Luxury Magazine Spring/Summer 2021 by Luxury Card

ONLY ON FARFETCH.COM

AFTER 175 YEARS, ONLY THE BEST WILL DO

CROSS CELEBRATES A LEGACY OF WRITING INNOVATION

THE CROSS SPECIAL-EDITION 175TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION A tribute to ingenuity, ambition and the drive to excel. A merger of vintage Cross design elements and modern performance features. A once-in-a lifetime choice for discerning pen collectors and style connoisseurs.

LIFETIME MECHANICAL WARRANTY | Find your style at Cross.com

Issue 26

20 THE FRONT PAGES WHAT’S WHAT From wall art and streaming performances to driving experiences and secret hideaways coast to coast.

30 JEWELRY BUDDING TREND Multiple interchangeable pieces transform a look for many moods.

38 WATCHES TIME ON HAND A man’s watch on a woman’s wrist pairs beautifully with bracelets and baubles.

42 THE LUXURY LOOK ROW, ROW, ROW, AND GO A futuristic rowing machine and a simple equipment bag elevate any workout.

46 TECH HOME AS HEADQUARTERS Engineered comforts, office upgrades, and robotic staffing make WFH easier.

52 GETAWAYS GET HEALTHY HERE Spas with mind-body programs that reach beyond the treatment room.

58 ONE PLACE, TWO WAYS DOMINICA A Caribbean island that caters to environmental activists and indulgence seekers alike.

60 ADVENTURE SAND, SWEAT, AND GEARS Dirt biking Baja California Sur with moto racing champion Kirk Russell as tour guide.

68 AUTOS DRIVES LIKE A TRUCK The modern pickup offers stratospheric levels of luxury, comfort, and electrified sophistication.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

The electric car reimagined as a Porsche. The first electric car with a genuine sports car soul has arrived. And, predictably, it is a Porsche. Endlessly customizable. Fully electric. Absolutely stunning. Ready to redefine all an electric car can be. Visit porschetaycaninfo.com to learn more.

The all-electric Taycan. Soul, Electrified.

78 FASHION MEN AT PLAY Toast the new season with sport-inspired looks and performance-driven fabrics.

96 FASHION GIRLS’ GETAWAY Breeze through a weekend escape in flirty dresses, silky PJs, and sexy swimsuits.

128 HOME WHERE THE GARDEN GROWS The new, high-end, all-natural approach to landscape design.

134 TRAVEL BORA BORA’S MODERN REBIRTH The quintessential, once-in-a-lifetime destination has evolved.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

112 ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN LIVING LIFE AL FRESCO It’s the season for outdoor gatherings in ideal settings.

144 TRAVEL ECO-WARRIORS Central America’s top lodges unite nature, luxury, and sustainability for the most gratifying experiences.

122 FURNISHINGS PARTY PLEIN-AIR Cleverly designed pieces make entertaining outdoors a memorable celebration.

152 PRIVATE JETS GREENER SKIES AHEAD Aircraft designs are addressing aviation’s environmental woes—with eco-friendly planes already taking off.

Get charged up. With one-on-one instruction, maximum time behind the wheel and specially designed on-track driving modules, you can truly experience the precision performance built into every Porsche vehicle.

Open to the public. Book your experience today at www.porschedriving.com.

158 YACHTS REIMAGINING THE SUPERYACHT The future of yachting pushes the envelope in design and propulsion.

166 YACHTS HERE COMES THE SUN Silent, solar-powered catamarans prove that renewable energy has its cost-effective perks.

178 FOOD & DINING EATING LOCAL Four US cities that make it easy to find healthy, sustainable food choices.

180 REAL ESTATE SPORTS HUBS Communities that offer amusement and amenities. Plus, homes for better health.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

170 WINE & SPIRITS NEW WORLD WINES A raft of noteworthy regions with impressive vineyards are jostling for space in the cellar next to the classics.

190 ARTIST PROFILE AS AMERICAN AS PIE Wayne Thiebaud’s career spans beyond pastel paintings of cakes and still lifes.

172 WINE & SPIRITS WEATHERING THE STORMS As master distillers craft exceptional products, many face unique challenges.

204 THE LAST PAGES WHAT’S NEXT From beauty finds and travel bags to delivery and takeout to tableware and new books.

YOUR JET IS READY®

NICHOLAS AIR has been committed to our Members’ missions since day one. We complete those missions with aircraft that are Owned and Operated by NICHOLAS AIR. No identity crisis, no changing business plans every six months, no relying on another’s brand to help build ours. We’ve kept private travel simple— skipping the 30 page contracts and spending more time doing what you wanted- enjoying the best of private aviation experiences. After 23 years, our mission is still the same: provide the world’s most refined set of private flyers with the best aircraft the industry has to offer. Our Members come to us because they want authenticity and reliability, and for over two decades, they’ve found it right here, at NICHOLAS AIR.

NicholasAir.com | 866.935.7771 #NicholasAir All aircraft are owned and operated by NICHOLAS AIR . NICHOLAS AIR and innovative private air travel are registered trademarks ®2021 NICHOLAS AIR. All rights reserved.

On the Cover

alifornia-based artist Wayne Thiebaud celebrated his 100th birthday in 2020, and over his seven-decade career he has painted just about everything. His breakout works in the 1960s depicted mundane objects—articles of clothing, food from diner display cases—with a formal clarity mastered during an earlier stint as a commercial artist. His plated pies and bakery paintings have become icons of Pop art, and he painted people in a similarly straightforward style. In the 1970s, Thiebaud adopted a more abstract approach for San Francisco cityscapes and later for panoramas of the Sacramento River Valley. Thiebaud composes mountain pictures from his imagination, drawing on his experience of landscapes in Arizona where he was born, Utah and Southern California where he grew up, and Northern California where he has lived for the past half-century. Many artists have focused on mountains, but Thiebaud’s vision is uniquely his own. He exaggerates elevation, manipulates perspective, and intensifies the palette to produce a somewhat unsettling caricature of nature’s sublime grandeur and beauty. In a scene reminiscent of Monument Valley or the Grand Canyon is his characteristic convergence of representation and abstraction. Canyon Pass (2019) was presented at Acquavella Galleries in New York, where the work was acquired by a private collector. The resplendent 5-footsquare oil on canvas shows a road approaching a narrow gap between two towering masses of rock. Patches of gray and green in the foreground suggest a grass-edged pavement that recedes toward the sky and bisects the mesas. The imposing monoliths—ultramarine color fields streaked with red, gray, and complementary hues—rise straight up to an immense height where a sliver of sky runs along the upper edge of the canvas. The scale of the vista is set by a tiny tree and vestiges of dwellings that lie atop one of the cliffs.

LUXURY MAGAZINE’s profile of Wayne Thiebaud begins on page 190.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LUXURY MAGAZINE

PUBLISHED BY LUXURY CARD

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jorge S. Arango Bailey Stone Barnard

EDITOR IN CHIEF Deborah Frank CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jennifer Fahey

Chris Brinlee Jr. Alexandra Cheney

ADVERTISING SALES

Mark Ellwood

EAST COAST Daniel Borchert danborchert99@yahoo.com

Mark Hacking Jason Edward Kaufman Irene Rawlings

SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Shawn Sullivan

Ben Ross Paul Rubio Shaun Tolson

GRAPHIC DESIGN Charles Mateker PHOTO EDITOR Kristen Hill COPY CHIEF Jennifer Ashton Ryan COPY EDITORS Kersten Deck Jenna Sims

VICE PRESIDENT OF NEW BUSINESS Caren Kabot caren@luxurymagazine.com

Frank Vizard

CONTRIBUTING STYLISTS Paul Frederick Heidi Meek CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Frankie Batista Jack Guy Jonathan Pozniak Magdalena Wosinska

SOUTHEAST Jana Robinson jana@robinsonmedia.net Katie Darling katherine@robinsonmedia.net WEST COAST Rima Dorsey rima.dorsey@gmail.com Jay Monaghan jay@monaghanmedia.com DETROIT Dan Flavin dflavin@flavinandassoc.net DUBAI/UAE Alexandra Young alex@konexinternational.com ENGLAND/UK Rick Plata gravitas Sales & Marketing rick@gravitassales.com

Produced exclusively for Luxury Card members. All contents of LUXURY MAGAZINE are the intellectual property of Black Card Mag LLC and/or Black Card LLC d/b/a Luxury Card (“Publisher”) and/or the respective photographers, writers, artists, advertisers, and advertising agencies; and are protected by intellectual property laws; and may not be reproduced, republished, distributed, transmitted, displayed, broadcast or otherwise exploited in whole or in part in any manner without the express written permission of the intellectual property owners. © 2021 Black Card Mag LLC and Black Card LLC d/b/a Luxury Card. All rights reserved. Views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Publisher, which makes reasonable efforts to verify its content. Publisher expressly disclaims and does not assume responsibility for the validity of any claims or statements made, including content errors, omissions, or infringing content. Any reliance placed on such content is strictly at reader’s own risk. Advertisements and offers are the responsibility of the individual advertising entities, and do not constitute a legal offer by Publisher. Publisher is not responsible for price fluctuations. Prices are based on those accurate at press time. Please consult with a Luxury Card Concierge for current prices. Luxury Card marks are property of Black Card LLC. BLACKCARD is a registered trademark used under license. Luxury Card products are issued by Barclays Bank Delaware pursuant to a license by Mastercard International Incorporated, owner of registered trademarks MASTERCARD, WORLD ELITE MASTERCARD and the circles design. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 Black Card LLC.

NEWARK,

WELCOME ON BOARD

Terms and conditions apply. For details please visit turkishairlines.com

Ha n d c ra f te d C o o k i ng R a nge s & S u i te s , Ste el Ca b i n et r y, Fi n e Wo o d Wo rk i ng & A p p l i a n ce s Pa r i s • Ne w Yo rk • M i a m i • L o s A ngel e s www.L eAtelierPar is .com

•

1 800 792 3550

What’s What ART, CULTURE & DESIGN

Stroll into the vibrant paintings of Postimpressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh via Immersive Van Gogh, a larger-than-life light, music, and digital art experience. Ticketed shows will be opening in Los Angeles (May 27), New York (June 10), and Pittsburgh (September 23), and are already in Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas, Phoenix, and several other US cities. immersivevangogh.com Every Kirby Fredendall canvas (below) is a quiet yet dramatic contrast of light and shadow. Dreamy, abstract, and layered, her works can be seen in Fredendall: Far Horizons at Candita Clayton Gallery in New London, New Hampshire, through June 26. canditaclaytongallery.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Beautiful Creatures (below), an exhibition of pieces inspired by animals from the world’s greatest jewelry houses (Cartier’s signature panthers; Suzanne Belperron’s butterflies) opens in New York at the American Museum of Natural History’s Mignone Halls of Gems and Minerals. amnh.org

Brooklyn-based artist KAWS (aka Brian Donnelly) references consumer and pop culture in his works—and not always in a complimentary way. More than 100 broadly ranging works, along with augmented-reality experiments, feature in KAWS: What Party, at the Brooklyn Museum through September 5. brooklynmuseum.org

Devoted: Art and Spirituality in Mexico and New Mexico at the Dallas Museum of Art explores the artistic traditions of the two regions and features wooden sculptures of saints and other holy figures carved and painted from the early 19th century to present day. Through January 2, 2022. dma.org

View more than 100 artworks, including early depictions of apartheid, by one of the foremost artists in contemporary South African photography. The first survey ever organized of her work, Jo Ractliffe: DRIVES is showing at the Art Institute of Chicago through August 9. artic.edu

WALL ART More and more fine artists have translated favorite works to wallpapers. Toulouse-based Asteré (astere.fr) reproduces paintings by Parisian artists Garance Vallée (above) and François Mascarello onto woven paper, which masterfully conjure texture that’s a dead ringer for frescos painted on still-wet plaster. Available in the US through Élitis (elitis.fr). Neo-expressionist Hunt Slonem’s playful bunny and Queen Elizabeth prints are available through Lee Jofa (kravet.com). The young team at Area Environments (areaenvironments.com) in Minneapolis regularly debuts collections curated from the work of artists around the world. Last fall included Trinidadian artist Miles Regis, with an adaptation of his abstract painting of faces, We Rise by Lifting Others. Schumacher (fschumacher.com) has just come out with an array of ethereal tone-on-tone, digitally printed versions of four paintings by the Santa Barbara–based artist Colette Cosentino. —Jorge S. Arango

Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top: Glasstress/Ai Weiwei; Elitis; AMNH/David Ross; Candita Clayton Gallery/Kirby Fredendall

For the exhibition Glasstress Boca Raton 2021 (right), 34 celebrity contemporary artists such as Ai Weiwei, Vik Muniz, and Fiona Banner were invited to reinterpret centuries-old Venetian glass-making. Works range from profound to poignant, even humorous. Boca Raton Museum of Art through September 5, also online. bocamuseum.org

What childhood looked like before WiFi. Remember treehouses, bikes, canoes, fishing poles, bowling, s’mores, playing tag, and jumping in rain puddles? We still do that here.

MONTAGE.COM

DISCOVER LIFE, WELL LIVED

(888)-909-6806

What’s What ART, CULTURE & DESIGN

MUSEUMS ONLINE Kyoto Costume Institute showcases garments from its collection (considered one of the world’s greatest) online. Among curated slideshows is the standout Japonism in Fashion. kci.or.jp/en/

Kelly Taxter, a gallery owner for many years and, most recently, a curator of contemporary art at Manhattan’s Jewish Museum, takes the helm of the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, for the all-important Hamptons summer season. Exhibitions include Affinities for Abstraction: Women Artists on Eastern Long Island 1950–2022 (featuring 50 works by 40 artists such as Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler) and Roy Lichtenstein: History in the Making 1948–1960, the much-anticipated show of the Pop artist’s early works. parrishart.org

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

More than 120 photographers from over 20 countries feature in The New Woman Behind the Camera (below). The exhibition showcases women as a driving force in modern photography (from the 1920s to the 1950s) for their contributions in studio portraiture, fashion, advertising, and photojournalism. See groundbreaking works by Berenice Abbott, Dora Maar, and Dorothea Lange at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art July 2–October 3 and at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., October 31–January 30, 2022. metmuseum.org; nga.gov

Keith Haring: Grace House Mural, a three-story work (below) conserved and removed from the walls of a vacant Catholic youth center in Manhattan, is on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver through August 22. mcadenver.org

The entire Alexander Calder Archive is now online. calder.org Go inside hundreds of the world’s greatest buildings via Google’s Arts & Culture project. artsandculture.google.com/ project/360-videos Getty Art + Ideas includes access to on-demand podcasts on topics ranging from Michelangelo’s earliest drawings to the radically modernist architecture of Richard Neutra. getty.edu 

IN-HOME AUDIENCE Streaming theater and music performances are here to stay. Via Lincoln Center at Home (lincolncenter.org), view more than 300 new and archival performances from jazz greats to contemporary dance to family concerts. The San Francisco Opera (sfopera .com) streams classics like Tosca (above), The Marriage of Figaro, and Wagner’s complete Ring. WhatsOnStage (whatsonstage.com) offers a daily e-newsletter guide to everything that’s streaming in London—from Shakespeare to The Royal Opera House to West End musicals. StageIt (stageit.com) is an online concert venue for live performances. Watch pop, indie, rock, and DJ sets via Live AXS (live.axs.com).

Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top: Pace Gallery; Keith Haring Foundation; Library of Congress; National Gallery of Art, Washington, Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund.

Superblue, an experiential art center specializing in large-scale immersive art installations, opens its first location in Miami’s Wynwood-adjacent Allapattah neighborhood. James Turrell, widely considered the father of experimental art, is among the artists featured in the 50,000-square-foot permanent center’s premier exhibition Every Wall Is a Door (above). superblue.com

Via the Museum at FIT, expanded online content allows viewers to explore the Fashion Institute of Technology’s past exhibitions, including Ballerina: Fashion’s Modern Muse and Black Fashion Designers. fitnyc.edu

What’s What ADVENTURE & TRAVEL Cruise Thailand’s Chao Phraya River on a reimagined ice barge. The boats by Loy Pela Voyages include up to four king staterooms decorated in Thai silk and Jim Thompson fabrics, sunrise yoga, sunset cocktails, and the services of a butler, chef, and resident tour guide. Depart and return to the pier at the Anantara Riverside Bangkok. From $1,444/night; loypelavoyages.com

Auberge Resorts Collection collaborated with tour operator Black Tomato on bespoke road trips via a brand-new MercedesBenz to Auberge properties throughout the United States. These routes take guests along the California coast, through Utah’s towering peaks, or to New England’s charming white-steepled villages. Trips can include private wine tastings in Napa, heli-yoga in Utah, and lobster fishing in Kennebunk, Maine. From $4,995/person/six nights; aubergeresorts.com; blacktomato.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

A unique offering from Quinta dos Vales Wine Estate in Portugal’s Algarve is The Wine Makers Experience, an opportunity to make your own wine from start to finish. The property designates a vineyard for you and provides lessons on how to create your own wine blend, as well as accommodations in a villa suite when you come for the hands-on parts of production. From $6,000/year; quintadosvales.pt Members-only sporting club Wing and Barrel Ranch in Sonoma, California, is the place to indulge passions for good food, fine wine, and cigars, and to engage in outdoor activities like fishing and shooting. Limited memberships remain, but while they do, tour the newly completed Member Clubhouse and enquire about the oneweek summer camp for kids ages 10–15 that includes survivor skills, navigating trails, and exploring wildlife. Dinner can be had at one of Chef Charlie Palmer’s two wine country restaurants nearby. wingandbarrelranch.com

For the ultimate outdoor adventure: heli-skiing during the day (with Olympic gold medalist Tommy Moe) and fishing for king salmon during Alaska’s long summer twilight (above). Available in June and July at Tordrillo Mountain Lodge. $12,500/person/week; tordrillomountainlodge.com After 50 years, backcountry skiing returns to Alaska’s Denali National Park (through June 2021, later if snow conditions allow). No lift lines, no crowds, and endless opportunities to carve turns in untouched snow. Expert guides, the latest gear, and, when the day ends, a return to remote Sheldon Chalet for a wine-paired dinner and perhaps the spectacular glow of the northern lights in April. $35,000/three nights for two; sheldonchalet.com

Maserati engines will rev up in Parma, Italy, for the 22nd Master Maserati Driving Experiences (below) with a focus on power and performance. The vehicles: Levante Trofeo, Ghibli Trofeo, and the all-new MC20 super sports car. Courses are tailored to all levels and start on different dates (depending on the course) from May 27 to October 14. maseratiusa.com 

From Top: Courtesy Ritz Carlton Yacht Collection; Adobe Stock; Courtesy Maserati

The new kid on the luxurycruise block, The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection (above), debuts in 2021 with 149 balcony suites and something unique: two-level loft suites. Each suite comes with a personal assistant who arranges everything from customized shore trips to the signature Ritz Kids for couples with tots in tow. Short (7–10 nights) cruises on the Mediterranean available. From $6,400; lofts from $13,100; ritzcarltonyachtcollection.com

The Farm at Brush Creek Ranch launches its fully immersive Western Culinary Adventures. Spend one day exploring the 30,000-acre ranch on horseback and the next day grilling, baking bread, discovering smallvineyard wines, and sipping small-batch whiskeys in the Spirit Vault. Lodging from $1,900/night, culinary from $700; brushcreekranch.com

HERE, E VERY DAY

feels like an escape.

Just east of Atlanta, Reynolds Lake Oconee is a private waterfront community where members from around the country thrive, and where passions and friendships flourish. With six championship golf courses, a lakefront Ritz-Carlton® and a range of acclaimed restaurants, shops and amenities, the vibrant destination is a favorite choice for families looking to retire, relocate or even just change course and reset.

D I S C O V E R A R E M A R K A B L E WAY O F L I F E

There are many ways to experience our welcoming community, stunning homes and endless waters for yourself. Visit us online to learn more. Homesites from $ 1 0 0 K - $ 2 . 5 M • Homes from $ 4 0 0 K - $ 5 M + RE Y N OL D S L A K E O C ONE E . C O M / L U X URY • ( 86 6 ) 590. 5 1 7 0

*Excludes holidays and subject to availability; club credit for promotional purposes only. Real estate and other amenities are owned by Oconee Land Development Company LLC and/or other subsidiaries and affiliates of MetLife, Inc. (collectively, "OLDC" or “Sponsor”) and by unrelated third parties. Reynolds Lake Oconee Properties, LLC ("RLOP") is the exclusive listing agent for OLDC-owned properties in Reynolds Lake Oconee. RLOP also represents buyers and sellers of properties in Reynolds Lake Oconee which OLDC does not own ("Resale Properties"). OLDC is not involved in the marketing or sale of Resale Properties. This is not intended to be an offer to sell nor a solicitation of offers to buy OLDC-owned real estate in Reynolds Lake Oconee by residents of HI, ID, OR, or any other jurisdiction where prohibited by law. As to such states, any offer to sell or solicitation of offers to buy applies only to Resale Properties. Access and rights to recreational amenities may be subject to fees, membership dues, or other limitations. Information provided is believed accurate as of the date printed but may be subject to change from time to time. The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee is a private commercial enterprise and use of the facilities is subject to the applicable fees and policies of the operator.

For OLDC properties, obtain the Property Report required by Federal law and read it before signing anything. No Federal agency has judged the merits or value, if any, of this property. Void where prohibited by law. WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED, OR DISQUALIFIED THIS OFFERING. An offering statement has been filed with the Iowa Real Estate Commission and a copy of such statement is available from OLDC upon request. OLDC properties have been registered with the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salesmen at 1000 Washington Street, Suite 710, Boston, Massachusetts 02118-6100 and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection at 1700 G Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20552. Certain OLDC properties are registered with the Department of Law of the State of New York. THE COMPLETE OFFERING TERMS ARE IN AN OFFERING PLAN AVAILABLE FROM SPONSOR. FILE NO. H14-0001. Notice to New York Residents: The developer of Reynolds Lake Oconee and its principals are not incorporated in, located in, or resident in the state of New York. No offering is being made in or directed to any person or entity in the state of New York or to New York residents by or on behalf of the developer/offeror or anyone acting with the developer/offeror’s knowledge. No such offering, or purchase or sale of real estate by or to residents of the state of New York, shall take place until all registration and filing requirements under the Martin Act and the Attorney General’s regulations are complied with, a written exemption is obtained pursuant to an application is granted pursuant to and in accordance with Cooperative Policy Statements #1 or #7, or a “No-Action” request is granted.

What’s What HOTELS

The Chatwal Lodge (above), the new Catskills mountain retreat of Manhattan’s The Chatwal hotel, offers a bountiful kitchen (sourced from neighboring farms) and an excellent wine list. All 10 rustic-chic suites have vaulted ceilings, arched windows, and patios overlooking a pristine lake. Activities include boating, fly-fishing in the private trout stream, and sipping rare vintages in a cozy wine cellar. From $1,200; thechatwallodge.com The historic Crown Building (the original home of the Museum of Modern Art) has undergone a monumental transformation to become Aman New York, opening this year. In addition to 83 rooms above the Bulgari flagship on Fifth Avenue, find a three-floor signature spa with a hammam, a jazz club, a wine room, and a garden terrace and bar, featuring a 7,000-square-foot wraparound outdoor dining space overlooking Central Park. aman.com

The owners of Kalesma Mykonos grew up on the Greek island and want to introduce guests of their new hotel to local favorites, including artists’ studios, private beaches, and independent shops. Here, traditional Cycladic-style architecture (whitewashed walls, earth tones) comes off highbrow and sleek, punctuated by sculptural Rick Owens furniture. From $1,430, including breakfast; kalesmamykonos.com Sheltered by heritage oaks and tucked into 200-plus acres of rolling vineyards in California’s Sonoma wine country, the newly opened Montage Healdsburg is a serene wine-centric refuge. The 130 bungalow-style guest rooms have floor-to-ceiling windows, marble baths, and balconies or decks, some with outdoor fire pits. From $634; montagehotels.com

MEDICAL UPGRADES Many hotels have moved to contact-free systems, medical-grade air filtration, deep-cleaning and disinfecting, and complimentary welcome kits with the tools needed to keep sanitized. Some five-star hotels and resorts have taken it a step further, offering on-site COVID-19 testing and, in many cases, a partnership with a medical organization to receive 24/7 care. Montage International (montagehotels.com) provides a Peace of Mind Commitment and a 30-day membership to One Medical. Hyatt Hotel Corp (hyatt.com) offers free tests as needed across its brands in the Caribbean, Costa Rica, Mexico, and South America. If a guest tests positive, Hyatt extends their stay for up to 14 days at half of the price. Mexico’s Marival Resorts (marivalresorts .com) offers free, on-site testing for US guests at its Riviera Nayarit, Punta Mita, and Nuevo Vallarta properties. In the event of a positive test, the property provides complimentary accommodations for up to 14 days. In the Bahamas, Baha Mar (bahamar.com)—Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, SLS Baha Mar, and Rosewood Baha Mar—raises the bar by offering either a complimentary 14-day stay for guests who test positive or courtesy private-jet service back to the United States. u —Irene Rawlings

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, From Top: Chatwal Lodge; Cara Hotel.

There’s a secret hideaway in Los Feliz (just east of Hollywood): a mid-century courtyard motel that’s been very thoughtfully transformed into the hip and quietly luxurious Cara Hotel (below). Enjoy simple, farm-fresh California cuisine on patios surrounded by 100-year-old olive trees. Biodynamic wines are served at the bar. From $309; carahotel.com

Resort operator Six Senses opens four nature- and wellness-focused properties in 2021. Six Senses Shaharut in Israel’s Negev Desert facilitates sunrise yoga, latenight stargazing, and camel treks through the luminous desert. Six Senses Botanique in Brazil is an eco-retreat with seven suites and 11 villas in the middle of a tropical forest. Indigenous ingredients inform the cuisine and are used in spa treatments. Spain’s Six Senses Ibiza is a sanctuary on the island’s quiet northern tip. The farm estate is designated as the first sustainable BREEM-certified resort in the Balearics. Within the walls of a 14th-century fort that was originally home to the Rajasthani Royal Family, Six Senses Fort Barwara (48 suites, three villas) arranges picnics at the Banas River and tiger safaris at nearby Ranthambore National Park. sixsenses.com

“I would never travel without Medjet.”

