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Posts Tagged ‘Art Deco’

I LOVE Art Deco decor – my living room in Manhattan has many Art Deco accent pieces. Preservation is always a HOT topic in any city with no vacant land-Developers look to old buildings in disrepair especially those in prime areas like most movie theaters are located.  Messynessychic is a website chock full of nostalgia, history, the unusual, the weird, hidden places and much much more.  I urge you to check it out http://www.messynessychic.com.  The photos below were absconded from that website, I hope you enjoy looking at the architectural grandeur of the past that has been preserved and/or restored.

The Paramount in Oakland California

Just Gorgeous

The Lobby

And take a look at the Ladies Room!

No Lines Here

No Lines Here

I don’t know what this little waiting room for ???

Whatever It Is - It's Lovely

Whatever It Is – It’s Lovely

This pastel beauty is the Orinda Theater in Orinda, California.

Looks Like A Painting

Looks Like A Painting

This is one of the smaller screening room in the Orinda Theater.

Sweet!

Sweet!

On Tuesday nights you can see a movie for $5.00 – The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California.

I'm There

I’m There

 

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My company, TOWN RESIDENTIAL, has launched an exciting, unique and engaging marketing campaign.  Our company slogan is: “Our neighborhoods define us as much as we define them”.  Taking this to heart and to a higher branding level, TOWN has embarked on a 90 day campaign: LookUpNY.

TOWN is encouraging the public to interact with the company’s website by posting photos of interesting buildings, facades, street scenes, anything that speaks New York to them.   We have so many landmarks, so many pre-war buildings with amazing sculptures, setbacks, cornices and spires.  However, do most visitors and for that matter denizens actually see this beauty.  The answer is a resounding NO.  You have to look up, as in LookUpNY.  That’s not to say that New York is all about what’s up in the air.  I have been scrolling through the hundreds of photos already submitted and there are snippets of neighborhoods, parks, statues, landscapes, seascapes and more; After all New York is a pretty big city!

I strongly suggest you visit http://www.townrealestate.com/lookupny/ and look at the fabulous photos, check out the daily quiz question about the photo of the day in the Gallery.

This is MY blog so you can guess this is heading someplace other than the TOWN web site.  I asked Murray to give me some photos I could submit to TOWN and who knows maybe he would win.  All I wanted was to go on the helicopter ride around the City which is part of the first prize.  I picked the ones I wanted to enter and was about to file all of them on my computer when it occurred to me what would make a better FAB FOTO FRIDAY than several of his spectacular shots of The Chrysler Building This striking landmark, this icon of the City deserves a blog post of its own.

I did some quick research and just a couple of remarkable facts are:

Ground breaking:  September 1928

Built at the pace of 4 floors per week – no workers died on the job

Originally designed to be 975 ‘ – 125’ added when the spire topped off the building.  The spire was built secretly inside the building and then hoisted onto to the dome and lowered into the 68th floor .  The remaining sections of the spire took a mere 90 minutes to bolt in place.

Built to house Chrysler Headquarters, there are many homages to the auto industry;  radiator caps, hub cap design, setbacks with abstract images of automobiles, gargoyles like hood mascots anchor the upper corners of the building.

Briefly the highest building in the world until the Empire State building eclipsed it.

BUT enough words, take a look at the pictures!

Art Deco Architecture

Art Deco Architecture

7-14-10_cp_45

The Chrysler Building at Night

This is MY CITY

This is MY CITY

Reflections

Reflections

Hood Ornament in the Sky

Hood Ornament in the Sky

Two Iconic Figures Nacho and the Chrysler Bldg

Two Iconic Figures
Nacho and the Chrysler Bldg

All photos courtesy of Murray Head

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The Friday Finale – Farewell Quebec – See You Soon

The last day of your vacation always comes too soon, whether you’ve been gone two weeks or 4 days!  We planned this trip with that i mind so we booked return flights just after 5:00pm with the thought that we would have a good part of the day to continue our exploration of the charming village of Vieux Quebec.  

After a breakfast of crèpes and the usual assortment of toasts, bread, ham, cheese, a pork breakfast paté, and about 100 jams, jellies and spreads – whew! We went back to our rooms and packed. Marjorie graciously allowed us to store all of our belongings for the rest of the day and so out and off we went!  

