The Ferrone Home and Corinne Robbins Style

For years now my dearest friends, Nick Ferrone, a real estate broker for Corcoran in Brooklyn Heights, and Stephanie Lewin, a clinical psychologist in Manhattan, have furnished their Cobble Hill loft with mid-century modern finds, many of which came from my shop.  Not only have they purchased many pieces from me, but they have also invested in several paintings of mine which are hanging in Stephanie’s office. The abstract paintings help her patients with their therapy.  

Nick and Stephanie are such good customers that I have let them in on a few of my secret contacts, including my favorite "picker," my relatively inexpensive upholsterer, and one of my refinishers from a list of many.  They also get free services such as storage, restorations arrangements, shopping tips, and decorating advice. In return though, I’m taken out to dinner a lot. Thank you!

Nick and Stephanie's first purchase with me was a vintage Candelabra by British designer Tom Dixon. Good eye, guys! I believe that piece is pretty rare--it looks hand crafted. Their next purchase, which has always been one of my favorite pieces, is a pair of 1950’s wicker chairs and table by Finnish designer Eero Aarnio.  The early Aarnio design is typical of his sculptural signature, and this set happens to be in excellent condition. 

Stephanie and Nick also bought a set of six “Julianne” chairs by Johannes Anderson, the Danish designer, to go around their contemporary dining table. The biggest purchase was a beautiful sofa by Edward Wormely for Dunbar. This sofa is just stunning! The petite faux bamboo brass and marble table is an eclectic compliment to the sofa. 

Their most recent furniture purchase from me was a small walnut case and white door Florence Knoll Credenza. Somehow it all works. Their place is like a mini museum, but still comfortable and homey. Perfect!

Corinne Robbins Jewelry Collection

There's a new addition to Corinne Robbins Art & Design--vintage and antique jewelry. Our collection includes Norweigan, Scandinavian and American rings, bracelets, brooches, necklaces and more from the Edwardian and Victorian eras, as well as from the 1940s, 50s, 70s, 80s and 90s. New pieces are added regularly, so take a look and don't hesitate to contact us if you see something you like or if you have any questions!

Madeline's Secret

Are you a fan of the Madeline books -- the adventures of a little girl in Paris? Then you must go to the Bemelmans Bar at the Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue and 76th Street.

Ludwig Bemelmans, the author and illustrator of the Madeline books, painted murals on all the walls of the bar at the Carlyle. It's his only public piece of art on display. A true treasure!

This has always been a favorite secret spot of mine. No windows makes it even more incognito. Hide from the crowd in this beautiful bar with your secret friend and take in the world of Bemelmans.

Image via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alltheparks/5472480542/in/photostream/

Image via Google

The Seagram On Park

The Seagram building, at 375 Park Avenue and 53rd Street, is one of my favorite buildings in all of Manhattan. It's one of the few sky scrapers with a plaza in it front of it. It was designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in 1958.

The Seagram Building's plaza at 375 Park Avenue

Made of bronze and glass, it's like a modern sculpture in the sky. The beauty of the building is the plaza in front of it. It acts as a platform or a pedestal of sorts, giving the piece (the sky scraper) room to be viewed. When you look through the lobby from the outside you can see right through to the back of building, giving it a light, floating feeling. The additional office space needed was built behind the main building--a smaller building on 53rd Street, home of what used to be the famous Brasserie restaurant where I used to go as a kid, and is now The Four Seasons restaurant.

Mies van der Rohe, who emigrated to the United States from Germany in 1937, was such a genius. So much so that many architects designing Manhattan office buildings took from the original Mies design--minimal modern glass and metal.

Bertoia on Fifth Avenue

Today, Blaise took photos of two Harry Bertoia sculptures--a massive screen and a large cloud hanging from the ceiling--featured in the phenomenally restored Manufacturer's Hanover building. The space at 510 Fifth Avenue at 43rd street, once a bank, is now home to the Canadian clothing store Joe Fresh.

Both sculptures were removed from the interior and had to be restored and re-installed in the original positions. I like the way the clothing store worked with the sculptures to feature them prominently as a major part of their decor. Originally, the Bertoia screen divided public banking from the private banking. Now it acts as the entire back wall of the bright, sprawling second floor.