Air Medical Transport + Travel Security Memberships Travel insurance gets you to the “nearest acceptable facility.” Medjet gets you moved to your hospital at HOME. ®

International + Domestic Travel Protection Including COVID-19 Transport (with some limitations)

TRAVEL PROTECTION. ELEVATED. 800.527.7478

Special Luxury Card member rates available at

Medjet.com/LuxuryCard

Añel ALK - Collection

100% Handmade in Italy A glove for your feet!!!

www.anelracercollection.com Tel. +1(305)448-5053

Budding Trend

Jewelry that transforms into multiple interchangeable pieces works for every mood. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN POZNIAK MARKET EDITOR PAUL FREDERICK

An elegant, long flutter of diamond leaves can be worn more subtly as double leaf studs or more daringly one each for an asymmetric look. WEMPE Leaves earrings, $35,350; wempe.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Diamond mariner links offer endless options: Clip multiples together to form a bracelet or a long chain, or wear as a pendant on a necklace, or alone as earrings. JENNA BLAKE Charm chain necklace with diamond clasp, diamond Mariner link, and diamond earring attachments, prices upon request; jennablake.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

This secret timepiece concealed behind a brilliant assortment of diamonds looks modern on a silk strap, regal on an 18-karat white gold chain, and royal on its own as a brooch. HARRY WINSTON Ultimate Emerald Signature, price upon request; harrywinston.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

A simple clip system allows these diamond pendants to easily transform from drop earrings to studs to a stunning necklace. BUCCELLATI Ghirlanda earrings, $77,000; buccellati.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Michal Kadar’s Tu collection of rings enhances a diamond solitaire with a subtle Art Deco nod. Pair it with any type of ring or wear it alone for a more modern look. CADAR Tu Sole ring, $7,500, Solitaire ring, price upon request; cadar.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Hand-crafted in 1935, this single piece of carved chalcedony with old-mine cut diamonds can be worn on this 18-karat gray gold cuff, or unlock it and pin it as a brooch. BELPERRON Vintage Tonneau cuff, price upon request; belperron.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Time On Hand

A man’s watch on a woman’s wrist is twice as sexy when paired with feminine bracelets and baubles. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONATHAN POZNIAK MARKET EDITOR PAUL FREDERICK

Left from top: CARTIER Juste un Clou ring, $2,360; cartier.com VACHERON CONSTANTIN Patrimony 40mm, $19,200; vacheron-constantin.com CARTIER, Trinity de Cartier bracelet, $6,700; cartier.com BREGUET Marine 5517 40mm, $49,100; breguet.com CARTIER Trinity de Cartier bracelet, $9,100; cartier.com PARMIGIANI FLEURIER Tonda Metrographe 40mm, $31,800; feldmarwatch.com Right from top: TEMPLE ST CLAIR Cosmos bracelet, $16,000; templestclair.com ROLEX Sky-Dweller 42mm, $17,650; rolex.com STATE PROPERTY Boone bangle, $6,200; thisisstateproperty.com GRACE LEE Globe ring, $1,588; gracelee.com NANCY NEWBERG Cigar band with diamonds, $2,800; nancynewberg.com STATE PROPERTY Cabot ring, $4,500; thisisstateproperty.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From top: HUBLOT Big Bang Steel 41mm, $12,500; hublot.com ZENITH Chronomaster Sport 41mm, $10,000; zenith-watches.com KATKIM Duet Pear ring, $7,200; katkimfinejewelry.com KATKIM Anerise Diamond ring, $6,600; katkimfinejewelry.com

From top left: CHOPARD Ice Cube ring, $1,430; chopard.com CHOPARD Ice Cube ring, $815; chopard.com CHOPARD Ice Cube bracelet with diamonds, $7,830; chopard.com OMEGA Seamaster Diver 42mm, $5,200; omegawatches.com CHOPARD Ice Cube bracelet, $4,440; chopard.com L.U. CHOPARD XP 40mm, $8,810; chopard.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From top: JOHN HARDY Classic Chain Knife Edge Link bracelet, $695; johnhardy.com JOHN HARDY Asli Classic Chain ID bracelet with diamonds, $3,300; johnhardy.com TAG HEUER Monaco 39mm, $6,350; tagheuer.com JOHN HARDY Classic chain bracelet, $750; johnhardy.com JOHN HARDY Knife Edge Amulet Connector bracelet, $325; johnhardy.com

Model, Christina Grant; manicurist, Rita Remark

From top: PANERAI Luminor Marina Platinumtech 44mm, $39,600; panerai.com BELL & ROSS BR03-92 Golden Heritage 42mm, $3,700; bellrossusa.com STATE PROPERTY Allegory Major bracelet, $3,500; thisisstateproperty.com KATKIM Pearl Crescendo ring, $2,730; katkimfinejewelry.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

THE LUXURY LOOK

Row, Row, Row, and Go

A new machine with live-broadcasted workouts from the water can make you forget that you’re rowing indoors. Paired with a grab-and-go bag of simple exercise equipment, the duo achieves results in 30 minutes or less each day. PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANKIE BATISTA STYLING BY HEIDI MEEK

t was the year of the home gym, and good habits die hard. Consumers looking to mix up their workout routines with the latest technology can consider Hydrow. If you have tried a traditional rowing machine, this isn’t that. According to Bruce Smith, Hydrow’s founder and CEO, traditional rowing machines haven’t changed in about 35 years. “Until now, all rowing machines have relied on mechanical resistance mechanisms that are loud and noisy and don’t accurately simulate the resistance of a boat on the water,” he says. Plus, if you’ve ever wanted to row the Thames in London, the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, or the San Francisco Bay, Hydrow takes you there, virtually. The machine is 7 feet long and connected to Live Outdoor Reality (LOR) technology, which streams live and on-demand workouts from idyllic waterways worldwide. A former competitive rower and an experienced coach at the national level, Smith dedicated the past 20 years to quantifying what happens physiologically during a rowing stroke. With that data, his team

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

created a rowing algorithm, built a computer system, and then refined Hydrow’s rowing mechanism using electromagnets and a castiron wheel. “The resistance changes 240 times per second to replicate that feeling of being on the water,” Smith explains. “It’s super smooth and super responsive.” Hydrow is also unique for its immersive rowing experience, not only connecting users to other Hydrow owners who are rowing in the same virtual boat, but also for filming the instructor-led rowing sessions on location and in real-time. “A major part of the experience is broadcasting live from the river and broadcasting that to your home in high definition, and you just couldn’t do that [before],” Smith says. “The technology wasn’t available.” A complementary fitness buy with a much smaller footprint is the KICHGO bag. Created by Kit Rich, a personal trainer who has worked with stars such as Kesha and Jennifer Lawrence, the KICHGO bag was born when Rich needed to streamline a collection of exercise equipment that could easily travel with her when she was touring

with musician clients or spending weeks at a filming site with a Hollywood actor. “I had to think about the equipment that I really needed to take and what would give me the most bang for the buck,” she says. Rich acknowledges that the equipment inside a KICHGO bag—resistance bands, a Pilates Core ball, a jump rope, resistance loops, dual-sided sliders, and other accessories—isn’t complicated or fancy. “It’s the workouts that are unique and fun and inventive,” she says. “When it comes to working out, the majority of people struggle to even do it. I’m trying to get rid of all the barriers.” KICHGO downloadable workout videos are no longer than 30 minutes and generally require only two pieces of equipment from the bag—a conscious decision that Rich made knowing that teaching via a prerecorded workout video can get complicated. “The simpler I keep it, the more effective it is,” she says. “You can’t live the life you want to live without being healthy, and a fitness routine shouldn’t be the thing that gets in the way.” —Shaun Tolson

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

VUORI Yosemite bra, $48, and Daily leggings, $84; vuoriclothing.com ON running shoes, $139; on-running.com MIANSAI necklace, $350, and bracelet, $950; miansai.com KICHGO resistance bands, part of an 8-piece set for $65; kichgo.com Opposite: LULULEMON tank, $58, sports bra, $58, and scrunchie, part of a six-pack for $28; lululemon.com ALO leggings, $108; aloyoga.com ON running shoes, $139; on-running.com NADRI bracelets, two-piece set for $98; nadri.com HYDROW rowing machine, $2,245, plus $38/month membership fee; hydrow.com Previous page: SWEATY BETTY sweatshirt, $138; sweatybetty.com MIANSAI earrings, $350; miansai.com NADRI studs, $40; nadri.com KICHGO bag, $65 (includes 20 videos); kichgo.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

TECH

Home as Headquarters With remote work on the rise, robots and other new tech make the job easier. BY FRANK VIZARD

ENGINEERED COMFORTS The Kohler Stillness Bath takes cues from Japanese forest bathing, combining water, light, fog, and aromas in an experience designed to calm the mind, soothe the body, and restore the spirit. Water fills the bath from the bottom, overflowing into the Hinoki-wood moat to create a soothing sound. As the lights turn down and a layer of fog forms on the water’s surface, relaxation increases. Add essential oils to further stimulate the senses. Price upon request; smarthome.kohler.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

Smart mirrors that offer virtual training programs are all the rage. The NordicTrack Vault boasts a 61.5-inch mirror that rotates 360 degrees and makes it easier for exercisers to selfcorrect during training regimens. The Vault is powered by iFit, an interactive connected fitness platform; users have access to iFit’s unlimited workout library and certified iFit Trainers via the 32-inch touchscreen display embedded into the mirror. Vertical, spacesaving storage includes dumbbells, kettlebells, resistance bands, a workout mat, and yoga blocks. $3,000; nordictrack.com Viruses are so small most air purifiers miss them. But not the new CleanAirZone. Like other purifiers, it sucks in air using fans. But instead of forcing that air through a filter, it captures particles in water and flushes them through enzymes that destroy germs and viruses. The maintenance routine is akin to watering plants once a week and changing the enzyme solution once a year ($99). This means you don’t have to swap out filters that end up in a landfill. Purifies a room in less than 10 minutes. $1,495; cleanairzone.com

Think of it as the Keurig for ice cream. The ColdSnap system is a rapid freezing appliance that produces single servings of ice cream in 90 seconds. Insert one of the recyclable, roomtemperature pods into the ColdSnap, which freezes the pod contents and yields a creamy, frozen treat straight into your bowl. And there is no cleanup. $1,000; coldsnap.com OneClock has one job: to wake you up gently each morning. That means there is no radio, no Bluetooth, no Wi-Fi, no apps, and certainly no snooze button. Heck, the analog clock doesn’t even tick. What OneClock does is play one of seven compositions by Grammy Award–winning musician Jon Natchez. Over 20 seconds, the sound slowly increases in volume before holding for 20 minutes or until you shut it off. It’s all to avoid that sudden, jarring alarm that stokes a stress response even before your cup of coffee. The solid wood face is encased in machined aluminum for a retro, industrial feel. $349; oneclock.co 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

The Shure MV5C Home Office Microphone may look retro, but it works using intuitive controls and smart technology. Unlike laptop microphones that pick up every sound in the room, the plug-and-play device prioritizes the user’s voice as it takes in studio-level sound quality. The adjustable stand ensures it easily tilts toward the speaker’s mouth for video conference calls, distance learning, and your new podcast gig. Headphones sold separately. $99; shure.com

The new Samsung MicroLED TV challenges OLED models that are the current champions of picture quality. The company claims better brightness and deeper blacks from the technology, which uses millions of tiny LEDs, each generating its own light and color. The first available model is 110 inches in size, but the screen can be subdivided to show four 55-inch pictures at once. Screen sizes of 88 and 99 inches are expected later this year. $156,000; samsung.com

We may all be on the same Zoom call, but we may not all be speaking the same language. The Timekettle M2 is one of the smallest translator devices available, styled like a pair of Apple Airbuds. Timekettle perfected simultaneous live translation with its WT2 earpiece, and is seeking a wider audience with the M2, which uniquely functions like a regular pair of earbuds, playing music and taking phone calls in addition to translating 40 different languages and 93 accents. $130; timekettle.com

Is that distant thump in another part of the house something to worry about or not? The Arlo Essential Indoor Camera lets you keep a remote eye on small children, elderly family members, or rambunctious pets. The device features high-definition video and a 160-degree diagonal field of view, motion, and audio detection as well as two-way voice communication. It’s also compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant, but a privacy shield gives owners the final decision as to when the device is on or off. From $100; arlo.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

OFFICE UPGRADES

The Finest Italian Linens Since 1860

frette.com

SMART STAFFING

When you’re working from home, leave the messier details to devices like the Roborock S7. Sophisticated mapping technology allows the disk-shaped cleaner to switch between mopping hard surfaces and vacuuming carpets without your intervention. Scrub settings range from 1,650 times per minute to 3,000 times per minute so even tough, dried-on messes succumb to cleaning. It cleans for up to three hours on a single charge, responds to voice commands, and an app tracks its movements. $649; us.roborock.com u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

The chest-high Samsung Bot Handy rolls around the house with two expressive eyes and a single arm. Artificial intelligence commands its robotic hand, which is sensitive enough to detect the force necessary to deliver a wine glass without breaking it. The robot recognizes and sorts objects well enough to clean up messy rooms and load the dishwasher too. The company has announced plans for additional robotic staff, including Bot Care (which acts much like a home secretary), a robotic security dog with a screen instead of a head, and the JetBot 90 AI Plus vacuum cleaner (left). Release dates and pricing details had not yet been announced at press time. samsung.com

BLAZING WOOD.

BRILLIANT FLAMES.

AND A PRIMAL SENSE

THE GAUCHO GRILL

+1.866.435.2404

CONNECTION.

K A L A M A ZO O G O U R M E T.CO M

Get Healthy Here

The international arms race among wellness retreats continues, with mind-body programs that reach beyond the treatment room. These three spas have the added benefit of their exotic locales to remedy and recharge guests. BY ALEXANDRA CHENEY

SIX SENSES BOTANIQUE Brazil

“W

ellness is freedom” has long been the guiding philosophy of Six Senses resorts. Freshly rebranded, the Botanique Hotel is now Six Senses Botanique, surrounded by mid-tropical Atlantic forests and the Mantiqueira Mountains. Exploring possibilities beyond the spa includes wandering the 700-acre property, which supports activities like bird-watching, waterfall hikes, and forest foraging. Many of the spa services, from the Amantikir Asian fusion massage to the Alchemist’s body treatment, can be arranged en plein air. Whether in the privacy of one’s villa garden or close to one of the handful of natural springs, Botanique aims for reconnection—both to oneself and nature. The alignment between wellness and food is evident in the organic, terraced produce gardens serving freshly picked veggies, as well as the mindful inclusion of bounty from local olive oil mills, wineries, cheesemongers, and charcuterie producers. What’s

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

more, the Alchemy bar, a signature space inside every Six Senses property, upcycles kitchen scraps and waste like seeds, flowers, and whole coconuts to create exfoliating recipes for soaps and oils for the skin. Delving into a trio of wellness days throughout the spring and summer months, Botanique will present the Mind Your Brain program, which focuses on how to wake up and successfully tune one’s brain into the day’s tasks, improving mental clarity. Next up is Boost Your Immunity, which looks to the body, and Love Your Heart, which emphasizes deeper self-connection. Sustainability remains at the core of Botanique, which is built from indigenous materials like jacaranda wood, chocolate slate, and natural stones. The addition of 14 villas has allowed Six Senses to further recognize local traditions, like the incorporation of 3-ton boulders from the adjacent river, which double as bearing walls. From $550/night, including breakfast; sixsenses.com 

Courtesy Six Senses (6)

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

CLINIQUE LA PRAIRIE Switzerland

nquestionably a pioneer in the field of longevity, Clinique La Prairie focuses on preventative medicine and nurturing aging cells. For nine decades the wellness center has overlooked Lake Geneva and the French Alps in the hamlet of Clarins. It was the first spa retreat to integrate DNA testing into its health programs, and it continues to merge scientific research with bespoke therapies and treatments. A spa, hospital, and hotel, Clinique La Prairie boasts more than 50 specialists with wellness itineraries ranging from master detoxes to rebalancing programs and revitalization regimens. Diagnosing exactly what a client needs through a combined medical, spa, and holistic lens is central to each program. It’s not just what you eat, for example, but when and how. It’s the impact of the food on the digestive tract and internal organs, as well as the skin and nervous system. It’s considering your predisposed tendencies and learned habits. Every action and response plays a part, and Clinique La Prairie

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

adroitly adapts and responds. Sometimes the answer is a visceral organ massage, other times a heavy metal test. While each guest is on his or her own journey, the work of identifying and rectifying nutritional and lifestyle changes “leaves people looking radiant, balanced, more youthful, sculpted, and in better health by the time they leave,” says Simone Gibertoni, CEO of the Clinique. “Our goal is to tap into advances in science that heal inside and out.” The tools that Gibertoni and her team have at their disposal are plentiful: rooms for cryotherapy, infratherapy, and photostimulation. There’s also a hammam, a Kneipp course, an ice fountain, and a dry floating bed. Locally sourced ingredients are at the core of head chef Sara Bussetti’s daily menus, but it’s her attention to detail that exceeds expectation (not everyone makes recipe tweaks by testing out nine types of rice and four kinds of turmeric). From $20,300 for the seven-day, six-night Master Detox program; cliniquelaprairie.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Clinique La Prairie (6)

OCTOLA Finnish Lapland

For more of the best places around the world to get mindfully and physically healthy, log on to our comprehensive 2021 Wellness Guide at luxurycard.com/wellnessguide.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Octola (2)

he number eight reverberates through Octola, a private wilderness retreat set amid the silver birch, pines, and Arctic evergreens in Finnish Lapland. “I see life in the colors of Arctic nature,” says founder Janne Honkanen. “Witnessing them has a certain healing power.” Octola’s rooms (named after the 88 constellations), kitchenware (made by a local ceramic artist), and the proprietor’s dog, Casi (meaning “eight” in Finnish), all echo “the number that represents infinity and also new beginnings,” says Honkanen. A former snowmobile racing driver, he built Octola and its surrounding infrastructure after surviving a brain tumor. He intends for visitors to commence transformation from the moment they slide into their hand-knit slipper-socks (no boots indoors). Sustainability at Octola means water flows via a natural spring, fresh herbs and vegetables are plucked from neighboring organic farms, and electricity and heat come from wind and geothermal sources. The 10-room, glass-and-timber lodge and new two-bedroom Octola Villa tapped into building techniques of the local Lapp and Sámi tradition. Not a single piece of art hangs on the walls because “nature is art.” In other words, return to simplicity. Yoga teachers, private trainers, and massage therapists are on call, while the extensive list of outdoor activities includes reindeer herding, sleigh rides, sustainable amethyst mining, snowshoeing, and sauna raft cruising under the midnight sun. The emphasis here is on moving very fast (tobogganing, snowmobiling, ATVing, dogsledding) and simultaneously slowing down (viewing the northern lights, hiking, hot-air ballooning, ice fishing, birding). Even a private meeting with Santa can be arranged. The single no-no: geo-tagging the property. “Some things are best kept secret,” says Honkanen. From $12,350/night; octola.com u

BO CA’S

M O ST

D ES I R ABLE

ADDR ES S

N OW

OPEN

1 TO 4 BEDROOM RESIDENCES PRICED FROM JUST OVER $1M TO $6M+

MODEL RESIDENCE

MOVE IN TODAY

200 SE Mizner Blvd, Boca Raton, FL 33432

Phone number: 561.404.1498 alinabocaraton.com

ORAL REPRESENTATIONS CANNOT BE RELIED UPON AS CORRECTLY STATING THE REPRESENTATIONS OF THE DEVELOPER. FOR CORRECT REPRESENTATIONS, REFERENCE SHOULD BE MADE TO THE DOCUMENTS REQUIRED BY SECTION 718.503, FLORIDA STATUTES, TO BE FURNISHED BY A DEVELOPER TO A BUYER OR LESSEE. THIS OFFERING IS MADE ONLY BY THE OFFERING DOCUMENTS FOR THE CONDOMINIUM AND NO STATEMENT SHOULD BE RELIED UPON IF NOT MADE IN THE OFFERING DOCUMENTS. THIS IS NOT AN OFFER TO SELL, OR SOLICITATION OF OFFERS TO BUY, THE CONDOMINIUM UNITS IN STATES WHERE SUCH OFFER OR SOLICITATION CANNOT BE MADE. THIS CONDOMINIUM IS BEING DEVELOPED BY ALINA BOCA RATON LLC, A FLORIDA LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY (“DEVELOPER”). ANY AND ALL STATEMENTS, DISCLOSURES AND/OR REPRESENTATIONS SHALL BE DEEMED MADE BY DEVELOPER AND NOT BY EL AD AND YOU AGREE TO LOOK SOLELY TO DEVELOPER (AND NOT TO EL AD AND/OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES) WITH RESPECT TO ANY AND ALL MATTERS RELATING TO THE MARKETING AND/OR DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONDOMINIUM AND WITH RESPECT TO THE SALES OF UNITS IN THE CONDOMINIUM. THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, INCLUDING PRICING, IS SOLELY FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES, AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. IMAGE IS ARTIST’S CONCEPTUAL RENDERING. FOR NEW YORK PURCHASERS ONLY, THE CPS-12 APPLICATION FOR THE CONDOMINIUM HAS BEEN FILED WITH THE STATE OF NEW YORK, DEPARTMENT OF LAW (FILE NO. CP18-0136). WARNING: THE CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF REAL ESTATE HAS NOT INSPECTED, EXAMINED, OR QUALIFIED THIS OFFERING. THIS ADVERTISEMENT IS A SOLICITATION FOR THE SALE OF UNITS IN ALINA BOCA RATON: N.J. REG. NO. 19-04-0004. THIS CONDOMINIUM HAS BEEN REGISTERED WITH THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF REGISTRATION OF REAL ESTATE BROKERS AND SALESMEN F-1266-01-01.

One Place, Two Ways Dominica

BY MARK ELLWOOD

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS

Whale Watching Sperm whale populations were long threatened by hunting (before becoming commercially outlawed, the oil inside their giant heads was prized for making lamps and cosmetics). They’re now threatened by climate change and underwater noise pollution, making the waters off Dominica the only place in the world where these gentle, sociable mammals still live year-round. Charter a trip from the island’s capital, Roseau, to see them up close. divedominica.com Indigenous Observations Visit the Kalinago Territory for a rare glimpse of the Caribbean before slaves and colonists arrived. In 1903, colonial administrators ring-fenced a 3,700acre reserve on the eastern part of the island for the indigenous population. Residents operate a village there to showcase local cuisine and crafts, such as boatbuilding and basket-weaving. discoverdominica.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Bird-Watching The wildlife is Galapagoslike, with 170 different bird species unique to the island. Both the black- and lime-colored sisserou parrot and the red-necked Jaco jostle for status as the country’s unofficial mascot. See them at Roseau’s colonial-era Botanic Gardens or flying wild with favorite twitcher guide Bertrand Jno Baptiste, nicknamed Dr. Birdy. dominicagardens.com Scuba Diving The island’s underground landscape is as varied and dramatic as above water. Novice divers explore Rina’s Hole to see moray eels and giant anemones at shallow depths. Witness barracuda patrol at Crater’s Edge, an underwater volcanic ridge where they hunt fish in the shoals amid brightly colored sponges. The best wall dive is La Sorcière, where it’s easy to linger and observe, since there’s virtually no current. divedominica.com

Waterfall Hikes It’s no surprise, given Dominica’s dramatic, hill-crested landscapes, to find astonishing waterfalls; hire guide Michael Eugene to showcase them. There are the twin descents (nicknamed Mother and Father) at Trafalgar Falls or the foamy, 275-foot-high Middleham Falls. Equally wondrous is Boiling Lake, which is kept piping hot by the active volcanic crust. experiencescaribbean.com STAY: Jungle Bay Devastated in 2015 by Hurricane Erika, the family-owned, 89-cottage resort reopened last summer after intensive renovations. Long one of the few luxe options on the island, it features a new organic restaurant, a yoga studio, a spa, and a second pool. Upgraded ecovillas are outfitted with bamboo furniture and boast views over the green hillside. From $250; junglebaydominica.com

Clockwise From Bottom Middle: Courtesy Discover Dominica Authority (3); Frank Lane/Minden Pictures; Courtesy Discover Dominica Authority/Max Stussi; Courtesy Jungle Bay Dominica/Tyson Henry

The lushly green Caribbean island 600 miles from the Dominican Republic is aiming to become the first climate-resilient country in the world.

Clockwise From Top Left: Hemis/Alamy Stock Photo; Reinhard Dirscherl/Alamy Stock Photo; Courtesy Discover Dominica Authority; Courtesy Secret Bay; Courtesy Discover Dominica Authority (2)

INDULGENCE SEEKERS Untouched tropical forests and deserted black-sand beaches make this island one of the best spots for barefoot luxury in the West Indies.

