifetime. And they’re going to have one person who handles every element of that transaction, whether it’s the marketing of it, the negotiation, finding the buyers, whatever it might be. I think, as we move into more successful industry, successful organizations will see a collaboration – a partnership, a utilization, a division of labor. That doesn’t exist in real estate and we wanted to create that with The Agency, where you can get team players who can each play a different position and bring their strengths to that position.

I think you recently purchased a PR company? Is that correct?

Mauricio: We recently merged with a branding company, not only PR but branding and marketing. It really became part of the whole collective of The Agency. Because The Agency is not just about selling real estate but it’s curating lifestyles. What should we do, what do we do?

You live in a home but you have a lifestyle in that home. The Agency is is encompassing all of those experiences into one, and just changing

the way we look at things from different angles.

Really taking it to a much more experiential level than just buying and selling houses.

Billy: I think, more importantly, when you look at what marketing is today and how that’s evolved through technology, things are being marketed in different ways than they were historically. It used to be you would take an advertisement in a newspaper, which is becoming more and more obsolete. Now we’re moving towards more media driven technologies. Whether it’s Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook... video – and people respond to things differently today than they did before. You can see that just in the way MTV was shot. For example, movies from just 10, 15 years ago look completely different from the way movies are edited and shot today. We wanted to have marketing that was of this new era, of these new technologies, so that we can separate our listings, our properties from that of everyone else.

What do you find is the most effective – is it Pinterest, Twitter, Youtube?

Mauricio: I think they’re all effective, you have to be a chameleon and use them all. Instagram is effective for photos, Pinterest you know, kind of puts the whole thing together. You have to use Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest to find new people but it’s really about finding the right people. It’s a targeted approach. Our Agency weekly newsletter goes out every Saturday morning and it is a tremendous tool to reach people – to reach people who are interested. Our open rate is off the charts. We’re reaching over a hundred thousand people now. It’s just been a phenomenal way of telling stories, curating lifestyles and ultimately selling real estate.

Billy: When you’re selling anything you need to make sure people are aware of it. So you need to be everywhere all of the time. We believe in both a targeted approach, and as well as that, a broader approach. What we do in the process is try to understand who that consumer will be, who will be the buyer. Once we’ve identified who that buyer is, we will find the best channel to reach through to them. Then we engage them or communicate with them in a way that would

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resonate with that type of buyer, that specific archetype. And you know, the person who is on Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest may not be the buyer for the property that is in area A but they might be the perfect buyer for the area B property. It’s getting it everywhere to ensure there’s a general understanding and awareness of that property. But then also approaching through a targeted reach. You have to really apply both.

Everyone’s doing these big parties – are they effective? Are they meant to sell the property or are they meant to give them exposure?

Mauricio: The parties do have multiple benefits. They are meant to expose the property to a targeted audience, they are meant to show how a property lives, because a lot of people like to entertain in their home and yet until you experience that, until you see the flow of the property it’s very hard to do that. And they’re meant to reach a broad audience relatively quickly – whether it’s agents, clientele etc. It’s also a fun way to communicate with clients and with colleagues. Now everybody’s doing them, which is one of the things that, as a company, is our largest challenge today. We’re seeing all the real estate companies, (to be blunt), mimic a lot of the things that we’re doing. And it’s certainly a great form of flattery and we love it. We know we can’t stop it, and really what that does, is it challenges us continuously to be innovative.

And to change. What we’ve become is a company that is dedicated to innovation and to change and to be the one that’s being chased and not the one that is chasing. And it’s fun.

How do you push yourself to create new content and something that’s different? Do you have continuous marketing meetings? What are you doing to get ahead of your competition?

Mauricio: Continuous marketing meetings – brainstorming sessions. Where’s it going, what can we do, what can we do better, what can we continue to do to change? How are we doing things wrong and understanding what’s wrong in the industry allows us to do something right.

Reading, studying our competition and seeing

“Rule number one, it’s in capital letters. it says ‘No Assholes’.”

what they like that we do and then, if they think that’s good, we should continue on that path.

The one thing that cannot be copied, which is what allows us to be continuously innovative is our company culture. That is something that will take any one of our competitors years and years to copy, or to develop, because it’s uncopiable. I once was at a meeting and I saw the head of one of the big companies get up and ask ‘Well, how do we create company culture?’. The fact that you merely ask that question means that you don’t understand what company culture is. I think that that’s one of those things that allows us to just be continuously ahead of the rest of our competition.

One thing I wanted to get into is how you both got your start because you’re super successful and everyone’s looking to you as innovators but it wasn’t always so easy. Was real estate always the endgame and did you always want to be a developer?

Billy: I was an entertainment lawyer for a decade, I then became a talent agent at United Talent Agency (UTA). I was not enjoying that, I didn’t think it was my thing. I got into development, I got my broker’s license so I could save money on commissions and started getting into the industry. I noticed that there was a great opportunity because the barrier to entry is so low. We used to say, when we were in the talent agency, we would get these ‘model actresses’. And now that I’m here, I like to call them ‘model actress realtors’ because anyone who knows someone who has money and who owns a house, can make some pretty decent money with one sale. We live in an area where $4 million sales are not unusual at all. I wanted to come into the industry and create an organization where no one of us is as smart as all of us, and create that collaborative culture where everybody feels a part of it, everybody owns it.

Nobody is isolating themselves from the rest and I think that is one of the great foundations of a success. So, for me, if you were to say, what was your evolution, would that be the path that you would recommend, I would never have chosen that path waiting to get to where I am

today. But I think that when I take the disciplines I’ve learned as a lawyer – being able to negotiate and understand where the pitfalls are legally, to the networking and negotiating skills that I learned as a talent agent. Being able to understand what someone can do with a property, to develop it and take it to the next phase.

To give someone a vision and help them understand what that is, taking those skillsets together allowed me to get where I am today.

What about you Mauricio?

Mauricio: I’ve always known that my best asset is selling. Before I was in real estate I was in the fashion world. I started a line with my father called 90265, which is the Malibu zip code, and we ended up selling the line to another large company. At that time, I met my wife and I sold the company and I needed to figure out what my next challenge would be. I’ve always loved architecture, I’ve always loved selling and my wife’s brother-in-law, Rick Hilton was in the real estate business and I got my start with him. I got an opportunity to work in Hilton & Hyland and to learn how to sell there. I exceeded there, I did extraordinarily well, and then about 5 years ago I became the number 7 agent in the country. And when I became the number 7 agent in the country, I looked at myself and I said, ‘there are only six more spots to go’.

I know certain things that are repeatable and teachable, and so my next evolution was to open my own company and teach those things and repeat those things. And spread those those sales secrets, if you will, to a community that will be open to learning them, and then be successful themselves. So to watch everybody at The Agency excel and become what they’re becoming, and to just watch the number of agents that we have who are top producers, not only in our company but in the country – it’s just so exciting. There’s nothing that gives me more excitement than that at this point in my life. I still love selling a great house but to watch all these people succeed, to watch them become who they’re becoming, that to me right now is the most exciting thing that I can possibly do.

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I know that you two got together to create The Agency. How long ago was it?

Billy: It was actually 4 years ago. We came together and started the planning process.

And were you guys friends or competitors when you came together?

Mauricio: Well, you see that’s one of the interesting things that you just asked, if we were competitors. I’ve always looked at other realtors as colleagues, not competitors. And that’s one of the main things that I think is wrong with the real estate industry. That real estate agents think of other agents as competitors, and that’s just wrong to start with. We’re colleagues, we need to work together, we need to do deals together. We were colleagues, we were part of the same group. I had the idea of doing this whole thing and I thought Billy was kind of the yang of me, the opposite skillsets of those two. I went to Billy and I asked him if he’d be interested in exploring and opening up this company, and before I finished my sentence he said, ‘Yes! I love the idea!’

Billy: I said you complete me.

Mauricio: From there we just started, and it’s been a great partnership and relationship ever since.

I saw recently you were doing something in London. Can you tell me about your future plans to expand?

Mauricio: Well, we do a lot of new development, we handle a lot of different communities.

We’ve handled places like Victory Ranch in Utah, the Villas del Mar in Los Cabos, Battersea Power Station in London. So International is a very important part of our life and a very important part of our expansion. Our goal is for The Agency to continue to expand. We want to be a national brand and we ultimately want to be an international brand. But we’re in the process of figuring out what our next 3 to 5 years will look like. So as soon as we figure it out I’ll let you know.

I appreciate that. Well it sounds like it’s very exciting, everything that’s going on here and

Mauricio Umansky and Billy Rose of The Agency in conversation with LA HOME editor Jacqueline Gunn at their office in Beverly Hills. lahomemag.com/tv/theagency

I love the fact that you have the newsletter. I saw the quarterly report that came out. So I know that market knowledge is something really true to the core of your values here.

How long did it take you to put that together?

Mauricio: Hours and hours. We have multiple people who are dedicated just to research and putting that report together. We do research.

Knowledge is a key part of our industry and a key part of understanding how to sell, price... everything. I don’t know how you advise people on a consultancy basis without having great research.

Billy: Yes, the information is essential to really be able to understand where you need to be, both in pricing if you’re a seller, and in the offering if you’re a buyer. You have to be able to equip your clients with that information. We all have our views of where the market is but then when you look at the cold, hard facts you can often get a different picture than you might have thought it to be. And our job is to really act as a consultant, as an advisor for somebody who really just needs the tools to make an informed decision.

Mauricio: The interesting thing about our research is that it’s not only factual from a perspective of numbers, which is extraordinarily important to us, but it also goes into understanding the psychographics and demographics of buyers and where they’re going and what they’re going to be buying, what they’re looking at. Not only what they are buying from a real estate perspective but what coffee they are drinking, what books they are reading. Understanding the psychology of the buyer and where they live in communities, and once you start understanding that, then you can really start understanding how to market to a community with a particular point of view. You’ve nailed it in terms of it being one of the things that defines us and makes us completely different. It is one of those things that I don’t know if it will it ever be taught but we have that ability to create them.

