Displaying items by tag: historic

1. How about Richard and Dion Neutra’s architectural masterpiece?

Designed by the seminal Modernist architect Richard Neutra and his son, Dion, this serene residence blends seamlessly with its surroundings. Built in Los Angeles’ Tarzana neighborhood in 1972, the architectural gem sits atop a nearly 3-acre expanse of land, providing 360-degree views of the stunning San Fernando Valley. The 5,500-square-foot estate features four bedrooms, vast walls of glass, and a luxurious outdoor area complete with a swimmer’s pool, a hot tub, and unique designer water features that surround the home’s exterior.

1. This historic Maryland property was once owned by a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

This sprawling manor and equestrian estate has quite a pedigree. Set on 54 fully-fenced acres, the property, known as Folly Quarters, can be traced back to Charles Carroll -- one of America’s first settlers and a signer of the Declaration of Independence -- as well as Van Lear Black, who served as the chairman of the board of directors at the Baltimore Sun from 1915-1930. The property was later purchased by Pimlico owner Morris Schapiro, who, in 1936, built the magnificent manor house currently on the market for $7 million. The 8,000-square-foot, six-bedroom home features an array of bespoke details, including Greek-style iron balustrades, Carrera marble flooring, classic wainscoting, hand-painted wall murals, ornate moldings, mahogany paneling, carved mantels, and pocket doors. In addition to the main house...

1. One of the finest historic mansions from the Gilded Age. Is this Oconomowoc, WI or Newport, RI?

This 15,222-square-foot stunner on Wisconsin’s  pristine Lac La Belle is widely regarded as the finest mansion in the Midwest. Established in 1928, the thirty-room estate is located in Oconomowoc -- a swanky resort town that beckoned wealthy families from Chicago, St. Louis, and Milwaukee during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Known as Knollward, the mansion was the summer home of Marjorie Montgomery Ward Baker -- heiress to the Montgomery Ward mail order fortune. Built in the French Manor style, the home captures the glamour and sophistication of a bygone era. The estate’s provincial exterior features gabled roofs, dormers, cypress beams, and turreted outlines, while the opulent interiors are bursting with lavish touches such as walnut...

The burgeoning list of appalling acts by ISIS has grown even longer: The Islamic extremist group has blown up a nearly 2,000-year-old temple in the historic ruins of Palmyra, Syria.

UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, called the destruction of the Temple of Baalshamin a "war crime."

Maamoun Abdulkarim, Syria's director-general of antiquities and museums, said Sunday that sources in Palmyra informed him that ISIS members rigged the temple with large quantities of explosives and detonated them.

In an effort to maintain the financial future of Russborough, a historic Georgian house in Ireland, a selection of Old Master paintings from The Alfred Beit Foundation will be on offer at the Christie’s London Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale on July 9.

Nearly 300 years old, the heritage home requires constant restoration and upkeep entrusted to the Beit family, notable patrons of the arts. The proceeds of the sale will go to an endowment fund managed by the Beit’s that will ensure the future of Russborough.

This spring the Corning Museum of Glass opened its light-filled, 26,000-square-foot art and design gallery building—comprising five interior galleries—designed by the New York City-based architects Thomas Phifer and Partners (Fig. 1). In addition, a new, 500-seat glassblowing amphitheater opened in the original blowing room of Corning’s historic Steuben Glass factory. Together they form...

To continue reading about the Corning Museum of Glass' new art and design gallery building, visit InCollect.com.

Christie’s announces the sale Visions of the West: American Paintings from the William I. Koch Collection, which represents the breadth of Western Art with works spanning the 19th century to the present day. The dedicated sale will take place on May 21, at noon, following Christie’s Spring sale of American Art, and will feature more than 65 paintings from Mr. Koch’s superb collection. Highlights include the most important historic artists of the genre including Thomas Moran, Frederic Remington, Henry F. Farny, William Robinson Leigh, and Philip R. Goodwin, among others. The sale also features notable examples by many of the most important contemporary Western artists, including Howard Terpning, Martin Grelle, Tom Lovell and G. Harvey, among others. Representing a wide variety of Western subjects, the sale represents an excellent opportunity for new and established collectors alike.

The artist Maya Lin, best known for her work on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, has been chosen to lead the redesign of the Smith College library, a historic structure built in 1909 that has been added to three times over the years.

The assignment would be Ms. Lin’s first work on a college library, though she designed the Langston Hughes Library in Clinton, Tenn. The job also involves a personal connection for Ms. Lin as her mother, Ming-Hui Chang, attended Smith as an undergraduate after she fled China in 1949.

The Shaker Museum│Mount Lebanon has launched a newly digitized online catalog of historic photography as a part of its ongoing effort to make available online a full catalog of its collections. The project has been supported by a $25,000 grant from the Leon Levy Foundation.

The museum’s catalog records and presents the richest historical information, including scenes of Shaker villages from the mid-late 19th Century, as well as a collection of stereograph images from this early period by James Irving, a Troy, NY-based photographer. Viewers are able to see a larger version of each image with accompanying historic information and details and from links in the online catalog can share the records with friends or contact the museum with comments or questions.

Cheekwood is taking important first steps towards the historic restoration of its Mansion, which is slated to debut in 2017. Further building on its reputation as “one of the finest examples of an American Country Place Era estates in the nation,” Cheekwood will refurnish the lower levels of the Mansion to reflect the lifestyle and setting of the 1930s era; originally used by its first residents, Mabel and Leslie Cheek, and designed by legendary landscape and structural architect Bryant Fleming. Several rooms in the 1929 Cheek family home will be restored to furnishings and décor representative of the original period, including rooms that have never before been on view to the general public.

To spearhead this initiative, Cheekwood has hired Leslie B. Jones as its new Curator of Decorative Arts & Historic Interpretation, following her time as the Curator and Director of Historical Resources and Programming for the White House Historical Association in Washington, DC.