Yachting One of the Caribbean’s discreet sailing hubs is tucked into the northwest corner of the island, Prince Rupert Bay— named after the general who lost the English Civil War for King Charles I, and fled here as a result. The all-natural bay is deep enough for even superyachts to anchor, though it’s refreshingly undeveloped. nicholsoncharters.com R&R (Read & Relax) Head to Batibou Beach, the hard-to-reach hideaway on the northeast coast: Don’t be dismayed by the drive down a long dirt road, as the lush strip of gold sand is more than reward enough once you reach it. Spend the day reading Wide Sargasso Sea. Written by the Dominica-born British author Jean Rhys, it tells the story of Mr. Rochester’s first wife from Jane Eyre to reclaim her reputation as the madwoman in the attic, and pointedly critiquing the colonial system in the process. discoverdominica.com

Champagne Reef Geothermal vents in the ocean floor create air pockets that bubble up through the coral at this fringing reef on the calmer west coast. Swimming through them is like dousing in a bathtub full of (slightly warm) Champagne, with teeming hordes of Day-Glo-colored Caribbean fish fluttering among the bubbles. The spot is easily reached by wading off the rocky Champagne beach. discoverdominica.com Food & Drink Macoucherie rum is Dominica’s top choice for quality, as local owners the Shillingford family grow their own sugarcane. If you dare, order a blend spiked with extract of bois bandé (meaning “hard wood”), a local bark said to have aphrodisiac qualities. Kubuli is the best local beer. Try your scrambled eggs with a dash of Big G “Fireball” hot sauce, one of Dominica’s many homegrown answers to Tabasco. 767.317.6224

Hot Springs Heated by underground volcanoes in the village of Wotten Waven, the island’s sulfurous, bathtub-warm water is said to have skin-rejuvenating properties. The best place to experience it is the Bongo Baths spa, where a series of pools at different temperatures run through a tropical garden dotted with statues. discoverdominica.com STAY: Five-Star Hotels European hotelier Kempinski operates the 151-room Cabrits Resort & Spa, which is on Douglas Bay next to Cabrits National Park. It’s a handy spot for exploring the lush landscape without breaking too much of a sweat. The 10-villa Secret Bay, just south of here, was damaged in Hurricane Maria, but has reopened, fully renovated and upgraded: Each standalone room has a full kitchen and private plunge pool. From $255, kempinski.com; from $822, secretbay.dm u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Sand, Sweat, and Gears

Dirt biking Baja California Sur is a loud, explosive thrill ride. Completing the trek with moto racing champion Kirk Russell shifts it to full speed—with a rest stop at Mexico’s newest concept hotel. WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS BRINLEE JR.

o crawl up Baja California’s least forgiving steep, rocky, rutted obstacles you need a championship-bred KTM 450 XC-F, which delivers enough tractorlike torque and arm-pumping power with a twist of the throttle. It’s no wonder the Mexican peninsula famously hosts two major motorsport races, SCORE Baja 1000 and the NORRA Mexican 1000. No other location of equal off-road racing heritage or caliber exists. But you don’t have to be a racer to experience blasting past hundreds of elephant cacti on a high-desert double-track in sixth gear with a wide-open throttle— you have to be following one. In particular, Kirk Russell, a Baja moto racing champion and proprietor of Captain Baja Adventure Tours (captain-baja.com). Captain Baja specializes in crafting custom off-road trips throughout Baja California Sur (BCS)—primarily on customized, Ready-to-Race KTM fourstroke enduro dirt bikes, but also on RZR

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

side-by-side all-terrain vehicles. Riding high-performance machines definitely sets the experience apart from most others—and that’s even before considering the symphonic routing and the man leading the pack. Russell’s passion for riding motorcycles spans more than 40 years and covers a multidisciplined racing pedigree. He knows bikes. He’s spent most of his life making trips south of the border; and the past 10 years living in the windsurfing mecca of Los Barriles, BCS, learning every off-road nook and cranny in Baja. He routes Captain Baja experiences through the mountains, across high desert, and along the coast—linking up the best BCS has to offer while frequenting hidden lagoons, stunning vistas, and culturally significant sites. A ride with Russell from Los Barriles starts on an immaculately maintained orange scalpel of a KTM motorcycle that over five days will develop an amorous symbiosis with its rider. When it’s time to suit up, base layers go on first. Then, like a knight donning armor, it’s protective gear next:

padded shorts, knee and shin guards, and a chest and back protector with a kidney belt and elbow guards. Motocross pants and a jersey provide additional protection, pockets, and ventilation. Buckling up a pair of motocross boots feels like wearing shoes for walking on the moon. Strap on a hydration pack (it is the desert, after all), before donning a helmet, goggles, and gloves. This battle gear protects against the five elements of Baja for which Russell issues a strong warning: cattle, cars, cacti, concrete, cattle guards. While the armor does offer protection from inevitable spills in sandy washes, bike drops on rutted roads, and various other unknown obstacles, the Five Cs are best avoided at all costs. A demo ride around Los Barriles initiates assimilation with the machine, and equally important, allows Russell to assess riders’ skills and adapt his route plan accordingly. After that, it’s off to the races. Or at least, it may feel like it at times, while trying to imitate the leader’s impeccable lines. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

A respectful braaap! through town (don’t upset the expatriates too much) quickly leads to open country; with Baja’s vast swaths of desert double track, an open throttle soon follows. A quick climb to higher elevation, and a gaze out across expansive perspectives of the Sea of Cortez. The path tightly wraps along its edge like a Crotalus enyo—the Lower California rattlesnake. The caliente sol casts rays of golden light, which refract continually through clouds of dust—but with the sea breeze coursing through your helmet and jersey, it never feels too hot. The soundtrack is a symphony of moto mania: engine revs and rumbles. Gravel crunches. Sand sprays. Adrenaline courses through your veins; heartbeats thump inside your head. Muffled screams of joy filter through your helmet. Eruptions sound as loud as you like, but with everyone else’s engine noise, it’s a world all to yourself. Russell is the conductor on an allegro movement through sandy washes. Power is key. Keep momentum. It feels counterintuitive, but to slow down here invites a struggle. The andante tempo follows: a slow, technical trail through the mountains, over rocks and ruts. Next is the scherzo. Russell finds his humor in expertly mixing technical riding with flowy sections, just to keep riders on their toes. Finally, the sonata of the masterpiece day. A jaunt up a cobblestone mountain road, through rustic towns and across high-desert tracks punctuated by sand dune whoops.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

The journey leads to great reward: Paradero Todos Santos (paraderohotels .com)—an experience-inclusive resort opened in January an hour or so north of Cabo San Lucas. From its atrium to its accommodations, the property incorporates all of Baja’s geographic elements: openconcept terra firma grounds, the surrounding Sierra de la Laguna, the distant Las Palmas beach, and adjacent active farmland. Garden suites open up to the fields; rooftop suites feature outdoor loft nets for star gazing. Venture beyond the property to taste what are arguably the best fish tacos in all of Baja at Barracuda Cantina; learn how to ride a wave with Mario Surf School at Los Cerritos beach; and discover local art and culture with a tour of Todos Santos. This year’s addition of Paradero has been a welcome one for Russell, complementing what he wants clients to experience in Mexico. “We strive to make this the best trip of your life,” he says. “To facilitate something bigger than just a tour: a true authentic experience in Baja.” 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

ALPINESTARS SUPERTECH M10 HELMET A pinnacle of helmet design, the M10 achieves a perfect balance of protection, weight (it’s light), and ventilation—all key factors when riding eight-hour days through the desert. Uniquely, each size of the helmet features its own corresponding shell size, ensuring a perfect anatomical fit. $580; alpinestars.com ALPINESTARS TECH 10 BOOTS Riding in Baja California Sur can be hot—and dangerous. The Tech 10s help to solve these issues with a design that’s extremely protective of the foot, ankle, and shin—while also featuring ample ventilation through the shin plate and with perforated mesh sections where heat builds up the most. A special sole design and compound provides great footpeg grip in a variety of riding conditions. $650; alpinestars.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

OAKLEY FRONT LINE MX GOGGLES Seeing is everything, especially when riding through clouds of dust and debris. The Front Line MX meet and exceed ANSI Z87.1 standards, so fear not when the bees and pebbles inevitably airstrike. Special notches make these goggles compatible with prescription specs too. $192; oakley.com

GOPRO HERO 9 BLACK GoPro’s latest flagship action camera features near limitless mounting options for quick attachment to handlebars or helmet; a front display that makes it easier to frame selfies; and HyperSmooth 3.0, which makes for some seriously steady footage, even when tackling the roughest roads. $350; gopro.com

VELOMACCHI 28L SPEEDWAY BACKPACK This carryall is designed to go fast. Its ergonomics are slung low and tight to the body; the company’s patentpending three-point rotating harness system and magnetic sternum closure make for speedy on-and-offs, enabling you to quickly get back on the bike. The exterior shell is durable and abrasion resistant; the inner compartment is water- and dustproof. $270; velomacchi.com

JAYBIRD VISTA WIRELESS EARBUDS What’s better than the moto symphony? Laying your favorite tracks and playlists over it. These earbuds are small enough to fit underneath a helmet, but still deliver big sound. They’re dustproof, shockproof, waterproof, and sweatproof—which is basically Baja-proof. As an added bonus, they dampen outside sounds (think excess wind) pretty effectively—allowing you to hear your engine and your tunes. $150; jaybirdsport.com u

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

GEAR UP

AS FAITHFULLY AS THE TIDES

From the moment you enter the palm-studded harbor, touch down on the runway or pass through the gates of Ocean Reef Club, you begin to sense a very Unique Way of Life. One that has been attentively upheld, polished and passed down to succeeding generations of Members. Situated on the northern reaches of Key Largo, beside America’s only living reef, Ocean Reef Club boasts a world-class marina and yacht club. Its own private airport and accompanying ﬂying club. Two championship golf courses. A tennis and games center. An art league and cultural center, croquet, racquet and rod and gun clubs. A museum, library and theater, medical center, restaurants and gracious residences. Even a school for your children, an array of summer camp options and a vet for your pet. In essence, all the comforts and services of a small but sophisticated town. There are also comforts of a different kind. Among them, a tangible sense of privacy, security, tradition and values, and perhaps most important, a sense of belonging unlike any other club on earth. There are only two ways to experience Ocean Reef Club’s Unique Way of Life – as a guest of a Member or through the pages of Living magazine. Visit OceanReefClubLiving.com or call 305.367.5921 to request your complimentary copy.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Ram Canada

Ram 1500 TRX

Drives Like a Truck

If you’ve never thought of yourself as a pickup person, now may be the time for a shift. BY MARK HACKING

ot so long ago, a pickup truck had to perform one simple task: take all the abuse in the world and keep coming back for more. Nowadays, the inherent capability of the modern pickup is still there—but so too are stratospheric levels of luxury, comfort, and technological sophistication. Here, some of the more compelling and cool trucks out right now, plus a few more on the horizon. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Ford F-150

with the choice of six different powertrains, including a new full-hybrid version that links a twin-turbocharged, 3.5-liter V6 gas engine with a 47-hp electric motor. The combined output here, 430 hp and 570 lb-ft of torque, gives this F-150 brisk acceleration, a 4-mpg gain in overall fuel efficiency, and a respectable 12,700-pound towing capacity. The hybrid version also boasts a 700-mile driving range and a standard onboard generator, in case the power grid takes a nose dive. For the new model year, all versions of the F-150 feature a revised chassis and suspension system engineered to bring new levels of refinement. As always, there are a

variety of body styles and bed lengths, as well as the option of 2- or 4-wheel drive configurations. Although the F-150 is engineered from the ground up for rugged performance, it’s also surprisingly comfortable to drive, even over the long haul. The big-ticket trim level is the Limited with all the features you might encounter in an executive sedan, plus an optional work surface that pops out of the center console and another work surface integrated into the tailgate. For those who want added performance and the ability to catapult over sand dunes, the new 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor is on the horizon. ford.com 

Courtesy Ford. Opposite: Courtesy Jeep

Back in the day, an unlicensed teenager commanding a Ford F-250 farm truck— 2-wheel drive, 4-speed manual transmission, zero amenities—along a gravel road, trying to perfect the fine art of fishtailing, required the pickup to push itself to the limits. Today, the introduction of a brand-new Ford F-150 is still big news in the heartland. Last year, nearly 1 million examples of the perennial segment leader were retailed across America. For the Ford Motor Company, this is the good news; the not-so-good news is that each new version is saddled with a serious “don’t mess with success” level of pressure. The 14th-generation F-150 responds

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Jeep Gladiator Of all the trucks featured here, the Jeep Gladiator delivers the most authentic driving experience. While all blend sheer capability with next-level luxury and/or performance, the Jeep has its roots firmly in the past—and that’s a good thing. The first Jeep pickup in nearly three decades, this midsize rig splashed onto the scene last year and carted off the award for North American Truck of the Year. For 2021, the Gladiator line gains a new engine option, a 3.0-liter V6 diesel that generates 260 hp and 442 lb-ft of torque. When properly equipped, the Gladiator

delivers a towing capacity of 7,650 pounds, the clear leader in the midsize segment. This capability, combined with the trail-ready, 4-wheel drive system for which the Jeep brand has become an unabashed legend, gives the Gladiator a weekend warrior vibe that puts all others in the shade. The Gladiator has the same upright seating position as the Wrangler and enough comfort features to bring long-distance drives into sharp focus. Of course, the Gladiator also features a 5-foot bed, large enough to haul an ATV. The doors and roof panels are

removable and the windshield can be folded down, providing an extra degree of flexibility. There are four different trim levels to choose from, plus a handful of special editions. For maximum cool factor, the Gladiator Willys, perhaps decked out in Sarge Green paint, is tough to beat. But you could make the same argument for the 80th Anniversary Edition, the desertrated Mojave, or the flashy High Altitude. Regardless of which model you choose, you’re guaranteed to be driving an envy-inducing new truck with an iconic heritage. jeep.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Ram Canada (2). Opposite: Courtesy Images From Top: Tesla; General Motors

Ram 1500 TRX Just when you thought the mad scientists at the Street & Racing Technology (SRT) division might be resting on their laurels, along comes the Ram 1500 TRX. The inhouse tuners at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles responsible for such absolute legends as the Dodge Viper, Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk, and Dodge Demon have taken the mighty Hellcat engine and given it new purpose in this Baja-worthy behemoth. The supercharged 6.2-liter V8 develops a mammoth 702 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque, making the TRX the most powerful production half-ton pickup truck in history. But this truck was engineered not for towing or hauling; it’s for flying. Armed with a sport mode and launch control system, the TRX can rocket from a dead-stop to 60 mph in just 4.5 seconds, its supercharger whistling ferociously the entire time. Rapid acceleration is not the only trick in the TRX book. Switch the drive selector to “rock mode” and TRX shifts to an extra low gear ratio and uses a 50/50 torque split. Meanwhile the 11.8 inches of ground clearance provides enough space to clear obstacles, including smaller trucks. The other seven drive modes allow you to customize the driving experience in, over, and through everything from deep snow to deep mud and high sand dunes. Other enhancements made to this extreme offshoot of the Ram 1500 include a strengthened frame, a sophisticated adaptive suspension system, 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires, and a menacing exterior shape that’s gained 8 inches in width. Inside the cabin, there’s an inspired mix of sheer comfort and high-performance gadgetry. The flat-bottom steering wheel and oversize paddle shifters have their roots in motorsports. The instrument panel, center console, and optional head-up display offer a range of information, including acceleration times from your latest launch. And, at the highest end of the order form, materials such as carbon fiber and microsuede make an appearance, giving the TRX the aura of a supercar. ramtrucks.com

Into the Future

Carmakers have flipped the switch on electric trucks.

If it seems like every mode of transport under the sun is being electrified to some degree, you’ve been paying attention. Everything from skateboards to personal aircraft is receiving a jolt these days, propelling the world toward the absolute tipping point for electrification. One of the last bastions of the internal combustion engine is the pickup truck, a mode of transport designed for toughness, durability, and longevity. While these qualities may not necessarily be associated with the average EV, a new wave of electrified pickups is set to change the conversation.

The new arrivals fall broadly into three categories. There are the rogue start-ups, new to both electrification and, indeed, to vehicle manufacturing itself. There is the established set seeking to forge more eco-conscious street credibility. Then there’s the electric elephant in the room, the Tesla Cybertruck (tesla.com), parked right in the middle of the discussion. (As soon as Elon Musk elects to release this dystopian conveyance, there will be more to report; for now, a final production version is in the works and the only thing for certain is that the Cybertruck might be bulletproof.) 

GMC Hummer EV Inset: Tesla Cybertruck

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Rivian

Rivian R1T

In the first category, we have entrants that may or may not appear as promised, pickups that land somewhere on a sliding scale from pipe dream to IPO. Take the Nikola Badger (nikolamotor.com), for example. Last year, ambitious tech start-up Nikola landed a strategic alignment with General Motors. Then the agreement was scaled back due to operational issues—and the Badger has remained in suspended animation ever since.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Fortunes look brighter for the Bollinger B2 (bollingermotors .com) and Lordstown Endurance (lordstownmotors.com), a pair of electric pickups hailing from Middle America. The former is billed as “The World’s Most Capable Pickup Truck” and, judging by the initial specifications, that seems a fair statement. The B2 will showcase a dual-motor powertrain, all-wheel drive, 614 hp, 668 lb-ft of torque, a towing capacity of 7,500 pounds, and an estimated range of 200 miles.



STONED FINE JEWELRY fine jewelry & diamond concierge

FEATURING: TENNIS BRACELETS STARTING AT $1,000 Love Diamond Bracelet $6,900 Malibu Racquet Diamond Bracelet $8,000 Serve Diamond Tennis Bracelet $4,600 Ace Diamond Tennis Bracelet $1,800 Bezel Set Yellow Gold Tennis Necklace $12,000 Diamond Studs 5-Carats $25,000 French Riviera Diamond Necklace $65,000

@stonedfinejewelry

WWW.STONEDFINEJEWELRY.COM CALL 904.607.7775 FOR ASSISTANCE PLACING AN ORDER

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Bollinger B2

Lordstown Endurance

Courtesy Images From Top: Bollinger Motors; Lordstown Motor Corp.

Meanwhile, the Endurance, which will begin production in a former General Motors plant this year, takes a different approach. Claiming to have the fewest moving parts of any motor vehicle, this electrified work truck features in-wheel motors at each corner, providing true 4-wheel drive and increased levels of control. The powertrain is expected to deliver 600 hp, a range of more than 250 miles, and 7,500 pounds’ worth of towing capacity. The brightest light in the start-up field appears to be the Rivian R1T (rivian.com), if only because it’s set to cross the finish line first (customer deliveries are scheduled to start this June). The Rivian is one slick-looking set of wheels, undeniably futuristic in execution, but with a rugged stance. Video footage from the truck’s development and a guest-starring role in the adventure TV series Long Way Up prove that the R1T is intended to be a real workhorse with genuine off-road capabilities baked right in. There will be three different versions of the truck by next year; the launch version delivers a range in excess of 300 miles. This battery powers four electric motors, which are mounted at each wheel. Maximum output for this setup is 800 hp and 900 lb-ft of torque, sufficient to propel this R1T to 60 mph in 3 seconds and give it a towing capacity of 11,000 pounds. The company is backed by both Ford and Amazon, so there’s some serious pull at the helm. In time, there will be more electric trucks from established manufacturers; for now, only two have been formally announced: the Ford F-150 Electric (ford.com) and the GMC Hummer EV (gmc.com). The F-150 won’t be released until next year, so final specifications have yet to be confirmed. But a technological partnership with Rivian seems like a great start. Last year, Ford posted a video showing a preproduction F-150 Electric towing a stack of freight train cars weighing over 1 million pounds—it seems serious. The Hummer EV looks to be not only an authentic electric supertruck, but also a fantastic vehicle for complete brand reinvention. Armed with three electric motors, the EV will have up to 1,000 hp and a massive 11,500 lb-ft of torque. There’s a launch control system— called “Watts to Freedom”—that will enable the Hummer to sprint to 60 mph in approximately 3 seconds. Features designed for the most extreme adventures include an adjustable air suspension system, a 4-wheel steering system that lets the Hummer “CrabWalk” around obstacles, and waterproof underbody cameras. All of the launch-edition versions have been taken—a measure of how popular this thing looks to be—but you can place deposits on future versions right now. u

STONED FINE JEWELRY fine jewelry & diamond concierge

FEATURING: Signature 1-Carat Tennis Bracelet $1,250 Serve Diamond Tennis Bracelet $4,600 Malibu Racquet Diamond Bracelet $8,000 Love Diamond Bracelet $6,900 Triples Diamond Bracelet $10,000

CALL 904.607.7775 FOR ASSISTANCE PLACING AN ORDER

WWW.STONEDFINEJEWELRY.COM TENNIS BRACELETS STARTING AT $1,000

@stonedfinejewelry

MEN AT PLAY

Toast the new season with sport-inspired looks and performance-driven fabrics. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK GUY STYLING BY HEIDI MEEK From left: COASTAORO shirt, $110; coastaoro.com JOHN VARVATOS shirt, $128; johnvarvatos.com BELL & ROSS watch, $5,900; bellross.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

RALPH LAUREN PURPLE LABEL shirt, $450; ralphlauren.com BOTTEGA VENETA shorts, $790; bottegaveneta.com BRUNELLO CUCINELLI loafers, $895; brunellocucinelli.com CADDIS sunglasses, $105; caddislife.com BELL & ROSS watch, $3,200; bellross.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

RAG & BONE T-shirt, $125; ragbone.com ORLEBAR BROWN swim trunks, $295; orlebarbrown.com HAVAIANAS sandals, $26; havaianas.com ELECTRIC sunglasses,$160; electriccalifornia.com MISSONI beach towel, $275; missoni.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

FRAME jacket, $375; framedenim.com Burberry T-shirt, $290; burberry.com OUTERKNOWN jeans, $128; outerknown.com VINCE sandals, $225; vince.com ELECTRIC sunglasses, $250; electriccalifornia.com Opposite: VINCE T-shirt, $110; vince.com VILEBREQUIN swim trunks, $260; vilebrequin.com ELECTRIC sunglasses, $160; electriccalifornia.com Shot on location at L’Horizon Resort & Spa, Palm Springs

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

MERCEDES-BENZ AMG C 63 S Cabriolet, $85,600; mbusa.com Opposite from left: TRAVIS MATTHEW polo, $90; travismatthew.com J. LINDEBERG golf pants, $195; jlindebergusa.com VANS shoes, $70; vans.com G/FORE golfbag, $375; gfore.com CALLAWAY Mavrik golf clubs, from $800/set; callawaygolf.com G/FORE vest, $195, pants, $185, and golf bag, $375; gfore.com RHONE polo, $88; rhone.com VANS shoes, $65; vans.com CALLAWAY Big Bertha golf clubs, from $900/set; callawaygolf.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

G/FORE polo, $95, shorts, $155, shoes, $225, hat, $45, belt, $65, and glove, $35; gfore.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

PUMA GOLF polo, $65, shoes, $200, and hat, $40; puma.com LINKSOUL shorts, $72; linksoul.com G/FORE belt, $65; gfore.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LULULEMON tank, $68; lululemon.com VUORI shorts, $68; vuori.com ELECTRIC sunglasses, $220; electriccalifornia.com ADIDAS shoes, $180; adidas.com PATAGONIA backpack, $89; patagonia.com BLACK DIAMOND trekking poles, $150; blackdiamondequipment.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: ADIDAS T-shirt, $60; adidas.com SPIRITUAL GANGSTER shorts, $78; spiritualgangster.com CADDIS sunglasses, $119; caddislife.com HOKA ONE ONE shoes, $200; hokaoneone.com HYDROFLASK water bottle, $45; hydroflask.com RHONE shirt, $68; rhone.com LULULEMON shorts, $68; lululemon.com ELECTRIC sunglasses, $220; electriccalifornia.com HOKA ONE ONE shoes, $200; hokaoneone.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: RAG & BONE hoodie, $275; rag-bone.com VISSLA jeans, $70; vissla.com CADDIS sunglasses, $129; caddislife.com CONVERSE shoes, $100; converse.com ROWAN shirt, $95; forrowan.com MONFRÈRE jeans, $220; monfrere.com ELECTRIC sunglasses, $180, electriccalifornia.com CONVERSE shoes, $85; converse.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

STONE ISLAND jacket, $595; stoneisland.com A.P.C. T-shirt, $110; apc-us.com HELMUT LANG jeans, $290; helmutlang.com VANS shoes, $70; vans.com BMW M8 Competition Coupe, from $130,000; bmwusa.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: JAMES PERSE shirt, $225; jamesperse.com OUTERKNOWN jeans, $168; outerknown.com CONVERSE shoes, $85; converse.com VUORI shirt, $58; vuori.com PAIGE jeans, $179; paigedenim.com VANS shoes, $70; vans.com Shot on location at the BMW Performance Center West, located at The Thermal Club near Palm Springs; bmwperformancecenter.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

GIRLS’ GETAWAY

Breeze through a weekend escape in flirty dresses, silk pajamas, and sexy swimsuits. The season is all about packing light and easy. PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAGDALENA WOSINSKA STYLING BY HEIDI MEEK From left: AMUR dress, $598; amur.com LORO PIANA hat, $325; us.loropiana.com FALLON & ROYCE tote, $218; shopfallonandroyce.com MICHAEL KORS wedges, $110; michaelkors.com SHOSHANNA dress, $698; shoshanna.com SAM EDELMAN heels, $120; samedelman.com APOLIS bag, $58; apolisglobal.com 96

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: SPIRITUAL GANGSTER dress, $98; spiritualgangster.com TIFFANY & CO. sunglasses, $290; tiffany.com IRO dress, $465; iroparis.com MICHAEL KORS sunglasses, $140; michaelkors.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: REBECCA TAYLOR dress, $395; rebeccataylor.com CLARE V. tote, $225; clarev.com GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI mules, $625; giuseppezanotti.com REGINA DONDÉ dress, $200; reginadondecollection.com ALOHAS sandals, $152; alohas.io 100

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: MORGAN LANE nightshirt, $358, and shorts, $208; morgan-lane.com MORGAN LANE top, $220, and shorts, $208; morgan-lane.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 101

MIKOH swimsuit, $228; mikoh.com

102

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

CAPITTANA swimsuit, $180; capittana.com EUGENIA KIM hat, $495; eugeniakim.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 103

BILLABONG bikini top, $50; billabong.com

104

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

CAPITTANA bikini, $180; capittana.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 105

106

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: ALMOST NAKED bikini top, $75, and bottom, $62; almostnakedswim.com KENDRA SCOTT earrings, $58, and necklace, $68; kendrascott.com VITAMIN A bikini top, $99, and bottom, $105; vitaminaswim.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 107

MIKOH swimsuit, $228; mikoh.com EUGENIA KIM hat, $495; eugeniakim.com Opposite: MIKOH bikini top, $118; mikoh.com

108

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 109

110

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From left: RAMY BROOK dress, $375; ramybrook.com GIUSEPPE ZANOTTI mules, $625; giuseppezanotti.com ULLA JOHNSON dress, $68; ullajohnson.com ALOHAS sandals, $152; alohas.io Shot on location at MONTAGE LOS CABOS

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 111

Living Life Al Fresco

It’s the season for gathering outdoors, and it’s hard to imagine more ideal settings for fun in the sun than these backyard bonanzas. BY JORGE S. ARANGO

Courtesy Rizzoli/Eric Piasecki

Punta Mita, Mexico

112

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 113

PUNTA MITA, MEXICO

Architecture: Mark de Reus, dereusarchitects.com Design: Juan Montoya Design, juanmontoyadesign.com Entertaining Area: About 1,000 feet of shoreline spaces Special Feature: Thatch-roofed, illuminated onyx bar

The new book Designing Paradise (Rizzoli, 2021) devotes two chapters to a 39,000-square-foot private resort on the Mexican coast. The outdoor spaces sit on coral stone plinths surrounded by various thatched palapas. “In massing and organization,” explains Mark de Reus, “I tried to create a village-like feeling with zoned gardens.” Two areas—a spectacular onyx bar illuminated from behind and a dining area with a waddle roof—provide shelter from the sun. All the furnishings were handled by legendary designer Juan Montoya. There are woven rattan stools at the bar, a plank Guayacan wood table and benches under the waddle, and chaises distributed along the serpentine pool shaded by colorful Janus et Cie umbrellas. Says Montoya, “I worked with artisans from all around Mexico to build furnishings from local materials that reference the vernacular culture of the Mayans, who were the original inhabitants of this land.”