Billy: One of the most exciting things about having the research at our fingertips, as well as having the experience that we get anecdotally

from our showings and our sales, is being able to witness in LA and particularly the Renaissance going on here at the moment and helping guide and the pathway for these developers who are going to change the landscape of LA. LA is a very dynamic city right now, downtown has got to a place where it’s past the tipping point, it’s the reality, it is going to be a great urban center. And I think LA will become a tale of two centers. You’ll have Downtown, which was long ago the only center, and then it faded away to what really was Beverly Hills as the nucleus. We now have a number of projects that will redefine the way that Angelenos will experience lifestyle here because we’re going to now see, for the first time, truly classy, urban, style living with these towers, whether it’s at the 9900, the old Robinson-May site. Or at any of these other projects which are going to provide people an opportunity to be here year round or for part of the year, and to actually walk to things. Because that is not the true Angeleno’s experience – we all look back at the Swingers movie where everyone jumps in their own car to go somewhere. We have such a car culture but we’re getting to a place where our culture, nightlife, cuisine and our houses have risen to a level where people around the world want to enjoy it, and not just come here to vacation.

Right. And then to talk about trends and what’s happening. I would love to know what’s the most undervalued neighborhood in Los Angeles at the moment? Where should we be investing our dollars?

Mauricio: Well, I don’t think there’s anything undervalued but I think there’s some great opportunities. From an opportunistic basis I think that Hancock Park is a tremendous opportunity.

Billy: That was gonna be my number one place.

I think because downtown is so vibrant now and and because it’s going to be more and more somewhere that people will want to go and though you may not have a great family demographic there quite yet, without schools. Those people who don’t want to give up their estate but yet be only afew minutes from downtown,

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Hancock Park would be a great option for them.

Mauricio: Yeah, I think Hancock Park is undervalued. Parts of Bel Air still hold some great opportunities, the Palisades still has a great potential to go up. I think that some of the neighborhoods where you’re obviously seeing a lot of buys, international buys have been fueled up, would be the Bird Streets, and, of course Beverly Hills. But I think that LA still has quite a way to go from the appreciaton perspective. You can still buy properties in all of these neighborhoods I just talked about for under $1000 a foot. And there’s no reason why those should not be at $2000 a foot. There’s no reason why prime Beverly Hills or prime Bird Street areas with amazing views, should not be hitting $4000 a foot. I think that’s very possible in the foreseeable future. When you compare our market to other markets, it makes all the sense in the world.

Where is the highest cost per square foot in the city?

Mauricio: I think the highest sales that we’ve seen in the city would be in Beverly Hills, which ran at around $3000 a foot with views. I don’t think we hit $4000 a foot anywhere in the city.

It’s generally been around $3400 or $3500 in Beverly Hills with views, or the Hills, you know with views, I think would still command the highest price per foot.

Now, where are you guys excited to expand to? I know you’re expanding your offices quite quickly but at the same time it’s been very organic. Are you planning to move to the East Side soon?

Mauricio: We have a few plans for expansion of offices opening this year. However, I don’t think I can share that at present.

But we know they’re coming, so that’s good.

Billy: Critically, we need to maintain the culture and the level of quality and professionalism because that’s what we want people to think of The Agency. So if you go too quickly you can lose that opportunity – it’s really maintaining our control.

“prime Beverly Hills or prime Bird Street areas with amazing views, should be hitting $4000 a SQ foot. I think that’s very possible in the foreseeable future.”

When you open up different offices, do you both go and do you create the culture and help people understand that it’s not a competitive nature?

Mauricio: We both go. We have an amazing administrative staff that understands the culture.

You don’t teach it, you just live it. You live by the culture and we have a handbook that goes out, we have rules that go out to everybody. Everybody that joins our company reads them, signs them. Rule number one, it’s in capital letters – it says ‘No Assholes’. I mean, it’s that simple.

We start with that and then we go from there.

But there are ethics, there’s integrity, there are ways of living and there are ways of being, and we ask everybody to read the book that Tony Hsieh wrote, Delivering Happiness – which is the Zappos philosophy. We ask everybody to read that book.

Billy: What is a really great feeling, is that people feel part of a team and they feel proud to be part of this team. You see people who wear the Agency pin or the Agency hat. I love when I’m just out there seeing that. We were at the airport the other day and saw somebody, not even with The Agency, who was wearing an Agency hat.

Let’s talk a bit more about international buyers and marketing to them – how is it different from representing someone who’s local?

Mauricio: There are a lot of different ways, different skillsets that you need to have in order to market and represent an international person.

First of all, you have to understand where those international buyers are coming from, and primarily we’re seeing international buyers coming from China. Secondarily, I would say Europe. The Russian money’s dried up for the time being, I think that we’ll start seeing it again.

But for now, let’s just concentrate on those two countries. We really put a tremendous amount of effort into China for the past three and a half years I’ve personally been traveling there. We’ve made great relationships there, we’ve partnered with an amazing associate, Savills, who have 500 offices worldwide. They’re just fantas-

tic in what they do. We tuned into them very well, we market together with them, whether it’s through our weekly newsletter, or whether it’s through the newspapers or the internet. It’s more than just where you advertise and what you advertise, it’s about being there, it’s about living that world. And we’ve been there, we’ve been living there, we have great relationships which we cultivate and we see the majority of our buyers coming from direct relationships.

Having the skillsets of representing the clientele is really just understanding what it is ... it’s more of an educational process. And it’s more of an educational process – to educate the client in the real estate laws of the U.S. It’s taking them step by step, just handholding and being patient. Sometimes you have to hire a translator, interpreters, sometimes you don’t, it just depends on who you’re dealing with. Sometimes putting them together with the right real estate attorneys, so they feel that they’re being properly represented in the way that they’re taking title – so that they have a clean title in the States.

Well, that’s an interesting point about real estate agencies here in Los Angeles. They do contracts as opposed to other places. Interesting that you bring in an attorney to help them and be a third party.

Billy: You know, it is the largest transaction that you will undertake in your lifetime. I am a lawyer and yet I definitely don’t feel like I have every answer. I like to get the benefit from counsels who trained in those specific transactions. The fact that we allow people who have had their license for a minute to give you legal advice without a legal license, is crazy. These are complicated transactions. We have 8 page contracts and most of the agencies in the industry don’t really know what most of it says.

As an attorney, you’re making sure people are well educated here.

Billy: Training is key. We do strive for great quality and professionalism, and we make sure that all of our agents have the tools and the knowledge and the experience to be able to

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assist clients, whether they’re local or international.

Wrapping up – speaking of the tools, what are some technology based things that you guys are using?

Mauricio: We’re huge believers in technology and we’re developing systems for our entire company to operate, and for us to be able to track marketing. We’ve gone out to the market, we pretty much bought every system out there – none of them work great. So we had to hire our own developers and we’ve been developing our own CRM systems, accounting systems, everything together. Over the past two years I think we’ve put over $500,000 into developing these systems and we’re continuously moving forward. We just got out of a meeting where we approved an additional $250,000 spend in order to make everything really operate. But I think that that’s one of those things that separates us from everybody else. And until we haven’t completely finished, we’re exploring.

You know how a fish gets caught? By its mouth, right? It’s their weak spot. Well, we try to keep our mouths really tight about where our technology is heading. We’re huge believers in it but we really try to keep a tight lip in terms of what we’re doing with it.”

theagencyre.com

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9601 Oak Pass Road $23,000,000

contemporary oak pass road beverly hills

Contact: Gary Gold Hilton & Hyland T: 310 858-5411

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOE FLETCHER/OTTO PORTRAIT BY PRISCILLA RODRIGUEZ

T Noah Walker Architect, Walker Workshop Noah Walker is the President and Founder of Walker Workshop.

Prior to establishing Walker Workshop, Noah was a Project Manager for Marmol Radziner and Associates and Marmol Radziner Prefab. Before arriving in L.A., Noah developed extensive high end residential design and construction experience working in the New York offices of Peter Gluck and Partners and Francois de Menil.

Noah has taught graduate level courses on drawing and construction documents at Parsons School of Design.

He received his Masters in Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor of Arts in the Growth and Structure of Cities from Haverford College. He has over ten years of experience with a specific focus on residential designbuild methods of project delivery.

he Oak Pass house uses an “Upside Down” program, with public spaces above the bedrooms, which are buried into the hill and beneath a green roof of edible herbs. This relatively large house at 8,000 square feet appears much smaller and carefully integrated into the surrounding landscape, which includes over one hundred and thirty Coast Live Oaks. A seventy five foot swimming pool, with infinity edges on three of four sides, bisects the house and slips below one of the largest Oaks on the property.

It is an impressive feat considering this is only the second house ever built by Noah Walker.

“Usually when an architect emerges on the scene, it’s the product of years of hard work and apprenticeship before they get an opportunity to do anything on their own. I think it was a combination of good fortune and preparation that led me to this project,” he says, modestly dismissing that observation.

“It’s a spectacular property to begin with. Architects are often trained to feel like they have to fix everything and make a loud statement out of the architecture but when you have a property like this with a 130 oak trees on it and a ready natural majesty, your goal really is not to overpower it.”

The pool is an integral part of the visible part of the property. It goes down to the ridge and basically divides the hill in half. A majestic oak tree which sits on the ridge didn’t hinder the design.

Instead the pool passes through it and captures the reflection of the branches, becoming a major feature, and one of the first things you see when you visit the house.

Walker designed the house to maximize the views and created what he calls a private wing and a public wing. The living room, kitchen and dining room are above ground making the house seem compact but the private wing with the bedrooms, family and reflective spaces runs underground, seemingly invisible.

“We ended up burying the private wing in order to maintain their views because what’s unique about this property is that there’s more of a panoramic view here than you typically see, in almost every direction.”

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Walker’s design aesthetic is a far cry from the majority of contemporary houses currently being built.

“I think they’re sleek and they are cold. Often, those houses aren’t dialled into the land – it’s just the manifestation of the current program which is more about impressing people sometimes, like bling. In the bling, we see a lot of shiny materials, cold materials in bright lights. This is a healthier process. We like to use a lot of woods and materials that develop a patina, so that they will change their character and adapt over time instead of something that’s supposed to look really great, right out of the box. The goal is to make a modern architecture that is warmer, which is able to capture light and also to feel more human.”

The human touch is present everywhere, exemplified in the 920 wine bottle wall, the wood fired pizza oven in the kitchen and the window which slides open to its full length to bring the outdoors in – the perfect complement to cooking and socializing.

