The Installation

The scene resembled the set up of a Busby Berkeley film sound stage.

A white chenille sofa was careening towards pearl lacquered pylons, barely skimming by the 10 foot square canvas by Helen Frankenthaler. Teetering above a delicate Giacometti table were three electricians violently extracting a framing projector from the delicate skim-coated ceiling. Bespattered painters balanced large paint buckets on spindly ladders while stretching beyond their usual reach to touch up above the pristine Barbara Hepworth sculpture. A floor buffer (most likely built by John Deere) was heading directly toward two grips who were blindly hoisting a 9-foot mirror toward the second floor.

Amid this cacophony, all I needed was a 1920s-era bullhorn to resemble Ziegfeld orchestrating his “Follies.” However, one word I did not need to shout out was “action!”

This installation was the culmination of two years of work on a 40-year-old dream.

My client—an enormously successful retail entrepreneur, philanthropist and collector—had always maintained a vital relationship with the leading architects and artists of his time. Long a fan and friend of Mexican architect Luis Barragán, my client had elicited his help in conceptualizing a bayside compound in Southern California. Renowned as Barragán’s only residential commission in the United States, this home was in reality informed by the architect’s napkin drawings, color advice and siting, but not actually a final product of his studio.

Over the years, through dear wives that he had actually outlived, my client and his home had veered away from the simplicity and intent of the original dwelling. Yet he had accumulated an important and stunning art collection, to which the architecture and interior design had become cluttered and unfocused.

Three years ago while celebrating the anniversary of Louis Vuitton’s long association with his establishment, my client and his charming wife graciously cleared their home of its contents in order to accommodate a spectacular event for a charitable cause. The gala was a smashing success but once cleared of theatrical lighting and the party planner’s magic, my clients saw the detritus of many years of neglect. More interestingly, with paintings gone and furniture and carpets removed, they reawakened to the remarkable architectural gem that had just been uncovered.

It was at this point that they called me in to help restore and magnify the vision that Barragán had initiated 40 year earlier. So with reverence, research, an important art collection to showcase and a talented contractor with a cadre of sensitive artisans, we began our work.

Arguably the father of modern Mexican architecture, Mr. Barragán’s simplified forms strengthened the adobe vernacular with sweeping planar walls pierced selectively with rectangular doors and windows. He articulated this with Spartan muscular stairways, which were often found reflected in broad still pools of water. Rich color infused the monumental walls, which were frequently held perpendicular to an opposing colored wall.

His influence on my client’s home was unmistakable. The entire compound is surrounded by a thick square adobe wall with only an enormous gridded glass and teak door to signify entry. The door opens to a terra-cotta-paved court, greeted by the monolith of a cubed two-and-a-half-story entryway within which is housed a spectacular plaster spiral. Inside this spiral was the bleached ash staircase to the second floor.

As the spiral was underappreciated, I chose to expose this architectural feat by widening the portals surrounding it, never losing sense of Barragán’s proportions. The architect was sparing with his use of woods so I removed all vestiges of mouldings and crowns and clad only the interior of the portals with thick slabs of wood bleached the same shade as the bleached expanses of wood floors.

With the same planar simplicity, I rearranged the kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms, adhering to the leitmotifs of plaster walls, ash floors and glass. In the bathrooms, as requested by my clients, I utilized only simple sheets of white marble and white glass, delineated by vertical ribbons of chrome.

The interior powder room was the only punctuation of drama, with massive dramatically veined slabs of black-green marble and mirror followed by a water closet entirely clad with a grid of white shell. And as requested by our forward-thinking client, the entire residence was lit by ecologically sensitive and technologically advanced light emitting diodes, otherwise knows as LED lights.

Surprisingly, with the 40-year-old dream completely restored, re-envisioned and next to pristine perfect, my clients are now reluctant to move in. Years ago, I had created a beachside guest cottage in Swedish traditional style (per their ancestry) for them, which now they seem to not want to emerge from, even though they knew this was only a temporary abode while construction occurred at the Barragán house.

In my 30-year career, I have discovered that the installation period can strike clients quite differently. Most experience the install as a child opening a Christmas present, with each new delivery a surprising thrill and the unveiling and placement of previously owned furnishings a reunion with old friends.

Then again, some clients have different feelings. Sometimes their punch list can become mythically long. Or they are nervous for damages during installation, as burly (and normally skillful) movers dash about, heaving sectionals, carpets and sideboards up narrow staircases beneath delicate chandeliers.

As virgin walls are drilled by art hangers, curtain installers and electricians, a client’s nerves can be shot and they suddenly might want to put a stop to it all. With lighting unfocused, un-gelled and sometimes incorrectly lamped, the client can be terrified by the search-and-destroy intensity of as yet undimmed, unregulated lighting. But with bullhorn, the designer must continue to orchestrate.

And now that the installation is complete, this designer must prove to these clients that the home is hospitable—by making the beds as inviting as possible, hanging the bath towels to perfection, straightening the carpets and pillows, lowering the shades to just even, arranging the flowers with inviting scents, setting their favorite music to the right frequency and adjusting the light levels to romantic expectations. Like wild animals, these clients must be coaxed out of their den and into the home they have dreamed about for 40 years.

It is, and will be, everything they hoped for. Wish me luck!