114

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

PALM BEACH, FLORIDA

Architecture: Peter Zimmerman Architects, pzarchitects.com Design: Cullman & Kravis Design Associates, cullmankravis.com Entertaining Area: 1,375 square feet

Eric Piasecki/OTTO (designed by Cullman & Kravis). Opposite Courtesy Images From Left: Rizzoli/Miguel Flores-Vianna; Rizzoli/Eric Piasecki

Special Feature: Grotto-style shell decorations

Elaborate, grotto-style wall applications in this loggia were drawn by architect Charlotte Worthy and executed by master shell artist Blott Kerr-Wilson. “It was important to the clients to have iconography that referenced the place they’re in,” says Ellie Cullman. “The work was done in the middle of summer,” adds Cullman’s design partner Sarah Ramsey. “The English artist had never experienced such heat. It took her several months.” For furnishings, both felt relieved to avoid the marine blue-and-white color scheme so common to these climes. Instead, they pulled lavenders from the shell colors. To the McKinnon Harris outdoor seating, they added vintage finds, such as a pietre dure coffee table unearthed in London. “What I like about it,” says Cullman, “is that it’s not the dark, creepy grottos you see in Europe. It’s a happy, cheerful grotto!” 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 115

SEA CLIFF, NEW YORK

116

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Architecture and Design: Smiros & Smiros Architects, smiros.com Entertaining Area: Pool house, 2,225 square feet; dining/lounging pavilion, 640 square feet Special Feature: Fleetwood Windows & Doors system that allows the pool house to open completely to the outdoors

Smiros & Smiros Architects/Durston Saylor

Sometimes, simplicity is best, as with this pool house and dining pavilion. “There are basically four materials,” says architect Jim Smiros, “bluestone floors throughout, sheetrock walls painted with Farrow & Ball’s plaster-look ammonite, steel windows, and a wood roof.” The scheme creates a consistency that extends to the other structures on this estate, unifying the various buildings. When opened, the pool house’s window walls allow complete fluidity between indoors and outdoors. The spaces are functional for the couple who lives here and their five children. The husband uses the upstairs as his remote office, while the wife, an artist and philanthropist, frequently hosts charity events below, and the dining/lounging pavilion table comfortably accommodates 12. The pool house kitchen is steps away. A water feature—a stacked ledgestone wall with water cascading down its vertical surface—provides a sound buffer from the neighbors. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 117

LOS ANGELES

Architecture: John Elgin Woolf (1908–1980) Design: Jeffrey Bilhuber Entertaining Area: About 830 square feet Special Feature: Collection of Chinese blue-and-white export porcelain

118

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

When socialite Stephanie Booth Shafran added a loggia onto her 1951 home—originally designed by famed Hollywood Regency architect John Elgin Woolf—she and designer Jeffrey Bilhuber “treated the design as we treated the interiors,” she says. “It was important that the décor complement the green of the gardens as well as the moss greens of the interior furniture.” Of the McKinnon Harris outdoor seating, she adds, “It’s so elevated that it doesn’t make the loggia feel as if it was an afterthought.” The all-white upholstery connects indoor and outdoor spaces, its elegant lines complemented by two sideboards and a mirror from antiques dealer John Rosselli. It also provides a relaxing, neutral backdrop for Shafran’s extensive collection of export porcelain, which she has amassed over years of traveling. It is the setting for many flawlessly orchestrated gatherings, several of them chronicled in her first book, You’re Invited: Classic, Elegant Entertaining (Rizzoli, 2020).

EASTERN EUROPE

Architecture and Design: Winch Design, winchdesign .com; Arabella Lennox Boyd, arabellalennoxboyd.com Entertaining Area: 27 acres

Courtesy Winch Media. Opposite: Courtesy Jemma & Andrew Engles

Special Feature: A sculpture garden with an aerial hedge populated by works from local artists

There’s good reason for the Gatsby-like splendor of this French-style château and gardens, says Simon Tomlinson, director of architecture for Winch Design. “Entertainment was key,” he explains, “and all spaces, inside and out, were designed for the owner and his guests to enjoy as part of mass social gatherings and for small intimate events.” Consequently, the property, designed in collaboration with landscape designer Lady Lennox-Boyd, was subdivided into formal parterres: a sculpture garden, an expansive greensward, a chef ’s garden, a pool garden (with subterranean grotto), and, on the west side, more cozy family terraces and lawns. All of them, explains Tomlinson, “are joined by a series of walkways. The idea was to create many beautiful spaces surrounded by developed trees and foliage rather than a series of vast expanses.” The 27 acres provide plenty of outdoor opportunities for grand balls, a summer barbecue for 100, or romantic trysts between furtive lovers. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 119

HAMILTON, SOUTHERN ONTARIO, CANADA

Architecture: Partisans, partisans.com Design: Partisans, in collaboration with John Baker at Mjölk, Toronto, mjolk.ca Entertaining Area: Full guesthouse, 4,473 square feet; pool area, 1,424 square feet Special Feature: A swooping roofline that cradles a steel staircase descending to the pool level

The Fold House, burrowed into an incline on the estate of a beverage venture investor, would be perfect for a design-minded Hobbit wanting to throw a really cool pool party. “We decided to fold it into the hill because we were constrained to a thin slice of land on a slope,” explains Alex Josephson, co-founder (with Pooya Baktash) of Partisans. The former guesthouse burned, says third partner Jonathan Friedman. “They wanted to replace the building with a contemporary piece of architecture for guests and entertaining, though it has become a space the owners use daily.” The swooping lines employed compression bentwood techniques usually utilized for musical instruments. “This was the first time we used it,” says Baktash. “It was definitely challenging, but in the end we were so impressed by it that we will continue to use the process on other projects at all scales.” u

120

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Partisans

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 121

FURNISHINGS

Party Plein-Air

Beautiful and cleverly designed accessories make entertaining outdoors a memorable celebration.

New York–based designer Nour al Nimer created Isabelle’s Garden Party tableware for her company Nimerology. The bright botanical pattern brings the essence of spring and summer’s flora and fauna to the table. $45–$270; nimerology.com

122

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Fire Totems by Studio Vlock rethink the patio heater idea as sculpture. Available in steel or powder-coated to match any color. Sold as a sleeve ($3,800) for prism-style heaters or as a complete unit. From $4,500; studiovlock.com

The new Aria glassware collection from Emporio Sirenuse, the boutique at the Positano namesake luxury hotel, will conjure images of romantic sunset dinners overlooking the Mediterranean on the Amalfi coast. $110–$415; emporiosirenuse.com

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

BY JORGE S. ARANGO

Actress Marlo Thomas has a new collection of entertaining accessories for Williams-Sonoma and Pottery Barn. The ceramic bowls nesting inside turned oak are removable for easy washing. $80; williams-sonoma .com; potterybarn.com

The Heatsail Disc Infrared Cantilever Heater for RH was designed by Dutch design dynamo Piet Boon. It uses less energy than gas, has dimmable illumination, and mimics the rays of the sun. $5,500; rh.com

Florida-based patio umbrella company Tuuci introduces its latest entry into its “architectural shade design” with the easily erected Equinox Cabana with Automated Louvered Roof, featuring movable remotecontrol aluminum louvers overhead to regulate sun. Price upon request; tuuci.com

Los Angeles–based concrete craftsman James De Wulf creates game tables, such as this ping-pong version that can ramp up the fun at any party (and also double as a dining table). Made to order. $13,216; jamesdewulf.com

Elements, a collaboration between architect Daniel Germani and Brown Jordan Outdoor Kitchens, is a modular system that suits any environment and weather condition. It comes in dozens of colors. From $9,000; brownjordanoutdoorkitchens.com

The MoBar by Dometic brings the drinks to you. Three sizes offer different storage capacities and work surfaces that roll conveniently out to the pool or balcony and tuck away in a corner until needed. $770–$4,400; dometic.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 123

Night Visions

Barcelona firm Marset collaborated with car brand CUPRA on Chispa, meaning “spark.” The portable light can stand on a table, or be hung or carried. It also allows light to be directed by panel shades. $220; marset.com/usa

124

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Ligne Roset’s Paseo, meaning “stroll” in Spanish, is composed of a teak frame with black lacquered aluminum grilles. It’s solarpowered and also has a USB port for convenient recharging. $430; ligne-roset.com/us

Danish architect Verner Panton designed the iconic Panthella lamp for Louis Poulsen in 1971. The company has now created a portable, battery-operated outdoor version that comes in white. $254; louispoulsen.com

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

The silicone handle for carrying and hanging the Mūn Rechargeable Lantern by Danish OEO Studio for Stellar Works flips horizontally to support the glass shade as a table lamp too. $280; us.stellarworks.com

Pretty Neat

Take the high road to tidying up with these exquisite products for hiding clutter or attractively displaying your possessions.

Kros storage shelving from Hastings Tile & Bath brings versatile organization to the bath. Available in different heights and depths, right or left versions, and five colors that can be solid or mixed on back panels and shelves. From $556; hastingstilebath.com

Danish icon Børge Mogensen designed the BM0253 modular shelving system in 1953 but never produced it. Thanks to Carl Hansen & Son, it’s now not only available, but infinitely customizable. From $1,980; carlhansen.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 125

Interlude Cabinet: Variation 02 by APPARATUS will be a limited edition of four. It’s masterfully crafted of Carpathian burl sheathed in bronze and hand-folded leather. Inside? A folddown bar, suede-lined drawers, and brass-railed shelves. Price upon request; apparatusstudio.com

Newly restyled, Storage, the closet system by Piero Lissoni for Porro, has three types of structures (open, closed with doors, and walk-in) and innumerable customization options on finishes and drawer dividers. Price upon request; porro.com

The tall, trim Teak Abstract Column from the Belgian firm Ethnicraft is great for maximizing book space in tight corners. Its aesthetic is based on the famous Dutch design movement De Stijl (think Gerrit Rietveld). $1,540; ethnicraft.com

126

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

All Images Courtesy Listed Manufacturer

Don’t neglect the garage! California Closets has expanded from the bedroom to offer many attractive, customizable storage solutions for tools, equipment, gardening implements, and other things that usually live in this all-important part of the house. Price upon request; californiaclosets.com

Fiona Barratt-Campbell answers the proverbial conundrum “Where to hide the TV” with the customizable Armour Media Unit for her firm FBC London. It features a hand-worked bronze panel inspired by ancient Roman jewelry. From $16,920; fbc-london.com

Tristan Auer’s Grant De Luxe collection poufs for Poltrona Frau include a rectangular version with concealed storage. The leather used for the lattice design comes in no less than 73 ColorSphere shades. From $4,900; poltronafrau.com

WineCab is a sophisticated wine management system that stores 175plus bottles and has a unique sevenaxis robotic arm for retrieving them. It even has an AI virtual sommelier. Available in 6-, 11-, and 15-foot widths. From $179,000; winecab.com

For its 60th anniversary, the Parisian fragrance house Diptyque dips into its decorative arts origins with the Entertaining Geometry collection, which includes three sizes of storage boxes in a graphic, black-and-white pattern. $195/set of three; diptyqueparis.com u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 127

Where the Garden Grows

The new, high-end, all-natural approach to landscape design is all about a toxin-free, earth-friendly commitment to sustainability and longevity—for plants and people.

Manhattan financier couldn’t quite shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. On his regular hikes through the wilderness of his sprawling new home in a gated community on Martha’s Vineyard, he kept spotting plants that seemed, somehow, out of place. A few quick searches on his smartphone and he was crestfallen: Those Eden-like surroundings were not the centuries-old countryside he’d assumed, but manufactured landscapes featuring reams of invasive species, plants from Europe and elsewhere across the world. Even worse, the local gardeners warned him that maintaining such lushness would require regular applications of industrial-grade herbicides and poisons. Horrified, he turned to Claudia West for a better solution. West wasn’t fazed. She’s the co-founder of Arlington, Virginia–based landscape architects Phyto Studio (phytostudio.com), a firm that specializes in creating high-end gardens without using a drop of pesticide. She began working with the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., to devise a replanting program and adopted a mowing strategy of natural ways to winnow down the invasives that were choking the meadow; for example, to hit the undesirable species at their most vulnerable time to prevent them from forming seeds. Controlled burning is another all-natural tool; American ecosystems evolved as so-called fire ecologies, with native species able to rebound after a prairie or forest fire. Plants and grasses that emerged in Europe did not develop the same

128

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

resilience, so can be curtailed with judicious controlled burns. “The tools we use to gain a competitive advantage for the desirable species aren’t Roundup—they’re ancient knowledge,” she says. “And it’s not only for the birds and the bees. It’s about giving you something back, personally. Caring for the land wakes up something primeval in people, a deep gratification.” West is one of the leading proponents of a new, environmentally sensitive and holistic approach to high-end landscaping, one that champions a back-to-the-future approach to plant management. “Many of my clients have the financial resources to demand the luxury of a safe landscape—that’s what it boils down to,” she adds. “A safe landscape is one that it’s OK to walk through without worrying what gets on your feet. That’s what is a luxury now.” She focuses on holistic planting systems that mimic how plants grow in the wild; her designs aren’t naturalistic by default, though— many are formal and clean, using density of planting in lieu of chemicals, for instance. “If a good plant already grows in the spot, there’s no room for a weed,” she laughs. West isn’t alone in championing such an approach—just look at Edwina von Gal, one of the foremost landscape designers in the Hamptons, who counts Calvin Klein and Ina Garten among her clients. Von Gal, a longtime all-natural garden advocate, has devoted much of the last few years to operating the Perfect Earth Project (perfectearthproject.org), a nonprofit with a single mission: helping others adopt similar earth-friendly approaches. Von Gal has 

Courtesy Phyto Studio/Thomas Rainer. Opposite Page: Allan Pollok-Morris

BY MARK ELLWOOD

The Perfect Earth Project requires landscaping with at least 70 percent native plants. Opposite: A Phyto Studio garden grows without the use of pesticides.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 129

paid particular attention to lawns, which are notoriously difficult to maintain without resorting to chemicals; to do so, she warns, the average home landscape uses two to four times more of those toxins per square foot than a commercial farm. “Then it gets on your clothing, it comes into your house, and it’s with you for years.” She likens much lawn-tending to the garden equivalent of a bad face-lift because the owner is trying to prevent the landscape from ever looking older. Instead, allow grass to grow a little longer, to protect its roots from the sun, and use a mulching mower that will leave clippings on the lawn to replenish the soil. Von Gal has persuaded clients like the notoriously picky Klein to adopt such practices in their own gardens, often going

130

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

beyond simple plant-tending to do so, like the recent meeting she had with a real estate broker. “My client, who raises money for environmental causes, was bamboozled by her broker who told her that she couldn’t rent her house if she didn’t use chemicals on her lawn and garden,” says von Gal. “So, I asked the broker to come to a toxic-free lawn that’s safe and healthy so she could maybe merchandise the house in that way—as one that’s clean inside and outside.” Von Gal’s next initiative, launching this fall, is a campaign she’s dubbed Two Thirds for the Birds; it challenges landscape design professionals to commit to including at least 70 percent native plants in all of their projects and swearing off pesticides. Such ecosystems are better able to support the local birds, in part

because they’re better hosts for the insects on which those birds feed. New York City–based David Kulick of Zone6 Design (zone6design.com) is another proponent of this high-end, all-natural approach. The onetime professional dancer turned landscape designer and horticulturist stresses the importance of biophilia. “We need contact with nature just as we need exercise, food, air, and water to thrive,” Kulick says. He recently took over a large rooftop garden on Park Avenue. The owner asked him for ideas on how to reduce the maintenance, as the trees needed to be sprayed every week. Kulick was horrified, but quickly realized why: the gorgeous Himalayan white birches that made up the majority of the greenery were ill-suited to a hot New York rooftop.

Courtesy Zone6 (3)

Zone6 Design’s all-natural approach stresses the importance of our connection with nature and water.

Instead, he suggested swapping them out for black pines and ornamental grasses, both of which would thrive in those conditions without interventions; beige flat-bottomed planters—better to stay stable in high winds—now dot the space in an installation he calls “cubist dunes.” Other techniques Kulick champions include using highpressure water, rather than chemicals, to wash aphids off roses, and treating apple orchards with mineral oil in early spring—a spray of the mineral oil will smother the eggs of pests before they hatch. Garden management like this isn’t a quick fix, but rather a long-term approach to landscaping, with efforts growing more evident over time. “Clients want a landscape to be more than just a status symbol or a

decoration these days,” says Phyto Studio’s West. “So many of them, working in highstress environments and not sticking around in one place for a very long time, want a landscape that’s immersive and restorative— not just pretty, but evocative and deeply emotional. It’s about reminding us of the perfect world that used to be.” 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 131

Courtesy Georg Jensen

132

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Designer Tools Blame the weather, at least in part, for Georg Jensen’s newest range. “There are a lot of plants in Danish homes because a lot of times you can’t be outside comfortably here,” laughs Nicholas Manville, chief creative officer of Georg Jensen. To keep those in-home gardens stylish, Georg Jensen has announced a nine-piece collection of pots and watering accessories designed in collaboration with Norwegian architects Snøhetta. Made from terra-cotta and stainless steel, they’re intended to be used flexibly both indoors and out, depending on local climates. The Terra Reversible Planters are also adaptable: Both ends of the pots are open, with a divider in the middle, making them two vessels in one. As a plant grows, it can be repotted within the same container, moved from the narrow end to the wide one. Such limberness is at the heart of these pieces. Manville, though, acknowledges it was hard for the Georg Jensen team, primed to work with precious metals, to adjust its working process to cope with the unfamiliar vagaries of ceramic. “That’s a malleable material and

we had to relax a little bit. Metal is a very specific material, but that’s not the case with clay. The colors are different depending on where in the kiln it sat,” he says, pausing wryly. “We had to learn to live with that, and it was a nice lesson for us.” The high-polish steel watering devices, of course, were less challenging. Manville says he wanted to create a watering can that could be left out as an ornament when not in use, rather than stashed in a cupboard; the ergonomic shape is intended to mirror the curve of water. Conscious of his client base, he added a watering globe, which can keep soil moist for several days in absence—ideal for plants in a weekend house. Georg Jensen is renowned for its attention to detail, finishing every piece so it can be viewed from 360 degrees; the plant collection is no different. Look at the saucers of each pot: Usually concealed, they have a ripple on them that shimmers when light hits water in them. “It’s not easy to see, but that’s our idea: The whole object should be beautiful, front, back, and everywhere you’d look.” $39–$269; georgjensen.com u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 133

134

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Photo Credits

St. Regis Resort, Bora Bora

Photo Credits

Bora Bora’s Modern Rebirth

The quintessential, once-in-a-lifetime destination has evolved. Staying true to its natural assets, today the postwar paradise is revered for much more than the overwater honeymoon suites that put it on the map in the 1960s. WRITTEN AND PHOTOGRAPHED BY JONATHAN POZNIAK

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 135

an there be a modern rebirth of a place that’s already known as the pinnacle of paradise? The unreal beauty of its overwater bungalows and sapphire waters has beckoned travelers from across the globe for decades. Waking up to the crystal-clear lagoon calling in the morning tide, a dazzling gradient of azure to aquamarine guides your gaze to the horizon line where a bright cerulean sky greets crashing waves upon the outer edges of the reef. Yes, for every applicable shade of blue, Bora Bora is something to see in a lifetime. Now more than ever, it’s a place to see again. Since the earliest explorers first laid eyes on this speck of Eden in the South Pacific, its striking beauty and impossibly chic resorts have solidified it as one of the most aspirational destinations on Earth. Rich volumes of discovery stories belong to these little islands on the outer edges of the world. When Australian aboriginal people joined forces with explorers from Taiwan around 1000 BC, they started migrating into what is now Melanesia. By the time they perfected ship building and learned new techniques for storing food, they set sail going east and arrived around 1000 AD in Polynesia, meaning “many islands.” Neighboring island Raiatea became the spiritual heart of the islands, from where explorers embarked on their sails, heading north to Hawaii, east to Easter Island, and south to New Zealand. These destinations form the Polynesian Triangle: each point 7,000 km away from another, making 21,000 km on all sides, with Bora Bora right in the center. Fast forward to modern times and it was the Americans who put Bora Bora on the international map. In 1943, during World War II, they built French Polynesia’s first airport, on Motu Mute (“motu” meaning the small flat islets surrounding the lagoon). By 1958, word about this magical destination got out and commercial flights began. Despite the international influx, cultural ties run deep. Polynesians center their lives

136

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

around two things: the ground, where you build a house and grow your food; and the water, the gateway to sail, explore, and fish. They read patterns in nature and have an intuitive connection with the animals, most notably the sea turtles, stingrays, and, yes, the sharks. Contrary to Hollywood’s portrayal of sharks, courtesy of Jaws and the wild fear that movie instilled, in Bora Bora, you’ll swim right alongside them. Sharks are both intelligent and intuitive because of their ability to sense electromagnetic fields under water. If there’s a sick fish somewhere, they’ll feel it. If a swimmer projects fear, they’ll sense it. When they come close and feel your energy, it’s like they get tickled and they enjoy it. And when they smell blood, even from very far away, they can identify human blood and know such prey doesn’t taste good. So, when you jump in the water with your snorkel and find a dozen blacktip reef sharks circling you, or when a family of stingrays wants to give you a hug or swim through your legs, have no fear. They’re welcoming you into their world. Today, Bora Bora looks to the future, believing both environmental conservation and high-end tourism work hand in hand. What’s alive and well is the respect required to make authentic connections with visitors. Tahitians with traditional Polynesian tattoos help run the finest resorts and authentic wood-carved tikis adorn the chicest overwater bungalows. The era of Bora Bora as the honeymoon hideaway has passed, and stepping forth is a dynamic destination for jet setters and adventurers alike, a natural playground revealing the truest sense of place where human connections are made, and people keep coming back. At dusk, every shade of blue floats side by side with the rich, sun-kissed golden glow of thatch bungalows. The full moon rises from the reef, ascending gently and confidently, illuminating the lagoon with a silver shimmer, guiding the island tides after sunset’s final performance. The rhythmic sound of waves crashes from beyond the motu and Bora Bora takes her seat in the South Pacific spotlight. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 137

GETTING THERE Air Tahiti Nui (airtahitinui.com) flies direct from LA, Tokyo, Auckland, and Paris daily with brand-new 787 Dreamliners, making an easy eight-hour hop from LAX to the Tahitian islands that much more comfortable. Regional Air Tahiti (airtahiti.com) jets make the short hop to Bora Bora and the rest of French Polynesia.

WHERE TO STAY Since 2006, St. Regis Resort, Bora Bora has set the high-end standard. Built across 44 acres and four motus are 77 overwater bungalows and 13 one- and two-bedroom beachside villas with the subtle sophistication of dark-wood interiors and high coral walls. The largest accommodation on property is The Royal Estate Villa, a sprawling, 13,000-square-foot, three-bedroom compound accommodating nine guests. At its center, an open-air pool and sundeck are surrounded by a private chef’s kitchen, a dining room, spacious lounge areas, and a light-filled solarium facing your own private beach.

138

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Dining: Lagoon by Jean-Georges is Bora Bora’s showcase for gastronomic innovation. Guests from all over the island make the seafaring pilgrimage to experience their signature uravena, a rare deep-sea fish cooked to perfection with Tahitian passion fruit sauce. This is the only place in Polynesia where it can be eaten, and it’s worth the trip. Te Pahu serves an unbeatable breakfast and lunch in a laid-back beach setting. Every Wednesday night, guests are treated to a traditional Polynesian show of fire dancing and drum music.

Wellness: Signature Polynesian massages at the Iridium Spa are done with Tahitian monoi oil, a blend of coconut oil, and local scents like the tiare flower and vanilla grown on neighboring Taha’a. Medicinal oils like noni and papaya are used to heal sunburns, and dark rich scrubs made with real black pearl powder and tiare oil are available to purchase.

Activities: All guests enjoy 24-hour butler service, and concierges can arrange day trips around the island. The Shark and Ray Tour is a highlight. For a subtle glimpse of local sea life, a daily fish feeding at the resort’s own Lagoonarium is held each morning with the resident biologist. For those wanting for retail therapy, the Robert Wan Pearl Boutique features the finest black pearls the islands can offer. From $1,200; stregis.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 139

WHERE TO STAY The newly renovated Conrad Bora Bora Nui, located in a hillside botanical garden on Motu To’opua, is the newest resort on the island and attracts a young and energetic clientele. The 86 overwater bungalows and 28 villas are decorated with a bright beach house aesthetic. Two double-story, 3,200-square-foot Presidential Bungalows sit at one end of the property and feature two bedrooms, private infinity pools, hot tubs, and saunas. At the motu’s other end are two one-bedroom, sunrise-facing Royal Villas.

140

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Dining: Iriatai French Restaurant is where French and Polynesian flavors meet. Beautifully executed presentations aside, Chef Kevin Mougin elevates freshness to an inspiring level. An international breakfast buffet is served here in the morning, featuring Polynesian specialties like homemade pineapple pa’i cake and coconut ipo bread. Banyan Chinese Restaurant, named for the beautiful old tree it sits beside, is where guests enjoy steamed dumplings, Singaporean noodles, and exotic desserts.

BIOROCK Climate change and mass tourism have taken their toll on Bora Bora’s coral reef. The Conrad has teamed up with Espace Bleu and the Global Coral Reef Alliance to combat the loss by building BioRock to reintroduce coral and its wildlife back around the resort. A low-voltage electrical current adheres mineral crystals in seawater to an underwater conductive structure, creating a new home for a full range of coral reef sea life. If the current is maintained, reefs can be restored in areas once thought impossible. The first turtleshaped BioRock at the resort can be seen from the pontoon of the Upa Upa Lounge Bar. 