And his favorite part of the house?

“My favorite room, and the one that was the biggest surprise, was the courtyard downstairs. Just because it’s unexpected. In a house where even the garage has a pretty nice view, you come to a place where you don’t have that view anymore because it’s an interior courtyard. We created it to bring light into what would otherwise be a long hallway to the bedroom, and because we’re underground, you have this moment where you can no longer see around you and it’s equally majestic and private. It’s an area of refuge amongst all these amazing views you have everywhere else on the property.”

It’s not often you have an architect who is also the builder of the house but Noah Walker has a general contractor’s licence which allowed him to take charge of the building process.

“Interesting things happen when the architect is a builder on-site”, says Noah.

“The architect is able to pay extra care and attention to the way details are made, put a little more thought into things. For example, I personally went to downtown LA and hand-picked the veneers for the kitchen, and worked very closely with the cabinet maker to make sure that they matched completely across the wall, from top to bottom and from left to right. I think it starts to show that extra five or ten percent of love that goes into making a house.

It also creates a single source of contacting responsibility for the client and I do think that’s a little bit more of a streamlined process. It makes us very nimble. If we see something in a project that is under construction or there’s something that we can exploit, we’re able to move quickly because we’re both the builder and the architect.”

Noah Walker is an exciting talent to watch in the coming years, seemingly unfazed by ‘difficult’ projects. Although he readily admits there are downsides as well as the upsides to his all round abilities.

“I take all the blame, and I take all the glory too when it’s finished.”

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walkerworkshop.com

oakpassmodern.com

Opposite page: The bedrooms lie discreetly underground, giving the illusion of a smaller house and maximizing the panoramic view.

This page: The wood fired pizza oven is one of the many unusual features in the kitchen. The window slides open the whole length of the wall to bring the outdoors inside.

lahomemag.com/tv/noahwalker

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R E A LT O R

P R O F I L E

Gary Gold IN CONVERSATION WITH JACQUELINE GUNN PHOTOGRAPHY BY PRISCILLA RODRIGUEZ

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The Executive Vice President of Hilton & Hyland discusses, with Jacqueline Gunn, the changes he has seen in the industry over the last 20 years, and also reveals the most undervalued neighborhoods in LA.

Jacqueline/ Now, you started in real estate at a young age, I heard.

Gary/ I started when I was 17 and by the time I turned 30 I just said “if I’m going to do this for a career, I might as well do it in the best possible place. Jeff Hyland recruited me for 5 or 6 years. Come to Beverly Hills, come to Beverly Hills, so that’s when I made the move over here.

Did you always want to be a real estate agent?

I never wanted to be a real estate agent. I wanted to be a lyricist. I really wanted to play lead guitar but I can’t play guitar so I wanted to be lyricist.

I wanted to be a comedian; I’m a very creative person. I had no interest in doing real estate but when I was 16 years old, I tried to paint my car with a friend. It’s just not something you can do by yourself and I destroyed my car. I was 16, I had no wheels so we sold it in auction and my brother who was really successful in real estate, and a few years older, said ‘come work for me, I’ll buy you a car’.

So your brother was in real estate?

Yes. And at the time, I had entered into Cal State Northridge, I couldn’t find a parking spot with my parents’ car so I decided not to stay in college.

When my brother said I’ll buy you a car, I said I wanted to start working for him. I actually started doing his marketing, and that creative thing really came in handy. We were doing crazy marketing back in the seventies.

fast paced? What do you think we’re missing as opposed to way back when you started, and were doing things maybe more mom-and-pop like?

The real estate industry was really an unsophisticated business that almost anyone could do. We had power then because we owned all the information. The MLS was for agents only, and there was no photography and if you wanted to see a house, you had to call a real estate agent. That’s how you saw homes – you went physically to visit them. Now everyone has the power of information and people look at homes online. By the time they get to see a house, it’s a second showing. So our roles have changed, and we have a much more sophisticated role today than we did.

Before, all we had was the access. You needed to come to us, and we had the monopoly. Now we are experts on construction – to a certain extent, we are experts on contracts, on marketing, on internet, on negotiating, on finance...

I know a lot about when people come here from foreign country, what they need to do to buy a home. So we wear a lot of hats, we have to do a lot of work and our expertise is valuable. Before, we were just giving people information, now people need our expertise. They don’t need just the information because it’s available everywhere.

Give me example. Was it something innovative that you were doing then?

We did Reagan and Carter running for President. We did a series of post cards. We had one with Ronald Reagan and my brother in front of the White House – it was a caricature and Ronny saying “I’m looking for a four year lease with a right to extend for another four years”, something along those lines. And we had one with Jimmy Carter saying to my brother “I like the house, it’s the Senate I can’t stand”. What’s funny at the time, I really didn’t know anything about politics, I didn’t know if it matched up but it was so funny and we had For Sale signs in front of the White House. We were doing these out-of-the-box, wild postcards just to get people’s attention.

So you’re saying you have to be a lot more sophisticated now than you had to be way back then.

You do, and another thing has happened in the last ten years – a lot of brilliant people from other industries have gotten into our industry. It’s not just about real estate agents anymore – Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, DocuSign... all these people are in the real estate industry, and they are not agents but they’re playing a vital role and so there’s a level of sophistication in real estate. The game has changed for the better but to a much higher degree. And that agent who just had no better ideas than getting a real estate license and thought because they know people, they could sell some homes – that person is falling by the wayside. The fact that you know a lot of people, you are good sales person and you’re are a good networker – those are also critical – but if that’s all you got, your days are numbered.

And people picked up the phone to talk to you?

Oh yeah, and we were doing billboards, up and down Ventura Boulevard.

We were doing massive mailings with four-color process, and color brochures. The color brochure or color postcard back then was equivalent to doing 3D imagery today. All that stuff was really sophisticated back then.

You know this first hand because you’re on HGTV. You are on “Selling LA”. What else are you on?

“Beautiful Homes” and “Great Estates”. I’ve been on TV quite a bit, I won’t say that’s why I’m an expert but maybe I was an expert and they put me on those shows.

So you were on the cusp of everything?

Yes I was. To give you an idea that’s a little bit more relateable, I started doing videos 20 years ago.

Do you think it enhances what you bring to the table? Do you think you can expose more people to your properties through that avenue?

Why do you think it is beneficial to your business?

This is why it’s beneficial. Right now... this home we are in right now, what I’ve done to launch this was not even remotely available five years ago, ten years ago. Before, all we could do was advertise. Now, this content is going to go on the internet and literally hundreds of people could put

Alright. That gives real perspective. What about the young guns who are coming into real estate today versus the more seasoned realtors?

What do you think they are missing because I know everything now is

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Gary Gold in conversation with LA HOME editor Jacqueline Gunn at Oak Pass Road in Beverly Hills. lahomemag.com/tv/garygold

it on their Facebook page, they could tweet it, they could share it. I have lots of things like this that end up going in all these different directions in all these different nooks and crannies, and it could end up in one little place where the right buyer is. So that is why it’s critical. I got a call today from a guy from England who wants to buy a home here in the US. He saw a video I did on ‘Frequently asked questions for foreign buyers’, and he called me. This is the second call I’ve got from that video. That was never there before.

You have a reputation for answering emails from foreign buyers at eleven o’clock at night I heard.

I do. One of the important things to selling homes today, is that you have to do that. A lot of my clients are from China, Europe, Australia, and those people need to communicate with me. For instance, my client from China, if I wait to call her during business hours, it’s going to be two days communicating. And in this world, if there’s a two day delay, it’ll never happen. So I know that starting at 5 o’clock here, it’s 10 o’clock there but even better yet, usually from 9 o’clock to 12, there’ll be a handful calls I might make. I’m happy to do it, talking on phone to foreign buyers on their schedule.

So, that’s how you’ve attracted buyers from those niche markets then it’s by being available late at night, early in the morning?

I used to use a lot of descriptive terms... for instance, if you want a house with a ‘killer view’, there’s something I may have said five years ago, I’m now sensitive to the fact that that it might not read in Hong Kong or Paris or some other country. I will use terms that are universal. I also like the images to speak for themselves, too many words is worthless. They’re looking for facts. They’re looking for... what I would say is, ‘city-lights view’- that they would understand, I don’t need an adjective to describe that. Very specific. People aren’t reading long sentences any more. They’re reading words. If they’re looking for “a view, new, tennis court, six-car garage” whatever they’re looking for. They’re looking for words and they’re looking for images to match what’s in their head.

There’s so much content for people to go through. First of all, people look at... when they search for property, they’re looking on Zillow, Realtor, Truila, Redfin, wherever. The average person uses six different sites during the course of the search process because they all look a little different. So when they’re doing that, they’re deleting a lot of information and only focusing on what they want to focus on. It’s kind of like if you decided you wanted to get a BMW X5, all of a sudden you start noticing it everywhere you didn’t notice it before. And now it gets even more complicated because if you’re from Hong Kong, you could buy here, you could buy in Vancouver, you could buy in Portugal. You might be looking in half a dozen different areas. So it’s getting really complex, that message has to be crystal clear, has to universal. One of the big problems with real estate marketing is people are copying other people’s bad ideas and they don’t even know what they want their objective to be. They don’t think

about the psychology of who’s looking at it and they’ll dump a bunch of pictures on there. The big mistakes a lot of agents make now, is to have 40 pictures online.

You’re a believer in limiting the number of photos?

For multiple reasons. Number one, they should be good pictures, they should tell a story – people understand a story, whether it’s the news, a sporting event, a movie or seeing a house. It’s like ‘talking to a friend’ – it has a beginning, a middle and end. It has to tell a story. The other thing is, if you’re at the airport or you’re in the car even at home, and you’re trying to look at something with 40 pictures, it could create a delay. People have such a short attention span, that the delay which might take ten or fifteen seconds may cause them to dismiss the property altogether. They get frustrated, they go someplace else and they’ll never look at it again.

What are the techniques that other people are doing? You know drone photography is popular, and I went on your website and I saw that you did a drone video of this property. Do you think that’s going to be mandatory for most properties in the future?

