Ireland has a network of diplomats working hard for the country all around the world, but ahead of St Patricks Day this year, even though events and celebrations have been cancelled due to the Covid-19 crisis, we are tipping our caipn to Irelands unofficial ambassadors, to share the stories of just some of the men and women wearing green jerseys and flying flags for Ireland wherever they live in the world, from Auckland to Rockland, Paris to Belgrade.

Geraldine RyanIrish dancing teacher, AustraliaGeraldine Ryan will turn 90 this year but has no intention of hanging up her dancing shoes. She has been teaching Irish dancing to people in Australia since she was 12 years old, and still travels up to 3,000km by train, bus and plane each week to teach in rural areas. When I started it was a different era, only people of Irish descent took part, but these days its much more multicultural, its people from all different countries, she says. I still dance, have my balance, use my feet, although Im much closer to the ground now and dont do the high jumps.

Ryan, whose family were from Cork and Clare, grew up in Melbourne in a home filled with Irish culture. She later married Pat Ryan, a piper whose family came from Co Tipperary. The couple continued Irish traditions with their three children. She says she has had her share of ups and downs and she recently severely fractured her spine after slipping off a chair but is grateful to always have had dancing in her life.

Ryan, who still runs the OShea-Ryan Academy of Irish Dance, has taught thousands and thousands of people, including some of her former students grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and still loves it. She will accept an Order of Australia (OAM) medal for service to Irish dancing this month. Ive no plans for retiring, while the good lord keeps chugging me along Ill keep going. Its fun. - RF

Jas KaminskiBelgrade Irish Festival founder and director

The Irish population in Belgrade may be small but that hasnt stopped Dubliner Jas Kaminski becoming one of the biggest promoters of Ireland in Eastern Europe. Kaminskis father Jan, a holocaust survivor, moved to Ireland in the 1950s. Jas grew up in Clonskea, Co Dublin. He left Ireland in 2006, working as a development communication specialist in Asia and Africa, eventually settling in the Balkans with his family.

The idea for an Irish festival came to Kaminski seven years ago as he listened to RT Radio One on a rainy Sunday, trying to figure out what he could do to stay in Belgrade. He heard childhood friends and filmmakers Ed Guiney and Lenny Abrahamson talking about their new film. That was the epiphany moment. I said to myself, I could start an Irish film festival here, he says.

The Belgrade Irish Festival (BIF) has since grown into a 10-day celebration of Irish culture, the largest annual Irish arts event in southeastern Europe.

This year Dublin band Hothouse Flowers will open the festival, which will be their first time playing in the city. Irish director Jim Sheridan will open the Irish film week, and photographer John Minihan will talk about the famous series of photographs he took of Samuel Beckett.

BIF came about by coincidence and as a very welcome way of staying in touch with my country and people, Kaminski says. - RF

James McDonaldFounder of Gaelscoil London and Gaelic Voices

Originally from Gorey, Co Wexford, James McDonald moved to London in 2005. Now working in film and TV his company looks after archive footage, on films from Paddington to The Two Popes McDonalds spare time goes into supporting and promoting the Irish language. In 2018 he started the Gaelscoil London playgroup at the London Irish Centre, and more recently the citys Irish language choir, Gaelic Voices, which will perform in Trafalgar Square for the St Patricks Day Festival.

I enjoy how our language and culture confidently cross borders, whilst connecting generations, creating friendships and opening minds, he says. The Irish abroad have a perspective that has been of huge significance in Irelands past, but with that comes a duty too: to give back to the culture and to the community both in Ireland, and the diaspora. Another project, The Song Collectors, which he runs with a friend, gathers and archives songs from the Irish Traveller community. songcollectors.org - GT

Rebecca SkeddChief executive of Solace House, New York

At Solace House, a suicide prevention centre in New York, Rebecca Skedd offers counselling and support to people in need. The service is unique in that its completely free. We remove the financial burden that often prevents individuals and families from accessing critical life-saving services, she says. A large percentage of our clients are Irish-born; we provide a home away from home through compassionate services, where we help them through difficult periods of their lives; such as isolation and loneliness, being away from home, and not having the core support of their families.

Originally from Tramore in Waterford, Skedd was directly involved in building Solace House from the ground up. Having arrived as an unpaid intern, she became chief executive at the age of 29. We encountered many challenges but our passion and determination drove us. There are now two centres in New York, helping hundreds of people. Irish people are undeniably among the most compassionate, supportive and generous, she says. The sense of community that the Irish have built in New York is unbreakable. When someone is in need, the whole community rallies together. This August, Skedd is getting married were both from Waterford, only 15 minutes apart, but we had to come all the way to NYC to meet. solacehouseusa.org - GT

Margaret MolloyFounder of #WearingIrish, New York

The Irish-born, Harvard-educated, US-based marketing guru Margaret Molloy has been an Irish fashion super promoter, spreading the word about clothes and accessories from Ireland on her #WearingIrish campaign, (Instagram @wearingirish and Twitter @wearing_irish) for the past four years. A passion project aims to create awareness of the untold story of contemporary Irish fashion design, to get it the recognition and business it deserves on a worldwide stage.

Global chief marketing officer of US branding and design firm Siegel+Gale, and a member of the Global Irish Network, Molloy used her influential contacts both in the US and in Ireland to bring 10 Irish designers to New York in 2018 to introduce them to potential buyers. No one says no to Margaret was the comment of one visitor to the event.

The eldest of six, Molloy grew up on a dairy farm in Offaly and moved to the US in 1994, where she currently resides with her husband and two children. An indefatigable supporter of Irish design, she continues to post images of herself on social media wearing outfits from talented Irish fashion clothing and accessory designers.

I like connecting all three interests fashion, marketing and Irish heritage and I saw the opportunity for people to come together on social media to support Irish designers, she says. The recipient of many global awards including Overseas Irish Businesswoman of the Year in 2017, she was honoured by the Douglas Hyde Foundation last November. wearingirish.com - DMcQ

Aidan ConnollyDirector, the Irish Arts Center, New York

Turning the slightly crumbling but nonetheless beloved Irish Arts Center in New York into a multi-million dollar performance space is Aidan Connollys mammoth task. Connolly was born in Connecticut to Irish parents: his father from Galway, and his mother Terenure in Dublin. Ireland, first and foremost, is my parents home, and so I love it as I love them, he says. Beyond that, it is my own ancestral home and origin story. Its fun to think about what my life might have been like had my parents met at a party in Dublin rather than in Connecticut. My dad drove a truck for Carton Brothers and sang in showbands before he left Ireland, so its feasible!

Having worked as a singer with the Julliard Chorus, and on Al Gores presidential campaign, Connolly is now director at the Irish Arts Center, creating opportunities for Irish artists and performers, including Thisispopbaby, Loah, Dead Centre, David Keenan, Martin Hayes, Camille OSullivan and Mikel Murfi. At an enduring level, the Irish legacy of storytelling continues to make the Irish competitive at everything we do, says Connolly. The reputation for hard work has given us a reputation for tenacity that leads people to trust us. The ethos of Irish hospitality gives us unparalleled standing to bring people of all backgrounds together. The new Irish Arts Center is due to open in Autumn 2020. irishartscenter.org - GT

Seamus and Caitriona Kenny ClarkeOwners of JP Clarkes, New York

J P Clarkes, on McLean Avenue in Yonkers, is home from home for many an Irish expat. Its owners Leitrim origins can also be seen on the football field, as Caitriona and Seamus Kenny Clarke became the first business outside Ireland to sponsor a county team. After 35 years in the US, Ireland still means home to me. I think I havent changed very much in those years. Im still very much a Paddy and my heart will always be in Ireland, says Seamus. Through the bar, our lives are very much centred around the community and the various organisations were involved in, Caitriona agrees. These include the Aisling Irish Community Center, which helps Irish immigrants in the area.

While Seamus says his proudest achievement is convincing my wife to give up a permanent teaching job in Ireland and come to America, marry me and help me run the pub, Caitriona is also proud to have represented the Aisling Center as grand marshal of the McLean Avenue St Patricks parade last year. I think Ireland punches above its weight in terms of the impact Irish people make internationally, especially when it comes to human rights issues and charitable donations to countries that need help, says Seamus. aislingcenter.org - GT

Gary DunneCultural director of the London Irish Centre

At the London Irish Centre, Gary Dunne programmes work that redefines what Irish culture can be. Growing up in the midlands, he was immersed in Irish arts and culture. I spent my college years and early 20s on Dublins rich music scene, he says. It was only after a number of years of living in London that I realised how much I missed that, and how much a part of my life and identity Irish culture is.

Ireland is changing, says Dunne: politically, culturally and in terms of identities. As a musician, he writes, records and performs, while at the London Irish Centre and the London St Patricks Festival, his work is about bringing the rich tapestry of modern Irish culture to London stages.