Wellness: The Hina Spa, named after the Tahitian goddess of beauty, sits hilltop upon black volcanic rocks. The spiritual energy is strong here and a variety of traditional treatments including Tahitian and Balinese massages are offered. Treatment rooms have sweeping views of the motu and gardens and offer the best sunset view in Bora Bora. There’s an exclusive new Le Parfum Conrad by Coqui Coqui, the top Polynesian perfumer in the world.

Activities: The Conrad’s greatest promise to the island is to keep the local culture alive. The activities desk can organize any day trip around the island and can even take you to a secret spot of local legend. Black volcanic rocks are unique to this motu, and one in particular is known as Hiro’s Bell. Hiro, a fearless warrior in Polynesian mythology, is said to have chopped off the top of Mount Otemanu in a fit of jealous rage. From $800; hilton.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 141

WHERE TO STAY Le Méridien Bora Bora has some of the most unique accommodations for every kind of traveler, including 82 cozy overwater bungalows with the largest glass-bottom floors in French Polynesia. There are also 12 intimate beach bungalows and four spacious family-sized beach villas with private pools. The warm, shallow lagoon waters are literally at your doorstep, as is every aquatic activity from snorkeling to kayaking to traditional Polynesian pirogue sailing.

142

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Dining: Le Tipanie Restaurant offers a sprawling breakfast buffet each morning, with fresh local juices, homemade jams and honey, and a romantic dinner menu each night, set right on a private lagoon. Te Ava Restaurant is a laid-back, feet-in-the-sand lunch spot with what is hands-down the best poisson cru in Bora Bora (fresh ahi tuna marinated in coconut milk; the national dish of French Polynesia). Hapaina Wine Bar is where to go for a modern wine-tasting experience, featuring Vin de Tahiti, a local wine made in Rangiroa by a family from Burgundy. A private candlelit tasting menu on the beach can also be arranged for a romantic evening or a large family celebration.

Activities: A visit to the resort’s Ecological Center is a must for any visitor to the island. The project began in 2000, when an injured sea turtle was brought to the hotel by a guest, and Le Méridien Bora Bora has since invested an enormous amount of time and funding to the care and preservation of its local sea life. The center and its successes are known throughout French Polynesia. From $750; marriott.com

TURTLE SANCTUARY Humans are the biggest threat to the three sea turtle species found in French Polynesia: Green, Hawksbill, and Leatherback. With plastics filling our oceans, many turtles ingest bottle caps, PVC pipes, and plastic bags. Regional poaching is also a threat, not for shells but for turtle meat, which is sold on the black market. Many injured sea turtles are found by locals and fishermen, and brought to Le Méridien’s Turtle Sanctuary, a rehab facility where biologists Teiva, Tonin, and Anale remove plastic from their systems, give them a safe home to heal, and ideally release them back into the sea. Working in cooperation with the government, they successfully released 43 turtles back into the wild last year. From energetic babies to 3-foot-long adults, visitors can enjoy the daily Turtle Feeding. You can also get a closer look and lend hands-on support during the daily Healing Hour. u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 143

Emerald coastlines, uncharted islands, and biodiverse rainforests in Central America are home to some of Earth’s top experiences in eco-travel. Here, six properties where nature, luxury, and sustainability unite in the best ways possible. BY PAUL RUBIO

n the early 1990s, word spread of an enchanted Central American country where toucans ruled, monkeys roamed, and dramatic landscapes ambushed the senses. Soon, that country, Costa Rica, became synonymous with a fledgling movement known as eco-tourism: a niche market exposing travelers to untouched natural places while giving back to the local environment, its wildlife, and its people. Since then, eco-travel has become a driving force of Costa Rica’s economy, while also taking root in neighboring Panama and Belize. And during that time the archetype has expanded to include elements of style, sophistication, and stronger emphasis on sustainability—far beyond basics like no single-use plastics. Today, at its best, eco-travel blends authentic pursuits in nature, luxury lodging, and truly green practices. It allows access to Earth’s superlative spots without sacrificing creature comforts, and with the notion that travel can positively impact local environments and the entire planet. 

144

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Top Left: Arenas del Mar; Isla Palenque; Lapa Rios Lodge; Isla Palenque. Opposite: Courtesy Isla Palenqu

Eco-Warriors

Photo Credits

Isla Palenque is a private island retreat in Panama. Opposite: Indigenous jungle life; Isla Palenque’s pool and clams cooking over a fire; a Costa Rican sunset viewed from Lapa Rios Lodge.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 145

COSTA RICA

KASIIYA PAPAGAYO Safari-inspired wellness retreat in a dry tropical forest This “zero-impact,” seven-tented-suite micro-resort inhabits 123 acres of Earth’s last remaining dry tropical forest. Paris-based architecture firm AW2 designed the canvas suites that channel the glamour of an African safari camp, while a trio of white-sand beaches and colossal Guanacaste trees speak to the natural splendor of northwest Costa Rica.

Sustainable Design Kasiiya’s sustainability mantra begins with a no-impact design. Construction plans were tailored to the topography to avoid sacrificing even a single tree. The resort was then erected over a series of elevated timber frame platforms using screw piles, forgoing the use of any concrete or nails, and employing canvas walls, roofs, and partitions to create distinct spaces. The result: an entire resort that can be dismounted without a trace. What’s more? Kasiiya functions entirely on solar power and all water is sourced from an on-site well. From $800, all-inclusive; kasiiya.com

146

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Kasiiya Papagayo (5). Opposite: Courtesy Lapa Rios Lodge (2)

Natural Attractions The Kasiiya experience is one of self-discovery in nature, with an emphasis on mind-body wellness. Active days typically begin and end with outdoor sessions in yoga, meditation, healing, and body movement, set to the symphony of melodic magpie jays and crashing waves. In between, guests go snorkeling, free diving, and hiking with guides; or they can opt to simply lounge on a deserted beach or the terrace of their ecochic suite (with nary another human in sight).

LAPA RIOS LODGE Rainforest rapture for wildlife buffs Opened in 1993 and a pioneer in eco-travel, Lapa Rios Lodge is a well-known catalyst of Costa Rica’s eco-stardom. Set within a 1,000acre private reserve that serves as a wildlife corridor to Corcovado National Park—one of the most biodiverse places on Earth—the lodge is bar none for coastal tropical rainforest immersion without having to “rough it.” Natural Attractions Wildlife enthusiasts can mark off species checklists and score prize-worthy animal photography. Screens replace windows in thatched timber bungalows, ensuring nature’s soundtrack plays at all times. Roaring howler monkeys serve as 5 a.m. wake-up calls to prepare for the day’s excursions, typically on foot and led by in-house guides, biologists, and naturalists. Half- and full-day tours cater to different interests and fitness levels, ranging from miles-long hikes in search of anteaters, sloths, ocelots, and kinkajous to shorter bird-watching expeditions for ogling scarlet macaws and observing rare herons. Truth be told, thanks to an impeccable location, wildlife sightings are equally excellent on property, from the canopy tower frequented by toucans to the al fresco dining area favored by the spider monkeys. Sustainable Design Original owners John and Karen Lewis had the foresight to purchase 1,000 acres just beyond the 100,000-acre Corcovado National Park in southwest Costa Rica to prevent the clearing of this precious tract and to create a wildlife corridor in an area housing 2.5 percent of the world’s biodiversity. Now permanently protected through a national binding agreement, Lapa Rios Lodge ensures a park buffer zone for generations to come. Each year, the lodge hosts international scientists to study the region’s ecology and gather data to protect Costa Rica’s biological heritage. Decades of exemplary environmental stewardship resulted in the 2017 National Geographic World Legacy Award and the 2018 Tourism for Tomorrow Award. From $1,000, all-inclusive; laparios.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 147

COSTA RICA

ARENAS DEL MAR Luxe beachfront property with a conscience Manuel Antonio is one of Costa Rica’s most popular—and developed—beach towns with fragmented jungle that’s home to charismatic creatures like sloths, coatis, and squirrel monkeys. Humans and wildlife regularly interact in and around Arenas del Mar’s high-end, beachfront hotel, dedicated to safeguarding its fragile surroundings.

Sustainable Design Solar panels provide hot water throughout the property, and during the dry season, the surrounding nature reserve is irrigated using wastewater that is purified on-site. Organic waste is recycled through an advanced, vermiculture-based compost system, and staff regularly participate in beach and trail cleanups through the town and national park. The hotel emphasizes locavore products on its dining menus, offering the likes of sustainably caught seafood from local fishermen and fresh-ground coffee from local roasters. From $375, including breakfast; arenasdelmar.com

148

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Arenas del Mar (5). Opposite: Courtesy Kura Boutique Hotel (5)

Natural Attractions In constructing Arenas del Mar, the 11-acre beachfront property was converted from a plantain farm to a private nature reserve and reforested with more than 7,000 native trees and thousands of endemic plants, creating a biological corridor to nearby Manuel Antonio National Park. A complex of larger, concrete buildings, the design skews more resort than eco-lodge and caters to a demographic that enjoys the idea of eco-travel, but isn’t ready to forgo air-conditioning, minibars, private Jacuzzis, and upscale dining. Beyond Arenas del Mar’s duo of full-service beach areas, hundreds of surfers ride the nearby waves, colorful Caribbean-style beach shacks cater to local visitors, and the small but mighty Manuel Antonio National Park almost guarantees that you’ll see a sloth.

KURA BOUTIQUE HOTEL The ne plus ultra of jungle chic Nature and luxury reach new heights in this eight-suite, adults-only property located in the Pacific coastal town of Uvita. Conceived as the passion project of a biologist and an architect, the open-air contemporary build lends to endless panoramas of forest and sea. Natural Attractions High in the mountainous rainforest near Marino Ballena National Park, Kura delivers the type of bird’s-eye views typically reserved for drone photography. Guest rooms and common areas overlook the country’s iconic Whale’s Tail—a mammoth, natural sand formation in the shape of a whale’s tail, and a lookout from where humpback whales are often sighted. Views of colorful tropical flora interspersed with strata of green foster a sense of hovering above the Earth. Come sunset, the sky erupts in dramatic brushstrokes of purple, pink, and orange. Indoor-outdoor spaces and oversized glass panes ensure the grandeur is constantly in sight, from the shower to the spa. Choose among guided eco-tours—both marine and terrestrial—to nearby reserves and parklands for bird-watching and snorkeling. Many guests opt to never leave Kura’s high-design enticements, watching hummingbirds pass from freestanding hammocks or, drink in hand, from the sleek saltwater infinity-edge pool. Sustainable Design Making use of natural light and cross ventilation, Kura’s open-air buildings intentionally minimize the need for air-conditioning and lighting fixtures. Previously deforested, the surrounding land is in the process of reforestation. The resort has prioritized investing in the community, providing locals with career paths, buying from local producers, and employing homegrown micro enterprises for tours. To further support environmental education, they finance a curriculum to educate communities on keeping ecosystems healthy and provide assistance to local schools. From $690, including breakfast; kuracostarica.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 149

PANAMA

ISLAS SECAS Exclusive exotica A new chapter in the world of private-island resorts begins with this secluded multi-island paradise lost within Panama’s Gulf of Chiriquí, 33 miles from the nearest settlement on the country’s Pacific coast. A maximum of 24 guests have exclusive access to 14 islands rimmed in white- and gold-sand beaches. The sapphire waters teem with humpback whales and dolphins. Inland, unspoiled forests thrive with native flora and fauna. Natural Attractions Low-lying, palm-studded islands contrast with high-rising rocky islets blanketed in dense jungle canopy, all framed by cerulean waters. Over 75 percent of the archipelago has been designated a private nature reserve. Islas Secas’ man-made marvels include seven eco-chic casitas, a design-forward beachfront restaurant, an open-air movie theater, a stargazing lounge, and a hummingbird garden. Harmonizing with nature, all structures artfully incorporate sustainable timber, driftwood, island stones, coral, and shells. Guests do what they want, when they want. Popular choices include island hopping to snorkel among Technicolor tropical reef fish, hiking nature trails rife with pre-Colombian archaeological artifacts, bird-watching, or simply being marooned for a sunset with fresh ceviche and Champagne. Sustainable Design Thirteen of Islas Secas’ 14 islands remain free of human interference, save for the thousands of native trees replanted to erase degradation of decades past. The single island that is home to all casitas and facilities seeks to minimize impact through sustainably minded operations. In this vain, 100 percent of the property’s energy is solar-generated; 100 percent of wastewater is reclaimed for irrigation; and 100 percent of food waste is converted into fertilizer. From $1,500, all-inclusive; islassecas.com

150

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

ISLA PALENQUE Private island perfection Delivering the apex of tropical, barefoot luxury among its 400 lush acres, this private island retreat opened in 2019 in Panama’s westernmost reaches. Just eight beachfront casitas and one six-bedroom villa access the island’s seven beaches and dense foliage.

Courtesy Isla Palenque (5). Opposite: Courtesy Islas Secas (2)

Natural Attractions Front porch swings and oversized net hammocks are what jungle dreams are made of. But Isla Palenque promises as much for the active and adventurous as those looking to perfect the art of doing nothing. Half- and full-day activities are updated on the island chalkboard each evening: from guided hikes in search of the island’s nine troops of howler monkeys to snorkeling the coral reefs of neighboring islands to visiting villages and coffee farms around the undiscovered Gulf of Chiriquí. Sustainable Design The island prides itself on using its resources in nonconventional ways. Most impressive is the use of washedup driftwood and naturally fallen trees to craft the exquisite furniture found in and around the island. At the on-island woodshop, local carpenters are busy hand-making the likes of dry bars, trail markers, benches, chairs, tables, and armoires. When it comes to Isla Palenque’s food and drink, think fresh: fish from local waters; herbs, fruit, and vegetables from the island’s organic garden; and creative alternatives to single-use products, such as drinking straws made from papaya stems. From $780, all-inclusive; islapalenque.com u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 151

Three Airbus ZEROe concept planes based on renewable hydrogen as a power source

152

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Greener Skies Ahead

Aircraft designs for both commercial and private use are proving the benefits of biofuel solutions and low-emission flight—with eco-friendly planes already taking off. BY BAILEY STONE BARNARD

Courtesy Airbus

lectric propulsion has long been a buzz topic in conversations surrounding sustainable aviation. At the 2011 Paris Air Show, Diamond Aircraft showed off its DA36 E-Star, a two-seat glider that used a gas-fueled generator and a battery to power a small electric motor. Soon start-ups and aviation giants alike raced to build the first Tesla of the sky. The results: lots of eye-catching renderings—and not many actual flights. Now some sustainable concepts are becoming reality. Aviation giants like Boeing and Airbus have seriously increased their efforts (and investments) for more fuelefficient forms of flight. After all, a 747 burns about 1 gallon of petroleum-based fuel per second. But a decade from now, Boeing says plants and household garbage will power its jets. And while that may conjure an image of Doc Brown throwing trash into the fusion generator of his time-traveling DeLorean, the future of fuel-efficient flight is rapidly approaching. Several hybrid and even all-electric

planes are in development, while the plantand-garbage gas (also known as sustainable aviation fuel or simply biofuel) is looking less and less like science fiction. In 2018, Boeing flight-tested a FedEx 777 freight plane powered by 100-percent biofuel, which comes from various non-petroleum sources such as inedible plants, agriculture, forestry waste, and plain old non-recyclable household garbage. In Europe, Airbus is betting on hydrogen for its recently unveiled trio of ZEROe aircraft. Fueled entirely by hydrogen (and thus producing zero emissions during flight), the models could enter service by 2035. For greener operations sooner, Airbus plans to put its new business jet, the ACJ TwoTwenty, which produces up to 50 percent lower emissions than industry standards, into operation in 2023. Boeing and Airbus are not alone in their pursuit of green flight. In February, NetJets invested a 20-percent ownership stake in WasteFuel, which plans to convert landfill waste into aviation biofuel. The fractional provider also committed to buying 100 million gallons of biofuel from the

company over the next decade. Multiple fuel-efficient aircraft are in various stages of development, including from a start-up founded by former Google and Microsoft executives called Zunum Aero. In 2017, the Washington-based company announced major funding from Boeing and others to fly a fleet of 12-seat, hybrid-electric aircraft by 2022. This hope was soon bolstered by a soft commitment from on-demand charter company JetSuite to purchase up to 100 Zunum aircraft. But a year later Zunum ran out of funding; it’s currently suing Boeing, alleging misuse of trade secrets, among other charges. Meanwhile JetSuite claws its way back from a pandemic-induced bankruptcy filing and Zunum is moving forward and seeking new investment. The company still plans to produce aircraft, hopefully with a restructured JetSuite as its first customer. Indeed, hope for greener skies is on the horizon. The following aircraft—some concepts and one real plane that actually flies—represent the most promising candidates so far. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 153

AIRBUS ZEROe

As the aviation industry moves away from petroleum-based fuels, Airbus has its sights set on hydrogen as the most viable alternative. The French manufacturer cites drawbacks with biofuels, which the company says only offer incremental reduction in carbon emissions. Electric power is derived from batteries, which are heavy and offer limited range. A big challenge with hydrogen is that producing it requires the use of natural gas to separate hydrogen and carbon molecules, but Airbus is counting on solar and wind to replace gas in that process. This renewable form of hydrogen is the theoretical power source for the three Airbus ZEROe concept planes. The first uses a turbofan design, which is powered by a turbine engine running on liquid hydrogen and located beneath the fuselage. The plane could hold as many as 200 passengers and have a range of 2,300-plus nautical miles. The second is a smaller design—up to 100 passengers with a 1,000-plus-nautical-mile range—powered by a modified turbine using hydrogen that runs twin turboprops located beneath the wings. The third (and most sci-fi-worthy) design employs a stealth-jet-like blended-wing body and a hydrogenpowered turbofan. With its exceptionally wide fuselage, this design could hold up to 200 passengers. Its options for cabin design make its prospects as a private jumbo jet especially exciting. airbus.com

HEART AEROSPACE ES-19

Sweden’s Heart Aerospace has taken a real-world approach to greener flight: four straightforward, electric-powered propellers mounted to the wings of a traditional aircraft design. The company is already testing a ground-based prototype of the propulsion system for its 19-seat ES-19 regional airliner, though it hasn’t yet provided a timeline for flight testing. When the aircraft does fly, its range will only be about 250 miles—which makes sense for quick trips between small Scandinavian towns, but it will need to increase significantly for broader applications—and it will cruise at about 200 mph. Also, its electric engines will enable the plane to operate from runways as short as 2,500 feet. This is comparable to the runway performance of a Pilatus PC-12—an aircraft famous for its short takeoff and landing distances, but that seats half as many passengers as the ES-19. Heart says the plane will be ready to enter commercial service in 2026, but admits that airport infrastructure will need to ramp up. Charging and other accommodations will be necessary to support an electric fleet before the ES-19 will be a viable alternative to gaspowered aircraft. But that was also the consensus for electric cars 20 years ago and the private-aviation sector may be able to adapt more quickly than the commercial sector. heartaerospace.com

Heart Aerospace's ES-19 regional airliner is an electric-powered prototype.

154

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Electric Aviation Group/Realise Product Design. Opposite: Courtesy Heart Aerospace

ELECTRIC AVIATION GROUP HERA

The Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft (HERA) from Britain’s Electric Aviation Group (EAG) uses a similar design to that of the ES-19, but on a larger scale and with loads of innovation potential. The current design of the 70-plus-seat plane shows four propellers mounted to the leading edge of its wing, though the company has offered minimal technical details, instead touting impressive stats and acronyms the length of a pre-flight check list: a proprietary Gear Assisted Take-Off Run (GATOR) system enabling short runway performance; a Potential Energy Recovery System (PERS) that replenishes batteries during flight; a flexible cabin design that allows the aircraft to carry passengers during the day and cargo at night; and a future-proof airframe able to accommodate various engine designs or power sources—all backed by an intellectual property portfolio that includes more than 25 patents, according to EAG. The company is developing the aircraft toward entry into service, which it says will take place no sooner than 2028. electricaviationgroup.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 155

SAMAD AEROSPACE Q-STARLING

Last September, Samad Aerospace burst onto the aviation scene with sky-high goals. First, the UK company plans to fly a two-seat hybrid-electric aircraft capable of helicopter-like vertical takeoff and landing in 2022, then a five-seat version in 2025, and then a nineseat version in 2027. The two-seat Q-Starling is intended as a sport and recreational aircraft (like the popular Icon A5), with an innovative lift system that puts a large hoverfan rotor the width of the fuselage in the middle of the plane behind the cockpit, with smaller dual fans at the wing tips and in the tail wings. Once the plane transitions from vertical to horizontal flight, flaps close to conceal the fans, and then a pair of hybrid-electric turbo generators produce forward thrust. Used to create most of the world’s electricity, turbo generators are essentially turbine engines powered by electric generators run by gas or steam. The two tiny versions on the Q-Starling are typically used to power small helicopters, but in this application (and with the aircraft’s lightweight carbon-fiber body), they enable speeds up to 265 mph with a range of about 400 nautical miles. Samad has flown a few scaled-down demonstrator versions of its aircraft and, while a 2022 launch for the full-size Q-Starling certainly seems ambitious, its innovations show great promise for the future of personal aircraft. samadaerospace.com

156

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Otto Aviation. Opposite: Courtesy Samad Aerospace (2)

OTTO AVIATION CELERA 500L

California’s Otto Aviation is working toward greener flight, not by changing the fuel source but by changing the design. Its six-passenger, bullet-shaped Celera 500L utilizes extensive laminar flow—smooth and uniform airflow across aircraft surfaces—whereas most aircraft design optimize laminar flow only in isolated areas of the airfoil. The Celera’s unique low-drag shape directs airflow to a torpedolike propeller mounted at the very rear of the airframe. This design requires much less horsepower to reach takeoff and cruise speeds, so the plane can use a much smaller engine than similarly sized aircraft. Its German-made RED A03 piston engine (certified for both jet fuel and biodiesels) generates 550-plus hp with greater efficiency than engines of other six-passenger planes. Another benefit of the aircraft’s rounded shape is a cabin taller than 6 feet. (Even average-height passengers have to crouch in any other six-person plane.) Otto says the Celera has a range of 4,500 miles with fuel economy between 18 and 25 miles per gallon (light years beyond any other aircraft), with an 80-percent reduction in carbon emissions compared to similar-mission jets. The company also says that it’s working toward a zero-emission version. For now, the current proof-ofconcept aircraft—yes, a real plane that actually flies—has completed more than 30 test flights and entry into service is expected by 2025. ottoaviation.com u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 157

Reimagining the Superyacht

While concept yachts may seem out of this world, many of their design elements are rooted in reality and offer a glimpse into the future of yachting. BY BAILEY STONE BARNARD

Courtesy Feadship

ost of the yachts featured here will never be built. Indeed, their designs range from outlandish to outrageous, but their novel characteristics seek to push the envelope of yacht design and propulsion. Some concepts propose lightweight materials or water-jet systems to improve efficiency, others offer hybrid or allelectric engines, and one even suggests a highly innovative method of converting liquid hydrogen into zero-emission energy. Inside and out, these vessels are highly ambitious, with lists of features that today seem pulled from sci-fi, but in the years ahead may become reality. 