Not at all. Everyone’s trying to do drone photography right now. Now this is three-and-a-half acres in the middle of very beautiful surroundings and how this house relates to it, what is around it, is magical. This is the perfect house for drone photography. If you have a house in the flats of Beverly Hills on a 16,000 foot lawn, and you’ve got neighbours on all sides... The problem with drones, if not used correctly, is that it’s an unnatural way to look at a house. Who cares what your roof looks like, unless you’re a bird about to poop on it - it just doesn’t make any sense!

Let’s move on then and talk about architecture. This a beautiful modern home that we’re looking at, I wanted to ask you, what is the-mostasked for architecture in Los Angeles?

You know I’ve been doing this a long time. When I started, everyone wanted English Tudor. It was English Tudor, Country English, French, all with dark wood and brass. That’s what everyone wanted. Starting somewhere in eighties, Mediterranean started to catch on, and Mediterranean had a 30 year run of being really desirable. About ten years ago, I recognized, it started to get a little old but it still was the most popular. Now, virtually no one’s building Mediterranean. I would say it’s down to 5 or 10 percent. Not that they’re not some great Mediterranean homes – there are – but right now the two styles are traditional and contemporary, modern houses. If I was to develop... it depends on the neighbourhood. If you’re in the Sunset Strip, you will be building a modern house.

Do you think that traditional won’t fly in Sunset Strip?

It will not fly in the Sunset Strip. There are some older homes that people have tweaked... but that’s the move. I would say in Beverly Hills and Bel Air – it’s also the move. As you move to Brentwood, Palisades...every new home, except one, in the Pacific Palisades currently is a traditional

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“one of the big problems with real estate marketing is people are copying other people’s bad ideas and they don’t even know what they want their objective to be.”

house. I believe traditionals are starting to wear a little thin... a little bit redundant. They’re all starting to look alike. In the next 10 years, I believe that warm, organic element, contemporaries are going to dominate new houses.

When you say ‘warm’ – is that bringing in warmer colors, woods, what does that entail?

Yes. Organic materials which are porous, not sleek and just wide, it’s woods, it’s stone, sometimes even poured concrete. It’s connecting the inside and out in a very natural way. The one challenge with modern houses is that they are really expensive to build.

Why is that?

Well number one, the window systems cost a fortune. Everything has to be exact. With traditional houses, lots of the materials that they use are just more available, easier to build with, cheaper.

expensive than Santa Monica, and I bought down there. It’s a total bargain but it’s going to be a bargain for about another 5 seconds...

So you’re going to live there right now?

Yes. I live on a cul-de-sac, which is kind of unusual, and I can walk to the beach.

If someone wanted to contact you about real estate since you are so knowledgeable, do they reach you through email? Text you?

Today, you can reach me anyway you want – Facebook, LinkedIn, smoke signals, carrier pigeon. Probably the easiest way would be my cell phone or text 310 741-0505. I also can be reached at gary@soldbygold.net but if you just type me on Google, I’m all over the place.

Talking of the modern concept and the doors and the windows, what do you find are the better materials to use?

These are doors which are probably on the high end and the most popular. There are a number of top-of-the-line window systems too. Smart homes are very important now. This is a Crestron house, and throughout the house they’ve got control panels. I was up here to show the house, and I didn’t have access to the door in the guest house. My client was in New York when we were showing the house and I said “can you open the door from your phone?”, and in 30 seconds, click – and it opened!

What’s the most undervalued neighbourhood in Los Angeles?

This is going to be hard. I’m going to talk about the most undervalued in the high end area and then the most undervalued in the medium range.

I think Brentwood is completely undervalued right now. And for most people it sounds absurd but new houses are selling still in the $1200 to $1400 a foot range.

That’s compared to Sunset Plaza.

And there are some uber ones that are close to $2000. It’s super undervalued. In my career, I have seen very few times when Brentwood Park was actually more valuable than the flats of Beverly Hills. And way more valuable than Trousdale or the Sunset Strip. Over the last thirty years, I’ve seen values going back and forth but I think Brentwood right now is a bargain, if you’re looking on the high end. So that’s number one. I live down in the Marina del Rey, Venice area I think it is really undervalued. There is so much employment going on down there with YouTube, Google, Electronic Arts and all these tech industries. And Playa Vista – they’re building all this space for high-technology, high paying jobs and it’s near the beach. Marina del Rey’s been completely re-built and that area is going to be super-valuable. There will be a day where that’s more

soldbygold.net

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1221 Minorca Drive, Pacific Palisades 90272 $7,885,000

Traditional spanish minorca road pacific palisades

A

long the stretch of Sunset Boulevard, adjacent to the Country Club, this pretty Tuscan Villa nestles in the Riviera Palisades. Stepping through the private and gated entrance, you are greeted by dramatic, soaring ceilings, wide spaces and meticulously crafted rooms with beautiful ironwork details.

“This house is about 8500 ft.² of living space and it’s on a 14,000 ft.² lot, all completely flat – which is usually hard to come by”, says Nick Collins who is representing the sale of the house.

The old house was one of those old Palisades ranch-style homes from the 60s, and it used to face Sunset Boulevard. It was a one storey house with a little pool, and it was completely demolished. The address was changed to face Minorca Drive so the home is completely quiet. People have a hesitation with properties fronting Sunset Boulevard but they have created such a serene environment here, that it’s hard to imagine the immediate surroundings.

The house was newly constructed in July 2007 with 6 large bedrooms, 9 custom bathrooms, 2 formal living rooms, a large gourmet kitchen with

Contact: Nick Collins Rodeo Realty T: 310.433.4946 nick@rodeore.com

hidden refrigerators, instant hot water and every imaginable gadget – including some you would never think of, like the mechanized, hideaway food mixer. The showers and the faucets pipe purified water. Each room has a hidden safe.

There’s a formal dining room, suede-walled smoking room and bright natural light pours into every room. Great use is made of imported stone and hardwood floors throughout. A custom built basement contains a private screening room, with an adjoining wine cellar for easy access to a glass of wine as you watch your favorite movie. Exercise in the convenience of your home gym with a steam shower afterwards. Let your creative juices flow in the custom music studio. Lounge by the saline pool and spa with surround sound speakers and barbecue. The spa itself, is gigantic – it literally sits 20 people.

The house was built to live in, and everything is here because it serves a purpose.

There are speakers wired throughout the house and in the front yard and back yard, so you can hear music wherever you go. It’s a beautiful and enchanting home full of Mediterranean warmth and ambience.

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R E A LT O R

P R O F I L E

NICK COLLINS IN CONVERSATION WITH JACQUELINE GUNN

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Long time resident and realtor, Nick Collins, talks to Jacqueline Gunn about the different neighborhoods and the attraction of living in Pacific Palisades

Jacqueline/ How did you get your start in real estate?

Nick/ I got my start with Sally Forster Jones at Coldwell Banker. She has a great team and I learned a lot. Then I just went on my own – it’s sink or swim in real estate, and I think I’m starting to swim.

Oh, I think you’re more than starting to swim. I heard you sold 14 or 15 homes last year, and it was your first year on your own. What do you attribute your success to?

I think a lot of it has to do with being at the right place at the right time.

The market has been really good for a while now and I kinda got in on the upswing. Also, I’m a LA native, which is apparently pretty rare – so people trust that I know the city better than most.

What areas do you service?

That’s a good question because I happen to service all the areas in LA. I know a lot of people will focus on one pocket or try to capitalize on one specific area. My office is located in Beverly Hills and I’ve been able to service areas within a 20 mile radius, everywhere from Santa Monica to Downtown, to Orange County. The majority of my business lately has been on the Eastside, in West Hollywood and also around the Hancock Park area. It’s due to having a lot of clients who are young, have new families and are starting their careers. Everyone wants to be in that area because of the nightlife and because it’s central to everywhere that you may need to be.

Which areas are trending?

West Hollywood is on fire as far as desirability, and for what you can get.

Lately, I’ve been showing my clients houses that are even a little bit farther east of La Brea, or even just west of La Brea.

What areas do you think are undervalued?

To tell the truth, so many places in LA have already hit their stride, but I would say Culver City and the Palms area because they are really under-built and not very established yet. They’re doing a lot of new construction in Culver City. Everyone wants to be near downtown, near Sony studios and all the cool little bars and restaurants. It’s really hot over there but that whole area is definitely up-and-coming. And there are really good school districts there too.

I know there are different sections of the Palisades. Tell us how the neighborhoods compare to one another.

A lot of people aren’t too familiar with what the Palisades are, or how it breaks down because it is a random little pocket between Brentwood and Santa Monica and Malibu. The Riviera is, in a lot of people’s minds, the most desirable part. And that’s where you see the highest price per square foot, the biggest lots, the biggest houses and privacy. As you make your way west from the Riviera, desirability doesn’t necessarily dissipate but it’s just different. You’ll see smaller lot sizes, the houses are smaller and price per square foot is a little lower. Young families find it very desirable to be around the Marquez Knolls and the Alphabet streets because that’s where the good school districts are. You’re also in walking distance to a lot of things. Then as you go a little farther west, you will run into the Highlands and the El Medio Bluffs.

it’s just a great place to spend the day. If you take Sunset Boulevard down, closer to PCH, there is the Self-Realization Center. From the street you would never in a million years know it’s there. It’s a huge park with a lake.

You can just drive in and walk around, no one’s gonna bother you. People go there to meditate. They have a third of Gandhi’s ashes there, turtles walking around and geese flying by.

As far as bars and restaurants go, for the longest time in the Palisades town Pearl Dragon was the only place that had a liquor license. So, that was the local hangout because, not only did they serve alcohol, but they had a random combination of sushi and burgers. Now the Palisades has started to expand, which is nice. If you go a little bit closer toward Santa Monica or even just a little bit down the hill to PCH, there is the Bungalow, which is part of the Fairmont Hotel, and super close to the Palisades.

That is a really cool place to hang out. You feel like you’re in someone’s beach house – it’s a really good vibe. There is Shore Bar, that’s a cool spot for the younger generation again, and they stay open late. I love Beach Street Café which is up in the Palisades town. They are a really good Italian and pizza place. My favorite yogurt place of all time is actually in the Palisades, it’s called The Yogurt Shoppe, and you have to try their peanut butter because it’s insane... and their salted caramel.

