The Invisible Designs of Erwine and Estelle Laverne
Erwine and Estelle Laverne: Erwine (1909-2003) and Estelle (1915-1997) Laverne both trained as painters at the Art Student’s League under Hans Hofmann. In the 1930s they pooled their collective talent and focus into design, establishing Laverne Originals in 1938, an influential New York company driven by their precise and unique modern artistic style. In 1957 […]
Percival Lafer | Brazilian Modernist Furniture Designer
After concluding his degree in Architecture at the Mackenzie University in São Paulo, Percival Lafer took over his father’s furniture company The Lafer Co. His motto, since day one, was innovation. Every design should reflect state-of-the-art technologies applied to innovative ideas. Contemporary designs intended for the mass market; every design should be different and original, therefore […]
Kem Weber | The Mid-Century Modern Designer Who Paved the Way for IKEA
Like almost all the modernists in Los Angeles in the 1920s, Kem Weber was a transplant to the city. He was born Karl Emanuel Martin Weber (in his twenties, he began using his initials as his first name) in Berlin in 1889. After serving as an apprentice cabinetmaker in his teens, he studied architecture and […]
Don’t Mean A Thing
If It Ain’t Got That Bling – Karl Springer
Karl Springer was one of the greatest contemporary furniture stylists of the 20th century. His unique blending of sophistication and crudeness made his work the most imitated during the 1970s and 1980s. One can still sense his influence in contemporary furniture now being produced. He worked with many exotic materials to translate pure, classical shapes […]
Harry Bertoia | Diamonds are Forever…
Harry Bertoia, was an Italian-born artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture designer. The Harry Bertoia diamond chair has become one of the most pop types of seating added to living rooms around the country. Graceful long stainless steel wires gathered into a thick stainless steel 6” square base, wires delicately draping outwards forming a […]
Samuel Novarro House in Los Feliz Oaks
2255 Verde Oak Dr, Hollywood Hills, CA 90068 3 BR, 3 BA $4,195,000 The Samuel Novarro house built by Lloyd Wright in 1928 for Louis Samuel, a close friend a business manager for Ramon Novarro. When Novarro (best known for his role in Ben-Hur) discovered Samuel had been embezzling from him, Novarro took over the […]