Mary Cordaro, a certified Bau Biologist and respected environmental consultant and lecturer who has specialized in creating healthy, green homes for 18 years across the country is the guest lecturer.
This series has been invaluable to the designers who have attended. The third one is scheduled for August 10 at 5:30 to 7:30. Please RSVP to Wendy Kneedler at Bausman & Company 310-659-9459. Mary’s website is www.h3environmental.com
It was refreshing that Traditional Homes hosted a great event on La Cienega together with Lee Stanton Antiques on Thursday evening, March 27th.
The party was well attended by designers and others. Among those enjoying the hospitality and delicious appetizers by Lucques were Philip Stites of Therien, Judy Hoffman and Richard Siehbur of Szalon, Inga and Shawn Helmig of Ralf’s Antiques, and Matteo De Paolis of Navona Antiques.
Also in the crowd was hot Parisian fabric designer Patrick Frey, owner of Pierre Frey and his son Pierre, the New York head of Pierre Frey USA, Dino Vannoni, Amanda Ahlgren and John Buckley of the design firm Tucker & Marks in San Francisco, along with the triumvirate of Jay Johnson, Temo Callahan and Tom Cashin, authors of Opulent Restraint Interiors—all from the New York firm of Jed Johnson Interiors.
Local designers attending were Erin Ferucci, Chris Barrett, Kerry Joyce, and Madeline Stuart as well as Sheldon Harte from the Orange County firm of Harte Brownlee.
The success of Mark’s, The Spanish Kitchen and The Belmont obviously provided warm welcome to the restaurant waters of North La Cienega Boulevard. Nobu, the newest off-shoot of the Matsuhisa restaurant chain (with links in NYC, Melbourne, London and Vegas to name a few), heard the call and is sure to create a lot of buzz for the La Cienega Design area. Already, it seems to be making quite an impact on neighboring businesses.
Anyone working on La Cienega Boulevard, or walking or driving down it, has most likely been affected by the construction occurring next door to Mark’s Restaurant. Mark’s has been so influenced, they began their own remodeling while enduring the temporary distraction. All the hoopla makes one wonder how much another Nobu is needed when there is a Matsuhisa just a few blocks down at La Cienega and San Vicente. This is Los Angeles, however, always welcoming more enterprise to those who are willing and able to take the gamble.
Several weeks ago, signs were attached to parking meters on the blocks surrounding Nobu, calling for no parking at those meters until Spring. Within days, the signs disappeared. Surely, as justifiably disgruntled business owners began to complain to the city of West Hollywood. A collective, “How dare they,” could be heard rumbling through the area. Word spreads like wildfire through the Hollywood Hills. Certainly, Nobu is not wanting to create poor marketing from the mouths of its surrounding neighbors, months prior to their grand opening and becoming the neighbor of many long-standing businesses.
Even while people and places create names for themselves from bad word of mouth these days, many of whom will most definitely be making their splashes at Nobu in the coming months, I choose to believe the good will always prevail in the end. Here’s hoping Nobu Matsuhisa hears the complaints of his new neighbors and offers them complimentary monthly meals to offset the inconvenience. After all, good neighbors are so hard to come by.
Jean de Merry debuted with the De Sousa Hughes Showroom two weeks ago during San Francisco’s Winter Market 2008. San Fran’s design week brought out familiar Los Angeles names to De Sousa Hughes including Madeline Stuart, Fuse Lighting and Jean de Merry, among others.
The Jean de Merry team worked around the clock to debut during Winter Market. Erik Hughes and Geoffrey De Sousa visited our showroom in December, where the 34 pieces to debut were finalized between them and Jean. Working through the holidays, we were able to send all pieces to San Francisco within hours of our deadline. Our dedicated production guys were even able to beat UPS-Overnight when we were in need of additional catalogs due to the overwhelming response we received from the Winter Market crowd.
There was an air of excitement at the inception of having a stronger presence in San Francisco. Jean and I traveled up for the week to meet, greet and work. We couldn’t have been happier with the sales staff at DSH. There was a terrific amount of enthusiasm and excitement about our product and the addition it was making to their already fabulous showroom.
With such close proximity to Los Angeles, Winter Market drew a large LA crowd. There must have been a memo to leave the attitude behind and to arrive full of fabulousness, as Winter Market was a great and enjoyable success.
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