NBC New York writes:

Dubbed "an architectural gem" by creative director Joe Mimran, the glass-walled building was designed in 1952 by Gordon Bunshaft (best known for the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC), and was made an official landmark in 1997. 

Beautiful though the building may be, massive restorations were required to prime the structure for Joe Fresh's arrival, including the re-installation of a winding, 70-foot screen by sculptor Harry Bertoia, which can be seen on the second floor.

It's so great. Going there feels like you have a private art viewing in a public space.

Four Visionaries Pioneer Teacher's Village

Every time I write on this blog I look at my assistant, Blaise, who is a real writer, and I say to her, "I hate this. It's such a struggle for me to write." Another friend of mine, Lynn Douglass, who blogs for Forbes.com, said my blog was very visual. Of course, I'm compensating by posting a million photographs instead of writing.

But this story changed everything. This time I was truly inspired to write no matter how difficult. It's a story about the creation of Teacher's Village in Newark, NJ, designed by native Newarker Richard Meier. Teacher's Village broke ground in March of 2012. A development that spans a 4-block radius, it contains 3 charter schools, 200 apartments for teachers, 1 day care center and 70,000 square feet of retail space.

Like any urban project it takes years of planning, negotiating, designing, and building. But there was a group of four special people who had a vision and utter faith in the project. Their collective imagination created an evolution for downtown Newark.

I'll start with Newark Mayor, Cory Booker. This man can move mountains. He descended upon Newark with his positive attitude, persistence, and sheer love for his city, all of which makes him a very special person. My first encounter with him was when he gave the commencement speech at Bard College this spring (where my son is a sophomore). His words were not only inspiring for the graduates, but for everyone. He is a remarkable speaker. My favorite line in his speech was, "Live life as if you cannot fail."

When I discovered that the creation of Teacher's Village also involved Nicolas Berggruen, another visionary whom I admire, I wasn't surprised. Berggruen is the president of Berggruen Holdings, a global investment firm, as well as of The Berggruen Institute, a think tank for global issues.

Six years ago Berggruen and Booker and others were talking about their vision of downtown Newark. Berggruen's passion for the Teacher's Village project was relentless. This man, too, is a statesman of the world and is always involved in some form of civic activism; another angel gracefully sent from heaven.

Then there's the lead developer, Ron Beit of RBH Group. Berggruen was responsible for bringing Beit into the project. As Booker put it, Beit came in as "the Alaskan Husky dog of developers." Mr. Beit made sure that through this project the community would be served, the construction would be green, the hires would be local, and the unions would be partnered with. Beit never gave up; he did everything that the city asked of him, which is unusual for a developer.

Then we have the "starchitect" Richard Meier. Archdaily.com says:

"As the Teachers Village occupies a large area south of Market Street and west of Broad Street, each new building of the project is site specific and is designed relative to its context to provide a rich variety of street conditions.  The new Halsey Street retail corridor is at the heart of the development and offers a mix of venues for vibrant street life. The residential spaces and schools are designed with generous windows that are open to the light, energy, and activity of the streets below. And, a portion of the roofs and elevated courtyards will serve as green terraces with gardens."

I remember Meier's project from years ago in the Bronx--a cluster of small modern buildings not far from the Whitestone Bridge. (That's my favorite bridge, by the way--ultra minimal.) It's so unusual to see those buildings, near Co-op City, because they are in stark contrast to their surroundings. Meier's building on Eastern Parkway near Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Public Library in Park Slope, is a masterpiece of light and glass. I love the modern look against the neighboring turn-of-the-century buildings. How did you get past Landmarks?!

Thank you, Mr. Meier, for bringing your great talent to downtown Newark (and to Brooklyn). And thank you to Ron Beit, Nicolas Berggruen and Cory Booker for their dedication. It's so exciting. And I don't even live in Newark!

Cory Booker gives a great speech at the groundbreaking of Teacher's Village:

Open For Business!

So, I'm open for business in the Hudson Valley now, and I can't believe the sign was handmade--by me!

To save a little money, I decided to make my own sign. I took the letters from my banner on 1stdibs and blew it up in Word. I printed it out, cut the letters and traced them on thicker paper (I used file folders), then cut out each letter. I then traced it on a piece of masonite. ...Okay, the guy at the lumber yard cut the masonite, but I did everything else! I primed the masonite white after it was cut, then I painted a couple of layers of gray oil based paint on both sides.