Also on the weekends, it’s really fun around there because they close off the street and have a farmer’s market. And they do puppy adoptions – I’m a sucker for puppies.

There is also the Will Rogers State Park, where they have polo matches.

A lot of people in the Palisades ride horses, and even driving down Sunset you’ll see people walking their horse to the stables.

Earlier we were talking about Rick Caruso and his ability to come in and create a new commercial center. Now that it’s happening, I wanted to get your opinion on what it means for the Palisades.

I think it’s a great thing for the Palisades. Over the years there have been a lot of new housing developments, and I get the feeling that some of the people who have been here since the 50s and 60s don’t like seeing these new developments going up. But honestly, you have to keep up with the times to stay relevant in a place that is desirable. If it remains a sleepy, oldschool town, it’s not going to have a lot of draw for people relocating here, or for people looking for something new. I think it’s a great thing. Rick Caruso did wonders for the Eastside. I think it’s going to be really great for the little town in the Palisades and we’ll see what happens. I’m excited.

Nick Collins in conversation with LA HOME editor Jacqueline Gunn at Minorca Road in Pacific Palisades. lahomemag.com/tv/ nickcollins

Where in Pacific Palisades should we go, and what’s the local hangout?

Well it depends on which locals you’re asking, because there’s a large, older population – but they have a lot of younger kids that like to go out too.

So, the Palisades is a really good place for both generations. One tucked away secret is the park right up Temescal Canyon. It’s good for hiking and

310.433.4946 nick@rodeore.com @thenickcollins.

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HOLMBY HILLS A picture tour of Holmby Hills through its architecture.

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Favorite Places Realtors reveal their favorite neighborhood places in LA

VICENTE FOODS I’m here to tell you that what’s old is cool again. Vicente Foods is my favorite market – a neighborhood grocery store that’s been a Brentwood fixture since 1948. This grocer doesn’t just have the freshest produce and highest quality cuts of meat around. This is the type of store where the deli roasts their own turkey in-house, and they remember that you like your deli meat sliced no thicker than the number two blade on slicing machine number one. Vicente Foods is also the home of one of my favorite bakeries, Victor Benes. The fresh baked poppy seed rolls and chocolate dipped coconut macaroons are not to be missed.

Vicente Foods continues to be the greatest notso-best-kept secret in Brentwood.

Lauren Sugarman Partners Trust laurensugarman.com

GETTY CENTER One of my favorite places in LA is the Getty Center. Completed in late 1997 and designed

by Richard Meier, this Brentwood property is widely considered the most valuable single piece of property in LA. The central gardens is where I chose to propose to my fiancée! It is one of her favorite places too.

Kyle Eisenhart Rodeo Realty, Sunset Strip kyle@kyleeisenhart.com TEMESCAL CANYON GATEWAY PARK A five minute walk from busy Sunset Blvd., or 10 minutes from the center of the Village, one is in a natural wooded environment with several trails connecting both easy to moderate hikes. Great for meditating, walks between 30 minutes and several hours along upper ridges; it’s an easily accessible great public resource!

Free parking along Sunset too.

Michael Edlen Coldwell Banker Previews International michael@michaeledlen.com EURO CAFFE Tiny Euro Caffe on Little Santa Monica at Camden in Beverly Hills, has authentic Italian espresso drinks and the freshest salad and paninis you can find. An Italian expat hangout, with soccer always on the TV. Lots of celebrity sightings.

Leonard Rabinowitz The Agency leonardr@theagencyre.com

TROIS MEC Los Angeles’ culinary scene continues to evolve and expand, giving “foodie” enthusiasts a constant supply of new restaurants to explore. One of the most impressive, and ironically unknown, eateries to hit the scene recently is Trois Mec. So why is the food-lover’s paradise so unknown? Because they want it to be.

Located inside a tiny strip mall on the

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corner of Highland & Melrose, Trois Mec is tucked into the back corner and disguised under the signage of the previous occupant, Raffallos Pizza. Inside, is a small restaurant with an open kitchen and about 5 tables.

There are no reservations, no phone number and no menu. Tickets can be purchased 10 – 21 day in advance of the date you plan to dine. The menu is strictly a 5 course chef’s tasting, with a wine pairing option.

Another twist, the restaurant is only open weekdays. Bizarre, right? So why go through all the hassle when there are no shortage of other great options? Because the food is EXTRAORDINARY!! Chef Ludo Lefebvre’s exciting, innovative twist on gastronomy is nothing short of exceptional. An absolute must for any self-proclaimed “foodie.”

Jon Grauman Director, Estates Division at The Agency jgrauman@theagencyre.com

FRANKLIN CANYON Franklin Canyon. I love it because when you drive past the winding roads that lead you to the foot of the trail, you slowly become transported to a hidden tropical-like setting.

Sheltered from the maddening traffic and plastic conversations a few miles away, this place is magical.

Ari Afshar The Agency ariafshar@theagencyre.com

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BY IVY MOLLENKAMP

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Epic. Transformative. Fun. Grassroots.

It certainly will be. These are the words used to describe the LA World’s Fair- a monumental exposition that promises to bring the theme of a “Connected City” to both Angelenos and visitors alike. With signed resolutions of support in hand from the LA Metro and County Supervisors boards of directors, architecture giant Gensler, and the LA-native engineering firm Psomas, the ball is already rolling. Now the primary goal is to inspire LA citizens, officials and corporations to jump in, spread the word and connect more people to the event that will shape the future of our city.

While the traditional themes of innovation, art and harmony will be on full display, the presentation and legacy of the Los Angeles expo will be drastically different from any other in the fair’s 164-year history. It will last two years, attract 100 million expected visitors and feature an unprecedented “cityscape fairground” spanning many of the county’s cities. In terms of ambition, you might think “epic” is an understatement.

With a diverse county of 11 million people and a city evolving into a new phase, a global event to christen the future of LA is actually quite fitting.

But what exactly is a World’s Fair, and what does it mean for Los Angeles?

PUTTING THE DREAM TOGETHER

Every step of planning the LA World’s Fair adheres to the theme of a Connected City, and it all starts with the harbinger, “Pavilion Zero.”

“Pavilion Zero will be absolutely magical,” says Bob Vanech, president of the LA World’s Fair Team. Currently being dreamed up by a team of architects and designers, the flagship pavilion will open ahead of the fair as planning headquarters and act as the epicenter hub during the expo. It will be the precursor where the world can see what’s in store for the big event, and it’s getting there in an unconventional way: a crowdfunding campaign.

“This absolutely at its core must be grassroots,” Vanech continues. And so it will be. An 88-day crowdfunding campaign, representative of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County, is underway to raise funds for Pavilion Zero and create awareness for the fair. Even the marketing for the event is being called a “viral campaign,” meaning it will rely heavily on social media. LA World’s Fair Marcom Flex Team maintains a vigorous schedule of “posts, photos, contests and news updates to keep your social networks and friends engaged,” according to their website. Vanech & Co. may be right about the necessity of a grassroots approach. Since the people will essentially throw this event, their involvement and support at ground zero will be vital to seeing the whole thing through. Vanech emphasizes that every stage of the fair’s development will be community-driven, representing a departure from World’s Fairs of the past and a dedication to realizing the theme of a Connected City.

A GLOBAL TRADITION

It’s called “World’s Fair” for a reason- it’s huge. The largest international event, World’s Fairs are massive undertakings with an open invitation to the globe, hosting a celebration of cultural diversity, technological innovation and human accomplishment. They are an opportunity to fortify the host nation’s global image, foster communication and idea exchange, and showcase art and technology. The telephone, Ferris Wheel, IMAX and touchscreen are all inventions of past World’s Fairs. The last World’s Fair, Expo 2012 in Yeosu, South Korea, drew more than 8 million visitors over the course of 3 months and featured the theme “The Living Ocean and Coast.” Expo 2015 in Milan begins in May, with a focus on “Feeding the planet, energy for life.” The U.S. hasn’t hosted a World’s Fair since the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition in New Orleans, and our city has never seen one.

WHY NOW? WHY LA?

LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne believes Los Angeles is entering the third chapter in its history- coined “Third LA.” A distancing from car culture, beefier public transit and de-emphasis of suburban lifestyle characterize a Los Angeles in transition. Indeed, LA Metro currently has 29 transit projects underway representing more than $11 billion of investment, and it can be argued that a generational shift toward these new values has already begun. There might never be a better time to reintroduce the City of Angels to the world.

NOT YOUR TYPICAL WORLD’S FAIR

There will be no fenced perimeter, no fairground and definitely no monorail. There will be no prescribed format for each exhibit or singular interpretation of the future. In a way, there won’t even be one fair. Instead, there will be dozens of pavilions strewn across the county, constructed alongside transit infrastructure, each with their community’s own gala of art, food, music and culture.

Jefferson Schierbeek, professional architect and co-chair of the Design Mapping Planning and Construction Flex Team (DMPC), explains that the goal is to utilize LA’s gargantuan sprawl as an opportunity, not a hurdle: It’s not like the traditional World’s Fair where we put a big fence around it and say this is a picture of what the world will be in 2020 and beyond, but we’re actually saying- what do you want the world to look like?

YOUR WORLD’S FAIR

The future of the fair hinges on the success of Pavilion Zero, and LA World’s Fair Team has a number of ways for you to join the effort. Most importantly, the crowdfunding campaign can be reached now via their website, laworldsfair.org. You can also join the Ambassador Outreach Campaign and take up the role of liaison to a particular organization or company, drumming up support for Pavilion Zero to gain new corporate sponsors. Or you can lend your talents to the planning front by joining a Flex Team. According to the website, Flex Teams are “flexible, nimble and fluid committees around which all LA World’s Fair planning operates.”

Each Flex Team has a certain specialty under which it operates, and the roster is comprehensive, explains Executive Director Dotty Kaminsky, “The list of proposed Flex Teams is as long as my forearm. From “corporate sponsorships, urban development, planning, construction, international trade and commerce, arts and culture, education, government... really, everything.” Lastly, there are three tiers of individual membership, each with their own set of perks, including the designation of “Founding Member” with a Titanium Membership.