The day was significantly warmer than it had been all week but there were some clouds so it was hard to decide what to wear now and on the way home because everything else would be packed.  By now you must know what our first stop was – Yes we went to the Starbucks in the Frontenac.  The Chateau is clearly the focal point of the town, if not by its sheer size then certainly by its magnificent facade.  Each side of this historic structure is different and impressive in its own right.

Looking Up, Up, Up

Looking Up, Up, Up

The Morning Fix

The Morning Fix

We took a different route to Starbucks this morning and passed by a beautiful Art Deco building.  Known as the Price building, we discovered it was the very building that we had admired for the past several nights.  In the evening, it was lit up and bore a striking resemblance to the Woolworth Building in New York City.  The Price family was in paper and in the dazzling lobby were some plaques depicting the industry.

Logging is the backbone of the paper industry

Logging is the backbone of the paper industry

Matt and Stacey wanted to walk up to The Plains of Abraham and I had had it with walking up any more hills so we accompanied them part of the way and then we meandered through some of the more residential streets of Old Quebec.  From the top of the hill on the Plains, Matt captured some beautiful photos of the city below and beyond.

View from the Plains of Abraham. The south side of the Frontenac is in the distance.

View from the Plains of Abraham. The south side of the Frontenac is in the distance.

A closer view:

A bust of Samuel Champlain in the forefront

A bust of Samuel Champlain in the forefront

All good things must come to an end and so we joined each other for lunch at a restaurant we had discovered the first day we were in Quebec but had not frequented.  Restaurant 1640 proved to be a great place to have our farewell meal.  The cream of vegetable soup was delicious and my quiche was just the right size.

Farewell lunch at Restaurant 1640

Farewell lunch at Restaurant 1640

So it’s au revoir Quebec, à bientôt!

All photos courtesy of Matthew Weinstein

THIS IS MATTHEW!

THIS IS MATTHEW!

 

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I really am some kind of Christmas junkie.  For me the addiction is in decorating the house.  Over the years I have varied the look from time to time and when I had a large Victorian-style home in Connecticut, we had Christmas trees that were 9′ to 10′ tall and full of ribbons, flowers, bows, lace and confection.

Then there was the year of The Toy Story Christmas; My daughter and I were living in a bungalow-style small house and there really wasn’t room for a real tree.  I spent hours making a good size Candy Tree.  That was a treat (no pun intended), so colorful and sticky too.  Presents were piled on and around an old golden oak hall seat, stuffed animals sat here and there, Woody himself  was near the tree.

One year I went full-out Martha Stewart! I made the cookie ornaments featured in the magazine and a small flock of penguins hand-painted in blue and black frosting set in snow (salt), strung cranberries and popcorn and wrapped all the presents in brown paper tied with raffia.

When I married Peter (who’s Jewish), Christmas was still very much present, however, now I was living in a New York City apartment and soooooo;  the living room which has an Art Deco look became a silver and crystal wonderland.  Reindeer inhabited every room, shelf and nook – they’re so ecumenical, don’t you think?

Fast forward to the present and this year Christmas will be in our little cottage at the shore.  La Vie en Rose is a true confection of a cottage, at least I like to think so.  A small cottage can only handle so much decoration so again there’s no tree and by the way, that’s okay because over the years I have given all of the ornaments of their youth to my two now grown up kids.  The cottage is Victorian on the outside and eclectic on the inside.   Color is the key and this is what it looks like today.

 

La Vie en Rose, Christmas tree, Ocean Grove

A Pink Christmas is Perfect

The tree really isn’t supposed to have any ornaments and comes pre-wired with tiny lights but I guess I couldn’t resist hanging a couple and now that I see the photo, I think I’ll remove them.

 

flamingo, penguin, ornaments, bowl of ornaments

Flamingo and Penguin Co-exist at Christmas time

I love the reflections.

 

ocean grove,nutcrackers,wooden soldiers

My Army of Nutcrackers

Joel and Chiara Berti, pink ribboned tree

Pink Ribboned Tree

I have been looking at photos from other Christmases in the cottage and I see that this tree has been promoted to the first floor!

 

Christmas light bulbs, C-9 bulbs, canning jars, Ball jars, zinc lids, santa sleigh, pine cones

The First of the Ball Jar Bulb collection

There’s a few more jars and bulbs and a jingle bell wreath on the door.  I need to take a few more photos to do this all justice.

Merry Christmas to All!

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