158

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Feadship Project 3073

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 159

Dutch shipyard Feadship is no stranger to innovation, having designed and built some of the most cutting-edge yachts on the water. Its 207-foot sport yacht concept, dubbed simply Feadship Project 3073, would be made entirely of aluminum and feature a shallow draught intended for speed. In lieu of traditional propeller motors, large water-jet engines that suck up ocean water and shoot it out the back would generate propulsion and a top speed of 30 knots—a staggering speed for a yacht this size. Feadship indicated that the design could potentially incorporate electric propulsion and still achieve speeds up to 20 knots. For the interior, the shipyard has envisioned multiple innovative onboard features, including an open-concept main saloon that leads up to the bridge-deck wheelhouse via a pair of sweeping staircases, and a large foredeck swimming pool with a glass bottom that would cast shimmering light into the owner’s suite below. feadship.nl

160

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

AQUA Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design provides a clear vision for the future of yachting with its innovative concept yacht Aqua. The centerpiece of this cutting-edge design is a zero-emissions propulsion-and-energy system relying on fuel cells that use a proton-exchange membrane to convert liquid hydrogen into electricity with water as the only byproduct. Another point of innovation is the yacht’s exterior design, which incorporates huge bands of floor-to-ceiling windows into the hull of its main and upper decks. The curvaceous five-deck hull—measuring 357 feet long and inspired by the swell of ocean waves—culminates at the bow of the upper deck, with a glass-walled observatory in the massive owner’s suite. Notable features of the spacious interior (with ceilings as tall as 12 feet) include six staterooms, a large water-level wellness center, a massive swimming pool cascading down the aft deck, and a central circular staircase. The glass-walled display on the lower level houses the two 28-ton hexagonal vacuum tanks that hold the ship’s liquid hydrogen fuel at minus-253 degrees Celsius. sinot.com

Courtesy Images, From Left: Feadship; Sinot Yacht. Opposite: Courtesy Goliath Series

FEADSHIP PROJECT 3073

CARIBÙ From Steve Kozloff, designer of the Goliath Series expedition vessels, Caribù would be a 370-foot globe-trotting sailing yacht chock-full of features intended to help the ship handle long hauls and withstand the planet’s harshest climates. Under diesel-electric power, the yacht could cruise at 15 knots for up to 6,000 nautical miles, a range greatly extended by nearly 33,000 square feet of DynaRig sails across its three masts. The steel, polar-class hull could break through ice and the yacht’s design incorporates de-icing and heating systems throughout. Its onboard pool and spa could be concealed by retractable covers in rough waters. With a large helideck and aircraft hangar, Caribù could sail with three small helicopters, even in harsh conditions, while a pair of heavy-loading cranes would enable the yacht to carry research equipment or offload large tenders. The spacious interior is designed with room for two master suites and staterooms for as many as 14 guests, plus quarters for 20 crew. thegoliathseries.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 161

PROJECT L Thierry Gaugain is a visionary yacht designer, having worked alongside Philippe Starck for some of yachting’s most recognizable designs, including both the motor and sailing yachts named simply A and the late Steve Jobs’ yacht Venus. For his 394-foot concept yacht Project L, Gaugain envisioned multiple groundbreaking elements. The exterior would seamlessly blend one-way glass with the paint of the hull and superstructure, both of which would reflect the surroundings, creating an ever-changing sculpture on the water. The yacht’s onboard spaces would be stretched across one massive open-plan deck, entirely concealed by the opaque exterior, except for two aft portions covered by large oval panels that slide up the superstructure to expose one of two swimming pools (one saltwater and one fresh water) and the expandable water-level swim platform at the stern. The yacht also features a drive-in tender garage and a submarine escape pod that deploys from within the underside of the hull. gaugain.net

162

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, From Top: Gaugain; Lazzarini Design Studio

Project L

XENOS Lazzarini Design Studio calls its Xenos concept a “hyperyacht” and says it would push the boundaries of speed for a 130-foot yacht. Available in various power and layout configurations, Xenos could be equipped with as many as four jet drives churning out more than a combined 15,000 bhp, rocketing the yacht to a 90-knot top speed (which is exceedingly fast even for much smaller speed boats). The design also allows for a traditional hull or hydrofoils to further maximize speed and either a hybrid or fully electric propulsion system with an eight-hour capacity. The superstructure—enclosed in photochromatic windows that change transparency based on sunlight intensity and roofed with solar panels for auxiliary power—could be configured with 180-plus seats in a transport-style arrangement or as a private yacht. The private setup includes such features as a dropdown swim platform at the stern and a one-car garage enclosed by a hydraulic door in the aft portion of the superstructure. lazzarinidesign.net 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 163

Avanguardia

164

AVANGUARDIA

NEMESIS ONE

If it looks like a swan and acts like a swan, it must be a swan—until the head detaches and swims away. As the yacht’s silhouette suggests, Italian designer Pierpaolo Lazzarini of Lazzarini Design Studio drew inspiration from the shape of a swan for his Avanguardia concept. The most distinguishing feature of the 450-foot, curvaceous design is the crane extending back and upward from the bow in a neck-like sweep. Built in two segments and with three hinge points, the neck maintains a level head (aka the control tower) as it nestles against the yacht’s fore superstructure or extends all the way forward to settle on the water. From that point, the eerily avian head can detach as a 52-foot boat. If the yacht’s supervillain owner needs an alternate method of escape, Avanguardia is also equipped with a car garage, two helicopter hangars, and a pair of jet capsules: pod-like boats measuring 26 feet long by 12 feet wide that can dock in the yacht’s wet garage at the stern to provide auxiliary propulsion. lazzarinidesign.net

At 332 feet long and with a 50-knot top speed, Nemesis One would be the fastest hydrofoil sailing catamaran—if it ever gets built. Its design, which calls for lots of carbon fiber and includes exciting innovations, features an onboard computer system that would eliminate the need for manual rigging by controlling all performance elements, including the hydrofoils and sail. As the yacht reaches high speeds, a system of laser-radar sensors feeds data to the computer to determine the optimum point at which to engage the hydrofoils. When this happens, dual hulls lift out of the water so the boat rides on the hydrofoils, greatly reducing drag and increasing speed. The computer also controls the wingsail to automatically optimize performance. When not under sail, the yacht would be powered by a retractable propulsion system utilizing both hydrogen and solar electricity to generate power. Beyond its performance and technical innovation, Nemesis One would feature comfortable interiors able to be easily adjusted between racing and charter configurations. nemesisyachts.com

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Designova Creative. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: Lazzarini Design Studio; Nemesis Yachts

PARABOLA David Weiss, founder of Designova Creative, conceived of Parabola as a go-anywhere, do-anything support and transport vessel for a larger host ship (specifically for a 270foot globe-traveling performance sloop). Parabola’s hull shape draws inspiration from performance sailing yachts, with the addition of a wave-piercing gouge-chisel bow to help the yacht achieve a 40-plus-knot top speed. The design allows for day trips to coastal destinations or for inland travel up larger rivers for wildlife expeditions or to explore tropical regions. Parabola employs a non-distorting, 360-degree-by-180-degree curved canopy for observation and protection from the elements. The semi-closed deck space is available with a series of modular arrangements to serve diving expeditions, wildlife observation, open-air educational workshops, or small submersible transport (with a hidden anchoring system embedded in the decking). But at 92 feet, Parabola could also serve as a standalone cruiser with the speed capabilities of a go-fast boat and the elegant design of a cutting-edge yacht. designovacreative.com u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 165

Here Comes the Sun

Two yacht companies that specialize in solar-powered catamarans prove that renewable energy has its perks.

ichael Köhler, the CEO of Silent-Yachts (silent-yachts .com), is nothing short of thorough. In 2006 he began a multiyear experiment testing the efficiency and effectiveness of alternative power sources aboard a catamaran prototype. After sailing the catamaran 15,000 nautical miles, Köhler and his team were ready to build the Solarwave 46, the world’s first ocean-going, exclusively solar-powered yacht. The revolutionary yacht debuted at Boot Düsseldorf in 2009.

166

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Over the years that followed, Silent-Yachts launched the Silent 55 and Silent 64; the latter became the first solar-powered yacht with electric propulsion to cross the Atlantic. The next iteration, Silent 60, is set to launch this spring. A 24-meter, electric hybrid catamaran equipped with more than 1,200 square feet of solar panels, the Silent 80, debuted three years ago at the Cannes Yachting Festival. And most recently, Silent-Yachts unveiled a tri-deck iteration, priced from $6.5 million and available this summer. It comes in two

configurations: an open flybridge where the third deck becomes a skylounge, and a closed version, in which the third deck can either be converted into an owner’s deck or it can feature a dining area with a bar and galley. Aside from being eco-friendly, solarpowered catamarans offer their owners additional perks, namely benefits that impact the bottom line. “Because we don’t have to use large diesel engines to move around, our yachts have operating costs that are much lower than those of conventionally powered boats,” says Köhler. “This has a corresponding 

Courtesy Serenity Yachts. Opposite: Courtesy Silent-Yachts

BY SHAUN TOLSON

Silent 60 Opposite: Serenity 74

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 167

effect on the maintenance costs, which are almost zero.” Additionally, each Silent-Yacht is delivered with an 8-year warranty for its battery banks, a 25-year warranty on its solar panels, and a lifetime warranty on the electric motors. According to Köhler, a Silent-Yacht can sail for hours at a cruising speed between 6 and 8 knots (as well as overnight at reduced speeds) without burning any fuel. At anchor, all of the onboard appliances, including the vessel’s air-conditioning system, can be run using only the yacht’s batteries. “We have a diesel generator on board

168

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

[the Silent 80], which is not connected to the drive shafts and can be used as a range extender for additional charging of the batteries,” Köhler says. “This is helpful in the cases when you would like to cruise at higher speeds for a longer period of time or when there is no sun for several days.” The company’s latest tri-deck can even be equipped with a fully automatic towing kite, which pulls the boat while flying as high as 460 feet above the water (where the winds are much stronger). Because of that, the kite can generate as much as 10 times more power per square meter than a traditional sail.

Another solar-powered player is Serenity Yachts (serenityyachts.com), founded in 2016 by Boyd Taylor with the goal of popularizing the use of renewable energy in an industry that hadn’t yet fully embraced it. With his wife, an environmental lawyer, Taylor set out, as he says, “to develop a project that would positively impact the environment without giving up what people love about the product.” Through his analysis of the yachting industry’s recent attempts to incorporate solar power, Taylor realized that most builders made the mistake of attempting to integrate solar panels into existing designs.

Courtesy Silent-Yachts. Opposite: Courtesy Serenity Yachts

Silent 80

Serenity 74

He intuited that the best way to build a solar-powered yacht was to start from scratch and design the whole boat with a sustainable power system in mind. In Cannes during the summer of 2018, Serenity Yachts debuted the Serenity 64, a 19.4-meter, $3.3 million luxury catamaran designed to run exclusively on solar power. A little more than a year later, the company announced the Serenity 74, a 22.5-meter, $5.5 million vessel equipped with almost 1,200 square feet of solar panels. Most recently, Serenity Yachts unveiled its first vessel made entirely from carbon fiber, a

material that is instrumental in maximizing the application and use of the yacht’s renewable energy source. As Taylor explains, a fiberglass boat built to the same dimensions would weigh 8 tons more, and that extra weight would mar the vessel’s efficiency and limit its capabilities. The custom-built yachts feature interior accents and design materials to lighten the load and maximize options. Granite countertops, for example, are constructed around a honeycomb structure, so only a thin outer layer of granite is needed. Beyond the aforementioned economic

and environmental benefits that come from sailing a solar-powered yacht, the most significant advantage, in Taylor’s opinion, is experiential. “You’re running a silent boat,” he says. “You don’t have the smell of diesel fumes or the vibrations and rumblings of a diesel engine. You get to smell the salty air and hear the waves slap against the hull of the boat. You can actually hear dolphins splashing in the water. “You not only get to enjoy this incredible scenery and enjoy nature in all of its majesty,” he adds, “but you get to know that you’re leaving it the way it was when you came.” u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 169

New World Wines

There are no bragging rights in serving your guests a fine Bordeaux. But what about uncorking a top-tier red, quite literally, from Shangri-La, or a delicate koshu white—it’s a Japan-only grape, you know. Across the world, there’s a raft of noteworthy wine regions on the rise that jostle for space in your cellar with the classics. Here are the key names to know. BY MARK ELLWOOD

ENGLAND

GEORGIA

MEXICO

In the last two decades, the temperatures in England’s southern reaches, the counties of Sussex and Hampshire, have risen almost 3 degrees—just enough to reliably clinch ripeness for the grapes planted on the loamy soils here. The focus is almost entirely on sparkling wine, which some claim was perfected in England in the 17th century before France’s Champagne region finessed the process.

During the Soviet era, millennia-old winemaking traditions were sidetracked into producing schlocky plonk. In the last two decades the country has reemerged as an impressive producer of top-tier wines, especially skincontact orange. Many contemporary producers have revived old-school techniques, using the clay amphora or qvevri for fermentation.

The hot summers in Baja California are offset by cooling sea breezes to make the high altitudes here ideal for grape growing. It’s a recent development, kick-started two decades ago, largely by expats from other winemaking centers attracted by the low costs and fine conditions. They have transformed the region over that period: Now, Valle de Guadalupe’s 100 wineries produce 90 percent of the country’s wines.

KEY GRAPES The holy trinity of Reims and around: chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. PARALLEL POURS Champagne. The chalky soil here is geologically identical to that French fizz-making region, just 60 miles across the channel. Waterretaining, yet rarely waterlogged, its terroir is where vines both strive and thrive. BRANDS TO BUY The family-run Ridgeview (ridgeview.co.uk) held its own against Champagnes in a blind tasting (try its Louis Roederer–like whites and the strawberry-forward rosé). For richer, deeper flavors, uncork some Hambledon (hambledonvineyard.com).

170

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

KEY GRAPES A dizzying list of unfamiliar names includes whites like rkatsiteli and kisi, or reds like the syrahesque saperavi. PARALLEL POURS None, thanks to the dominance of orange wine here: The skin-contact whites and reds have a heartiness that few regions can match and that taste best with robust dishes. BRANDS TO BUY Founded by expat American musician-turned-winemaker John Wurdeman, Pheasant’s Tears (pheasantstears.com) is named after an old Georgian proverb that says only the best wine can make those birds cry. Sample the best saperavi from the Jakeli brothers’ vineyards; Jakeli Wines (georgianwinehouse.com) resides in the ancient district of Khashmi.

KEY GRAPES It’s a red-wine mecca: petite sirah, malbec, cabernet sauvignon, and tempranillo are widespread. PARALLEL POURS Comparisons are made with Napa, of course, but it’s better to think of this as akin to Paso Robles in central California, with its freewheeling production and superb reds. BRANDS TO BUY Try Bodegas Henri Lurton (bodegashenrilurton.com), which winemaker Lourdes Martinez Ojeda steers for the namesake Bordelais family. Bodegas Magoni (casamagoni .com), owned by the experiment-prone Camillo Magoni, is also intriguing: He is trialing more than 100 varieties to see which are best suited to the terroir here long term.

Courtesy Images, From Left: Ao Yun; Krsma Estates; Chateau Mercian. Opposite From Left: Courtesy Ridgeview; Koba Samurkasov/Alamy; Courtesy Bodegas Henri Lurton.

CHINA

INDIA

JAPAN

For the last two decades, China has dominated the wine-collecting market, and is the world’s top consumer of reds. It has also been the world’s second-largest wine grower since 2015, featuring six renowned regions, including Shanxi and Ningxia.

It was phylloxera that demolished India’s winemaking industry in the late 19th century. Until then, the Mughal rulers had relished the vintages made in Kashmir and Maharashtra. The British Raj, though, discouraged their replanting in part as a social control. By Independence, wine was no longer consumed widely, other than fortified ports in once-Portuguese Kerala. In the 21st century, entrepreneurs have looked to revive this tradition.

Buddhist monks first brought vines from Georgia to Japan 1,300 years ago. They didn’t thrive, though, until the Meiji period, when Japan imported European viticultural know-how. The industry here is centered on Yamanashi prefecture, 90 minutes west of Tokyo by train. The grapes are grown in tiny plots of steep hillsides, trained onto tall pergolas so that growers can walk beneath them—shading them from the damp summers that leave the ground muddy.

KEY GRAPES Classics dominate here, notably cabernet sauvignon.

KEY GRAPES More than half the production is koshu, a fat, fragrant grape that produces a very light, drinkable white. The locally developed muscat bailey is the basis of a delicious, equally light-bodied red.

KEY GRAPES Thanks in part to cultural traditions, any reds—think merlot, cabernet gernischt, and sauvignon; white is the color of mourning, an association that dampens such wines’ deliciousness in the market. PARALLEL POURS Ningxia’s dry, highaltitude vineyards have commonalities with Argentina’s, while the four-season climate in Shanxi echoes other inland growing areas, from Texas to Eastern Europe. BRANDS TO BUY Zhang Jing, the Chinese winemaker who co-founded the Ningxiabased Chateau Helan Qingxue, trained in France’s Rhône Valley and South Africa, so it’s no wonder her products earn accolades from Decanter; Grace Vineyard (en.grace-vineyard.com) in Shanxi is arguably the country’s best-known. One other noteworthy vintage: the surreal but delicious Ao Yun (lvmh.com), produced by Bordelais winemaker Maxence Dulou under the auspices of LVMH, in the stepped vineyards close to the real-life Shangri-La in the Himalayas.

PARALLEL POURS The finest wines in India are produced in Karnataka, an unusual region close to the equator. The latitude is a rarity—in part because vines thrive too easily, and fruit twice-yearly. To avoid such flavor-reducing abundance, they’re heavily pruned so the single, three-month harvest starts each January. BRANDS TO BUY Look for Fratelli Wines (fratelliwines.in), founded by the late Indian industrialist Kapil Sekhri in partnership with a Tuscan winemaker; it has lands in Karnataka as well as Pune and Maharashtra. The cab sauv from Krsma Estates (krsmaestates.com) is arguably the finest in the country, and limited to 5,000 cases per year.

PARALLEL POURS Compare the growing conditions and grapes to the mountainous, chasselas-heavy production in Switzerland, where much of the output is also consumed domestically. BRANDS TO BUY The oldest winery in Japan is Marufuji (rubaiyat.jp), first opened by the Omura family in 1890, though the Maruki Winery (marukiwine .co.jp) has a rival claim. Both offer superb koshu-powered whites. Château Mercian (chateaumercian.com) is a modern vineyard known for its reds. u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 171

172

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Photo From Credits Left: iStock; Courtesy Virginia Distillery Co.

Weathering the Storms

Climate change remains a hot-button issue for many trades, including the alcohol industry. As master distillers look to craft exceptional products across numerous spirits categories, many are confronted with unique challenges. BY SHAUN TOLSON

W Photo Credits

Founded in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Virginia Distillery Co. produces 3- to 4-year aged whiskies in its Courage & Conviction series (inset).

hen the late Dr. George G. Moore founded the Virginia Distillery Co. (vadistillery.com) in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains in 2011, the Irishman—who harbored a passion for traditional single malt whisky—knew that the hot, humid summers (and dry, temperate winters) of central Virginia posed a challenge. Even before new-make spirit flowed from the family-owned company’s stills, Moore had the foresight to call on the expertise of the late Dr. Jim Swan, one of the United Kingdom’s most brilliant scientific minds focused on distillation. Swan’s calling card was a mastery of the chemical reactions that occur at the molecular level during barrel maturation. With that understanding, in 2015 he steered the Moores away from investing in climate-controlled barrel warehouses. “His big point was that you should embrace the local climate because it gives you a real sense of place,” says Gareth Moore, who is now carrying on his father’s legacy as the distillery’s CEO. “Don’t change your maturation environment to match your distillate,” Swan told the Moores. “Change your distillate to match your maturation environment.” 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 173

174

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

ran as much as 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal. As a result, Dr. Bill Lumsden, Glenmorangie’s director of distilling, found that for about two weeks the brand’s newmake spirit lacked some of its characteristic fruity flavor as it came off the still. “The danger here is not that we’ll have an overnight black-and-white change,” Lumsden

says, “but that we’re going to experience a product drift. You’re not necessarily picking up big changes in the quality of the product from one year to another, but over a 10- to 20-year period, there’s a risk of a gradual dumbing down of quality. Eventually you get to a tipping point where your product isn’t quite the same as it used to be.” More than 3,000 miles to the east,

the Vale Fox Distillery (thevalefox.com) in Poughkeepsie, New York, has lately encountered similar ambient temperature challenges. As the distillery’s founder Eral Gogkol-Kline explains, the distillation of its eight-botanical gin is affected by temperature changes, since volatile flavor compounds can either be captured or lost based upon how quickly the alcohol is distilled. Adding cold water to the still during the distillation phase re-condenses alcohol vapors and is a necessary step; however, recently the natural temperature of that water has become less consistent, which has required Gogkol-Kline and his team to find creative solutions. As a remedy, the distillery employs the use of an evaporative cooling tower, which chills the liquid contents of the still to proper temperatures. Only on the hottest days do Gogkol-Kline and his team use massive chillers, which effectively cool the water (in doing so they also burn considerable amounts of fossil fuels). “It makes it that much harder to make a consistent product,” he says of the varying liquid temperatures inside the still, “unless you want to go and use a ton of energy. But that just makes the [global climate change] situation worse.” When Vale Fox crafted its original gin recipe, the team created and stored individual distillates of the eight botanicals used. Those distillates weren’t produced with climate change concerns in mind, but Gogkol-Kline acknowledges that today they are helping the team to track what’s going on. Juniper is foraged in Macedonia, for example, while coriander comes from India. If the flavor profile of an individual botanical shifts too much, the team can look into sourcing them from new regions. 

Courtesy Glenmorangie Distillery. Opposite: Courtesy Vale Fox Distillery (3)

In the six years that have followed, the distillery’s maturation environment has delivered flavorful results that belie the respective whisky’s youthfulness. “We’re getting deeper into the casks and pulling a lot of the wood profile out faster than other places,” Gareth says. As more whiskey distilleries around the world encounter similar climate challenges, the prospect of traditional age statements disappearing looms as a plausible—though perhaps not immediate—reality. At the very least, it might someday mean that older age statement whiskeys in certain categories will become scarcer. Fortunately, once the Moores understood how the distillery’s local climate impacted the maturation of its whiskies, they divorced themselves from the prospect of making American single malts branded by age statements. Today, the distillery produces four whiskies in its Courage & Conviction lineup that are aged between three and four years. “You should always be bottling the best products that you have when you have them,” says Gareth. “If it’s delicious, then be proud of it and get it out into the market.” Master distillers across all spirits categories are discovering unique hurdles ushered in via environmental shifts. While Scottish whisky distillers haven’t faced escalating ambient temperatures in their rickhouses, the temperatures inside their distilleries are a challenge. At Glenmorangie (glenmorangie.com) in the northern Highlands, the distilling team uses its own, naturally sourced spring water to cool the liquid that’s drawn out of the mash tun before fermentation. But during the summer of 2019, the temperature of that spring water

The Vale Fox Distillery in Poughkeepsie, New York, uses eight botanicals in its gin. Opposite: Glenmorangie whisky is produced in Scotland’s northern Highlands.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 175

In Australia, Tom Baker, the co-founder of Mr Black Spirits (mrblack.co), is similarly focused on the growing conditions of key ingredients cultivated thousands of miles away. In the case of the distillery’s flagship cold-brew coffee liqueur, those key ingredients are shade-grown coffee beans from Kenya and Ethiopia. “We use a high portion of coffees from East Africa for the sole reason that they’re delicious,” he says. “They’re fruity and acidic, and they produce a gorgeous cup of coffee. We can’t make Mr Black without it.” But, as Baker acknowledges, that region of Africa has been impacted by severe climate events over the past decade, including significant droughts in Ethiopia. When the quality, quantity, and cost of those coffee beans fluctuates as a result, those changes

176

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

impact Mr Black’s product. Even before these climate change concerns popped up, Baker and his co-founder, distiller Philip Moore, committed to bringing all facets of the coffeeproduction process in-house, from roasting to cold brewing. That decision has allowed them to better troubleshoot climate-related challenges as they develop. Climate change skeptics need only study the last decade of sugar cane harvests at the Novo Fogo (novofogo.com) distillery in southeastern Brazil to see the impact. According to the brand’s founder and CEO, Dragos Axinte, 10 years ago he and his team could plan to harvest during a two-week period at the end of March. Since then, however, the sugar cane harvest has occurred anytime between late March and late July. The unpredictability of the harvest not only

impairs the cachaça distillery’s operations, but harvests that occur in Brazil’s winter also mar the yield and the quality of the cane juice that is acquired. “The weather has become so unpredictable, it’s painful,” Axinte says. Droughts, windstorms, and floods are all damaging to the sugar cane crop. For that reason, Axinte has dedicated an entire field to experimental hybrid plants, but he acknowledges it’s a plan that requires patience. “We’re trying to create hybrids that are used to this [new] environment,” he says. “But it might take us 15 or 20 years before we have true biodiversity.” On the island of Negros in the Philippines, increasing temperatures have intensified the evaporation rates inside rum barrels at the Don Papa Rum (donpaparum .com) distillery. According to the brand’s

Courtesy Images, From Left: Mr. Black; Novo Fogo Distillery. Opposite, Courtesy Images Clockwise From Left: Don Papa Rum; Maison Ferrand (2)

From left: Mr Black Spirits distills cold-brew coffee liqueur; sugar cane at Novo Fogo; Don Papa Rum fields in the Philippines; Maison Ferrand’s cognac barrels; Plantation Rum’s distillery in Barbados.

founder Stephen Carroll, a decade ago the distillery’s evaporation rates were in line with what Caribbean rum distilleries experience— between 8 or 9 percent per year. More recently, however, those rates have spiked to as high as 12 percent. Like Virginia Distillery Co., Don Papa years ago sought the consul of Dr. Jim Swan, who advocated the use of high-quality barrels to mitigate such extreme evaporation. “Once we realized how quickly and how wonderfully the rums were aging in better quality barrels, we felt there was an opportunity to increase the rate of innovation and experimentation,” says Carroll. “We bought more barrels from other places, and some are proving to work.” From rums aged in over-toasted barrels or rye barrels to others finished in sherry casks, those experimental expressions

represent a positive climate change takeaway. “Consumers are looking for interesting stories and new taste profiles,” Carroll says. “The flipside of having this very warm and humid climate is that you can bring out some younger expressions using double aging and finishing that are wonderful.” Not all rum distilleries are taking such an optimistic stance on the matter. The West Indies Rum Distillery, for example, which produces Plantation Rum (plantationrum.com), is set right along Brighton Beach in Barbados. “It’s literally on the beach,” says Alexandre Gabriel, Plantation Rum’s creator and master blender. “Barbados could disappear if the sea level rises. That’s a legitimate fear.” Gabriel also serves as the president and owner of Maison Ferrand (maisonferrand

.com), a revered cognac house dealing with climate change issues in northeastern France. The ideal grape for making cognac is one in which the sugar, aromatics, and acidity are balanced. Recently, some of the six approved grape varietals grown to make cognac have lacked acidity. The fix to up acidity is to harvest earlier, but early harvesting can further throw off the grapes’ core elements. In an attempt to circumvent this problem, Gabriel is dedicating some of Maison Ferrand’s plots to grow grape varietals that may fare better in the changing climate. He’s using them to produce a brandy that may eventually be designated a cognac, if the criteria are adjusted. “We’re so dependent on nature, and too often we forget this,” says Gabriel. “Behind every bottle on the shelf is a farmer growing something somewhere.” u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 177

Eating Local

When traveling, it’s easier in some cities to make healthy, sustainable food choices than it is in others. If you’re heading to Austin, Portland, Nashville, or Philadelphia, this road map of restaurants will point you in the right direction. BY BEN ROSS

rom food trucks to fine dining, chefs across the country are paying closer attention to the impact of their cuisine, making efforts to stay local, seasonal, and community-oriented. But a seemingly boundless array of dining options makes it difficult to know how to tap into the best of the local food culture. A few rules of thumb can ensure eco-conscious, healthy eats. Local cuisines are often influenced by their environments, and while far-reaching supply chains have affected these relationships, understanding what kinds of foods are seasonal and locally available is one of the most impactful things you can do in your eco-foodie pursuits. Beyond the ingredients, making an effort to support small-scale eateries and businesses not only improves your chances of finding hidden gems, but also helps sustain the communities that keep these regional cuisines and ecosystems alive. A handful of cities across the United States are taking the lead, and the following four are ripe with healthy, sustainable choices.

178

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, Clockwise From Bottom Left: The Wild Cow; The Neighborhood Dining Group; Counter Culture Restaurant; Bethany’s Table; White Dog Cafe/Courtney Apple; White Dog Cafe/Christie Green. Opposite, Counter-Clockwise From Top Left: Adobe Stock (3); iStock.

NASHVILLE Beyond the clichés of hot chicken and honky-tonks, Music City has slowly emerged as a Southern cooking hub of the highest caliber. Heirloom, ingredient-driven cuisine shines at Husk (husknashville.com), a restaurant dedicated to the preservation and sustainability of Southern cooking and land stewardship. Vegan fare has established a home for itself here, with places like The Wild Cow (thewildcow.com) and AVO (eatavo.com) channeling

the bold flavors of Nashville through their fresh, plant-based menus and health-conscious alternatives to Southern staples. Crema (crema-coffee.com), named by the Specialty Coffee Association for roasting some of the country’s best-tasting coffee, has committed to the mission of selling the most sustainable (and delicious) coffee possible. For a taste of the heirloom agriculture that feeds this city’s cuisine, the Nashville Farmers Market (nashvillefarmersmarket.org) is the place to be.