Being centrally involved in the respectful redevelopment of a historic Irish Centre into a world-class cultural venue is a privilege, says Dunne. Im proud of the work Ive done in connecting artists with social causes, whether its Martin Hayes at the London Irish Centre, Damien Dempsey in Trafalgar Square, or an 80-strong community choir at the Ceiliradh concert in the Royal Albert Hall. londonirishcentre.org - GT

Rosemary Adaser and Conrad BryanAssociation of Mixed Race Irish

In 2014, Rosemary Adaser founded the Association of Mixed Race Irish, a campaign and support group. We came together when we realised that our childhood experiences of racism had never been recognised in any previous Statutory Enquiries, in particular the Ryan Report where the terms of reference excluded the issue of historic racism in the Irish Industrial School network, including Mother and Baby Homes a Magdalene Laundries and Reformatory Schools, Adaser explains.

She has since worked tirelessly for the rights of mixed race Irish people wherever they live in the world, along with Conrad Bryan who is treasurer of the organisation. London became home for both of them Adaser moved there in the mid-1970s, Bryan in the late 1980s.Adaser has led a delegation to the Dil to present personal testimonies, and lobbied successfully to have racism included in the terms of reference for the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes. Last December, she led the AMRI to the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. CERD hearing our claims of historic racism against mixed-race women and children accepted our truth, says Adaser.

Both she and Bryan are members of the Mother and Baby Home Collaborative Forum, established by Minister Katherine Zappone last August.

Bryan has also been treasurer of the charity Irish in Britain. "As Irish children of African fathers we were abandoned and the State simply looked away, Bryan says. The State must look now and face up to this legacy so that it never happens again, and so they can help young people from all ethnic backgrounds to feel safe and proud to be Irish.mixedraceirish.blogspot.com

Paul RowleyDevelopment co-chairman, Rockland GAA

Bruce Springsteen unknowingly changed the life of one Irish man as he performed to a crowd of more than 95,000 at Slane Castle in 1985. Paul Rowley, who grew up in Ballinalee, Co Longford, was inspired to move to America after seeing the singer on stage. I promised my mother in 1986 if shed let me go to America that Id go back to college and Id work like hell. She let me go to chase my dreams, and so I did, Rowley says.

He loved New York from the moment he arrived at JFK Airport, but missed Irish culture and joined Longford Gaelic Football Club in New York City. In 1998 he moved to Rockland county, just outside the city, with his wife Jackie and their three children, where he joined Rockland GAA and became the development co-chairman.

Founded in 1972 by Sligo native John Crawley, Rockland GAA is now the largest GAA club outside Ireland. In 2000, they became the first GAA club outside of Ireland and England to buy their own grounds outright. There are now three Gaelic pitches with a Centre of Excellence, a club house that facilitates 800 children playing football, hurling, camogie, Irish dancing and music. Rowley owns companies in the air conditioning and refrigeration sector, and employs students and graduates from Ireland. Ive no plans to stop, its great watching GAA inspire young Americans. - RF

Katie MolonyIrish Studio, New York

From The Irish Times to JOE Media, Katie Molony has always been in the news. Born in Sligo, and now in New York, she is currently co-chief executive of Irish Studio, the media organisation that connects Irish people and friends of the Irish internationally, through publications such as Ireland of the Welcomes, IrishCentral and Irish Studio Travel, with a combined global reach of more than 10 million people. Its brilliant to see the great work and impact the Irish have across the globe, Molony says. In the US, we are so well regarded and hold key positions in business. The community is very strong here and people are so supportive. Personally and professionally, she enjoys what Irish people bring to the table: passion, hard work, integrity and a lot of craic.irishstudio.com - GT

Margaret GeigerWelfare adviser, Irish Elderly Advice Network, LondonMargaret Geiger has quietly but relentlessly been fighting for the rights of elderly and vulnerable Irish people in London for more than a decade. The Carlow woman, described by friends as shy, selfless, modest and empathetic, is hesitant to talk about herself, but speaks through her actions instead. She is the senior welfare adviser and head of housing with the Irish Elderly Advice Network, a charity set up by Irish women in 1993 after three Irish men were found dead in their flats each died alone and lay undiscovered for weeks.

Sally Mulready, chief executive of the charity, says Geiger helps vulnerable Irish people, often elderly men, who are homeless, in poverty or suffering loneliness and isolation: Ive witnessed Margaret accompany clients in their 70s as they move into their very first home. She changes lives and does so with compassion and to real and moving affect.

Geiger reluctantly left Ireland at 18 when there was no work. She lives in London her with husband, who is from Switzerland. The couple have four children and two grandchildren. Theres no greater motivation than seeing your clients moving from a life on the streets to a safe place to call home, she says. - RF

Loretta CosgroveFounder of Sydney Queer Irish, Sydney

From her kitchen, Loretta Cosgrove set up Sydney Queer Irish (SQI) in 2010 as a place to socialise and celebrate all that it means to be Irish and LGBT while living in Australia. I wanted to re-engage with a community of like minded people that Id left when we moved to Sydney and who also identified as queer, she says. Cosgroves parents emigrated from Ireland to Australia in the 1970s but after being overwhelmed with homesickness, they moved back to Galway. When Cosgrove was six they returned to Sydney. Shes been back and forth since.

The SQI president says homesickness is one of the issues the group helps its members through. SQIs biggest event of the year is their Mardi Gras entry, which takes many months of planning and preparation. SQI has provided a sense of belonging and home for those of us living down under, she says. The group also campaigns on human rights and community issues, such as supporting towns affected by bushfires. Shes also one of the founding directors of Irish Film Festival Australia and is currently artistic director for Sydneys St Patricks Day parade. - RF

Kelly OConnorIrish Film, London

Born in Howth, where her family runs The Summit Inn, Kelly OConnor set up Irish Film London, which turns 10 this year. We run the Irish Film London Awards, and three other annual Irish film festivals. She is also on the Community Advisory Board for the Mayor of Londons St Patricks Parade and Festival, and is a keen member of the London Irish community and its business networks.

What Ireland means to me is so wrapped up in what I do for a living. I have the typical romantic notion of Ireland. Its the word Home flashing on a cinema screen. OConnors work provides opportunities for emerging and established Irish filmmakers and actors in London. It sounds like a clich, but Im genuinely most proud of being Irish, says OConnor. Its important to acknowledge that todays positive reception for Irish people internationally only exists because of those who paved the way for us, through much more challenging times. Those who persevered with the St Patricks Day Parade and Festival in London during the Troubles era demonstrated the importance of Irelands magnificent arts and culture in upholding our positive international image.irishfilmfestivallondon.com - GT

Rebecca DevaneyEmbroiderer and costume designer, Paris

An award-winning Irish embroiderer making a name for herself in haute couture in Paris, Rebecca Devaney qualified in the celebrated Parisian embroidery school Lesage two years ago, and has since worked with Yves St Laurent, Chanel, Dior, Valentino, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana, and on many dresses for the Met Ball.

Devaney is costume designer and childrens workshop facilitator for the Paris St Patricks Day parade, in association with the Irish in France association and the Irish Cultural Centre Paris, and is also preparing for an innovative Junk Couture meets Haute Couture event for the parade in 2021.

She is an authority on many aspects of textiles including her solo exhibition Bordados on Mexican hand embroidery. She was a contributor to the catalogue for the Embellishment exhibition at the Hasselt Museum of Fashion in Belgium, and is also one of the contributors for an upcoming book on Rebe, the husband and wife team who collaborated with Dior on embroidery and were subsequently written out of history. She has just completed an installation called The Tears of Aphrodite for an OECD conference on Ending Violence Against Women. - DMcQ

Marguerite KeoghHead chef, The Five Fields, London

Head chefs at Michelin-starred restaurants who happen to be women are a bit of a rarity, but Marguerite Keogh fills that role at The Five Fields in Londons Chelsea. From Sixmilebridge in Co Clare, Keogh did her apprenticeship at Dromoland Castle, before heading to London at the age of 21.

Jumping in at the deep end, she worked first for Marco Pierre White and then joined Marcus Wareings brigade at Petrus and subsequently at Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, rising to sous chef during her six years there. In 2013 she launched The Five Fields with chef patron Taylor Bonnyman, and in 2017 it was awarded a Michelin star.

Keogh is included in the 2020 Murphia List, a collection of the most influential Irish people working in the hospitality and food and drink sectors in London. The list is published annually by Catherine and Gavin Hanly, who run the London-based eating out and restaurant review website, Hot Dinners. - MCD

Clona N RordinProfessor of English at the Sorbonne

I was born in the Bon Secours Hospital, Cork France was beckoning from birth, says Clona N Rordin. Now based in Paris and a champion of Irish writing, she teaches Irish literature and translation studies, and has published three bilingual anthologies of Irish poetry. Ireland is home and a constant source of inspiration for me, she says, adding that Irish people have found a fine balance between pride in the local and an embrace of the global.

