ARQUITECTURA Y DISEÑO

JLF Architects, based in Bozeman, Montana, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming, believe first and foremost that architecture should be rooted in its particular place, responding in a meaningful way to the natural or built environment. Using local materials and partnering with the best local craftsmen, JLF Architects seeks to create buildings that are tactile and modern, environmentally responsible and authentic, artful and crafted. Now more than 30 years since its founding, the firm has grown along with the range and complexity of its projects, and still considers the desire to build in part-nership with the land to be an approach that remains valid and increasingly resonant. JLF Architects’ first projects were houses and these projects excite the firm still. JLF Architects have found that by exploring the inti-mate relationship between family, place, and building they can create unique living environments that possess a compelling authenticity and beauty.

A wide-ranging book on the timeless, elegant interiors of the versatile Frances Elkins, the grande dame of early twentieth-century design who influenced so many important designers of our time. Called “the most creative designer we have ever had” by Billy Baldwin, Frances Elkins has been revered for her classic, erudite, and multidimensional decor. Ahead of her time, Elkins became a successful decorator who by the early 1930s had reached the top of her profession and was considered the only rival to Elsie de Wolfe. Working throughout the United States, Elkins brought an international perspective and architectural sensibility to her work. Elkins traveled widely with her architect brother David Adler, educated at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and he was a strong influence on her. Her social circle included interior designer Jean-Michel Frank, couturière Coco Chanel, aesthete Charles de Beistegui, arts patron Misia Sert and painter Salvador Dali, For her clients, she brought a modern European chic as well as a melding of the best of American, English, French,, Asian and Mexican traditions. A talented furniture and fabric designer as well as interior designer, she collaborated with many luminaries, including Frank; architects Adler, Gardner Dailey, and William Wurster; weaver Dorothy Liebes; decorator Syrie Maugham; the artist Bruton sisters; and furniture maker Myron Oliver. Her carefully planned interiors were known for their distinctive sophistication and polish, and an inviting sense of comfort.

Beauty and elegance mingle with extravagance in the Palm Beach style of architect Marion Sims Wyeth, a kind of home design that takes the standard fixtures of paradise palm trees, ebullient fountains, glistening pools and gardens, views of the sea and mixes them with a dash of the exotic a Moorish-style balcony or doorway, Venetian archways, fanciful courtyards in the Spanish style, and spiralling staircases in stone and iron. Featured here are the legendary abodes of Marjorie Merriweather Post and Doris Duke Mar-a-Lago and Shangri La, respectively as well as the less well known but equally spectacular Hogarcito and La Claridad, to name but a few. For those unfamiliar with these dream palaces, intimate homes of repose and reflection, for the enjoyment of life and the living of it, the book serves at once as a revelation and an inspiration.

Since opening its doors a century ago, Gleneagles has remained one of Scotland’s most iconic luxury hotels and sporting estates. This celebratory volume, published to coincide with the hotel’s centenary, explores the heritage, glamour, and timeless sophistication of this enduring Scottish treasure. When Gleneagles first opened in 1924 it was dubbed the “Riviera of the Highlands” and quickly claimed its place among the greatest leisure destinations in the world. Now, a hundred years on, its beauty, lure, and reputation for world-class hospitality remain unparalleled.

A tribute to the unique, historic home and New York City treasure--a classic volume first published in 2005 is here revised and updated for today, with a new foreword by Mayor Bill de Blasio and First Lady Chirlane McCray. In this handsomely illustrated paean to New York City's mayoral residence, author Ellen Stern charts the history of Gracie Mansion from its construction as Archibald Gracie's country home in 1799, to its importance as the home of New York City's mayors and their families, to its splendid restoration in 2002, to its new role today as a center of diversity and openness--the people's house. Blending the mansion's architectural and decorative progress with anecdotal portraits of the mayoral families, exclusive interviews with many of those who have lived and worked here, and over 200 paintings and watercolors, letters and maps, invitations and elevations, designers sketches, and before and after photos, this beautiful volume, written with the cooperation of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, is the definitive account of a beloved New York landmark that is more popular today than ever before.

An inspiring addition to interior design aesthetics, Graduate Hotels is a collection of meticulously hand-crafted boutique hotels in college towns, designed to evoke the glory days, sleepless nights, and the spirited, beautiful memories of college culture.  Graduate Hotels spaces uniquely connect with guests on a visceral level. Each hotel is its own immersive experience of inspired textures and contrasts that captures the college experience in full. This book follows suit: a 272-page tome beautifully designed in the style of a college yearbook that tells deep and nuanced interior design stories, which reflect each college town where a Graduate Hotel resides. Graduate Hotels is as easily at home in the interior design section of a bookstore as the travel, art, or architecture sections. The book is as useful for design inspiration and mood boards as it is for wanderlust and adventure planning.