A Visit to the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver
An Early Work
I was fortunate enough to be in Denver over the holidays where the new Clyfford Still Museum recently opened. He is one of my favorite painters and the new museum highlights his work beautifully.
Clyfford Still was among the first generation of Abstract Expressionists who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediately following World War II. Still’s contemporaries included Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Though the styles and approaches of these artists varied considerably, Abstract Expressionism is marked by abstract forms, expressive brushwork, and monumental scale, all of which were used to convey universal themes about creation, life, struggle, and death, themes that took on a considerable relevance during and after World War II.
Prints and Sculptures By Still
Described by many as the most anti-traditional of the Abstract Expressionists, Still is credited with laying the groundwork for the movement. Still’s shift from representational painting to abstraction occurred between 1938 and 1942, earlier than his colleagues, who continued to paint in figurative-surrealist styles well into the 1940s.
After the artist’s death in 1980, the Clyfford Still Estate was sealed off from public and scholarly view. Still’s will stipulated that his estate be given in its entirety to an American city willing to establish a permanent museum dedicated solely to his work. The City of Denver was selected by Still’s wife, Patricia Still, to receive the collection. In 2005, Patricia Still also bequeathed to the city her own estate, which included select paintings by her husband as well as his complete archives. The Still Museum collection, which represents nearly 94 percent of the artist’s lifetime output, includes approximately 2,400 works created between 1920 and 1980.
The Museum, designed by Allied Works Architecture is conceived as a solid, a mass of concrete, deriving its presence from the earth—a single construction that is opened up by natural light and that itself becomes the source of light for the art within. The museum structure exists to make room for the voice of a single artist. The Still Museum’s final design is a structure made of highly textured and resurfaced concrete that will modify light on both the exterior and interior of the Museum. Galleries, totaling approximately 10,000 square feet, feature changing exhibits of work from throughout Clyfford Still’s career.
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Happy Holidays!
I just received this great topiary from Paul Harness at Plant Specialists in Long Island City. They are the landscape designers for the new apartment project.
Paul says, “It’s the perfect silly holiday gift for the person that has everything….without offending any religious sensitivities 
These little trees can be made from any soft pyramidal tree, wrapped with colorful wire and finished off with a single glass ornament.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
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Design Diary – Bringing the Lighting Designer Onboard
Plans are developing and I have brought in a lighting designer to help with the project.
This is an important element, as they have all the technical knowledge for determining light levels and color, and are up on all the latest technology and product. There are some interesting challenges to be met.
The space is very tall.
The existing room is 12’-6” tall, and after doing probes we found that there is an additional 3 feet of ceiling above the dropped ceiling. I planned a floating cathedral type ceiling to emphasize the height of the space, but to also bring it down to human scale. In between the two flooring planes is a “crack” through which the lighting fixtures will hang down “magically”.
The owners are art collectors so the walls must be washed with light for the art.
The foyer is very narrow.
We need good, functional light for reading, cooking, working, playing piano, and all general uses.
Gan Leehanantakul of G2J Design has some great ideas combining regular fixtures with LED lighting throughout. The light color and quality is good, it gives off very little heat, the are small and flexible and last for a long time so we won’t have to change fixtures in these very tall rooms.
She has great solutions for making the living room ceiling float and added details at the edge of rooms for clever sources of light that won’t look obvious or cliched. She created a faux skylight in the kitchen with LED fixtures.
Gan’s sketches follow. She has put in furniture and art as place holders, which we will select at a later date.
Sketch of Living Room Section with "Floating Ceiling"
Section through Living Room
Master Bedroom
Entry SpaceSection Through Dining Area and KitchenSection Through Dining Area and Kitchen
Design Diary – Kitchen
The kitchen is a key part of this apartment as it’s open to the living loft area. The clients are really into cooking, and had lots of requirements about space to cook, appliances, materials, etc.
I found a new company called Lucenti Altay. Biagio Lucenti worked for many years at Poliform and he is now importing kitchens, baths, doors from Italy.
We are going to use soft colors, an off-white upper glass cabinet, a taupe lacquered lower cabinet, and Corian countertops that look like rice paper. The images below give you an idea of the style. It’s very clean and modern and they have great details like LED lights that glow when you slide open the drawers.
Design Diary – The adventure begins
The clients were able to purchase the additional 22 feet of corridor, and closed on the apartment. Now the fun begins.
The proposed plan we did is perfect for their needs so we can begin the process of design development and figure out what this space will look like.
We are going to do some probes to determine where the ceiling is dropped and what is in there. We would ideally like to open up the exterior walls with transoms above sliding glass doors in the living room.
I stopped into Robin Reigi, a materials source for new materials that is available only to designers. I got some great ideas. One of them is gorgeous birch flooring that is as white as a stained floor can get.
Heirloom Birch Floor
Each board is air dried for over a year before being placed in “small batch” kilns allowing them to reach the optimum moisture content. It’s FSC, reclaimed and old growth material that is all locally available within 500 miles of New York City. I chose a pale white stain and 7″ side boards at 6 foot lengths. This product performs extremely well over radiant heat, which is a good solution for a space with such high ceilings.
This will give the apartment a light and airy look.
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Design Diary – Should they buy the apartment?
To decide if we were going to proceed with the sale, I sketched up some ideas for redesign. The space isn’t that large and there is a long list of requirements to be met.
Workable kitchen- they look to cook
Two offices – one for each of them
They wanted the offices to face the view of the garden
Lots of storage – they have a lot of clothes
Dressing area – makeup area with running water to rinse brushes
Grille – Mr. Client loves to barbeque
Guest Room – they have lots of friends, family including small grandchildren
Room for art – they have wonderful and adventurous taste in modern art
Room for the upright piano
Good space inside and out for entertaining
The client found the original plans before the current owner combined the units. So I knew where the plumbing risers and structure were located
Existing Plan of Apartment
Proposed Design Plan Continue reading
Posted in Apartment Design, Design Diary, New York Design, Upper West Side
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Design Diary – West Side Apartment – The Adventure begins. . .
Welcome to my new blog. I hope to bring new insights into the world of design. The mission is to give an insiders view of the design process and to bring awareness to new things in the world of design and art from my own perspective.
Design Diary – West Side Apartment – Entry One
I will chronicle the process of design and construction for a new project on the Upper West Side – an apartment renovation near Lincoln Center. It’s a unique apartment because it’s on the garden level of a high rise and the garden is as big as the apartment itself.
I met this client socially, and was asked to help renovate an apartment in the same neighborhood. We were set to go when the deal fell apart due to misinformation between from the Coop Board about impossible rules for renovation in that building.
Discouraged, they continued to look at places on-line. Several months ago, my client, called me from her winter residence to ask me to scout this apartment. I reluctantly agreed as the plan was not very interesting, but when I got there, I was intrigued. The garden is very large and makes the apartment itself look much bigger. Also, the ceilings are 12 ½ feet high giving the feeling of a wonderful loft. The location is exactly where these clients want to be. The client flew in and put in an offer that was accepted within a few days.
I sketched out a plan that rearranged the main functions and necessitated the purchase of a public hall to make it work. I will post the existing plans and my proposed design in Entry 2.
Here are the before pictures.
View of the Garden
Living Room facing west
Posted in Apartment Design, Design Diary, New York Design, Upper West Side
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