N Rordins students are mainly French, with a smattering of other nationalities. They are attracted by modernist writers like Joyce and Beckett but go on to study more contemporary authors such as Sebastian Barry, Eavan Boland or Eilan N Chuilleanin. Proud that Ireland is becoming a more open, inclusive and forgiving society, N Rordins new book, featuring poets who attended UCC in the 1970s, will be launched at the Poetry Festival in Cork on March 26th. corkpoetryfest.net - GT

Daniel DrommNew York City Council Member

As finance chair of the New York City Council, Daniel Dromm has oversight of a $95.3billion budget. Born in Queens, Dromms Irish connections are on his mothers side with grandparents from Galway and Leitrim. I represent what is probably the most diverse district in the world (Jackson Heights, Elmhurst), with at least one person from every country in the world living in my district, he says. Also the chairperson of the Councils Irish Caucus, and of its LGBT Caucus, Dromm is proud of the work he has done in four areas: immigration, education, LGBT rights and criminal justice reform.

One of the leaders in the movement to allow Irish gay and lesbian groups to march under their own banner in the St Patricks Day parade, Dromm sees Ireland as the land of equality and respect for all. One of the things that I was most proud of about Ireland was your vote for marriage equality. Ireland led the world by being the first country ever to vote for marriage equality in a referendum in 2016. Additionally, Ireland contributes significantly to culture, literature, music and theatre across the globe. Bringing City Government delegations to Ireland last November, Dromm was awarded an honorary professorship at Queens University Belfast. - GT

Nora Hickey MSichiliDirector of the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

Im from a long line of strong Irish women, says Nora Hickey MSichili. With a Kilkenny mother and a Wicklow father, who went against the tide, moving North in the Troubles Hickey was born in Belfast, where her father worked as Keeper of Art at the Ulster Museum. At the CCI, on Rue des Irlandais (named by Napoleon), she oversees a lively programme of music, literature, art and theatre. The work of Irish artists is very well received, she says. And there is huge scope for further promoting it internationally.

Artists who go to the centre on residencies speak warmly of Hickeys ability to make connections, creating a welcoming atmosphere where new ideas and collaborations are formed. In April, the centre will host the 57 heads of Paris-based cultural centres from around the world, and the major Parisian cultural institutions. This is what the Irish are good at, throwing the best of parties and connecting people to make exciting things happen. centreculturelirlandais.com GT

Jane QuinnChambers manager, Bankside Chambers, Auckland

From Ballyfermot to New Zealand, Jane Quinn has come a long way, but Ireland, after nearly 32 years here still means home, she says. Its the smell of the fresh brown bread, the warmth of the people and the never ending cups of tea whenever there is a problem. As chambers manager for New Zealands largest set of legal chambers, Quinn works with 43 barristers, and is also a justice of the peace.

Irish culture, she says, particularly resonates with the Maori people. We understand each other like no other group I have met. Quinn also works hard on behalf of the Irish community in Auckland, as vice president of the Auckland Irish Society, and trustee for the Saint Patricks Festival Trust. Married to her Irish husband, Gerry, for 23 years, she also speaks warmly of the GAA, having played when she first arrived. It is like an extended family, and the first place we all go to meet new people arriving, to see that they are okay for homes and jobs. It is great that we look after each other so well when we are this far from home. - GT

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Heres to Irelands unofficial ambassadors flying flags around the world - The Irish Times

Off Feise Road in OFallon, Muirfield Manorhas three gorgeous designer market homes remaining, all scheduled for summer delivery.All are reduced between $6,000-$8,000, plus $6,000 to $8,000 in Union cash. Final prices: $420,827; $454,008; $535,304.

Wyndemere Estates is featuring $6,000 to $8,000 in Union cash on three market homes. Move-in-ready are two Ranch plans, the Sterling Display, $565,000 with savings of $35,063 and a Tuscany II, reduced by $33,041, for a final price of $420,619. To be completed in summer are a 3-bedroom ranch and a two-story, both sale-priced in the $400s.

Photo provided by McKelvey Homes

The 1.5-story Provence display is now for sale listed at $521,960 in the hot-selling Villages of Provence, representing McKelvey savings of $30,824, plus $7,000 in Union cash. $6,000 in savings is also available on two completed ranch plans, The Sterling and Tuscany II.

Brand-new just north of I-70 in St. Charles, the historic Villages at Sandfort Farm has two fabulous homes eligible for $7,000 in cash at closing. Both sale-priced in the $500s, the LaSalle ranch and 1.5-story Muirfield are under construction for summer occupancy.

Excerpt from:
McKelvey Homes welcomes March with savings on top of savings! - STLtoday.com

The 50 States Project is a yearlong series of candid conversations with interior designers we admire, state by state. Today, were chatting with Rehoboth Beach, Delawarebased Jess Weeth of Weeth Home, a firm she launched as a side project four years ago while working in the fashion business before pivoting to design full-time two years later. In addition to sharing favorite moments from two recent local projects, she tells us how her background in fashion informed her current career, shares why she partnered with a local furniture retailer to give her clients a white-glove experience, and describes her hometowns unique coastal aesthetic.

You had a career in fashion before starting your firmlets start there.I have loved design in all ways as long as I can remember, but I didnt really consider it as a career when I was looking at colleges. Instead, I went for as rigorous an academic school as I could and got a bachelor of arts, thinking I would jump into the business world in some way, and try to get as close as I could to the creative areas of business. So when the opportunity [came] to join a corporate training program and take on a buyer role at the corporate office of Abercrombie & Fitch after graduation, I was able to jump out of college and get right into a $4 billion company, which gave me so much insight into not only the design side of fashion, but also the production element.

I traveled everywhereI was in China, Korea and Turkey often, and in London and Paris for inspiration and shopping trips. I got to see the mills and fabrics and all of the production elements firsthand. I was able to have an awesome career and ended up running a pretty large team, overseeing a large side of the womens business.

Abercrombie was a brand in transition at that time, correct?Exactly. When I started, it was the heyday of a huge global company that everyone knew so well, which then became a huge challenge to overcome, because everybody had one image of Abercrombie. It was a very cool learning experience to be around all those hardworking people. You would never imagine the amount of talent on that design team. Yes, youre designing jeans and T-shirts, but the capabilities and the [sources of] inspiration are a lot bigger than that.

I was running a $350 million portion of the business with a team of 13 under me by the time I left. So [the experience of] project management, presenting to the CEO, and exposure from that standpoint cut my teeth a little bit on the business end of things.

But [the office was in Ohio], so I wasnt anywhere near home. I grew up here in the Rehoboth Beach area, and my husband and I were thinking about how to get closer to that area. We started looking in Philly and Baltimore, a two-hour drive away. He ended up getting a brand manager role at Dogfish Head, a brewery that has a pretty sizable team here, so we relocated back to Rehoboth Beach. I had never considered coming exactly back to my roots, but it was awesome. Along the way, we had renovated our historic home in Columbus, Ohio, and it sold really quickly. Then we moved here into a small ranch fixer-upper and ended up doing the same thingrenovating it completely and flipping that house. In the meantime, I started blogging about it.

In the dining room of this project, we worked really hard to strike a balance between laid-back and polished, says Weeth. I wanted it to be the kind of room where you could get out the good china but stay barefoot in jeansapproachable with a hit of coastal prep. Keyanna Bowen

Weeth paired navy grasscloth with shiplap for an elevated but still casual effect.Keyanna Bowen

Left: In the dining room of this project, we worked really hard to strike a balance between laid-back and polished, says Weeth. I wanted it to be the kind of room where you could get out the good china but stay barefoot in jeansapproachable with a hit of coastal prep. Keyanna Bowen | Right: Weeth paired navy grasscloth with shiplap for an elevated but still casual effect. Keyanna Bowen

And the blog turned into a design business?In this town, there is a huge needit wasnt long before friends and coworkers and word-of-mouth referrals started coming in and I started taking on smaller projects. I took online classes at the Interior Design Institute to learn as much as I couldI had a baby son at the time, and wasnt at a point where I could move to a city and go to design school, so I had to get a little creative in [how to] get information and hone my skills.

Had you left Abercrombie when you moved back to Delaware?I was still working remotely for the company when the design business started to grow, more quickly than I could have ever imagined. In May 2018, it got to the point that I actually went full-time into my interior design business.

The vision for this home was a light and bright open entertaining space for a fun, young couple, says Weeth. With a neutral palette at the heart of the open-concept living space, it was all about texture! Cane chairs, tufted leather, bohemian textiles, woven baskets and an abaca chandelier brought life to levels of whites and creams.Meghan J. Shupe

How did you know when it was time to do design full-time?My husband would tell you it was blatantly obvious, because I was just working around the clock. I would finish my work, do dinner with my son, and then be up and working, and the projects just kept coming. I did work remotely, but it was also starting to feel like a cheat on Abercrombies time, where occasionally, if somebody needed to schedule a 3 oclock meeting, I would go to their house quickly and then make up for [that missed work later]. It was crazy.

It just became so clear that the work was there, and I was honing my confidence and my skill set. I was able to raise my prices and start to wrap my head around the business model of design, which is complex and interesting in terms of the margins, savvy sourcing, tracking time, flat fee versus hourly, all of that stuff. It took those two years of hustling [to] feel confident that I could make the jump. Every client project that went smoothly puts that feather in your cap, where youre like, OK, I can do this, its getting easier, and Im loving it more and more because things are clicking. Now, when I source sofas, Im not looking at 2,000, Im looking at my favorite 60 that Ive already narrowed down from years of looking at and sitting in them.

