I have been interested ( no-make that fascinated ) on the life and work of Frank Lloyd Wright since the early 1990s when I have the opportunity to have a in depth tour of Oak Park , Il by a fine gentle`man named Mr. Lyman Shepard.  Lyman was born and raised in Oak Park in the 1920s and personally knew the Wright family kids for many decades.  Having Lyman personally take me on a walking tour of Wright home and on the street where Wright lived and worked was eye opening experience and since that time, I have collected books, read articles and have visited now some 80+ Wright sites.  I was hooked from thaAnd in my designs for clients, I often fall back on Wright and his philosophies on the design of the built environment when I reach a challenging stage in the design process.  I often ask "What would Mr. Wright do?"  How would he have handled this situation?  What materials would he have considered?

I'm lucky to be living and working as a designer in Phoenix and excited to know that there are so many others who "get" his work here and across the globe.   But this week is really special. The Phoenix Art Museum opens an exhibition entitled “Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century.”   And it is another celebration of his work that is just as timely as it was when he was creating projects like Fallingwater, Johnson Wax Building, Florida Southern College and of course Taliesin and Taliesin West. 

Richard Nilsen reports that the show coincides with the 75th anniversary of Scottsdale, Ariz.’s Taliesin West and the centennial of the original Taliesin in Spring Green, Wis. 

The exhibit is organized around three categories that remain relevant today: site and climate; efficiency and design issues; and technology and materials. “People are still learning from Frank Lloyd Wright and his work,” says museum director James Ballinger.

This Wright home designed for a client in a wheelchair was a safe and secure place for more than 50 years. 

It’s the season for sharing.  One way to do that is share your home with family and friends during the holiday season.  And to make their time at your place extra special, here are twelve inexpensive touches that can make a difference for a guest and for you. 

But you should be warned:  Do a great job at making them comfortable by giving them a private place and retreat and they may be back every holiday.

• First, plan ahead.   With the anticipation of guests, don’t add to the stress of the season by running around at the last moment to ensure you have taken care of all the details.  As with this season, it is important to make a list and check it twice.  Stock up on supplies include tissues, soap, shampoo and bath essentials. That way you’ll have quality time to spend with your guests once they arrive.

• Next remember the essential basics: Provide fresh flowers in the room( a natural air-freshener) and a tray with a couple of bottles of bubbly or spring water and glasses. 

• Put a personalized welcome note on the pillow along a small bag of dark chocolate kisses.  The chocolate can raise the blood sugar naturally and make your guest feel sleepy, especially something important if your guest experiences a time change.

• Plug in two nightlights, one for the bedroom near the exit door, the other in the bathroom assigned for their use.  These can help them navigate in unfamiliar spaces without having to turn on the room lighting and disturbing others.

• Whether in the desert valley or high in the mountains, a condo loft or estate home, a fluffy robe hanging in the bedroom can be your guest’s personal security blanket plus it adds the warmth at night should the weather turn chilly unexpectedly.

• Create a guest book that resides in the room at all times.  Inside, include favorite local places to see, restaurants to visit and how to use the Internet including passwords and access to the wireless network.  Encourage them to leave a note to leave their own special message for the next guest.

•  Pairs of sleeping pillows stacked together are much better than trying to pile on decorative toss pillows, leaving the guests to figure out where to put them overnight.  In this case, keep it simple and move them to a shelf or chest.

• Nothing is finer than freshly pressed sheets to crawl into after a full day or travel.  You may forgo that luxury for yourself but it can be really something special for a favorite guest so send them out or do them yourself a few days before guests arrive.

• Provide your guest with a key to the house and advise them of any alarms that may be used day or night.  Better to give them that warning than waking up the household by opening up a window or an exterior door.

• Magazines that feature the local culture can be stacked in a market basket along with area maps and special interest publications that your guests may sincerely appreciate for your thoughtfulness.

• If your guest space doesn’t have black-out style window treatments, place a night mask on the beside table or hanging from a hook on the bathroom door.  And slippers by the bed make for an inviting touch especially if the flooring is something other then carpeting.

• And finally, if your guest room is small, offer to take the emptied luggage out of the room for safe keeping someplace else in the house. This will open up the room ( and closet ) and should your guest purchase something to remember their trip, there will be a place to store them easily.

After some 30 years of practice, creating a variety of built environments, I am still amazed at the questions that come about as a result of being interviewed by a client. Recently, a potential client from Canada asked me a very pointed question.  'What Should I Hire You or Any Interior Designers?"  It was an easy reply and here's what I said...