AUSTIN A landmark of the Lone Star State, this food capital is known for its barbecue and Tex Mex, but it’s also making a name for itself in the progressive food movement. Regional agriculture and deep cultural roots support the ample availability of farm-fresh food. Odd Duck (oddduckaustin.com) and Lenoir (lenoirrestaurant .com) are standouts for contemporary Austin cuisine. Both are working to highlight local ingredients and preserve traditional cooking techniques. For plant-based options, there’s Bouldin Creek Cafe (bouldincreekcafe .com), Counter Culture (countercultureaustin .com), and Bistro Vonish (bistrovonish.com), which serve up fresh, vegetableforward dishes garnering acclaim from vegans and carnivores alike. To dive right into Tex Mex, try the taquerias Vera Cruz AllNatural (veracruzallnatural .com) and Tacodeli (tacodeli.com). You can visit many of the top regional food producers and artisans directly through markets like Barton Creek Farmers Market (bartoncreekfarmersmarket .org) or SFC Farmers Market (sustainablefoodcenter.org).

PORTLAND Nestled in the heart of the Willamette Valley in the Pacific Northwest, Portland boasts a colorful and eco-friendly food scene, and establishments across the city are ever doubling down on that reputation. In close proximity to plentiful in-land agriculture and coastal ingredients, restaurants like Quaintrelle (quaintrelle.co) and Bethany’s Table (bethanystable .com) focus on flavors that are in season. Others, like Farm Spirit (farmspiritpdx.com) and Fermenter (fermenterpdx.com), bring community agriculture and wellness to the forefront with dynamic, plant-based menus and bold, fermented foods. For comfort-driven, meatless options, try Harlow (harlowpdx .com) for some familiar dishes. Portland is also home to a wealth of small shops, markets, and delis selling sustainable, high-quality food products. The Tao of Tea (taooftea .com) and Heart Roasters (heartroasters.com) center their respective tea and coffee menus around progressive, responsible producers. For a more diverse array of goods, try Portland Farmers Market (portlandfarmersmarket.org), zero-waste grocer NoPac Foods (nopaczerowaste .com), Elephants Delicatessen (elephantsdeli.com), and The Spice & Tea Exchange (spiceandtea.com).

PHILADELPHIA This historic city has emerged as a big player in America’s evolving food scene, attracting creative, forward-thinking chefs working to push the boundaries of American cuisine and reconnect with the terroir of the region. At White Dog Cafe (whitedog .com), traditional Philly flavors are channeled through the freshest local ingredients to produce an ambitious, ecofriendly menu. Meanwhile, plant-based eateries like Vedge (vedgerestaurant .com) and Pure Sweets (puresweets.com) are serving up bold, classic, comforting flavors, shaking up norms, and paving the way for a new wave of vegan and vegetarian restaurants. Headhouse Farmers Market (thefoodtrust .org) and Riverwards Produce (riverwardsproduce.com) draw on the region’s farming and artisan traditions to supply both restaurants and neighborhoods with produce, baked goods, meats, cheeses, flowers, and more. u

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 179

REAL ESTATE

Sports Hubs

There’s a real buy-in for resort communities offering amusement and amenities. BY IRENE RAWLINGS

eal estate agents are calling this a rural renaissance as buyers seek out second homes to enjoy for more than just weekends away. In highest demand are properties with access to outdoor activities—from kayaking to golfing, surfing to diving. After a year of pandemic fatigue, an escape to the country with the comforts of home and the services completely taken care of—as if staying in a five-star hotel—sounds just about right.

PALMETTO BLUFF Bluffton, South Carolina The 20,000-acre riverfront development in the heart of Lowcountry saw its strongest year-to-date sales with more than $257 million in closed transactions in 2020. Sporting life pursuits include equestrian experiences and salt- and freshwater fishing excursions. Palmetto Bluff Shooting Club has a professionally designed sporting clays course (down here, they call this “golf with a gun”). Homesites from $225,000 to $2.5 million; homes from $837,000 to $5.75 million; palmettobluff.com

180

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, From Top: Silo Ridge Field Club/Jeff Lipsky; Balsam Mountain Preserve; The Cliffs/Patrick O’Brien. Opposite: Courtesy Palmetto Bluff

SILO RIDGE FIELD CLUB Amenia, New York Once a dairy farm (hence the name) in New York’s historic Hudson Valley, the 850-acre community is all about playing sports and enjoying the great outdoors. It’s all right there: lakes, woods, wildlife, an old-fashioned swimming hole, and a Tom Fazio– designed golf course. Golf courses are often the focal point of Discovery Land Company residential resort communities. Mike Meldman, founder, chairman, and CEO, noticed early on that if he wanted to interest his young kids in golf, he should take a casual approach with the option to golf barefoot and raid the snack stations set up at select tees. Discovery’s signature recreationconcierge program, Outdoor Pursuits, is a highlight at all 25 locations, providing knowledgeable guides, expert instruction, and the latest equipment. Homeowners can be outfitted for adventure camping expeditions in local wildernesses, fly-fishing excursions in private and public streams, sporting clay and skeet shoots on Discovery courses, and upland hunting outings. At Silo Ridge, 245 houses and condos are being built by regional craftspeople, using local, repurposed materials whenever possible. Estate homesites and condos from $2.7 million; discoverylandco.com, siloridge.com

THE CLIFFS North and South Carolina Find this collection of seven residential mountain and lakefront communities in the Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains (between Greenville, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina). Members who own a home in one of the communities have access to the amenities of all seven— wellness centers, golf courses, tennis clubs, restaurants, an equestrian center, and a marina complex on the 18,500-acre

lake that facilitates fishing, boating, wakeboarding, and other water sports. “Residents can live in the mountains and still enjoy the lake,” says Lauren Buckland, director of sales for Cliffs Realty, who has seen an 85-percent increase in firstquarter sales from 2020. “The climate here allows us to be outdoors year-round,” she adds. Homesites from $125,000; homes from $500,000 to more than $6 million; cliffsliving.com

BALSAM MOUNTAIN PRESERVE North Carolina This low-density, conservationorientated private residential community on 4,400 acres is surrounded by national forest land and Smoky Mountain National Park. With fewer than 100 homes, it will remain forever wild; 75 percent of Balsam’s land has been placed under permanent conservation easement. Another selling point: an Arnold Palmer–designed golf course (one of his favorites—he was smitten by the watercolor mountain vistas). Parallel to 30 miles of trails for hiking, mountain biking, and riding horses are freshwater streams and creeks, ideal for flyfishing for southern brook trout. Ride horses up to the top-of-the-mountain Dark Ridge Camp for an overnight under the stars. Homesites from $199,000; homes from $646,000 to $2.6 million; balsammountainpreserve.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 181

SUSURROS DEL CORAZÓN Punta de Mita, Mexico On 33 lush acres overlooking the Bay of Banderas, Auberge Resorts Collection’s Susurros del Corazón (“whispers of the heart”) is surrounded by tropical jungle and pearlescent beaches and offers a rare opportunity to own a beachfront home. The destination has 30 residences (from threebedroom beach casitas to a six-bedroom presidential suite) alongside four distinct culinary concepts, a 3,000-square-foot fitness center and yoga studio, kids’ club, and Auberge Spa, all in a jungle-meets-the-sea location. In 2020, the neighboring Punta Mita resort and real estate development reported an 84-percent increase in home sales over the same period in 2019. “Buyers continue to be interested in Riviera Nayarit, Auberge-branded resorts, and the hassle-free nature of turnkey residences. The pandemic has highlighted the benefit of having a second home to escape to,” says Mark Cooley, partner, SV Capital (developer of Susurros del Corazón.). “Ninety percent of our buyers put their homes into Auberge’s rental program … creating income from a second-home asset that would otherwise be sitting empty.” From $1.9 million to $10.9 million; susurrosresidences.com

182

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

From Top: Courtesy The Preserve Sporting Club; Courtesy Snake River Sporting Club; Adobe Stock. Opposite: Courtesy Auberge Resorts

THE PRESERVE SPORTING CLUB & RESIDENCES Richmond, Rhode Island A 3,500-acre private estate in Rhode Island (an hour’s drive from Boston and 2.5 hours from NYC) offers a wide range of homes—one- to three-bedroom penthouses in the newly opened Hilltop Lodge, single-family homes, and small-and-cozy cabins— across a variety of natural settings, like uplands, woodlands, pondside, or in neighborhoods. Ownership includes access to membersonly activities from fly-fishing to rock-climbing, world-class sporting clays and upland hunting, and horseback riding. Owners have access to the private white-sand beach at five-star sister property, Ocean House, less than 30 minutes away in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. From $549,000 (cabins); from $749,000 (one- to threebedroom penthouses); from $5 million (family homes); preservesportingclub.com

COACH HOUSE Wellington, Florida Just south of Palm Beach, Wellington is one of the most affluent enclaves in South Florida and the US epicenter for world-class polo and dressage. Developed by Neil Hirsch, owner of the BlackWatch Polo Team, the smartly scaled Coach House has 34 two- to four-bedroom condos—each with direct elevator access and a large terrace. Other amenities include a showstopping, palmlined rooftop pool with private cabanas, a spa for humans and

one for their pets, and climatecontrolled garages with electric-charging stations. The building overlooks Wellington’s Equestrian Preserve Area and is close to an impressive 100 miles of groomed bridle trails. High-profile polo players Nacho Figueras and Grant Ganzi have already reserved. Hirsch calls the residences convenient and secure, “lockand-leave homes for highnet-worth individuals.” From $2.5 million to $8.75 million; coachhousewellington.com

SNAKE RIVER SPORTING CLUB Jackson Hole, Wyoming This exclusive sporting club on nearly 1,000 acres offers almost anything you can think of doing outdoors—tennis, golf, whitewater rafting, fly-fishing on the legendary Snake River, riding a horse for miles on trails in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, or going on an overnight pack trip. The Lodges (from $3.2 million furnished), The Residences (1–2-acre homesites from $2 million), The Ranch Estates (35-acre homesites from $4.4 million); snakeriversportingclub.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 183

Healthy Homes

CHARLOTTE OF THE UPPER WEST SIDE New York A boutique condo building developed by Roe Corporation, Charlotte of the Upper West Side has seven sustainably designed, fullfloor residences, each with its own Swissengineered energy recovery ventilation (ERV) system that delivers fresh-filtered outside air to each habitable room. “The system kills 99 percent of mold, bacteria, and viruses,” says John Roe, principal of Roe Corporation. “That especially resonates with people who have children.” Thanks to quadruple-layered, triple-paned (operable) windows and robust insulation on exterior walls and between floors, the residences are remarkably quiet. Bedrooms have terraces overlooking a private interior garden. The façade (red brick accented with Italian terra-cotta louvers) is not only beautiful but useful; it reduces heat in summer while allowing the winter sun’s rays to warm the interiors. From $11 million; charlotteuws.com

184

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LAKEHOUSE Denver, Colorado Two miles from downtown and overlooking Sloan’s Lake, this 196-unit, glass-andsteel building is one of the first residential projects in the world to earn WELL Building Certification (from the International WELL Building Institute). “We spend more than 90 percent of our time indoors … so we, as developers, wanted to make the indoor environment as healthy as possible,” says Brian Levitt, co-founder and president of NAVA Real Estate Development, a certified B Corporation. Clean interior air, Energy Star appliances, organic vegetable gardens, a Zen-like oasis for yoga and meditation, a bike/ski tune-up studio, and the building’s setting on the 2.6-mile trail wrapping Sloan’s Lake all contributed to its WELL certification. “Buildings that embrace holistic health and well-being are definitely the wave of the future,” says Levitt. From $499,000 to $1.825 million; lakehouse17.com

SOLEMAR Pompano Beach, Florida A new, right-on-the-sand condo on Florida’s Gold Coast reimagines what it means to enjoy a wellness-inspired lifestyle. Each of 20-story Solemar’s 105 residences comes with Delos-developed DARWIN technology (proprietary software, including algorithms and sensor technologies) to monitor and calibrate light, water, and air quality to reduce toxins that can negatively affect respiratory, cardiovascular, and immune systems. Flow-through floor plans with floor-to-ceiling windows boast large terraces with glass railings for unobstructed views of the Atlantic Ocean. Owners ride private elevators directly to their units and enjoy both sunrise- and sunset-oriented pools and museum-quality art (such as a monumental Fernando Botero sculpture). Developed by The Related Group helmed by collector and art patron Jorge M. Pérez (El Espacio 23). From $1.5 million; solemarbeach.com

Courtesy Images, From Left: Roe Corp./Depict; NAVA Real Estate Development; The Related Group. Opposite: Courtesy Montage International

Before 2020, homes were a slice of our lives. With Americans working, socializing, and exercising from their abodes, homebuyers have become hyper-focused on comfort and wellness, requesting healthsupporting amenities like air filtration and UV lighting. Systems that rid our homes of pathogens will be standard by 2030, as the technology gradually becomes less expensive and more accessible. In the meantime, these new forward-thinking developments combine the latest and greatest in health features.

PENDRY AND MONTAGE RESIDENCES “People are reevaluating the way they want to live,” says Tina Necrason, executive vice president residential, Montage International. Like Solemar (opposite), the company has entered a partnership with Delos and will introduce DARWIN Premier technology into the private Farm Villas at Pendry Residences Natirar (from $3 million). The system will

reduce indoor contaminants, filter water, regulate interior temperatures, and provide stress-reducing lighting. Pendry’s wellness commitment extends to furnishings and finishes: FSC-certified wood, low- or no-VOC finishes, eco-friendly Saatva mattresses. Moving forward, Pendry- and Montagebranded residences (such as the residences

under development at the newly opened Montage Healdsburg) will offer customizable Delos systems. Residential portfolios under development include: Pendry West Hollywood (a $450 million project on the Sunset Strip), California; Pendry Park City, Utah; Montage Big Sky, Montana; Montage Cay, Bahamas. pendry .com/residences; montageresidences.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 185

Golden Opportunities Since opening the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in 1999, developer Mike Keiser has proven with subsequent projects that he has the Midas touch. Among his latest ventures and the most recent developments at his established properties is the creation of an exclusive private residence club on the island of St. Lucia.

In early March 2020—four weeks into the construction of Cabot Point, an anticipated worldclass golf course designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw that will serve as the foundation of the Cabot Saint Lucia (cabotsaintlucia.com) resort— George Punoose was surveying some of the 42 lots in the resort’s first phase of real estate. As Coore and Crenshaw directed large, earth-moving equipment on one of the fairways just out of sight over a ridgeline, Punoose, the resort’s principal, stood on the 375-acre property and admired the dramatic ocean vista. “Imagine owning a home where that cactus is,” he said, pointing to a patch of native growth a couple hundred yards away, “and having this view. There isn’t a single home that won’t have an ocean view. It’s the best site I’ve seen in my life.” Since then, more than 90 percent of the resort’s phase one lots have sold for an average price of more than $2.1 million. Phase two, which includes several premium lots and 24 townhomes, is now open for sales with lot prices ranging from $1 million to $11 million. The genesis of Cabot Saint Lucia can be tracked back to 2015, when Cabot’s co-founder and CEO Ben Cowan-Dewar began searching for a warm-weather property as a winter refuge for avid golfers who were loyal to the first Cabot development, Cabot Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. After visiting many flat Caribbean locales, CowanDewar was immediately enamored by the beveled volcanic hillsides that shape much of St. Lucia, especially the northeastern point of the island where Cabot Saint Lucia is based. “To see the amount of elevation and great terrain, it felt like an amazing opportunity,” he says. “We were enthusiastic about the chance

186

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, From Top: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort; Cabot St. Lucia/Jacob Sjoman. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: Cabot St. Lucia; Cabot Revelstoke

BY SHAUN TOLSON

From top: A private residence at Cabot Saint Lucia; Cabot Revelstoke in British Columbia. Opposite from top: Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon; Cabot Saint Lucia from above.

to do something that felt really different from what we’ve seen in most of North America. The architecture feels like it would be more at home in the Indian Ocean or Southeast Asia.” When fully developed, Cabot Saint Lucia will feature 320 private residences, a boutique hotel, multiple restaurants, a full-service beach club, a sports complex, and a handful of boutiques and retail shops. For now, the resort’s flagship amenity—the aforementioned Coore & Crenshaw–designed golf course—is scheduled to open in 2022. Even before a single golf hole was completed in St. Lucia, Cowan-Dewar and his business partner Mike Keiser announced in November that a third Cabot resort was in development. Conceived as an extension of Revelstoke Mountain Resort, Cabot Revelstoke (cabotrevelstoke.com)—set amid the Monashee and Selkirk mountain ranges in British Columbia—will feature a 150-room hotel (planned for the base of Mount Mackenzie) and a championship-caliber golf course designed by Whitman, Axland & Cutten. Exclusive real estate offerings are also planned. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 187

188

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Cabot Cape Breton (2). Opposite: Courtesy Sand Valley

Although Revelstoke Mountain Resort offers the most vertical skiing in North America, with more than 5,600 feet of lift-accessed terrain, Keiser believes that the Cabot Revelstoke golf course— named Cabot Pacific—will get the lion’s share of attention when the resort opens. For it to surpass Canada’s established mountain courses like Jasper Park and Banff Springs, Keiser acknowledges that Rod Whitman’s impending design will need to be “blindingly good.” When the Cabot team searches for prospective sites to acquire and develop, a location’s natural beauty is always the determining factor. At Revelstoke, the dramatic landscape quickly convinced Cowan-Dewar that they had found their next destination. “I was immediately inspired by the grandeur of the mountains that surround Revelstoke and reminded why people have been drawn to the mountains for generations,” he says. The forthcoming Cabot resorts have rightfully attracted a lot of attention; however, the original Cabot property, Cabot Cape Breton (cabotlinks .com), has been newly enhanced. Following the successful introduction and sale of its Cliffs Residences, the resort recently unveiled a dozen two- and three-bedroom Hillside Homes, which are now available for purchase starting at around $790,000. Located at the heart of the resort, the residences range in size from 1,200 to 1,500 square feet, incorporate modern design influences, and offer panoramic golf course and sunset views. The Nova Scotia resort has also incorporated new guest activities, such as helicopter-led fly-fishing charters on the Margaree River and beachside lobster ceilidhs (the Scottish equivalent of a clambake). Cabot Cape Breton’s foundational activity is also expanding with the opening of The Nest, a 10-hole short course designed by the same architecture firm tasked with creating the upcoming Cabot Revelstoke course. Perched atop the resort’s highest point, The Nest is scheduled to celebrate its grand opening this summer with firm and fast terrain and design features that are commonly associated with links courses. At Keiser’s original property, Bandon Dunes Golf Resort (bandondunesgolf.com), a new course opening has elevated the destination’s already world-class golf experience. The Coore & Crenshaw–designed Sheep Ranch course opened for play last summer and immediately surprised golfers for two distinctive design features. Set along the resort’s most exposed parcel of land, the course boasts nine holes that either hug the edge of a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean or culminate with bluff-side green complexes. According to Keiser, having that many putting

surfaces adjacent to the ocean is proof of the architects’ genius when it comes to course routing. Equally noteworthy, Sheep Ranch is devoid of sand-filled bunkers—a decision partly influenced by the strong winds that consistently batter the land. Keiser and the architects determined that those winds would make it difficult to keep bunkers filled with adequate amounts of sand. They also deemed those persistent gusts alone to be a stout defense against low scores. “There’s nothing about the course that leads you to ask, ‘Where are the sand bunkers?’” says Keiser. “It’s such a natural site that it didn’t need them.” Later this summer, resort guests will also have the option to stay in two dozen new Round Lake rooms, 16 of which will be configured as doublequeens (the remaining eight will be equipped with single, king-size beds). All of the rooms feature fireplaces and each Round Lake room overlooks the surrounding coastal forest, the 7th hole on the Bandon Trails course, and—as one might expect given the lodging’s name—Round Lake.

The most compelling new developments at central Wisconsin’s Sand Valley (sandvalley.com), Keiser’s second golf resort, don’t pertain to the golf season at all. This past winter marked the first time that the 122-room resort remained open through the cold, snowy off-season. In the process, the resort introduced a bevy of new activities that can be enjoyed across much of the 10,000acre property, including cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice fishing, ice skating, and sledding. It seems likely that Sand Valley will remain a four-season resort this year as well, as Keiser acknowledged in February that the resort had already broken even for the winter season. Keiser said the resort also attracted more families— especially those with young children—during the winter than it typically does during the golf season, and that ice skating and pond hockey proved to be the most popular activities. “I grew up with pond hockey and it was fun,” Keiser says, “but I never would’ve predicted that pond hockey or pond skating would be as popular as sledding.” u

The 10,000-acre Sand Valley in central Wisconsin. Opposite: the golf course and a Hillside Home interior at the newly enhanced Cabot Cape Breton.

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 189

As American as Pie

Pastel-colored paintings of pies and cakes launched his career, but there is more to the American Master WAYNE THIEBAUD than just desserts. BY JASON EDWARD KAUFMAN

he California-based painter Wayne Thiebaud, who turned 100 last November, is best known for pictures that he made around 60 years ago depicting pie and cake slices on plates arranged in rows on countertops. These pictures of ready-toserve diner desserts have become icons of American Pop art, but they are only one course in the visual banquet that Thiebaud (pronounced TEE-boh) has produced over a seven-decade career. Thiebaud never considered himself part of the Pop art movement, but his realistic paintings of everyday items such as sandwiches, clothing, and cosmetics coincided with Warhol, Lichtenstein, and others depicting mass-produced products from Campbell’s Soup cans to Mickey Mouse. Their work was critical of consumerism, but Thiebaud’s celebrated the abundant pleasures of postwar American middle-class life. When his food still lifes appeared in his first New York solo show, at Allan Stone Gallery in 1962, they sold out, and museums including MoMA acquired the works.

That same year he was included in two seminal exhibitions that consolidated the Pop art phenomenon: New Realists at Sidney Janis Gallery in New York and New Painting of Common Objects at the Pasadena Art Museum, and he was given a solo show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. With favorable reviews in art periodicals as well as The New York Times, Time magazine, and Newsweek, Thiebaud, in his early 40s, was on his way. He went on to paint people and landscapes ranging from Southern California beach scenes to the hilly topography of San Francisco and abstract panoramas inspired by the California Delta near Sacramento. Lately he has made a series of vignettes that feature clowns, a somewhat wistful commentary on the artist as entertainer and the human comedy in general. Examples from each series are currently on view in Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings, an exhibition organized by the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento to mark the artist’s centennial. (See sidebar for tour venues and dates.)  Green River Lands, 1998

190

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 191

CARTOONS AND COMMERCIAL ART

Thiebaud was born in 1920 to a workingclass Mormon family in Mesa, Arizona, but grew up mainly in Long Beach, California, where his father found work after a failed effort at cattle ranching in Utah. Like many kids of his generation, Thiebaud loved the funnies pages in the newspaper and dreamed of being a cartoonist. As a teenager he briefly apprenticed as an animator for The Walt Disney Studios, and took classes in commercial art at a trade school in Los Angeles. He interrupted junior college to serve in the US Army Air Force (1942–1945) where he hoped to be a pilot, but his artistic talent led to his designing posters and drawing cartoons for the newspaper of his base near Sacramento. After the war, newly married, he tried unsuccessfully to sell his cartoons to New York magazines, then worked several years in advertising at Universal Studios and Rexall Drug Company, where an erudite colleague urged him to think of himself as an artist. He resigned in 1949 to pursue a teaching degree

at San Jose State College on the GI Bill and transferred to Sacramento State College (now California State University, Sacramento) where in 1951 he completed his bachelor’s and in 1953 his master’s degrees in art history and education. By 1951 his paintings, influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Bay Area Figurative Art, were the subject of a show at Sacramento’s Crocker Art Gallery. In graduate school he began an eight-year stint teaching art history, film, and television production at Sacramento Junior College (now Sacramento City College). During a 1956–1957 sabbatical in New York, he met Willem de Kooning, who advised him to find his own path. Thiebaud threw himself into painting the now famous still lifes with a reductive realism informed by his memories of restaurant jobs and his training as a commercial artist. He reveled in finding the fewest gestures needed to suggest a three-dimensional object on a flat canvas. Subjects are set against single-color backgrounds in indoor settings

bathed in clear, bright, even light. The sharply modeled forms, rendered in saturated hues, cast bluish shadows. Edges are delineated with parallel bands of vibrant green, orange, blue, or red, giving objects a sort of electric halo that he dubs “halation.” Thiebaud learned graphic clarity from the advertising men, sign painters, and cartoonists with whom he worked, but the sensuality of his paint derived from the gestural brushwork of Old Masters and Abstract Expressionists. He thickly applied oil pigments to underscore their materiality and to replicate the things they represent—creamy white paint spread like buttercream frosting or daubed into puffs of meringue, or dense crimson paint that doubles as greasy lipstick. He painted the figure in the same manner as the still lifes. Though models included his wife and friends, his portraits are devoid of personality and sentiment. Typically shown in isolation standing at attention or seated on a chair, subjects are emotionless with blank expressions concealing their inner worlds.

of overlapping freeways thronged with traffic embody the density of California’s networks. In the mid-1990s he turned his focus to the rural landscape of the Sacramento River Delta. These large canvases portray imagined vistas often with no horizon or sky, as if from an aerial perspective and from more than one viewpoint. Cultivated fields, represented by intensely colored patterns, form a patchwork intersected by roads and reflective bodies of

water, relieved by details such as trees and cattle. These abstract visions, and a series of mountain pictures begun in the early 2000s, portray the American West as a magic-real terrain of mesas, buttes, and solid clouds that calls to mind the setting of George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat” cartoons and draws on Thiebaud’s memories of the family ranch and his grandfather’s California farm where he spent time in his youth. 