The classes you took onlinewhat did you gain, and what made you realize that was an important piece of the process?I took 10 modules of interior design, so it wasnt years of schooling. I learned the history of architectural periods, some of the jargon that was making me feel uncomfortable. I knew I could style, I had an idea of what I liked spatially, and color has always been my strengthat Abercrombie, I was one of the color testers. But having that vocabulary and background [the courses provided] gave me the confidence and some good basic tools. The last thing I would want is somebody to think that I have a four-year design degree. There arent a bunch of big firms here, so interning was not an option, and I wasnt able to move to a city to attend school or work at a big firm. For me, that was my scrappy way to do it.

Woven elements continue into the kitchen.Meghan J. Shupe

What did the early projects with friends and family look like?They were furniture and styling projects. It was cool to find people looking for something different and a fresher aesthetic. Theres a lot of traditional design that I think is done really well here, and then theres a [firm] or two that does very modern design. I think I fall more in that fresh take on classic [category], that middle, breezier feel. So it was refreshing to see people that saw my home or blog or heard about me and gave me a shot. When I came with design boards and the aesthetic started to sync up, the projects started to spiral in a good way, where it was like, Oh, did you know theres somebody in our area that does this? I worked hard. My prices were super low back then. I was scrapping to gain traction, because I didnt have the internship. I didnt have a prestigious four-year degree, but I had the passion and had an aesthetic that some people were looking for.

My poor husbandI would have our guest room stocked to the brim with lamps and nightstands, little pieces of furniture. He would help me load everything. We would hang things ourselves. It was definitely down and dirty four years ago, and then one of the biggest changes came when I synced up with Mitchells Interiors, a fine furniture retailer out of Laurel, Delawaretheyre an hour away, but the owner, Derek Feist, lives in the Rehoboth area. I think its a pretty unique setup in some ways. I love a lot of the upholstery lines that they carry, and they have more of a breadth of resources for custom than I could ever want or need in terms of dining tables and beds. Plus, they do all of the receiving for me, including for [a lot of goods] from other vendors. The pricing is great and the client gets that white glove experience. We also spend a day together at High Point, where I point out new lines Im interested in and they use some of their buying power to help with that. Our partnership gives me a huge breadth of resources that I, as one individual designer, couldnt have.

An abaca chandelier is the focal point of the dining area in an open-concept space.Meghan J. Shupe

The homes master bedroom.Meghan J. Shupe

Left: An abaca chandelier is the focal point of the dining area in an open-concept space. Meghan J. Shupe | Right: The homes master bedroom. Meghan J. Shupe

How long ago did you set up that partnership?I started working with them pretty close to when I started, when the logistics were killing me. So its been over three years at this point. I feel like were on the other side with the logistics a lot more worked out, which is nice.

You opened your studio in October 2019. Where does that fit into that equation?It seems like a big jump, I know, but I had the luxury of two years of working from home for Abercrombie, and knew that I was not good at working from home. I just struggled with itI was so used to leading a really big team and being in meetings and that energy and focus. Home is home, and work is work. I was really struggling with that and wanted to have a space. Then I was getting so bogged down with the project management and logistical aspects of the job that were not paid as much, that bringing on an assistant or project manager was necessary. Even installs that dont seem that big, doing it by yourself is hard. And textiles are a huge passion of mine. I was building up this sample library that was a tool for people to understand my aesthetic and the things that get me excited. I think if it was all tucked away in our little office at home, which it was, it wouldnt be serving me as well as it could.

[The studio is] a huge investment that I had to think hard about, but because I work on so many second homes, I was meeting people in Starbucks or bringing fabric samples to dusty new-build sites. It was logistically very hard to give somebody what I thought was a high-end experience from my home. I was tired of bringing design boards to Starbucks and ready to have the presentation be a positive part of their experience rather than something that I was feeling self-conscious about.

I also think its nice for people to be able to walk in and be like, OK, so when she says shes coastal, but not too coastal, this is what she means, this is what that feels like. There have been anchors and seashells around here my whole life, and I couldnt want to be further away from that, but theres also this barefoot spirit that is why Im obsessed with living here, and why I think people move here or have second homes here. Rehoboth is super small, but it balloons [exponentially] in the summer. So its a nice way to say Im here and part of the community. We did a total gut on our building here on the main street, Rehoboth Avenue. It was a super cute boutique, but very coastal, and set up for a clothing shop. It took a couple months, and then we were able to open last October.

The bedrooms were designed to be cheery and calmingand to get you ready for a day at the beach! says Weeth. Meghan J. Shupe

Its you and your project manager. Is that your whole team?Yeah, thats my whole team as of now. My project manager joined when the studio opened. Its crazy that as of six months ago, I didnt have her. I dont know how I functioned. So thats been great.

OK, and so youre both there, and the studio is open by appointment only.Here, we have such a defined season. Its pretty much Memorial Day to Labor Day. Obviously, that extends every year, and its not like its dead year-round now. For us, it makes sense to be open full-time [during that season], when more people can walk in. We have some cash-and-carry things in here, and its been fun for people to come in and shop and see it. Im getting so much pressure and requests like, I just want to shop there all the time. Cant you make it a shop? That kind of thing. So I think come May, well extend that arm of the business and hire the extra couple of hands to be here when I have to be on-site.

You mentioned High Point earlier. Why is that so important, and where else do you go for discovery?High Point is essential for me, because of where we are. There really are no resources around hereno big design centers, no huge showrooms. It is a time for me to walk until my feet are numb and sit in everything I possibly can. Seeing something, it just clicks whether its a good fit for your clients and projects or not. I love discovering new lines and building relationships. That way, if theres an issue, theres somebody going to bat for you thats going to get it resolved.

Weeths studio. 'The focus was really on two thingscreating a living, breathing space that embodies our breezy take on classic style, and to showcase the beautiful textiles and materials we incorporate in our designs, says Weeth. I wanted clients to feel like a kid in a candy store during our concept presentations.Keyanna Bowen

How many projects are you typically working on?About a dozen at a time. Im about half-and-half right now, [in terms of] full house versus decorating. But the full house ones are on longer timelines, so in terms of all the decorating side, we have a little bit more time to pull things together. I think probably everyone loves the bigger projects, just because efficiencies pick up when youre doing bigger projects. But I dont think we will ever completely [forgo] the smaller projects. We try to impart to people that we really like to do projects to completion.

Were definitely looking to make the room feel meaningfully different and very finished when we leavenot just coming in to do the window treatments. Not that we cant use a favorite old pieceI certainly love the character and soul that that can bringbut I want to be focusing on, at the very least, the whole rooms design.

You talked about how in May, so many people are moving in. When did they approach you, and what kind of lead times did those projects come with?Thats the loaded question. The amount of project inquiries we get in January spikes, and even in the last month, too. I think once you cross the holidays and January is behind you, people start thinking about spring and summer. It would certainly be nice if people had the forethought [to think about it] back in early December.

Often theyll be like, Its March! Can you help me? Those requests havent changed, but my answers haveIve gotten stronger in my stance of being like, No. We cant start now and have a completely renovated, perfect house by May. That doesn't happen. But I will say, from working with builders around here, everybody is on that same timeline. So a lot of new builds, I dont necessarily have to set the schedule as much, because they started on the build nine months or a year ago with that date in mind. Now, am I often waiting on builders to finish up, and then it makes my life a little stressful? Sure.

A vignette near the shops entrance. Weeth focused on an array of lighting options so that the studio seems to glow from the street.Keyanna Bowen

We renovated the space completelyit was a drywall box when we started, explains Weeth. It was important to add some character and soul through reclaimed and vintage pieces. The beams came from Old Wood Delaware and the figure drawings are 1920s sketches I found on a trip to the Brimfield Antique Show over the summer.Keyanna Bowen

Left: A vignette near the shops entrance. Weeth focused on an array of lighting options so that the studio seems to glow from the street. Keyanna Bowen | Right: We renovated the space completelyit was a drywall box when we started, explains Weeth. It was important to add some character and soul through reclaimed and vintage pieces. The beams came from Old Wood Delaware and the figure drawings are 1920s sketches I found on a trip to the Brimfield Antique Show over the summer. Keyanna Bowen

What are your plans for the next few years? What do you see coming for the firm?I definitely see the shop experience, the studio experience being a big focus, just because of our location. The way weve designed it, its very well lit at night from the road. So theres been so much curiosity about it. I know that its a little unconventional to have such a focal spot thats appointment-only. So we are definitely going to make the studio experience a profitable portion of the business. [Another thing thats important to me is] curating. I dont want the pieces that you see everywhere to be here. We try to utilize our custom lines as much as possible when planning for the retail furniture items in here and some of the decorthat has been a work in progress that were excited to launch in May.

Im trying to pace ourselves a little. It would be great if this next year or two we are refining our processes and still taking on the same workload before taking on more headcount. I would certainly love to very intentionally grow this team, but I think me being as close as possible to the projects is whats right at the moment.