I can't speak to other interior designers but what I can speak to is that after some three decades of practice, the core level of service my firm offers is this:  "We help clients make the best choices and decisions regarding their project to maximize their return on the investment."   

It's not the kind of project, how big it is or how much money is being spent.  The best designers, in my opinion, are those that educate the client on the options that are in line with the job criteria. Then they assist clients in making the decisions that are most appropriate.  It has nothing to do with style, color or fashion.  It has everything to do to ensure that the client has an environment that supports their own human and personal experience, whether that is a commercial office space or a residential environment.  

Why else would designers exists if we didn't in some way increase productivity, enjoyment and support?  Anyone can go to the Internet to purchase a sofa or a lamp but only a designer can inform, educate and optimize the client's objectives in a way that enhances the real estate investment, that ensures client comfort and makes the process simple and effective and efficient.  


That's WHAT the design process is about.  Putting together the options that makes the best of any situation.  Choosing the best choices presented.  Implementing them in ensure a timely delivery.  Keeping an eye on costs.  But it is also about the WHY of design.  We think we make clients better decision makers above everything else.  Design that enhances the human experience.  Design that makes life easy, simple, supportive and comfortable. 

One of my favorite paint lines to specify is Benjamin Moore. I have others  Today it says its new 240-strong Color Stories collection not only increases options but also introduces a whole new concept in paint science by doubling the number of pigments in each formula to create full spectrum hues.  And the more depth a paint finish has the better and truer the color once it goes on a wall.  

Benjamin Moore says it's re-created the can with its new Color Stories paint line. The collection's nine palettes contain 240 hues of what the company calls full-spectrum colors, which are achieved by combining five to seven pigments rather than the usual three and omitting black and gray tints as filler. The company claims the paint is richer and the colors have more depth. Plus, the pigments being blended to create these nuanced hues have no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Because the company makes its own colorants it can ensure that when pigments are mixed into its low-VOC paint brand, Aura, the total VOCs remain under 50 grams per liter.

There has been plenty of excess over the last few years and perhaps the state of the current economy is symptomatic of that to some degree.  Consider the excessively large homes that were built, some easily exceeding 25,000 square feet on lots that are not much bigger.  Recently Aaron Spelling's home in LA's Holmby Hills finally sold this summer but at 57,000 square feet and with a price tag of 150 million, it took nearly three years to find a buyer. 

When a client a few years ago approached me about designing and  building their dream home, it was easy to see that it wasn't so much a dream home but a statement that he had "made it."  After selling his thriving business, he bought three lots on a very narrow strip of Jupiter Island, Florida, one directly on the ocean, the other two across the street situated on the Intracostal Waterway.  It would be on these properties where he imagined his dream would come true of building something that would be - in his words -  "more than keeping up with the Jones but would blow them out of the water." 

I kept questioning his rationale and would continually pull him back from "over-building his dream."  I suggested that it was much more important to build with classic forms, a design appropriate and suitable to site and with unmeasurable quality rather than just size.  Over time, I successfully won that argument.  We worked as a team and with a most wonderful builder, Sands Construction, to construct what was a "tract house" of just over 10,000 square feet.   But it was in the beach side guest house where the client spent quality times, just he and his very special wife.  It was their retreat away from the "big house" even thought it was just across the the beach road." 

In a short five years, my client share with me his plans had changed.  The home no longer fit needs of his family.  No too long after, he sold the home, fully furnished to new owners. 

With new owners ready to put their stamp on the property, the residence was almost fully torn down and in its place a McMansion that nearly tripled the size of the original home.  It was sad to see all that we had designed end up in a pile of rubble especially after such a short period of use.  

As I reflect, there are two points that come to mind :
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1. Quality always wins.  Everytime.  Design is not always design when it tries to replicate something that it "just ain't"... like all the faux finishes and extruded plastic moldings in use today that do a poor job of imitating some historical architectural style.   But there is not thing that you just can't fake.  It's either quality or it's not.  
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2.  Bigger is not always better.  The desire to live "bigger than life" doesn't always provide the return on the investment one expects.   Big spaces are often void of fulfilling human experience.   It's better to be "best" than "big."  
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My client passed unexpectedly not long after he moved out from his big dream.   He and his wife resided in a smaller residence but it was about quality and having the best.  What I will always fondly recall is that he lived life in the best way he could and enjoyed sharing that with others.  He was always about quality and surrounded by the best.