Once the gray paint was dry I traced the letters on to the gray background and taped the letters off with blue edge tape. I painted the letters in white; the rounded edges were painted by hand and for the hard edges I used the tape. Once dry, I hung it in place. The little "modern" sign below is scripted by hand also -- in my handwriting. Voila!

Shop hours: Saturdays 10-5 and Sundays by appointment
Location: 1977 Route 295, Canaan, NY

20 Years Later

You know how you go picking for vintage art? Well, I wasn't even picking and I found a vintage piece... by me. Actually, I was at a friend's house and saw that she had a painting on her wall that I made twenty years ago.  It's a cute piece. It measures 6x9 inches and it's oil on green canvas. And the painting hasn't moved in twenty years. That's vintage.

Pinterest

I just found out about Pinterest because someone pinned my George Nelson "swag leg" side table on 1stdibs!

Studio Opening!

Coming soon! I'm opening my studio in the Hudson Valley. I've been working hard on the building since February and it's finally coming together. It will be open on Saturdays as of June 16th. Stay tuned for more details...

The Modern Aesthetic and John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain, 1962

John Chamberlain's recent "Choices" show at The Guggenheim was very inspiring. Though the show is down now, I did get a chance to visit it by myself one spring morning.

While climbing up the circular walkway, the retrospective unfolded -- the earliest work at the bottom of the building and ending with the most recent pieces at the top. Twenty minutes of taking it all in and reaching the top, I began to go back down, imagining myself as a sculptor. I was getting deeper and deeper into that fantasy that when I came home, I almost enrolled in a sculpture class.

De Kooning, 1960

His work is so painterly. Each piece of crinkled strip of metal is like a single brush stroke -- like in a De Kooning painting.

Looking at Chamberlain's work made me see things differently. I started taking photographs of collaged patterns of everyday things and making my own collages that reminded me of his sculptures. I'm continuing to document the world around me in a different light.

Madame Petit's Mini-Museum

My mother was a big time collector of 18th and 19th-century antiques and furniture. She also built collections of smaller items, such as silver pill boxes, Chinese snuff bottles, and ivory netsukes -- little Japanese sculptures first invented in the 17th century.

But my personal favorites in my mother's collections were her miniatures and opalines. Her collection of tiny portable paintings of royals were usually created on ivory no bigger than 3"x4" and encased in bombe glass. I guess it was my appreciation for painting that drew me to these. Not only is each one delicately crafted with amazing detail, but you have the added interest of the people depicted in these portraits; I find them so fascinating. It was fun discovering who these people were and who painted them. Many famous artists of the time painted miniatures.

My mother's other collection which I admired was her pink and green opalines -- decorative opaque glass from France and made during the 1800s. They were so Marie Antoinette!

All of the glass pieces had a function and were highly stylized as well. But what really makes a collection is how it's displayed. How cute is my mother's pyramid/salon style! I love the formation of miniatures on the wall, cascading down to the 3-D pieces on silver boxes on the commode. I have never seen anything like it before. It's my mother's mini-museum.

From Blonde to Brunette

I bought this three-piece cabinet by Edward Wormley for Dunbar in May 2011. I asked my refinisher to give it a walnut stain and to polish the brass handles.

A month later the three cabinets were done, but the sliding doors were missing the flushmont handles. They were lost. I spent the next few months trying to find someone who could make new ones; without the originals it would be very costly.

So, on 1stdibs, I only posted  the drawer cabinet and the open cabinet as a pair to be divided perhaps as bedsides or put together as a small cabinet. Since I hadn’t yet paid my refinisher for the job, the pressure was on to find those handles. In the meantime, I had someone who only wanted to buy one cabinet, which would have left me with 2/3 of my investment up in smoke.


Finally, though, the handles were found and I got my full investment back. Six months later. But the Wormley piece–with all three sections–looks beautiful.

Diamonds in the Rough

Amongst the pile of cardboard boxes and disgarded furniture, you’ll never know what you might find. My refinisher, who I have kept secret for so many years, works out of an office furniture warehouse in Brooklyn. He comes across all kinds of pieces for the office, good and bad. But he has a real eye for the good stuff.

His most recent find–these black leather “Le Corbusier” classics–were in amazingly perfect condition. I love it when that happens. The only thing better than the hunt is the find.