Whats the most inspiring thing about the business to you right now?I feel so strongly about the entire history and importance of this area, and how there really is, to me, such a vibe [in Rehoboth Beach] that hasnt necessarily been defined by a style. Theres not a West Coast or California coastal feel at all. It really isnt as specific as a Nantucket. It certainly is not a Southern vibe here, either. You have a lot of heritage components coming from Washington, D.C., and Philly, and some of that old-school tradition, but in a very laid-back way [because] people are so chill here. And theres a huge generational vibe to this town, where everybody is connected.

A lot of these homes have had iterations, and some of peoples best times are probably in these houses that are packed on top of one another on their way to the beach, and its a very inspiring thing to be a part of, especially having grown up here and seen the evolution. I love being able to bring a global lens, because I did leave and travel around the world [for my former job]. So its very cool to be able to bring, hopefully, a fresh take and style to an area that is very close to home for me.

To learn more about Jess Weeth, visit her website or find her on Instagram.

Homepage photo: Jess Weeth in her studio | Leeann Rae Pulchny

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How this Delaware designer went from boardroom to showroom - Business of Home

IN 2009, CELEBRITY fashion stylist Thomas Christos Kikis agreed to go on a date with Derek Curl, a film producer, at an East Village dive bar. Kikis, wanting to impress, wore his best Thom Browne suit. Curl, a burly, bearded Southerner, arrived in jeans and a camo trucker hat and ordered them each a bourbon and a beer. The unlikely pair hit it off; three months later, they moved in together. In the subsequent years, their careers have pulled them in different directions: Kikis to Los Angeles, where his clients live and work, and Curl to Europe, where he owns several film distribution companies. Yet the two have found common ground and a home in a farmhouse in Andes, N.Y., three hours north of New York City.

They discovered the area by chance. In the early days of their relationship, Kikis, 35, would tag along on Curls film shoots in the Catskills, exploring local auction houses and antique stores. On one such trip, Curl, 46, noticed that there were a number of affordable 19th-century American houses in a style he calls the poor mans Greek Revival slightly ramshackle properties with neo-Classical pediments and columned porches that reminded him of the antebellum architecture of his Georgia childhood. He had only three requirements when they began house hunting: I wanted a Greek Revival; a large, old dairy barn with a stone foundation; and a creek running through the property. Kikis had just one: to be no more than 12 minutes from a place where you could buy The New York Times.

The search took years, but one day in 2016, they came upon a 2,000-square-foot, two-story, three-bedroom white-clapboard 1854 house with a large weathered barn surrounded by five acres of rolling fields. They bought it and did a light exterior renovation, but for the interiors, they enlisted Billy Cotton, the 38-year-old New York-based designer known for his exuberant, off-kilter interpretations of American vernacular. Recently appointed the creative director of Ralph Lauren Home, Cotton was raised in a Federal-style house in Burlington, Vt., and his first job was with the decoupage artist and East Village shopkeeper John Derian. His classic New England sensibility he favors straight lines, simple stripes and the innate minimalism of colonial architecture is tempered by his formal training in industrial design at New York Citys Pratt Institute, as well as his deep affinity for French Modernists, including Jean Prouv and Jean Royre.

Cotton also loves a good back story; he believes it endows a space with soul and a source of intrinsic warmth. His narratives tend to unspool gracefully, starting quietly and growing more colorful and eclectic as one proceeds through the environment. For Kikis and Curl, he envisioned a home that had been built for a refined family that had migrated from a small European city to begin anew on a farm in the New World, carrying with them only a few bits of antique finery. As such, the public areas downstairs are decidedly ascetic, as were rural homes of the era. The austere kitchen, with simple cabinets painted Shaker red and wide pine-plank floors, has walls of 4-by-4-inch vintage off-white Delft tiles, sourced from different lots, which gives them a subtle patchwork quality. In the sparsely furnished parlor, beside a rough-hewn mantle-less brick fireplace (Cotton convinced the couple not to replace it), a pair of low-slung settees covered in blue-and-white ticking face each other, and a 19th-century mahogany grandfather clock stands in the corner.

BUT THE STAIRCASE hallway, with its original turned-walnut banister, gives a hint of the idiosyncratic adornment that Cotton has created in the upstairs rooms. Here, the moldings and door frames have been painted bright white, in contrast with the cream background of the vintage-feeling Zuber wallpaper, which is alive with flowering vines and birds. The faded red stair runner, with a Swedish geometric pattern, seems particularly daring in this context. Soft light comes from a simple midcentury Italian pendant lamp in an unexpected shade of matte tangerine.

In the master bedroom, Cottons love of mixing color and pattern reaches full bloom, with peacock-blue moldings and walls papered in a dense indigo block print. To camouflage the chambers low, slanting ceiling, typical of the period, he covered it with a similar-scale block-printed fabric in red and gold. A pair of Italian gilded and painted oak twin beds one from the 18th century, the other a 20th-century copy have been made into a king-size one, draped in a patchwork quilt, while on the floor, Cotton has layered a red-and-black Tunisian rug over a geometric Turkish runner. In the corner, he added a Louis XVI-style chair covered in worn green leather. The small spare bedroom upstairs has been turned into a cozy refuge as well: Cotton created a corner bed nook from a small closet and painted the paneling a pale blue. The wall behind the mattress, which is covered by a windowpane-checked blanket, is decorated with a piece of faded red Sardinian fabric and a mirror whose glass has clouded with age. The tiny space can be closed off from the rest of the room with a striped curtain, and a red 1960s sconce serves as a reading light.

The designer pushed the couple to embrace such juxtapositions, which they might never have considered themselves although he played up the houses intrinsic Americana, he paired it with midcentury Italian lighting and vibrant wool Berber rugs. He also encouraged their reimagining of the barn, which Curl plans to use for aging bourbon.

But Cottons main accomplishment is making the place feel like home. The house has become such a haven from urban chaos that the couple recently decided to give up their West Village apartment altogether. Here, they spend time with their new friends, from the county butcher to the town lawyer to the dairy farmer next door. On weekends, they pick blackberries, swim in the trout pond down the road or fish for bass in the Pepacton Reservoir. And when they return, leaving their muck boots at the paneled front door, they are enveloped in a quiet beauty that years ago they could not have imagined for themselves: the glow of a vintage Scandinavian pendant light on the polished dining-room table, the feel of a Moroccan carpet beneath their feet, the tang of pine and wild ginger in the near distance.

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A Farmhouse Fantasy Tucked in the Woods of Upstate New York - The New York Times

When you hear the word recliner, the words elegant, modern, or chic might not be the first that come to mind. For many design-oriented folk, the classic La-Z-Boy recliner has always been something of an eyesore a super comfortable one, sure, but still something meant to be hidden away in a man cave, basement or at least a den separate from the living room.

We used to have this saying, that you could always tell how much a wife loved her husband by how ugly the recliner he was allowed to buy was, says Mark Wilson, Director of Merchandising at Comfort Design with a laugh.

While the clunky recliners and motion furniture of 20-plus years ago could be something plucked out of an interior designers nightmares, todays motion furniture is telling a different story. Thanks to improved technology and a response to changing consumer lifestyles, motion manufacturers are creating designer-friendly pieces with sleeker silhouettes, improved functionality and stylish fabrics that are perfectly at home displayed proudly in the living room.

Motion used to look like a big clunky piece of furniture, and now with the advancements in technology, motion has started to look more and more like stationary furniture, says Spencer Bass, Creative Director at American Leather.

In fact, Bass said hes often seen people walk into the American Leather showroom and take a seat in what they presume is a high-back stationary piece, only to show a look of surprise when they realize theyre sitting on motion furniture.

So what changed? One piece of the puzzle is technological innovations in the hardware that makes motion furniture move. Motion furniture inherently requires more bulk to hide all of the mechanics and metal components that make it work. But as motors and mechanisms have become smaller over the years, its become easier to upholster around them for a sleeker finished product.

The introduction of power motion also offers todays consumers the option of an unobtrusive button tucked into the arm or side to control the furniture instead of the manual crank that used to be standard.

Wilson says at Comfort Design, hes seen chair arms, in particular, size down with the advent of smaller electronic parts.

Ive now got the the control system down to where I can make a 2.5-inch-wide arm, where in the past that had to have a 4- to 4.5-inch-wide arm to make it big enough to hold the components, Wilson says. So now I can do it with a 2.75- or 3-inch arm, which looks more sleek and substantially cleaner and nicer.

Its not just the improved, smaller components alone that allow for sleeker motion pieces, Wilson adds. Its also increased acceptance and interest in sleek motion on the part of consumers that drives the volume needed for manufacturers to see the benefit of mass-producing units of component pieces.

Theres now more focus on making a better, nicer-looking chair that still performs those comfortable functions, and since theres more emphasis in that category, the guys who are developing the mechanisms are much more in tune to it and theres more volume involved. That makes it profitable for the guys making the component pieces to help develop mechanisms and components that more easily lend themselves to a better-looking, more functional and sleeker piece. So its not really that they cured cancer, its just that there are more people accepting the category. That makes it beneficial for those guys to stamp out those types of mechanisms.

