Monday, August 10, 2015

The Pleasure Pavilion

Interior design, Joseph Braswell, via Architectural Digest archives

One
of my favorite designers of the recent past, Joe Braswell, created this Sans Soucci inspired pavilion for a Saint Louis, MO couple...I was a lad of 17 when I traveled with my parents from Charlotte NC to Atlanta, GA to meet the chairman of the Art Institute, Stan Topol.

Stan had  pictures of Joe and Billy Baldwin - framed and hanging on the chocolate brown walls of his midtown office.  Joe and Stan were good friends, and would share renderings and sketches of each others apartments... you can imagine how impressed I was, since I'd spent the prior ten years with my nose buried in the Baldwin books and worshipped him and New York designers such as Joe Braswell.  About two or three years later, I was in Joe's apartment, enjoying a very glamorous pre-theater party, and on my way to the UK for my first grand tour...the beginning of my innocent love affair with western Europe.

Thirty-five or so years later I worked on the Marco Island, FL residence of a New York couple who had hired Joe to design their Long Island home!  Amazing how these stories just keep going on and on- but I do love the bold palette and euro inspired design of this elegant party pavilion.  I think my friend Tom Britt would to, and he hails from Kansas City originally, not far from Saint Louis.  Enjoy!  DF *****

 
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