A LASTING WORTH

Perhaps the most enchanting aspect of the LA World’s Fair won’t be felt until the whole thing is over: its legacy. As previously stated, this won’t be a set-up/strip-down of a designated exposition area. Jefferson Schierbeek elaborates: Each individual building [will] have a fair function and a long-term life after the fair. And the sustainability of that...we’re actually taking this fair as an opportunity to spend the money and investment to build the city in its long-term life and really look at how we can impact the city for the next 100 years.

The second life of these structures give physical permanence to the values promoted by the fair, and gives back to the communities that created them. LA World’s Fair Team also expects the fair’s influence to spark legislation that will help change the way people get around the city.

It’s all a grand dream, to be sure, but it’s also a carefully planned endeavor. Beginning with Pavilion Zero, Los Angeles’ most defining years may still be ahead. theworldsfair.com

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Celebrating 40 years as a major LA landmark, The Pacific Design Center is a thriving, cultural hub for interior designers and artists alike.

C

esar Pelli, the renowned architect, had an incredible vision more than forty years ago. He envisioned three towering and colorful buildings to be arranged around a plaza. It would be that of a king-sized sculpture garden, a place where creative thinking and modern architecture could merge together to create an iconic landmark, a place recognizable to millions of people all over the world. It took almost half of a century to reach fruition but Pelli was there for the journey, every step of the way.

The Pacific Design Center (PDC) goes all the way back to 1971 when the idea was first born. It has come a long way in the last 44 years and those who were around for its conception could never have dreamed that the PDC would become the incredible success story that it is today. Located just off of Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, the campus attracts not only countless international tourists, but interior design, creative, and furnishing professionals and tastemakers from all corners of the planet.

The design of the center alone calls attention from all angles, even to those who are unaware of what goes on inside. You don’t need to be part of the design world to appreciate the stunning beauty of the architecture; its sharp edges, colorfully smooth surfaces, its enormous presence on the fourteen acre campus in West Hollywood. The greens, blues, and reds of the chic complex looks more like something out of a Pixar film, nothing like the rest Los Angeles.

It is home to international conferences, showrooms, thousands of product-lines, exhibitions and much more. The showrooms are some of the most sought after spaces for interi-

or design brands and its top-notch office space is in extremely high demand. WESTWEEK is the ultimate showcase for global design, an annual event that only last two days but attracts upwards of 20,000 people from the design industry. The renowned chef Wolfgang Puck opened the restaurant Red Seven in the Green Building and is a smashing success.

It wasn’t until 1999 when the PDC really began to come together, decades after the idea was born. Charles S. Cohen, the Manhattan-based developer, acquired the PDC and brought with him years of experience to complete the project, turning it into the impressive complex it is today.

Cohen and his team transformed the Blue Building – which is affectionately nicknamed the Blue Whale due to its enormous size and color – into a more modern space, improving on the space and making it more hospitable to the interior design crowd that would be occupying the structure. The Green Building was then transformed into very high-end office space, a move that would make the complex more accessible and reachable to people from all fields, not just the design world. The biggest undertaking for Cohen, and the move that would complete the vision of the PDC, was the construction of the Red Building.

It took eight years to complete the 16-story, 400,000 square foot building, securing the complex’s title as most recognizable structure in Los Angeles. With more luxury office space, the Red Building is home to many creative brands, going with the theme of the entire complex.

The combination of the tenants and events that happen within the PDC blend perfectly with

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the structure itself, creating a space that boasts creativity, innovation, and modernity.

The PDC is also very well known for housing lectures, meetings and more. It is used for special events for both the arts and entertainment communities. Elton John started using the space back in 2005 to host his very popular post-Oscars after party, the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Award Party. The gathering of the rich and famous raises millions of dollars every year with its high priced ticket fees and celebrity auctions. All of the money goes to benefit his foundation.

The Pacific Design Center is also home to ever-changing art exhibitions that draw an international crowd of famous artists. MOCA, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, is also a fixture at the Pacific Design Center and is a huge draw for art aficionados and artists since it opened back in 1987. The designLab is a very innovative space that boasts a wide variety of creative disciplines including film, video, sculpture, painting, architecture, performance and more. Every year the designLab hosts five different receptions, inviting international curators and artists to display their work.

Who knows what the Pacific Design Center holds for us in the future. It goes without saying that it would have been quite difficult in the beginning for Cesar Pelli to imagine exactly what his vision would eventually become.

Fortunately, the Argentinean architect is still alive today to see that his creative mind was able to give way to one of the most breathtaking structures in Los Angeles, an inspiring icon in the creative world that attracts people from all walks of life.

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Furniture and Furnishings The Pacific Design Center is a trove of inspiration for home decorators and trend spotters. Although it is open to the public, the showrooms only sell items to professional designers. It’s a great place to source furniture, wallcoverings, fabrics and rugs with or without your interior designer. If you don’t have a designer, you can take advantage of their Design Referral Program. Tell them your needs, and you will be assigned an interior desiger to work with you and guide you through the buying process.

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SHOWROOMS A. Rudin AGA John Oriental Rugs Almar Carpets International Andrew Martin Aran Cucine Armani/Casa Ashbury Hides ASID/Los Angeles Atelier Lapchi Audio Visual Interiors Baker Bausman & Company Brown Jordan Brunschwig & Fils CBS Showroom Chelsea Carpets Cooper-Pacific Kitchens Coraggio Textiles Cowtan & Tout Creative Environments Crestron Electronics, Inc. Cygal Art Deco d’Escoto West, Inc. David Sutherland Showroom DEDON Design Bath & Hardware Design Spec Floor Coverings Donghia Duralee/Highland Court Ebanista Edelman Leather Elevator Boutique Espasso EuroConcepts Bath EuroConcepts Kitchen Fabricut Inc. Francesco Molon GeigTech Hagan Flynn, Inc. Hanassab Oriental Rug Imports HD Home & Design Hokanson Carpet Holland & Sherry Holly Hunt Innovations International Down & Linen JGeiger Shading Technology J.H. Minassian & Co. James Perse JANUS et Cie Kneedler | Fauchère Knoll Luxe Kravet Lee Jofa Maharam Martin|Patrick|Evan Michael Taylor Designs Michaelian & Kohlberg Micucci Mimi London, Inc. Osborne & Little Pacific Hide & Leather Panache Designs Paston/Rawleigh/Everett Paul Ferrante PERFEC Floors Pindler Quadrille/China Seas Ralph Pucci West Coast Raoul Textile Library Reagan Hayes Robert Allen Samuel and Sons Scalamandre Schumacher/Patterson, Flynn & Martin Scott Group Custom Carpets SFC Flooring Soofer Gallery Soolip SpecCeramics Stark Fabric, Wallcovering & Furniture Summit Furniture, Inc. SuperVision Tai Ping Carpets Thomas Lavin William Haines Designs Witford LA Wolf-Gordon Inc.

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Events/ Seminars

Westweek

The PDC has state of the art facilities for events seminars and performances. The SilverScreen Theater, a 388-seat luxury film venue and reception facility featuring sound

by Steinway Lyngdorf; and the Blue Conference Center, a 200-seat auditorium fully equipped for lectures, conferences, performances and public meetings.

WESTWEEK Spring Market, the West Coast’s definitive showcase for global design, takes place annually at the end of March. The two-day event provides a comprehensive series of informative presentations and engaging events featuring internationally-renowned tastemakers, while also debuting the latest luxury furnishings and interior resources crafted by today’s foremost design innovators.

This year there were talks sponsored by Architectural Digest, Elle Decor and California Homes among others, and featured designers such as Michael S. Smith, Suzanne Kasler, Mary McDonald and Oliver Furth.

designLAb Exhibition Jun 5 - Aug 31 | 11 AM - 5 PM designLAb presents a dozen new contemporary art and design exhibitions in its latest opening at PDC. MOCA PDC Tongues Untied Jun 6 - Sep 13 “Tongues Untied” focuses on queer artistic production in the 1980s and 90s, and explore issues of gender, race, sexuality, persona, and masquerade. designLAb Reception Thu Sept 17 | 5 PM - 9:30 PM Fall Market 2015 Thu Oct 8 | 9 AM - 6 PM A one-day Market featuring new showroom products and trends introduced for Fall. The October event includes a keynote presentation delivered by celebrated tastemakers and design authorities complemented by showroom parties and promotions.

Pacific Design Center 8687 Melrose Avenue West Hollywood, CA 90069 310.657.0800 pacificdesigncenter.com

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DesignLAb

designLAb is a national arts program which was launched in 2009 by art advisor and independent curator Helen Varola in partnership with owner and visionary Charles S. Cohen. With the aim of supporting Los Angeles’ dynamic artist community, designLAb provides dealers, artists and curators with affordable space to create unique projects that span a variety of artistic disciplines.

Over a dozen designLAb gallery projects are located on the 2nd floor of the Blue building at the Pacific Design Center. Programming has included Patrick Painter Gallery, Christopher Grimes Gallery, Fondazione Vico Magistretti, Diana Thater, Lita Albuquerque, Peter Zellner, T. Kelly Mason, Mark Johnston, Sharon Lee, Will Ryman, Walead Beshty, Alex Israel, Piero Golia, Tejo Remy, Elena Manfredi, LAND, Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair, Otis College of Art and Design and Young Projects. designLAb celebrates Pacific Design Center’s 40th year with a site-specific commissioned installation in the Blue Lobby by 2J that considers the history of Cesar Pelli/Gruen Associates’ ground-breaking vision for the Pacific Design Center. Other Lobby exhibits include works by Won Ju Lim and Kenny Scharf ’s Daisymobile (1975/2014), a Pontiac automobile the artist reinterpreted in terms of his iconic exuberant style, on view through July 31. designLAb will be installed a permanent sculpture by renowned French artist Xavier Veilhan in PDC’s lobby.

Bottom left: Emerald Won Ju Lim, Photo: LKR Blue Lobby Exhibition.

Bottom right: Daisymobile Kenny Scharf.

Green Lobby Exhibition.

Photo: Eric Minh Swenson

More info on upcoming exhibitions: helenvarola.com/designlab.html

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Installation from “When the Future Had Fins”, Christopher W Mount Gallery, Photo: Eric Minh Swenson

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Jules Muck lives by the resolute philosophy of, “I will not try.” It is a mantra that has taken form time and time again with every new place and person she has happened upon. In what has been a long and storied journey, culminating with her as the epicenter of art in Venice, CA, it has always been like this. Each person and place is left both changed and inspired by her seemingly endless wellspring of creativity and action.

