Vancouver and Chicago Interior Designers - Kalu Interiors Blog - All About Interior Design » Los Angeles

Modernism at its best

phyllis — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:15:06 +0000

A new film will be coming out about the life of Julius Schulman, who was a legendary architectural photographer. Best known for his photograph of the Case Study House, the Stahl House, his pictures helped to spread architectural modernism throughout California and then around the world. Before he passed away at the age of 98, he helped to make the film Visual Acoustics which premieres later this month.

In this following preview clip, he talks about his most famous work, the Stahl House or also known as Case Study House #22:

Video clip via: Eluxury

Shine Home

phyllis — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:05:59 +0000

I was in LA for a few days last week and stumbled across furniture by a company called Shine Home. I thought alot of their pieces were AMAZING. They had some really unique products and pieces that are hard to find in Vancouver unless you get it custom made. Thought I would share a few pieces from their line. What do you think? Love it? Hate it?

Arcadia Pendant - $995 USD.

Florence Chair - $3025 USD.

Istanbul Side Table - $985 USD.

Sydney Sofa - $4765 USD.

Marbella Buffet - $3240 USD.

LA Fall House Tour

phyllis — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:05:15 +0000

Any architecture/ design buffs in LA on Sunday October 4? If so, I would recommend that you sign up for the AIA’s (American Institute of Architects) Los Angeles Fall Home Tour! You get to visit 4 amazing contemporary homes in the LA Manhattan Beach area. The architects will even be around to answer questions about the designs.

Of the 4 homes my personal favorite was the Rogers-Sturz Residence by Michael Lee Architects. Here is some information about the house :

The primary living spaces of this 2,300 square foot, two-story house are oriented toward a central courtyard that separates the garage—with a guest suite on top—from the main house. Large sliding-glass “walls” will open to make the living room and courtyard one contiguous space. An office looks to a front-yard garden and above it the second-story master suite has its own south-facing deck. Projecting, somewhat exaggerated eaves protect the entry and master suite from the south sun and provide dynamic sculptural composition as one enters the home. An intimate entry space leads to a dramatic double-height living room with exposed structural steel and floor-to-ceiling glass. Twin stairs lined with bookcases lead to the bedrooms and become a striking wall of built-in furniture.

Here are some pics of the house!

Image from http://www.mleearchitects.com

Case Study Houses – The Stahl House

phyllis — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:28:39 +0000

Image from http://www.shpcontemporary.com

Am finally back from our whirlwind 1 week trip to San Diego, LA and San Francisco with my hubby! This time our trip to LA was a little different from the last ones. We decided to try to find “different” things to see instead of the usual touristy stops. One of the things that we tried to find was the Stahl House. The Stahl House was one of the many houses built as a part of a program in 1959 known as the “Case Study Houses” program. These houses built were experiments in American residential architecture and sponsored by the Arts & Architecture magazine. Major architects of that time were called upon to create modern inexpensive housing to address the housing boom that was created by the end of the war.

The Stahl House, designed by Pierre Koenig for the Stahl family is one of the most famous of these Case Study Homes. It has been featured in numerous films and can even be bought on GTA San Andreas (Grand Theft Auto) as a safe house! Hilarious!

Since the house tours were sold out, we decided to go on a trek to find the house one night. We made it close to the house but were disappointed to find that it is in a gated area of the street. We did manage to see it (so we think!) from a neighboring hill in the Hollywood Hills area. Here’s a blurry picture that we took. We think it is the higher of the two houses but we are not positive!

It remains to this day one of my favorite houses and it’s a shame we weren’t able to see it in person! Oh well….gives me a reason to go to LA again some day! Here are some pictures so you can see for yourself!

Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stahl_House

Image from http://www.stahlhouse.com

Katsuya by Starck

phyllis — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:00:20 +0000

Hubby and I are in LA, San Diego and San Francisco this week. One of my favorite parts about travelling to the big US cities is checking out the great trendy places to hang out or to eat at. I came across this restaurant called Katsuya by Starck in my research of places to go. Looks like there are 4 of these restaurants all over LA with similar themed decor but each one varies slightly.

I personally love this type of decor. It is so trendy and different from the norm. Not sure what the food is like but with decor like this maybe we won’t even notice if it’s bad!?! Has anyone been to any of these restaurants?