Along with technological advances, shifting consumer lifestyles have also given rise to a thriving market for stylish motion furniture. Where many homes used to have a formal living room meant for entertaining and a family room or den where the TV was (and where the family actually spent time), todays homes are moving toward open floor plans with one main living room featuring a TV.

American Leather is designing product with this in mind, Bass says.

We literally designed the sofa with the idea of, if there was a TV in front of me, how can the headrest articulate to get the perfect seating position to watch television, he says. This is the sofa for the living room with the TV now, not the sofa for the living room with the occasionallysat-in sofa.

These changing floor plans reflect less formal attitudes among consumers, Wilson notes.

With the consumer being more casual in their attitudes and their lifestyle, its becoming much more acceptable to be comfortable in your home, and kicking your feet up has always been a staple of that environment, Wilson says.

With the rise of streaming services, consumers are staying in to watch movies in the comfort of their home, and want to create a comfortable experience without compromising on style.

You dont have to give up comfort to get the look that youre looking for, and thats really what were striving for, Wilson says.

Founded in 1990, American Leather has been in the motion business for about 20 years and Bass says its grown to be the companys largest product segment. The most popular product is its Comfort Sleeper, a sleeper sofa offered in 15 styles that features a construction with no uncomfortable bars or springs. Along with its own product offering, the company also makes sleeper sofas for retailers such as Restoration Hardware and Room & Board.

Over the last few years, American Leather has launched three categories of its Style in Motion series of sofas and chairs, the newest of which just launched at the fall 2019 High Point Market. The Style in Motion A-series features pieces with a solid back for a more stylish look from every angle a benefit for consumers who want to float sofas in an open floor plan. Customers can also customize with three different arm styles and nine different back options, along with their choice of 177 fabrics or 100 leathers. Bass says a goal of the new A-series was to continue to offer a range of product, both in terms of price point and styles ranging from transitional to modern.

Somebody who likes contemporary may not respond to transitional, and somebody who likes transitional may not respond to contemporary, he says, so its about having all the different lifestyles of motion that your retailer can cover. What a store in Aspen or in Denver might carry would probably not be the same thing somebody in Miami carries.

Introduced about a year ago was American Leathers I-series, inspired in part by 1960s Italian mod sportscars. The Turin chair, with peekaboo welt detailing and metal sled legs, earned the company a Pinnacle Award at falls High Point Market. Across all of the styles offered, Bass is proud to offer sleek motion upholstery delivered in just 30 days.

At Comfort Design, launched in 2009 as a higher-end offshoot of Klaussner, a new partnership with designer Stacy Garcia is helping the company reach interior designers. Announced before last falls High Point Market, Garcia will debut a stylish new line with Klaussner and Comfort Design at the upcoming market in April.

With Garcias eye for pattern and color and Comfort Designs customization capabilities (they offer a variety of nail and cushion options along with more than 300 leathers and thousands of fabrics), Wilson says the partnership is moving the company in a promising direction.

The recent trend toward more transitional looks has made it easier to style motion furniture in a way that fits each consumers aesthetic, Wilson says. Twenty years ago, he says a recliner line would likely feature hardcore traditional and hardcore contemporary styles, offering little room for customizability.

Because its all blending, now a lot of the styles are going to fit in more environments, and the consumers themselves are also much more eclectic, Wilson says.

With different fabrics, nails and other design components, a motion chair with the same silhouette can be customized to fit any environment. When motion doesnt have to look just one way as it may have in the past, the consumer appeal becomes broader.

Along with aesthetic styles, Comfort Design also offers a range of motion options. Any given chair starts with manual, then graduates up to single power (a single button to power recline), then graduates up to power recline with a power headrest, and then graduates up to power recline with power headrest and power lumbar. The next version has all of these features plus a new heat and massage system that Wilson says gives a great massage and uses inductive heating technology that doesnt damage the fabric. Out of all of these features, Wilson says power recline and power headrest functions have become a given, so much so that theyll develop pieces with these features before creating the manual version.

With all of the innovations and style options available in motion today, the question remains: Are consumers aware of all that the motion world has to offer? Wilson says its hard to tell, since people only really pay attention when theyre in the market for a new piece of furniture. As consumers and designers alike continue to catch on, todays manufacturers will continue making motion thats fit for everyone, from the Archie Bunkers to the Frasier Cranes.

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Motion Furniture Gets an Upgrade in Technology and Style - Furniture Lighting & Decor

Anne Rippy/Digital Trends

Tulsa, Oklahoma is having a moment, and the world has taken notice. From being honored as home to one of Time Magazines Worlds 100 Greatest Places to the second round of Tulsa Remote opening to new applicants, the city is in the midst of a renaissance. But its the buildings of the past that have architecture lovers most excited. With some of the finest Art Deco designs in the country, a major push to restore long-neglected buildings, and the increased interest and participation of renowned architects, Tulsa is the place to be in 2020.

The last few decades have seen significant changes in the Buckle of the Bible Belt. Tulsa was among the first to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day to recognize the critical role Native American tribes played and continue to play in shaping the city. And for over 20 years, the city has hosted massive celebrations for Juneteenth and Pride Day, embracing the diversity that makes this town unique.

But its the amazing architecture, restoration, and revitalization thats drawing design lovers from around the world to this central U.S. city. Thanks to the oil boom of the 1920s, Tulsa became the wealthiest city in the world. Construction took off as tycoons rushed to leave their mark on the town. While myriad influences from many different styles can be found in buildings around the area, it was Art Deco that architects truly embraced. Today, Tulsa has one of the countrys largest collections of original Art Deco architecture.

So just how many Art Deco buildings are there in Tulsa? The Decopolis Tulsa Art Deco Museum lists 63 total, with another 24 buildings that were demolished over the years. So to say the city abounds with Art Deco is an understatement. Everywhere you look, in every neighborhood, elements of the style can be seen. And we cannot talk about Art Deco in Tulsa without looking at Bruce Goff, one of the most prolific architects of the style.

Perhaps the most recognizable of all the citys Art Deco buildings, Boston Avenue Methodist Church was completed in 1929. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the church is carefully positioned at the end of Boston Avenue, making for a dramatic sight when viewed from the historic downtown business district. The 255-foot central tower is capped by four shards of deco glass, making it a striking focal point of the citys skyline.

For many decades, Bruce Goff alone was credited with the churchs design. But records show that the plan was originally drawn by his mentor and instructor, Adah Robinson. Today, Robinson is credited with coming up with the original sketches that Goff then based the design off of.

Early on, Goff worked closely with Robinson, who began her career as the first art teacher at Tulsa High School. Goff was one of her very first students, and perhaps this was how he became the designer of her own home. Working with Joseph A. Koberling, Jr, Goff designed the home in 1924. At first glance, it may be hard to see the Art Deco elements of the Robinson House, but they are there. Windows are geometric and elongated, there are terrazzo floors throughout, and the home is covered in stucco (a common material for Art Deco homes at that time).

The Tulsa Club Hotel is a prime example of the citys modern revitalization. Built in 1927, the Tulsa Club was an upscale gathering place for the citys elite. Designed by Bruce Goff, the 11-story building spent many years abandoned and neglected. Water damage from a leaky roof and fire hoses (the building experienced four fires in just one year) resulted in ceilings and walls beginning to rot. Luckily one developer saw potential in the building and set to work restoring it. Thanks to Ross Group, Tulsa Club Hotel is now a showcase for historic Art Deco elegance with a fun contemporary twist. Stepping into the lobby feels like a Great Gatsby party could break out at any moment.

After its construction in 1914, Brady Theater was remodeled by Bruce Goff in 1930. Adding plenty of Art Deco details, Goff designed everything from custom acoustical ceiling tiles to gilded air conditioning grilles. The new details effectively turned the simple barn-like convention hall into an elegant and breathtaking theater. It may have received some contemporary updates since then, but that amazing Art Deco ceiling is still there for all to admire.

Among all of Tulsas Art Deco designs, The Philcade Building truly stands out. Built in 1931, it was one of the many new structures lining Boston Avenue as oil tycoons sought to leave their mark on the city. Designed by architect Leon Senter, the Philcade was one of two towers commissioned by Waite Phillips. Located directly across the street from the already built Philtower, the Philcade represented Phillips dominance in the oil industry. Done in the Zigzag Art Deco style, the Philcades seemingly simple exterior belies the lavish interior, including the stunning lobby with an arched, hand-painted ceiling.

Tulsas countless Art Deco buildings arent the citys only architectural style worth admiring. In the downtown area alone, visitors will spot a range of iconic styles from Gothic to Contemporary and everything in between.

Boston Avenue, running through the center of downtown, showcases some of the citys most notable buildings, including the Kennedy Building, the Mid-Continent Tower, and the Philtower Building (connected to the Philcade through an underground tunnel), culminating at the BOK Tower at the top of Boston Avenue. Each building has its own unique look and its own story to tell. For architecture nerds, there are niche tours that have been built around these marvels.