Jules Muck was born in England and moved frantically around in her early years, bouncing back and forth between the States, Greece and London. At 13 years old Jules started developing her style as a “tag banger”. Living in Greece and too clumsy to skateboard with her friends, boredom struck and she picked up the can. Jules had acquired the book Subway Art and started to understand that there was an electric subculture in Graffiti, art with an anonymous respect. Her first piece was on a potato grain storage shed in Greece. It was the word ‘Unity’ and an illustration of the world exploding.

Her craving for the craft progressed, she moved to New York City and was immediately picked up and involved with the bombing crew BTC (Bronx Thug Connection). She started her Graf career held upside down over the westside highway, tagging a bridge. Centralized in the Bronx she furiously created pieces anywhere she could. People began to recognize her hallmark Muck tag and distinctive style in places as far as Queens, Astoria and Pelham Parkway. With no money for paint, housing or food she hustled to get supplies. She picked up any side job she could, from phone psychic to Sunday school teacher.

Moving on from BTC, Jules found herself concentrating on rooftop murals and subway lines more than anything. Graffiti queen, Lady Pink, quickly recognized her potential and took Jules in as an apprentice. It was here that Lady Pink educated her in taming the tag bang style to focus her talents indoors, and to paint business signs and walls for money. She also gave Jules the sporadic small jobs for pay that Lady Pink did not want, or couldn’t do. This showed Jules that there was, albeit without consistency, the potential of an actual living in the art world, but that the Devil was not lazy and she would have to keep up.

Always looking for the next canvas to leave her mark, Muck left New York to travel the United States and was organically drawn to the bohemian Venice, CA. Jules discovered the empty lots and abandoned property, all symptoms of the gentrification of Venice, but ideal places in which to showcase her work. She found Venice to be an inspiration, a cultural melting pot. Everyone from the homeless bum to the rich socialites and the starlets, acted as muses. These people and their differences all inspire the pop genre paintings she creates. The constant chatter around the neighborhood between the different social classes, depict a clear picture of what is going on in the community. It is less mainstream media

Street Art Comes of Age

Jules Muck

BY JOSH BYRON-LEE PHOTO BY MARA BREENE

Jules Muck in conversation lahomemag.com/tv/julesmuck

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1 1. “Britney (2007/2013)” Original Oil Painting on Canvas (52.5” x 52.5”) 2. “Landscape Graffiti (2014)” Original Oil and Spray Paint Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, Custom Framed (73.5” x 55.5”) 3. “Boots (2008)” Original Oil and Spray Paint Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, Custom Framed (73” x 68.5”) 4. “Twiggy Flowers (2014)” Original Oil and Spray Paint Mixed Media Painting on Canvas, Gallery Wrapped (36” x 36”)

but rather word of mouth that helps aim Jules in the direction for the next big mural. With word of mouth, there are no constants and with no constants there is always something changing, and this is what Jules takes influence from, and why her painting never stops. It is her life blood and her canvas. She is always looking for something to challenge her and has mastered one of the most challenging things; pop culture.

Now Jules is being commissioned to work all around the greater Los Angeles area. High-end establishments such as Shutters On The Beach and Casa Del Mar hire her to do detailed murals inside their lobbies. Q art, an online art gallery offered Jules Muck their walls to display her canvases for her debut art show in Marina Del Rey. Jules has adopted the art of self promotion, and with her growing popularity she will surely continue to inspire and create new people and pieces for years to come. Be on the lookout for more murals of her degenerate friends and dead dog.

And you will know they are hers because they are a luminescent green.

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julesmuck.com qart.com

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The Dutch-Indonesian artist resides in Los Angeles and describes his art as ‘ever changing’.

Adam de Boer was 14 years old when he and two friends started making skateboards. They built a makeshift hydraulic press, laminated, and eventually hand painted the boards when they couldn’t find anyone to silkscreen onto them. “In hindsight”, he says, “it was a lot like being an artist - you work in small teams, make mistakes and discover through trial and error”.

That early creative experience led to Adam graduating from UCSanta Barbara with a BA in Painting. After that he spent 5 years in Washington, DC, working behind the scenes in various museums, including The Smithsonian. He learned about exhibitions, how a painting travels and how art is installed, stored and taken care of. That experience informed a lot of his decisions about art materials.

He had spent a few months travelling in Tuscany, ‘the birthplace of Western painting’, during his undergraduate years. His travels since then have taken him to Spain, India, Colombia and to his own cultural birthplace, Indonesia. Along the way, he has assimilated the cultures of the different countries, studying their indigenous techniques and applying them to his artwork.

The Indian trip was a result of a serendipitous meeting with a local businessman, a patron of the arts, who gave Adam a grant to attend Chelsea School of Art in London as a post graduate. In return, he was asked to spend a stint in India educating the locals on Western art.

You might say it is a search for identity that forms the basis for most of his art. In India he learned about native dyes and terracotta sculptures.

In Colombia he used silver metal leaf. In Indonesia, batik, hand carving and a good measure of the local culture informed his artwork.

“I don’t identify as a traveller,” he says. “Always as an artist.

Since his family moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s, he says they lived the Californian dream – surfed, skated, even had the obiquitous Volkswagen van.

It wasn’t until he travelled to Indonesia himself, on a surfing holiday in 2011, that he truly discovered his culture. During his 3 month stay, he began to document it in the art forms he learned from the natives – batik and hand carving.

He has an new show at the Riflemaker Gallery in Soho, London later this year. Interestingly, his early life has come full circle. His partner in the skateboard company he created as a teeanger, has resurrected the brand and asked Adam to act as a consultant. Their friend, Zac Efron, is a partner in the business now, and Adam will be one of a series of artists to create a limited edition print for the skateboards.

Travelling Artist

ADAM DE BOER PHOTO BY MARA BREENE

Adam de Boer in conversation lahomemag.com/tv/adamdeboer

adamdeboer.com

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1. Dusk at Harishchandra Ghat, 2013 wax-resist acrylic ink and oil paint on linen, terracotta, 56 x 63 x 8.5 inches.

2. Bangker, 2015 wax-resist acrylic ink on linen, oil paint, carved teak, 39” x 48” x 1” Bangker is a misspelling of “bunker”. I saw it scrawled exactly in this way on a hand-made sign near the entrance of the bunker on the flanks of Mount Merapi. This image was made after a hike I took up Mount Merapi, a very active volcano just north of Yogyakarta. In 2010 the volcano had a very large and violent eruption killing, among many others in the city, two reporters who were taking refuge in the supposedly safe bunker. On top of that I painted an abstraction of the volcano’s shape influenced by the work of the late Indonesian Modern master, Mochtar Apin. The carved wood at the sides is based on a bisected Wayang Gunungan character from Javanese puppet theatre. This shape represents a mountain or the tree of life. I bisected the shape as a way to insinuate a split world. I wanted it to look like the painting materialised out of that rupture.

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3. Keluarga, 2015 wax-resist acrylic ink on linen, oil paint 36” x 48” A layered painting, born from my most recent summer spent in Java. It is about family and the notion of “ancestors” that I continuously mulled over during my stay, and even now as I produce this series. Ancestry is very important to traditional Indonesian culture but seems to be lacking in a lot of middle-class American culture.

4. A Batik Revised no. 2, 2015 wax-resist acrylic ink on linen, 46.5” x 52” One of a recent series, where I try to make completely abstract paintings by combining images of naturalistic architectural details and hard-edge abstractions of common batik motifs. The underlying layer of this painting depicts a river rock wall on the facade of my house in Yogyakarta, Java. The layer on top is influenced by ceplok batik (rosette patterns), as well as the work of Mochtar Apin.

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P H O T O G R A P H Y

Isaac Ortega I have been making photographs for about 2 years. It started with a camera my wife gave me for my birthday. It was a DSLR and it was intimidating. I didn’t understand exposure, depth of field or apertures.

I just started shooting everything.

My first photos were, in my wife’s words, “absolutely horrible”.

I took a beginner’s photography class and I was able to learn the basics of exposure. The best part of the class was the emphasis on composition.

With that I learned that the camera is not as important as how and what you are photographing.

Now I take my camera and phone everywhere. I especially love LA. Downtown is up and coming, safer than when I was a kid. And there are so many characters, landmarks and just plain life going on every day of the week. There is always something interesting to shoot.

Instagram: @ortega_isaac

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T E C H N O L O G Y

(Top left to bottom right)

Smarter Wifi Kettle The world’s first Wifi kettle is controlled by a smartphone app. Your kettle can be operated from anywhere in the home, producing the perfect cup of tea every time. Cool features like “keep warm” and “Welcome home” will automatically ask you if you want to pop the kettle on as soon as you walk in the door. You can select from four temperatures to get your perfect brew. The kettle will tell you when your hot water is ready to pour, remind you to refill and tell you when the kettle is empty. wifikettle.com $146

Cubic Robotics Your virtural assistant.

With Cubic, you can harness the power of all of your scattered technology from anywhere. You just talk to Cubic, and it gets things done. Cubic can give you traffic updates and read you emails, tweet for you. It isn’t just a voice interface inside your smartphone, like Siri or GoogleNow. Cubic is the world’s first naturally-speaking digital assistant that blends capability and personality in equal measure. cubicrobotics.com $195 (on Indiegogo)

Brio Smart “The Brio Home Safety System uses a network of wireless sensors positioned throughout your home. Each outlet can detect smoke, water or carbon monoxide gas and alerts you via the Brio mobile app.

Keep your little ones safe. Brio wall units only deliver electrical current when they sense a plug - not a precious little finger, or a fork, or anything else that doesnt belong.” briohouse.com $186

WeMo The Belkin Wi-Fi enabled WeMo Switch lets you turn electronic devices on or off from anywhere. It uses your existing home Wi-Fi network to provide wireless control of TVs, lamps, stereos, heaters, fans etc. Simply download the WeMo App and plug the switch into an outlet in your home. Then plug any device into the switch.

