Interior Motives
Dishing on the Dallas Design Scene
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| Local artist Erick Swenson joined Angstrom Gallery at NYC’s Armory Faira |
Stoneleigh Days
Everyone seems to want to live in hotels these days, or at least near them. Our Stoneleigh Hotel is getting a makeover – and a sibling. The new Stoneleigh Residences will be built behind the current hotel on Wolf Street, and connect by an underground tunnel, says Deborah Lloyd Forrest, who was selected to redesign the hotel and create the residences. With 30 years of design experience, including luxury hotels and historic restorations, Deborah, who restored the Willard Hotel in D.C. and The Hamilton Princess, among others, received ASID’s uber national design bounty in March with the 2004 Designer of Distinction Award. Past recipients from the ASID Texas chapter include Trisha Wilson, Andre Staffelbach, and Joseph Minton.
Pearl Anniversary
Last month, ASID celebrated its 30th anniversary Futura Gala at Arlington Hall in Lee Park. The April fete and student style show honored 14 ASID Fellows – members who go above and beyond to contribute to the profession and the society – and Designers of Distinction. The Texas Chapter, which does not include Houston, has more Fellows than any other United States chapter. Honorees included: Ellen Angell, Jeannine Bazer-Schwartz, Orville Carr, Arlis Ede, Deborah Lloyd Forrest, Barbara Nugent, Susie Patterson, Jan Parker, Irv Schwartz, Linda Smith, Russell Stanley, Ann Sullivan, and Kathy Ford Montgomery.
HOTNOT HOT NOT |
Designers Gone Wild
Design spirit is in the air, literally. Wilson & Associates designers are racking up so many AAdvantage miles between here and Vegas they may never have to buy an airline ticket again. Thanks to Wilson, mega orders are leaving Big D for everywhere – Vegas, Atlantis resort in the Bahamas, The Palm in Dubai. Something like a million square feet of carpet from the Couristan showroom in the Dallas World Trade Center shipped there, and crates of items are leaving Donghia, David Sutherland, and ID Collection… where we also spotted Sheryl Crow and beau Lance Armstrong. Their designer, Roy Materanek of RWM Design in Austin, has worked with ID for years. For Sheryl and Lance, Roy has a penchant for Designers Guild and Julia Gray. Who else is shopping there? Barbara Vessels, who’s doing the home of new Mavericks coach, Avery Johnson, and said to be in a hurry to get things wrapped up for a big party. ID Collection recently won two national awards from the fabric house of Bergamo for excellence in hospitality/contract sales and residential – the most awards given to any of Bergamo’s United States showrooms.
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| Lance and Sheryl shop Dallas |
Join the Frey
Some things, such as wine and great fabric houses, get better with age. Pierre Frey, the luxury French fabric house founded in 1935 by its namesake whose goods are carried locally by Walter Lee Culp, recently acquired Boussac-Fadini. (Boussac features the heritage of Marcel Boussac’s patterned weaves, large-scale designs, and jacquards, and Fadini Borghi carries kingly high-end silks and luxurious fabrics of centuries past.) The acquisitions, along with with the 181-year-old Braquenie line, famous for its documents, position Frey as one of the most innovative family-owned furnishing textile groups in the world.
“Our top market by far is the U.S.,” says Patrick Frey, son of Pierre and now PF president. (Fun fact: Patrick’s grandfather, Rene Prou, was one of the designers of the Normandie, the legendary ship known for its lavish interiors and art deco style.)
Frey believes interiors in the southern United States are definitely more sophisticated than those in the north (and we’re not talking south of LBJ). “Dallas and Houston combined is our third largest market in America,” he says. This month marks the Texas opening of Oklahoma-based Interiors Galleria, a 37,000-square-foot multi-merchant, upscale retail mall devoted to home decor and interior design, located on West 15th Street in Plano. Picture a cross between The Gathering and Rutherford’s. Designers and retailers will show off old and new wares in home-like settings, from English antiques to private-label upholstery to custom linens.
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| Decorator Julio Quinones heats up new Dallas restaurant |
Someone’s in the Kitchen with Julio
Kitchen expose seems to be de rigueur in the restaurant world these days. At Aurora, Ron Guest installed a Lalique-inspired aurora borealis glass wall, but you can still see the copper pots in Avner Samuel’s tidy kitchen.
Julio Quinones plans an open kitchen in former Parigi chef Abraham Salum’s newest venture, Salum – slated to open later this year. Abraham promises fresh, contemporary eclectic fare at the corner of Fitzhugh and Cole, right across from City Homes; Quinones is doing his part with soothing colors, a contemporary aesthetic, and funky lighting. This is Quinones’s first plunge into the restaurant world.
Debra Stewart has just completed her work at the Fredericksburg Inn and Suites, and is also working on her first restaurant project: a Southern-based chain of “quick serve” (not fast) hamburger restaurants called Backyard Burgers, coming our way soon. Bringing the outdoors inside, Sticks and Stones Garden Market’s owner, Mike Thompson, designed interiors for Standard Restaurant, which made the move from Deep Ellum to Uptown in March.
Are You Going to Armory Fair?
Angstrom Gallery was the only boot-scootin’ Texas gallery to grace this NYC art fair mid-March. Artists exhibiting included Erick Swenson, Mark Flood,
Maya Schindler, and Mark Babcock, among others, including Ludwig Schwarz – shortlisted for the first-ever $30,000 Arthouse Texas Prize. Of the 129 artists nominated, three are from Houston and one is from Dallas. For more information visit www.arthousetexas.org.
ON HIS OWN: Ike Isenhour has left Jurado Design Group to office across from David Cadwallader and consult with DC on the new W residences.