The Tulsa Foundation for Architecture, formed in 1995, offers walking tours on the second Saturday of every month. Following a different theme each month, the tours center around everything from the impact of Route 66 on architecture to exploring the citys hidden underground tunnels. Its a unique chance to get an insider look at the architecture and designs that shaped the city for more than a century.

The city is also home to a one-of-a-kind Csar Pelli design. The BOK Center shows off Tulsas contemporary side and its love affair with art of all kinds. As a testament to how seriously this city takes its buildings, it rejected Pellis original (and admittedly boring) concept for the flagship arena. It wanted more than a basic rectangular box, so city planners demanded the world-renowned architect go back to the drawing board and come up with a more contemporary design. The result is the smooth, undulating silver swirl building that resembles a tornado when seen from above, a cheeky nod to Oklahomas wild weather.

Architecture not your thing? Dont worry, Tulsa still has you covered. From music to ballet to street art, Tulsa is one seriously creative community. Museums abound, each offering a different tidbit on the areas rich history. While not all of that history is something to be proud of (the Tulsa Race Massacre depicted in the opening scene for HBOs Watchmen really happened), locals dont shy away from any of it. A stop at the Tulsa Historical Society and Museum is a must. It gives the full picture of how far this city has come after the devastating attack on Black Wall Street in 1921. From there, you have a variety of museums to choose from to get your art, history, or music fix.

If you consider food to be art, youre in luck there, too. Incredible restaurants can be found in every corner of Tulsa. In 2018, the city took its food game up a notch with the opening of Mother Road Market. While it is dubbed a food hall, Mother Road Market is more of an experience, getting visitors up close and personal with local chefs, sampling unique cuisine, and socializing with fellow food lovers on the outdoor patio.

Speaking of the Mother Road, a stretch of Route 66 runs right through town, letting you get a healthy dose of nostalgia. From classic diners to the famous Golden Driller statue, you can get your fix of the vintage kitsch the road is known for. Be sure to check out Buck Atoms Cosmic Curios for the true Route 66 experience.

Once youve had your fill of impressive architecture, endless art, delicious food, and a stroll through Gathering Place, be sure to stop at the Center of the Universe before leaving town. Yep, Tulsa has that, too.

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Why Design Lovers Need to Head to Tulsa in 2020 - The Manual

I am an all-time architecture content consumer and nothing fascinates me more than seeing concept homes designed for the future! While we imagine it to be all Jetsons and some Avatar, designer Ivan Venkov has created a concept home that makes me curious is this what homes would look like if Elon Musk was in charge?

Venkov mentions that the original idea was for the modular aspect to only be included in the interior spaces, but the exterior sculptural look could also be shaped differently if desired this means only the interior foundation and platform will remain as is. His aim was to make modular spaces more than just functional, Venkov wanted it to be striking without costing a fortune to execute. The aesthetic is based on pillars of modern, minimal and calming design while still catching your eye. I particularly love the wide glass stairs leading up to the house, it gives such an airy and spacious feeling especially because it is only one floor allowing the trees to tower over you and build the view.

The illustration by Venkov includes stock imagery and his original concept designs for details as well like the Nebula lounger out on the porch and also the automobile parked up in the front. This concept home is a high-end prefabricated unit resting in a forest, but I imagine it can be assembled in other settings as well. I am sure this Tesla-esque abode will be built to be a smart home. Would you move into a home like this in 2040?

Designer: Ivan Venkov

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If Tesla designed houses, this is what they would look like - Yanko Design

Ill be honest, this product is not something you need but it is certainly something you will want. How cool will it be to have an air purifier that also steams irons your shirt for work? That is exactly what this steam and clothes manager does in a nutshell! The design concept for this home accessory aims to solve the issue of using space inefficiently when you have an air purifier and a clothes manager.

This one device serves both functions as we know so all you need to do to switch from air purified to clothing manager is slide up the top. A hanger will emerge and a sliding curtain to allow for effective deodorization when steaming in a closed space. It is relatively smaller when compared to the traditional clothing manager and because of its dual functionality, it becomes a smarter choice especially for the urban homes.

The steam manager has won various awards for its concept already Korea Design Exhibition Award Special Prize (2019), Winner of International Busan Design Award (2019), and was the finalist atD2B Design Fair (2019). Designer Jiheon Song has already patented the concept and we are excited to see it on the market! I, for one, am ready for cleaner air, cleaner clothes and a cleaner decade.

Designer: Jiheon Song

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Get wrinkle-free clothes and a smell-free home with one device! - Yanko Design

It is the kind of house that would kindle hot pangs of desire in even the most imperturbable editor at Dwell magazine: Clean, horizontal lines. Walls made of Betn brut concrete. Floors and ceilings from fine-grain hardwood. There is a pristine island kitchen with an induction cooktop and temperature-controlled wine storage. Plus, near the entrance, a graceful internal courtyard harbors a cluster of bamboo trees illuminated, of course. (Uplighting vegetation is the design tic of the bourgeoisie.)

If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were to grant an Oscar for architecture as a character in a movie, the Minimalist manse inhabited by the well-to-do Park family in Bong Joon Hos Parasite would certainly be the lead contender. The home, which in the film is designed by a fictional starchitect named Namgoong Hyeonja, hits all the markers for tasteful displays of wealth, from the Minimalist furnishings to the Minimalist soaking tub a desire for less-is-more that applies to everything except scale.

But as design critic Kyle Chayka writes in The Longing for Less: Living With Minimalism, his newly released book about the desire for less, Just because something looks simple does not mean it is; the aesthetics of simplicity cloak artifice, or even unsustainable excess.

In the case of the Park home, the simplicity cloaks a disquieting secret in the basement.

A scene from Bong Joon Hos Parasite showcases the Minimalist home of the well-to-do Park family.

( Neon / CJ Entertainment)

Each of the best-picture nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards employed architecture and urbanism to help tell stories.

Martin Scorsese offered an epic take on a mobsters regret-filled life in The Irishman, a picture redolent of clubby, Old World restaurants. Ford v Ferrari and Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood traveled to the 1960s, a world of Space Age neon, wood-paneled executive suites and ranch-style houses. Noah Baumbachs Marriage Story remained firmly in the present, offering a realistic view of a crumbling relationship set against blandly tasteful middle-class domestic settings and the barren Los Angeles apartment inhabited, at one point, by Adam Drivers character, a setting whose principal design feature is beige wall-to-wall carpet.

The two best-picture films that take place in wartime are among the most intriguing for the ways in which they employ architecture and its absence. So it is little surprise that both also received Oscar nominations for production design.

Taika Waititis Jojo Rabbit, which takes place during World War II, tells the fantastical tale of a German boy and his imaginary friend who happens to be Hitler.

The exteriors (shot in the Czech Republic) evoke a Baroque German city. But the interiors of the home, where much of the action takes place, features Modernist, Art Deco design flourishes and boldly colored wallpapers as if this home were a cocoon against everything happening outside. (A cocoon that happens to be hiding a young Jewish woman.)

Hitler, for the record, hated Modernism.

Quite different in its approach to architecture is Sam Mendes riveting 1917, set on the Western Front during World War I. This war epic shows little in the way of architecture but when it does, it is the stuff of nightmares.

There is the design of the trench, where so much of the film takes place, and where countless lives come to an end in a soup of mud and waste. But the most memorable scene shows George MacKay as Lance Cpl. Schofield running for his life through the bombed-out French village of coust-Saint-Mein at night, flares and bombs illuminating the wreckage of this once picturesque settlement.

It is a hellscape. The end of architecture. Its crumbling ruin seeming to contain only the last vestiges of human life.

George MacKay as Schofield dashes through a destroyed French village at night in 1917.

(Universal Pictures)

Taken collectively, however, the best-picture nominees deploy architecture in ways that tell compelling stories about the ways in which the poor and the wealthy divide.

Greta Gerwings Little Women is about the March sisters wrestling with the life options available to them in Civil War-era Concord, Mass. options that seem to sit on a continuum between getting married and thwarted attempts at a creative life. But the film also tells a story of class and the ways in which women aspire to it.

The home belonging to the kindly and well-to-do Mr. Laurence, a Georgian Revival mansion played by the Nathaniel Thayer Estate in Lancaster, Mass., sits right within view of the March familys more humble abode, a 17th century colonial farmhouse painted a dreary shade of brown. The drafty home of the poor Hummel family down the road highlights the social classes even further. In the Laurence home, the wood trim sparkles; in the March house, the surfaces have a genteel worn-out-ness, with flowered wallpaper that has dulled over time. The Hummels can only dream about wallpaper.

Those details are hardly incidental. The March home is based on author Louisa May Alcotts Massachusetts home, where she wrote the novel upon which the movie is based. Our version of the March house is a bit broken and run-down on the outside, production designer Jess Gonchor told The Times last year, but the interiors have this flow of positive energy and color.

But they are interiors, as the March sisters are keenly aware, that constantly speak to their status.