You’ll be able to turn that device on or off using your smartphone wemothat.com $49.99

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Cove Combining beautiful, modern design with advanced technology, Cove’s home water filtration solution syncs with smart devices to send notifications when it needs refilling, a filter change or a glass of water is ready for consumption. Cove mimics how water is filtered in nature by using responsibly sourced filtering materials that absorb the finest water impurities while also self-cleaning, ensuring the purest drinking water straight from the tap. drinkcove.com $249

Rachio Iro, Smart Sprinkler Smart sprinkler controller, Iro, is perfect for anyone tired of wasting water and money. It will automatically adjust for changes in weather and seasonality, using as little water as possible while keeping your landscape looking its best. rachio.com $249

wake Wakē is a smartphone-enabled robot that lives on your bedroom wall instead of your nightstand. When it’s time to wake you up, Wakē finds where you are in bed and directs gentle beams of light and sound to your location. luceralabs.com

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Amy Suddleson

the art of organizing IN CONVERSATION WITH JACQUELINE GUNN

One of your clients said that she learned from you how to create a better environment for her children...

Her child was throwing everything on the floor. And I walked in and said, I understand why – he doesn’t have a home for all of his things. We’re going to create a logical space, so if he takes a blanket every night before he gets to bed, we’re going to put that near his bed. We’re going to keep all his books in the closet on one bookshelf, which he can easily access. Then when he’s finished with his books, they are going to be returned to that bookshelf. She wrote to me ‘he loves being in his room and it has never been cleaner’ – because he felt proud and empowered to put his things where they belonged, and he had more respect for his things.

What are the emotional things that you take care of for people who have come through a tragedy or divorce?

Recently, I worked with a mother who was going through a divorce. She had three kids and she was moving – not just dealing with what she’s going through but also what her children are going through. It’s hard because they’re dealing with so much internally but they have so much happening within their surroundings. So I try to create a sense of calm and bring some organization to their external world so that it reflects in their internal world. I really think that when you’re living amongst chaos and disarray, it only causes an emotional storm within you.

Jacqueline/You’ve been professionally organizing now for how long?

Amy/ 6 years, officially. I’ve been registered with the National Association of Professional Organizing. Unofficially, I feel like I’ve been doing it my whole life.

What are some of the jobs that you’ve been enlisted to do?

I do jobs that vary from mom’s meetings, help with meal planning, time management and involvement in their charity organisations – to helping high net worth executives to plan their days, or to plan their family’s days.

There’s the physical and there’s the emotional aspect. Can you tell us how you differentiate between the two processes of organizing?

Absolutely. When I get a call from somebody who is really struggling with the physical, they’re calling me because maybe they’re living amongst clutter. I ask them some questions and I have them send me pictures, and we talk about things that are bothering them. Like the mom who called me and said she’s struggling with toys for example, I go into their space and ask, what do you really need? What are your kids playing with? Are they in the right places? By determining what we are really using; whether it’s toys or clothes, whether it’s things in your kitchen or in your garage, you have to ask yourself what are we really using? What do we really need? Have we used those things in the last year? What do we love? (so that we can surround ourselves with those things). From there we select the right place in which they go. We categorize those things; put them in the right place. Determine whether you have the right unit to house those things in so you don’t have them exposed – which is why they call me in the first place.

I hear that you put workout clothes on and you’re sitting on the floor...

Yes, workout clothes and tennis shoes. I hope my client will do the same – and have plenty of snacks and lots of water. I do give orders in a very kind, gentle, non-judgemental, loving manner but we work and we get it done. I was working with a client recently, and her cleaning lady, who has been with them for about twenty years, was mesmerized with the work we had done in six hours. She said to my client ‘I wish that I could afford her, that she could come to my house’, and it was so sweet. My dream is to have a way to provide online resources for everybody.

How long is the process?

It really just depends. I work a minimum of 3 hours. Generally, it takes 6 hours for the first day to really make a dent, and then at least three follow-ups.

Wow, so you’re really in there. You get to know people.

Yes – and everyone cries, because there’s always an emotional breakthrough. There’s a reason why they’ve been holding on to things for so long. There’s a reason why, when I walk into a woman’s closet which is the size of a bedroom, and there are tags everywhere. Then her husband walks in, and it’s so emotionless between the two of them and I think, well if I was not happily married, I might be shopping that much too. I understand that though, so again, there’s no judgement. I say, ‘shop in your closet for 30 days, don’t buy anything. I challenge you.’ I recently said that to a young guy who had 600 pairs of shoes!

I challenge people to not buy anything for 30 days. I put a clipboard up with a pen right next to it, and anything that they want to go out and buy, I encourage them to just put it on that list but don’t buy it – unless they are necessities, like socks or underwear. That’s it. During that time, they make a list of what they really do need, and I bet you they didn’t need it!

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s a Lifestyle Organizer & Designer I have a passion and a love for all things orderly and visually appealing. I can think back to a time when I was just 7 years old and I had a play date with a classmate. When I arrived for the play date, the home was a mess – it looked like it had been hit by a tornado. My body entered a state of panic. I felt paralyzed and couldn’t speak. I was in utter shock. There were dirty dishes stacked in the sink, cereal and all kinds of food boxes scattered on the counter. The family room floor was covered with shoes that clearly hadn’t made their way back to their appropriate “homes,” as I like to say. Throw blankets and pillows from the couch covered the floor, along with magazines, newspapers and dirty cups. The house had a chaotic energy and the chaos of the mess made me feel stressed and anxious. I could even sense that the chaos had a similar effect on the family as they were always raising their voices at one another, overeating and were quite inactive. My friend asked me if I wanted to play dolls in her room, so we headed that way. When I got there, her bedroom was no different from the rest of the house. Her bed was unmade, her curtains were closed and her floor was covered in clothing. We couldn’t even find her dolls. So, the only thing I could do to keep myself calm was to suggest we “play house.” It was like a scene from the movie Snow White and soon we were really having fun…

“Just whistle while you work And cheerfully together we can tidy up the place So hum a merry tune It won’t take long when there’s a song to help you set the pace And as you sweep the room Imagine that the broom is someone that you love And soon you’ll find you’re dancing to the tune” As I started grouping, sorting and categorizing items, my friend Katherine and I were having a ball. Her older sister quickly saw that we were clearing away clutter and therefore clearing away chaos and she joined in on the fun. Soon, the family room and kitchen were immaculate, with items in their proper places. I could finally breathe and I was ready to play dolls… the only problem was we still couldn’t find them.

This experience at my friend’s home as a child made me recognize how natural it was for me to create simple systems and solutions for any space. My innate instinct to organize was calming to myself and to those around me. Today, I strive to create this same sense of ease and balance to the lives of my clients. My organizing gene and Bachelors of Science in Visual Design work hand-in-hand.

I differentiate myself from others in this field because I truly work from the inside out. I start with assessing what it is that people truly need in a specific area. I do this by asking my clients to search inside their soul to find out if the item brings them happiness, or if they are holding onto something because they feel obligated to do so.

Sometimes we are given gifts or books that don’t speak to us, but we continue to keep them out of guilt. I tell my clients to recognize that feeling and make room for the new energy that will come if they let the old object go. It’s important to understand what is truly essential in a space and what functions in the space logically. You would not keep your shoes in the dining room, right? So, I suggest grouping ‘like or same’ objects together in their ‘appropriate’ places. This way it is easy to remember where the items are and where you need to return them to when you are finished using them. This easy, logical and mindless system empowers not only my clients, but also their children.

When it comes to Spring Cleaning, there is no better way than to begin with organizing. Let’s face it, whether it’s a dreaded drawer in your kitchen, the cough drops and vitamins located all over the house, or the pile of papers on your desk, we all have an area of our home or something in our life that we can work on. Here are some simple tips to help you organize your home and make your life just a little bit easier: FOR YOUR HOME: • Spend 5-10 minutes a day relocating items back to their appropriate ‘homes’.

Put on fun music, listen to a book on tape or return a phone call while you take the time to respect your items and return them to where they belong. Clothing doesn’t belong on the floor and should be hung up while shoes belong back on their shelf. Soon this behavior will become second nature and automatic. Your home will look neater and you will be able to find your things with ease.

• Store items in clear containers.

Gather all of your sundries around your home. Sort them into clear 13” x 7.5” x 4.25” shoebox containers or any other clear container that fits behind your shelves. Group them by categories such as: Allergy/Sinus, Bandages/First Aid, Cold/Cough/Flu, Cream/ Ointment, Dental Products, Nail Care, Prescriptions, Stomach/ Heartburn, Sun Products, Vitamins/Herbs. Once you have purged all expired and unneeded items, place the lids on the containers, utilize vertical space by stacking the containers on top of one another and finally, label them by category. This will make finding items easy to locate and easy to put back.

• Open mail by a trashcan.

I always suggest to my clients that they open their mail by a trashcan.

Solicitations and advertisements have no need to ever enter your home let alone reside on your countertop. Create simple piles of papers that fall into categories such as bills to pay, papers to file, and items to review. This will breakdown an occasionally overwhelming process and make it much simpler.

FOR YOUR LIFE: • Move to a digital calendar.

To optimize your schedule there is no better way than to keep a digital calendar on your cellphone. By keeping a digital calendar you are able to adjust recurring events and set “15 minute before” alerts so you never forget important appointments or events. A digital calendar can greatly help keep your busy life on time and on track.

• Be flexible within your schedule.

Set a basic schedule that blocks out time for exercise, work, family, social events and organizing! However, it’s important to be gentle with yourself and be flexible when your day changes. I always advise my clients to have these blocks of times set as a basic schedule, but when things shift to be forgiving. It’s okay to move things around! I like to think of a schedule as more of a guide, it’s not set in stone.

• Every time you get out of your car, take your trash with you.

This is an easy way to minimize clutter and mess in your vehicle.

Especially if you have children!

These quick and easy tips and tricks can save you a great deal of time and help you get into the flow of an easy, organized and enjoyable life!

Amy Suddleson amysuddleson.com

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L A N D M A R K S

The Coca-Cola Bottling Company

1334 South Central Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90021 Architect, Robert V. Derrah built in 1936

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Home is wherever you ARE DIGITAL EDITION, BEHIND-THE-SCENES STORIES AND VIDEO FOOTAGE AT LAHOMEMAG.COM