LANDSCAPES OF THE IMAGINATION

After buying a house in San Francisco in 1972, he began an inventive series of cityscapes exaggerating the vertiginous topography. Streets rise vertically, parallel with the picture plane, dotted with cartoonish cars and flanked by buildings drawn in perspectives that cast shadows across the pavement. The resulting distortion of space and height creates a roller coaster effect that conveys the chaos and instability of urban life. Related pictures

Ripley Ridge, 1977

192

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 193

Soaring auction prices in the past decade reflect growing recognition of Thiebaud as an American master. Pies (1961) sold for $4 million in 2011, Encased Cakes (2011) leapt to $8.5 million in 2019, and Four Pinball Machines (1962) set a new Thiebaud record when it topped $19 million last year. His work is collected by most museums of modern and American art, including the Whitney Museum in New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum, both in Washington, D.C.; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern

194

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Art; and numerous other major institutions. He represented the United States at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1967 and has had retrospectives organized by SFMOMA in 1985, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 2000, and Acquavella Galleries in 2012. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. His primary dealer was Allan Stone from 1962 until the dealer’s death in 2006. Currently he is represented by Paul Thiebaud Gallery in San Francisco and Acquavella Galleries in New York and Palm Beach. Thiebaud revisits themes from earlier

periods—he is still painting pies today—and he has worked in multiple mediums, including graphite, charcoal, ink, pastel, watercolor, etching and aquatint, and lithography. In addition to his fine art, he has made 10 covers for The New Yorker and provided illustrations for two cookbooks. His distinguished teaching career includes 42 years in the art department at UC Davis, where he remains a professor emeritus. Twice married, with multiple children and stepchildren, he continues to live and work in Sacramento where he has occupied the same house for half a century.

AMERICAN MASTER

Thiebaud recently spoke with LUXURY MAGAZINE on the phone from his midtown Sacramento studio, recounting the advice he received from Willem de Kooning; the importance of humor, caricature, and color in his work; and his stint working in the circus. How does one master the craft of painting? Since I didn’t go to art school—I would have loved to have done so—I had a lot of wonderful people who helped me, and they gave me a critical premise of the formal values and the basic tools for how you do things properly to achieve good effects. I owe a great debt to sign painters and graphic artists, fashion designers, graphic designers, and commercial artists.

Shoe Rows, 1975 Opposite: Four Pinball Machines, 1962

“A LOT OF WONDERFUL PEOPLE HELPED ME ... I OWE A GREAT DEBT TO SIGN PAINTERS AND GRAPHIC ARTISTS, FASHION DESIGNERS, GRAPHIC DESIGNERS, AND COMMERCIAL ARTISTS.”

Early in your career you painted with a loose touch related to Abstract Expressionism. After your 1956–1957 sabbatical in New York, where you met Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and other established artists, you returned to California and began straightforward still lifes. What did de Kooning tell you that led to the change? I had been taking students on holiday field trips to artists’ studios and museums in New York. I asked de Kooning if he would let us come to his studio. He was a saint in terms of approachability, so I had some meetings with him by myself at his studio on 10th Street. He was forthcoming in the following way: He said that I was a pretty good painter, but lacked any kind of focus in a way that was important. He said, like many young painters, I was focusing on what I call “the signs of art.” Someone suddenly becomes famous and everybody looks at what the signs of that particular painter are—brushstrokes, drips, whatever. He asked, “Why are you painting anyway?” That question stopped me. He said, you have to find something you really know something about and that you are really interested in, and just do that. Don’t spend so much time looking at what you think will make you successful. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 195

Boston Cremes, 1962 Opposite: Two Kneeling Figures, 1966

196

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

© 2021 Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Opposote: Crocker Art Mueseum Purchase, 1964.22/© 2021 Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.

I came back to Sacramento and said to myself, what has my life been? I grew up a Mormon boy in America. I worked in restaurants and helped cook hamburgers, washed dishes, was a busboy. I started as directly as I could, took the canvas and made some ovals, thinking about Cézanne—the cube, the cone, and the sphere. I put some triangles over them and thought, well, maybe that could represent a pie on a plate. I had seen them laid out in restaurants and I was always interested in the way they formed these nice patterns. I said, all right, I’ll go ahead with this. As I finished, I looked at it, and said, my god, I just painted a bunch of pies. That’s going to be the end of me as a serious painter. I’ve got a teaching job, so I’m okay. But I could not leave it alone. I painted another one of different kind of pies, and I made some little cakes. I’d painted some gumball machines very early on, all tricked out with silver paint like Jackson Pollock. Again, all the signs of art. I decided, I’ll just paint a damned gumball machine and that’s the way it’s going to happen. Your still lifes turned out to be a great success when you showed them in 1962 at Allan Stone Gallery. When your focus shifted to figure painting, you treated your sitters much as you treated still-life objects—without dramatic action or clues of their state of mind. What were you trying to achieve? Figures are the most difficult subject matter of all, in my opinion. I tried to paint some from memory and ran smack up against my limited awareness of anatomy and of the conditions that make figure painting work. So, I did academic drawings weekly for about 7.5 years. I wanted to make a decent figure painting, in proportion and space, to look like a piece of sculpture existing in a little fictive, three-dimensional world. But, also not to have any kind of expression, not to denote any narrative—as if you’re sitting looking at someone across from you. You don’t know them, they don’t know you. You look at their clothing, you look at their shoes. I’d try and present that as clearly as possible, with a cast

shadow. I admire the photographs of August Sander because they’re plain presentations of a German cook, a German schoolteacher, a butcher. This is some guy in his ordinary jacket and pants and shoes. The San Francisco pictures and the Sacramento River Delta landscapes play with space in ways that are very different from the straightforward still lifes and figures. What was this fundamental change about? I believe very much in changing. I paint people, places, and things, which gives me the option of painting anything. I would like to believe I could paint anything, any day, any time, any way in which I would like. It’s not a very good career move, according to many fellow painters, but for me, that’s the challenge and that’s the charge, the joy, and the agony. I never required being successful. That’s why I went into teaching.

You’ve talked about yourself as a kind of thief of art history. I see relationships between your works and Édouard Manet, Henri Matisse, Giorgio Morandi, Edward Hopper, Walt Kuhn, Richard Diebenkorn, Saul Steinberg, and many others. It’s kind of unlimited. That’s why I kept teaching. Having to teach art history, aesthetics, criticism became my education. It was a great challenge to try to catch up on some deeper and more useful educational potential, coming into the world of ideas, poetry and great literature, music, and so on. That’s the code of honor, so to speak, about trying to make yourself an artist of some kind. That’s one of the most difficult things to do, to try to find your own voice, to try and love tradition, but to not be overwhelmed by it. However tiny a contribution you can make, it doesn’t matter so much as it does to simply take it on and contend with it. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 197

Five Seated Figures, 1965 Opposite: Freeway Curve, 1995

198

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

What are you working on these days? I’ve gotten together all the figure paintings that I have kept around, about 150 of them: a number of self-portraits I’ve never shown, some little narrative paintings that I’ve fooled around with, the portraits of the clowns. There are paintings of little figures on beaches, in shopping malls, on dance floors. I’m interested in combining those totally different kinds of working with the figure. I’m not interested in planning an exhibition, but I am determined now to make a book of these, plus the ones that are in collections and museums. There will be a kind of catalogue raisonné of the figures, of which there’s never been a comprehensive show. I’m going to call it People: Figure Paintings, Portraits, Self-Portraits, and Clowns. I want to create a catalogue as I did of the clowns and of monotypes, so that it will be part of

the archives of my foundation. I’m reworking some of the paintings, changing them quite dramatically, which I like doing. I know that conservators don’t like this sort of thing, but I don’t give a damn as long as I can get it to look the way I want it to look. You titled a recent work One-Hundred-YearOld Clown. Are your clowns somewhat autobiographical? Humor has always been at the center of my work, or certainly near it. I collect original cartoons and in my own work, I love it when people smile or when I see they are bemused. I worked briefly in the circus and became a great admirer of the clowns and carnival people that I sold newspapers to as a kid. That world interested me and I’d never done anything with it. When my wife passed away, and then my son within a year, I wanted

something just to sort of be preoccupied with. I concentrated and painted maybe 50, 60, or 70 of those clowns in as interesting a way as I could manage. The clowns depart from the earlier figure paintings not only because many of the clowns are in motion rather than still, but also because you paint them more freely. Caricature was very much part of my interest in terms of style. It’s not as simple as cartooning. It’s much richer. There’s a caricature of color and a caricature of space, like Cubism. I think stylistic derivation and expansion and development is based on a kind of caricature, whether it’s medieval caricature or the way that Goya uses caricature or the way the Persians caricature. There’s a caricature of almost all the formal elements that you can use, in my opinion. 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 199

One-Hundred-Year-Old Clown, 2020

200

Other than portraits painted before the model, much of your work is based on memory. Can you talk about that? Memory is probably not the defining word. The imagination needs to confront the memory and to learn that the memory is not a fixed thing. It’s not something you just have so much of. Rather, the memory is developed by confronting your lack of knowledge. So, while the memory is a great product of expression and awareness, it’s essentially the imagination that you finally are able to use. Some of the Pop artists transcribed photographs or used photo-mechanical means of getting the image onto the canvas. Do you use reference images, maybe photographs? I have a very big aversion to photography as a thing to use or even as a habit or tradition of painting. It’s a seductive medium and a wonderful medium and a great convention, but it’s a separate convention from our two-eyed view as human beings. I think my works are not realistic. They are representational. If you look carefully at a tie or a sucker, that’s such a basic shape that it doesn’t require much memory. And the same is true of many of my object paintings. They’re usually chosen for their pretty clear-headed simplicity. Or that they are things that have become almost touchstones in our daily lives. The complexity comes from figuring out compositionally what I might be able to develop. I try to look for ways of presenting forms in ways that have not seen them presented. And sometimes to do things that they shouldn’t do. You can make a landscape composition where you simply go from one [corner of the canvas] to the other, or you can overwhelm the weight distribution so the painting is somewhat uncomfortable, so its balance is slightly tentative. This, of course, is a way of building tension. If we’re using our bodies, our plumb line is very much aware of our sense of balance. That’s what painters base little

rectangles and squares on. It’s all about how the shapes relate to the edges, and not just the four sides, but other vectors. Figures must come outside toward us and recede inside away from us to infinity. Those are the options you have as a painter. Even though you’re on this flat surface, the extraordinary, miraculous aspect of painting is fictive space. And getting yourself to make the leap to faith, that that space can be coherent and believable in your sensations, is a major and wonderful trick. You perform it wonderfully. The landscapes are particularly engrossing. They come quite simply from the use of various projective systems, or not being hesitant to use whatever extraordinary combinations I can come up with. I’m very influenced, of course, by cultural variations [of landscape], whether it’s Japanese, Chinese, Persian, any kind of other modalities that you can think of. And that’s why art history is so crucially important to painters. It’s not just our inspiration but our guidepost and our visual library. Rather than represent every minute detail of a motif, you seem to try to get the essential contours and tonal changes, a reductive approach that can tend toward abstraction. I admire abstract painting very much and I’m basically always convinced that my work is abstract. Brushstrokes are simply shorthand notations, like taking shorthand of writing. You learn to get what you hope will essentially denote something rather than rendering it. When there is too much [detail], that kind of rendering leads to a kind of taxidermy, a kind of death. It’s like you’re an accountant rather than a shorthand taker. There are wonderful combinations—sometimes unconscious, often accidental—that go into mixing and matching. It is one of the most extraordinary, miraculous things that we have wonderful, alternate painting worlds by Van Gogh and Rembrandt and on and on and on. And we wouldn’t have

had the worlds of Van Gogh without that extraordinary unique set of organized paintings that come from his taking from Monticelli, French tapestries, and so on. Can you talk about color in your work? For my painting students, the palette has two yellows (a warm and a cool), two reds, two blues, and then black and white or tertiary colors of some measure. It’s a Fauve-type palette and it gives you the basis of being able to make not just any color, but the power of the color. That’s the secret of painting: getting the color value right. I try to get some of each color in as many different areas of the picture as I can, so there is a kind of aura, almost like sunshine or the rainbow effect. Was the aura effect, which you’ve called “halation,” something that you devised deliberately? No, it just kind of happened. If you take anything out in the sunshine and put it on a white surface, you get very clearly those auras and those vibrating halations. It comes with the fact that we’re seeing [with our binocular vision] two views that never quite coordinate. Can you talk about beauty? The art critic Dave Hickey once asked at a conference what theme we should be focused on in coming years. Everybody gave interesting responses until he said the word “beauty.” He said it emptied out the place. They were much more interested in social issues and god knows what? But beauty—yes, it’s primary. It’s what we search for. u

Part II of this interview in which Thiebaud recounts details of his family life, the rhythms of work and home, his relationship to Mormonism, and life as a centenarian continues online at luxurymagazine.com.

Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings will be on view at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis (July 25–October 3), McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas (October 28–January 16, 2022), and Brandywine River Museum of Art in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania (February 5, 2022–May 8, 2022).

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 201

The Ultimate Convenience

Luxury Card App EXCLUSIVE TO CARDMEMBERS

Luxury Card marks are property of Black Card LLC. BLACKCARD is a registered trademark used under license. Luxury Card products are issued by Barclays Bank Delaware pursuant to a license by Mastercard International Incorporated. Mastercard, and World Elite Mastercard are registered trademarks, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 Black Card LLC.

What’s Next BEAUTY FINDS

Eau d’Italie (right) is the signature fragrance of Positano’s Le Sirenuse, a fivestar hotel with the atmosphere of an old, family palazzo. The scent translates as spicy-musky mixed with oranges-in-bloom and magnolia notes carried by the salty sea breeze. $170; bergdorfgoodman.com Dreaming of St. Barths? Rosemary-and-lime-scented LSB Homme from Ligne St Barth (famous since the 1980s for bringing avocado and coconut cold-pressed oils to sunbathing tourists) will transport you to the sands and surf of the Caribbean. From $38; beautyhabit.com The Handmade Soap Company (made in County Meath, Ireland) has launched the summer-evoking fragrance ANAM in beautiful amber glass packaging (below). Compostable refill packaging for liquid washes and lotions makes it a solution for your skin and for the planet. From $37; thehandmadesoapcompany.ie

204

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

LA-based makeup artist Zara Kaplan goes for the natural look when at home. She packages her favorites in a Dimanche Beauty Bundle with inviting organic notes of iris root, rose, vanilla, cacao, and sweet orange. $270; siperfumes.com

Pai, one of the industry’s first clean skincare brands, debuts The Light Fantastic (right)—a gorgeous cocoa-and-ceramide, fast-absorbing oil for stressed-out skin. Provides natural plumping for that healthy glow. $74; paiskincare.us Swiss beauty brand Valmont bases its renowned skincare products on extensive scientific research. New for 2021, the revitalizing Hydra3 Eye Serum ($136) combats dark circles, the DetO2x Pack ($170) is a fun, oxygenating bubble mask, and the effervescent eau de toilette Fizzy Mint ($180) smells like a fresh spring garden. The luxurious l’Elixir des Glaciers line (left) presents Essence of Gold Sturgeon, a powerful regenerative face concentrate made from rare sturgeon DNA and Valmont’s unique oligomineral complex. Available in the Fluide Merveilleux ($360) and Crème Merveilleuse ($1,000). lamaisonvalmont.com

Courtesy Images, From Top: Mozzafiato; Gama Professional. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: Le Serenuse; Pai; La Maison Valmont; The Handmade Soap Company

Mozzafiato, a showcase of heritage Italian beauty brands (above), plans to open its US flagship in Denver. Rare finds include Storie Veneziane (from $186), a fragrance collection inspired by Venice and bottled in Murano glass; hydrationpacked Truffle Therapy Cream (from $72) by Skin & Co. Roma; and Borghese’s bestselling Curaforte Moisture Intensifier ($74). Capture the scents of Italy (home and linen sprays, diffuser, hand soap, and potpourri) with The Italian Home ($177). Also available online. mozzafiato.com Having matched scents to paintings in the Louvre last year, Paris-based perfumer Officine Universelle Buly is at it again. This time it’s Scented Stickers— eucalyptus with peppermint and lemon—to wear with masks. $10/eight-pack; buly1803.com

Tata Harper introduces her specially developed-for-reactiveskin Superkind Collection. As always with Harper’s natural products, the entire collection is based on botanical blends like mulberry-leaf complex, chamomile, calendula flower buds, magnolia extract, and grapeseed oil. Many come from her Vermont farm. From $65; tataharperskincare.com GAMA Italy Professional, a celebrated Italian hair and beauty company, enters the US consumer market with two new revolutionary hair tools. The iQ Perfetto ($400) is a designforward and ultralight hairdryer (right) with an auto-clean filter and memory function. G-EVO Real Ceramic Ultra-Heat Hair Straightener ($170) glides easily through strands and is gentle on permanently colored locks. gamaprofessional.us 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 205

What’s Next SHOP

BECAUSE WE WANT TO TRAVEL AGAIN... Tanner Krolle, a London-based leather goods brand began, like Hermès in Paris, as a saddle shop. Its buttery calfskin cases were carried by royalty until the brand’s luster eventually faded. It’s recently been burnished by a hip creative team helmed by stylist and big-name footwear designer Tabitha Simmons. From $2,000; tannerkrolle.com

Guests at The Maker Hotel (above) in Hudson, New York, can buy unique items handselected by Lev Glazman and Alina Roytberg, the co-founders of global beauty sensation Fresh and the hotel’s owners. Ogle linen robes and cashmere blankets, the hotel’s beds (handcrafted in Portugal), and locally made farmhouse jams. Now also online. New one-of-a-kinds every month. themaker.com

David Kulick’s Zone6 Design creates exquisite gardens and interior spaces—from chic rooftop terraces to bucolic country retreats. His horticultural expressions (live plants in unique containers, like the orchid shown below) are go-to gifts of A-list clients in fashion and entertainment. Now delivering to addresses in Manhattan and Brooklyn. plantshopnyc.com

Paravel makes chic sustainable suitcases and packing cubes from upcycled plastic bottles. They offset emissions at every step of production, making theirs the first-ever carbonneutral suitcases. Suitcases from $255; tourparavel.com

The Lido Beach Collection (above) by Italian linen expert Frette brings the brand’s luxurious bed and bath offerings outdoors for the first time. The three-piece series of towels, cushions, and totes comes in absorbent cotton terrycloth and bold color combinations. From $40; frette.com Cult shoe designer Loeffler Randall opens its first standalone store on Prince Street in Nolita (right near the Museum of Ice Cream). The boutique is swathed in shades of pink and cream in an understated, cool-girl style with sink-into chairs to encourage lingering. loefflerrandall.com

206

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Pirelli and Montblanc partnered to create #MY4810, a line of limited-edition lightweight luggage (from $1,300; montblanc.com) with sporty, high-performance mini-tire wheels developed by Pirelli engineers. Meanwhile, supercar maker and Formula One team McLaren has collaborated with TUMI on a nine-piece capsule luggage and travel collection (from $130; tumi.com) featuring carbon-fiber accents and the F1 team’s papaya-color highlights (below).

BOOKS

Courtesy Images Clockwise From Top Left: Blackberry Farms; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Rizzoli/Tricia Foley; Phaidon; Jono Pandolfi. Opposite, Courtesy Images From Top: The Maker Hotel; Frette; Zone6; TUMI

Under the Wave at Waimea is a soul-searching, darkly spiritual ride through the highly competitive world of championship surfing and Hawaii’s gritty subcultures from award-winning author and renowned travel writer Paul Theroux. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. $28; hmhbooks.com

BECAUSE WE’RE STILL COOKING... Messermeister, the Ojaibased, women-owned maker of premium chef’s knives, introduces Adventure Chef Knife, a 6-inch folding design perfect for both your home kitchen or to take camping. $80; messermeister.com Robust rustic tableware by Jono Pandolfi is a favorite of farm-to-table chefs. Pieces are crafted by hand in Union City, New Jersey, for clients including Eleven Madison Park, Gramercy Tavern, and Lilia (below). Fourpiece place setting from $140; jonopandolfi.com

Tennessee’s foodie favorite resort Blackberry Farm partners with local artisans for cooking essentials (above). Buy their lightweight but precise kitchen knives (paring knife, $800) made in collaboration with Phillips Forged or a hand-forged carbon-steel skillet ($325) that cooks like cast iron, by Smithey’s Charleston partner, Robert Thomas Iron Design. blackberryfarmshop.com Clam Lab is the ceramics studio of Brooklynite Clair Catillaz, who makes statement pieces for the table such as sculptural pitchers, stoneware bowls in various sizes, bold trays, and curl-up-with-a-cup coffee mugs. Mugs from $58; pitchers from $280; clamlab.com

SOCIAL COOKS Follow mouthwatering video how-tos and entertainment released via Instagram by top chefs. From his home kitchen in Modena, Italy, superstar chef Massimo Bottura cooks vegetable Thai curry or maybe his signature tortellini alla panna and a dessert of millefoglie with berries. Tune in for his daily series, Kitchen Quarantine, @massimobottura. Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi shares baking tips daily, @christinatosi. Spanish celebrity chef José Andrés prepares evening #RecipesforthePeople, @chefjoseandres. Momofuku’s David Chang is irreverent, innovative, and fun to watch—whether he’s making kimchi or from-scratch lasagna, @davidchang.

Fans: How Watching Sports Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Understanding is a factbased and highly entertaining book by New York Times bestselling author Larry Olmsted, about why being a sports fan is good for us and a force for positive change. Algonquin Books. $26; algonquin.com Living in the Mountains showcases spectacular architectdesigned mountain homes from all over the world. Extraordinary views. Luxurious and innovative interiors. A profound connection to nature. Phaidon Press. $50; phaidon.com Life Meets Art: Inside the Homes of the World’s Most Creative People, by Sam Lubell, is a peek into the homes of some of the greatest creatives in history— painters, poets, fashion designers, musicians, and architects—past and present. Some houses are open to the public; many are not. Phaidon Press. $60; phaidon.com

A Summer Place: Living By the Sea by Tricia Foley showcases modern seaside homes designed around their water views; 1900s shingle-style cottages restored for today’s living; and artists’ color-andpattern filled retreats. Chapters on summer decorating and casual outdoor entertaining. Rizzoli USA. $50; rizzoliusa.com Air Time: Watches Inspired by Aviation, Aeronautics, and Pilots chronicles over 100 years of aviation-inspired timepieces, including the Longines Hour Angle (designed by Charles Lindbergh for his solo nonstop transatlantic flight in 1927) and the Omega Speedmaster, the first watch to land on the moon. Rizzoli USA. $85; rizzoliusa.com Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ by pitmaster chef Rodney Scott (co-owner of Rodney Scott’s BBQ in Charleston and Birmingham) celebrates his family’s culinary traditions. The cookbook includes recipes for barbecued ribs, smoked chicken wings, hush puppies, and his mom’s banana puddin’. Clarkson Potter. $30; penguinrandomhouse.com The Iconic American House: Architectural Masterworks Since 1900 includes examples by luminaries like Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Richard Neutra. Exquisite photography captures the buildings in their landscapes. Thames & Hudson. $65; thamesandhudson.com 

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021 207

DELIVERY AND TAKEOUT Order flavor-blasted Americana— bourbon brown sugar BBQ wings, bacon mac-and-cheese burgers, jalapeño-bacon popovers—from Guy Fieri–managed Flavortown, currently running ghost kitchens in 33 states and Washington, D.C. guysflavortownkitchen.com LA’s Ramen District was created during the pandemic. The company partners with some of the country’s finest ramen joints to deliver to your door (nationally). Comes frozen. All you do is boil it. ramendistrict.store If you know what it means to miss New Orleans, this is for you: a meal kit packed with the most popular menu items from Creole restaurant Commander’s Palace. The three-course dinner for two comes with garlic bread, seafood gumbo or turtle soup, cream cheese grits topped with a “mess of shrimp,” and a whole pecan pie. Heat and eat. From $170; goldbelly.com Olive & Sinclair Chocolate Co. is a legend in the South and now ships nationally. The duck fat caramels are a hands-down favorite. $20; oliveandsinclair.com

Marin County, California, locals can reserve an outdoor dining spot at one of the shuckyour-own picnic tables at Hog Island Oyster Farm overlooking Tomales Bay (where the oysters are grown). Out-of-towners can order online. Harvested daily. Shipped overnight. From $75; hogislandoysters.com Many of the restaurants that used to snap up grain-fed freerange ducks have started selling them to home cooks. Liberty Ducks does that whole-duck thing (from giblets to sausages). Connect with one of its retailers via the Restaurant Links tab on Liberty’s website. The product arrives vacuum-packaged and the rich meat freezes really well. From $35/whole duck, $15/pack of sausages; libertyducks.com Niche olive oil companies like Brightland (brightland.co/ collections) and newly launched Saint Supply (saintsupply .com) are bottling rare organic oils (some from centuries-old trees in Greece). Drizzle on salads or sip a spoonful a day to benefit from the abundant phytonutrients and antioxidants. From $40.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream has fervent fans who flock to shops in 13 states and Washington D.C. If you don’t live close, you can still indulge your sweet tooth with a fourpack of a unique flavor like brandied banana brulée or goat cheese with red cherries. Ships nationally. From $58; shop.jenis.com

Beignets are deep-fried and liberally dusted with powdered sugar. They’re best hot and fresh and washed down with a steaming café au lait. The next best thing is a New Orleans Beignet Kit from the renowned Café du Monde, packaged with a can of the café’s chicory coffee blend. From $11; cafedumonde.com

Take a New York Food Tour from your own home. Antipasti from Italian purveyors on Arthur Avenue; a Reuben pastrami from Katz’s; steak from Peter Luger. Launched by celebrity event designer Jennifer Zabinski and chef-caterer Oliver Cheng (they’ve worked the Met Gala). $1,000/four servings; thedestinationhome.com

Whitefish, herring, and five kinds of smoked salmon (including salmon pastrami and barbecue style) are available via Brooklyn’s legendary Acme Smoked Fish Company—a fourth-generation, familyowned smoker. Fans used to drive into Greenpoint for a pint of the smoked whitefish salad. Now it ships nationwide overnight. Whitefish salad from $9; Oy Vey Collection from $140; acmesmokedfish.com

This melt-in-your-mouth Ibérico ham tastes like what you remember from Madrid’s tapas bars. The Spanish restaurant chain Cinco Jotas offers a Discovery Gift Box— two packages of authentic acorn-fed ham, perfectly sliced and ready for tapas-at-home. Sliced (in package) from $20; whole bone-in ham from $760; cincojotas.us

Salty-sweet Milk Bar pie, red velvet cake truffles, indulgent three-tier birthday cakes, and insanely sweet-and-crunchy cornflake-chocolate-chipmarshmallow cookies from Christina Tosi’s Milk Bar are now available online. Sampler $52; milkbarstore.com u —Irene Rawlings

208

LM SPRING/SUMMER 2021

Courtesy Images, From Left: Hog Island Oyster Co./Remy Hale; New Orleans Tourism/Paul Broussard

What’s Next FOOD & DRINK