Vacation DesignsDecorating a hallway and bathroom may...
Vacation Designs
Decorating a hallway and bathroom may not sound like a peak experience, but for 10 Cal State Northridge interior design students, it’s better than a month at the beach.
Tamara Alms, Laurie Cano, Charlie Dang, Anne Samonte-Deguzman, Carol Enriquez, Jennifer Lee, Tara McCormack, Michelle Messerschmidt, Laura Muelas and Renee Pollard won’t have to tell anyone what they did on their summer vacation.
They can show.
The students were invited to join some of Los Angeles’ most prestigious design firms in restoring and beautifying an Encino adobe hacienda this summer, and the Cal State 10 were more than happy to give up their tans for an exercise in creation.
The rambling, 1929 ranch house--the home of Herb and Kathy Goodman for 20 years-- was selected by the Assistance League of Southern California and the International Society of Interior Designers as their Design House for 1991.
The Goodmans moved to other quarters for the summer while their house was being redone from top to bottom, and the end results will be on public display during October to raise contributions to the ISID scholarship fund and the many charities of the Assistance League.
It also means a real opportunity for Ildiko Choy’s 10 advanced design students to not only show what they can do, but to rub shoulders with some high-profile potential employers.
The majority of the home’s 10,000-square-foot interior space is being redone by noted design artists, using supplies and time donated by contractors and suppliers. The students were invited to work because of their superior showing in design competitions, according to Choy, who heads her own architectural design firm.
“We designed the corridor to complement the California style of this Mediterranean estate and to incorporate special touches of formality and a little whimsy,” Samonte-Deguzman said. The students were particularly eager to adapt the hand-painted floral decoration found in other parts of the home.
This is not one of those homes where one room is going to be Lake Arrowhead Hansel and Gretel, another Venice retro motorcycle garage and yet another inspired by the spirit of the Beverly Hills Hotel lobby. Much to the relief of the Goodmans, no doubt, the makeover will enhance the flavor of the California traditional.
Once the home is completed, the Assistance League and ISID will open it from Oct. 6 to Nov. 4 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day but Monday.
For $15, guests get to looky-loo all they wish. They may also enjoy lunch or teatime on the grounds, hear jazz bands and chamber music, see fashion shows and visit the many boutiques planned on the tennis courts.
But that’s October.
For Choy’s architectural army, these last days of August are fix-up and paint time.
Valley Chic
Herb Fink hopes to take the Valley girls out of Beverly Hills.
Not entirely, of course, because Valley girls go pretty much wherever their Gold Cards are good.
But Fink, who owns the Theodore stores as well as the Claude Montana and Sonia Rykiel boutiques in Beverly Hills, is opening a grand new Theodore in Encino in the Courtyard Shops.
The Courtyard is a new, 107,000-square-foot retail center on Ventura Boulevard between Balboa Boulevard and White Oak Avenue that will have, in addition to the requisite clothing and jewelry shops, a Morris/DiMori restaurant, modeled after historic Peck’s in Milan.
The Valley Theodore, scheduled to open in early February, will feature a first-floor women’s store including a Sonia Rykiel boutique, a shoe salon featuring Stephen Kilian shoes and a second-floor men’s store.
Fink says this Theodore is for the tasteful Valley cognoscenti who have been schlepping over the hill rather than crawl the malls.
He says his customers are elegant and like to mix with others of their ilk--they do not want to be trapped in a mall with refugees from a John Waters film.
They want to wear Thierry Mugler, Genny, Byblos, Jean Paul Gaultier, Montana and Moschino designs.
Fink is going to see that they do, aren’t and can.
“This is going to be a great store,” said Fink, a man not given to understatement.
“It will have an espresso bar, and a terrific open feel and be a wonderful place for people to meet and shop.”
Fink understands that in these financially perilous times, a lot of people are sticking closely to their money.
“I know people don’t want to spend money right now,” he said. “But we will have such great clothes and charming salespeople and an elegant atmosphere that they will have fun doing it.”
Legal Art
Mental Health Advocacy Services is a nonprofit public-interest law firm that assists the mentally disabled poor in the San Fernando Valley and most other sections of Los Angeles County.
It represents emotionally disadvantaged youngsters who have been abused and neglected or who are not getting mandated services from their school districts, adults who have gotten lost in a maze of red tape, that sort of thing.
The firm’s two attorneys and five-member support staff customarily work through 2,000 cases annually, but this year, there is a money shortage.
Executive Director Jim Preis says the organization is sponsored by several legal and mental health organizations, but is funded primarily by grants.
This year, the grant-giving well has run dry, as it has for many organizations, so a public fund-raising art auction is planned Sept. 15 at the Valley Hilton Hotel, 15433 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks.
At noon, guests may browse paintings, sketches of prints of works by Andy Warhol, Chagall, Earlene Moses, Christina de Musee and Yamagata. At 1 p.m., the bidding begins.
No admission will be charged, and Art World Design, which is running the auction, will give all who attend a free poster.
“This is only the second fund-raiser we’ve had in the 13 years of the organization’s history, so we don’t really know what to expect,” Preis said.
What he is hoping for is donations of between $10,000 and $20,000.
Overheard
“I’ve seen Little League mothers stage better coups.”
--North Hollywood woman discussing Soviet events with a friend