Saoirse Ronan (clockwise from top left), Laura Dern, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh and Eliza Scanlen, at home as the March family in Little Women

(Wilson Webb / Columbia Pictures)

Quentin Tarantinos Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, which is also up for an Oscar for production design, likewise offers some interesting juxtapositions of rich and poor.

The camera lovingly dwells on the creature comforts of the Hollywood Hills home that belongs to actor Rick Dalton, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, including a full bar and a turquoise swimming pool with L.A. views. Cut to the home of Brad Pitts barely employed stuntman Cliff Booth, a banged-up trailer behind the Van Nuys Drive-In. It is stuffed with decidedly unfancy clutter: the dishes in the sink, the dirty dog bowl in the corner, the television on a teetering TV tray.

We wanted to put Cliff in the realm of a drive-in, production designer Barbara Lin told the Hollywood Reporter of the concept. I love that whole environment for Cliff, putting him in such a different world from the [glamorous one] in which he serves as stuntman.

The disheveled trailer belonging to Cliff Booth (played by Brad Pitt) in Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood.

(Andrew Cooper / Sony Pictures)

Todd Phillips Joker goes beyond individual environments.

The film opens with Joaquin Phoenix, as Arthur Fleck, applying clown makeup in a gloomy, industrial room as radio news reports talk about Gothams garbage crisis. Shortly thereafter, he is assaulted by a group of teens in an alley. Thus begins a spiral that puts the emotionally unstable Fleck on the path to becoming the Joker. And part of that path is the one of a society afflicted by rampant economic inequity all conveyed by the crumbling prewar apartment building that Fleck inhabits, with its flaking paint and dire hallways.

It is also conveyed by the city itself, a rat-filled, crime-saturated Gotham that evokes the New York City of Bernhard Goetz, the vigilante who shot four African American teens on the New York City subway in 1984. A similar scene occurs in Joker, in which Fleck shoots at a pack of bratty financiers who bully him on the train. (In a case that made national headlines, Goetz was found not guilty on all charges except for carrying an unlicensed weapon.)

The film is every paranoia about the urban rendered on screen: a vision of cities as festering sites of crime and filth, evocative of the Ford to City: Drop Dead New York of the 1970s and the ways Donald Trump talks about Chicago today. All of it is paralleled by the wealthy moguls who seem untouched by the decay.

Flecks sickly mother is hopeful that one of those moguls, Thomas Wayne, whom she once knew, will rescue her and her son from their grinding poverty.

That, however, is not in the cards. As Flecks counselor tells him, after funding is cut for his mental health services, They dont give a ... about people like you, Arthur. And they really dont give a ... about people like me either.

Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck in Joker navigates a trash-covered street evocative of 1970s New York.

(Niko Tavernise / Warner Bros. Pictures)

But it is ultimately Parasite that uses architecture to tackle the topic of inequity in the most direct ways: a tragicomic story about the parallel lives of the wealthy Park family and the poor Kim family that work for them in an array of household jobs jobs acquired through various ingenious scams. But even before the plot has begun to unfurl, the architecture in the film has already articulated the class tension.

The Parks inhabit a state-of-the-art estate. The Kim family lives in a style of semi-basement apartment that is common to Seoul, where the film is set. Known as banjiha in Korean, this style of housing offers little in the way of creature comforts such as daylight. Contrast that to the Parks large picture window, which overlooks a vast, manicured garden.

It is the Kims banjiha that opens the film: with socks drying before a row of four grimy windows. Milk crates stacked high against walls burst with clutter. The wires that provide electricity are visible as they run along ceilings and walls. A tiny bathroom features not a soaking tub, but a toilet set on an elevated platform (presumably a way to flush waste without having to dig any deeper for plumbing).

Park So Dam (left) and Choi Woo Shik in their semi-basement bathroom in Parasite.

( Neon)

In an interview with Indiewire last fall, Lee Ha Jun, who nabbed an Oscar nomination for his production design on the film, described the toilet as a temple of excrement. It is no wonder the Kims will do whatever it takes to worm their way into the Parks sumptuous home. None of it, however, results in what they imagine.

Those pristine magazine homes? It turns out they have plenty of room for skeletons in their capacious, walk-in closets.

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How the Oscars' best-picture nominees used architecture to tell stories of inequity - Los Angeles Times

The Real Housewives of New Jersey cast members are known for flipping tables and major family blow-ups. Aside from their drama, they are one of the flashiest franchises.

With mega-mansions and blinged-out jewelry, viewers wonder how they live such flashy lives when their major stars have had serious financial issues. The season 10 cast are ringing in major cash as far as their salaries on the show, adding to their growing net worth.

For a short time, Giudice was a paid contributor to PEOPLE Magazine where she blogged on the site regarding the show. Her books have become New York Times Best Sellers, which include four cookbooks Skinny Italian, Fabulicious!, Fabulicious Fast & Fit, and Fabulicious!, and On the Grill and several memoirs, Turning the Tables: From Housewife to Inmate and Back at It Again, and Standing Strong. She also had her own jewelry line of costume accessories called TG Fabulicious and a line of dessert wines with Fabellini.

Her net worth was once estimated to be about $11 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Despite the success of her businesses, she and her husband filed for bankruptcy in 2011, claiming to be more than $11 million in debt. Legal documents revealed that she took home large advances and royalties from her books including a $250,000 advance for Skinny Italian and $30,000 in royalties, according to Earn The Necklace. They were found guilty in 2013 of fraud charges after a guilty plea, with them both serving separate jail sentences. With the bankruptcy filing, loss of income from her business and legal fees, her net worth took a hit. Luckily, she has the show. Reality Blurb reported that shes paid $62,000 per episode, putting her salary at a little over $1 million for Season 10.

Gorga has had her own success since joining the show in season 3. In her first season, she released a pop single, On Display, which charted on iTunes. She released her first book in 2013, Love Italian Style: The Secrets of My Hot and Happy Marriage, where she shares her secrets to a lasting and happy relationship. In the book, she gives the four ingredients that she believes contribute to a good relationship respect, honesty, loyalty, and passion mixed with old school values.

Gorga took her love of fashion and all things glitz and glamour to another level when she opened her New Jersey boutique, Envy. The business has not been without its ups and downs. Her former business partner sued her and the store closed for a few months before reopening with just Gorga. She was also accused of selling counterfeit Chanel purses and accessories, which caused a backlash in 2017. The store is now doing well.

She and her husband allegedly had issues, including owing their former mortgage company and fans suspected that like her sister-in-law, shed file for bankruptcy. They attempted to sell their Montclair, New Jersey mansion. They now live in a mansion in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey.

Whatever money troubles she may have had have now seemed to be resolved. Shes said to be paid $600,000 per season and is worth an estimated $1.5 million.

Aydin has been on the show since season 9 and has flaunted her wealth. She dons Chanel in almost every episode and has a lavish home to match her flashy fashion choices. Her massive New Jersey mansion is equipped with 18 bathrooms. The home is 12,000 square feet with an 8,000 square feet basement that holds nine bedrooms.

The mother of five relies on her plastic surgeon husband to bring home the bacon while she takes care of their home and family. Their family business is Aydin Plastic Surgery in Paramus, New Jersey. Aydins husband Bill specializes in aesthetic cosmetic surgery of the face and body, including minimally invasive procedures and reconstruction of breast cancer survivors, and traumatic injuries, including hand surgery, according to the offices website. Due to her husbands plastic surgery business, shes worth an estimated $7 million.

Goldschnieder famously revealed on the show that in addition to her previous life as a lawyer, she has family money and declared herself as the richest cast member. Her parents invested their money well and set up a trust fund for her to access when she grew older. When she decided to use withdraw money from the trust, she took a note out of her parents book and invested in real estate. She owns a home in the Hamptons, which she rents out for $50,000 a month. She also has properties in New York and runs a real estate management company.

After retiring from her life as a real estate attorney, she found a new passion as a freelance journalist and newspaper columnist. Her writing credits include Good Housekeeping and Huffington Post along with her own blog, The Mummy Brain. Her accumulated wealth prior to joining the show was an estimated $2 million.

A graduate of New Yorks Fashion Institute of Technology, Josephs used her degree to become a fashion designer and entrepreneur. She worked as a dress designer before starting her own line with the Macbeth Collection lifestyle brand. For almost 20 years, her business boomed. Her net worth was an estimated $50 million before experiencing money trouble in 2019.

She was sued for $200,000 from two former friends who claimed she owed them money from a loan. She also owed backed taxes and then declared bankruptcy within her business when Vineyard Vines sued her for $12 million claiming her company copied their logo design. Page Six also reported that her house was in foreclosure in 2018.

Catania makes roughly $60,000 per episode, with Celebrity Net Worth estimating her to be worth $4 million. While most of her revenue comes from RHONJ, she has used the show to venture into real estate.

Her and her ex-husband, Frank Catania, are in the home flipping businesses. They buy homes, rebuild them and sell them for a higher profit. They also build custom homes, as shown on the current season of the show. Catania also does sponsored social media posts.

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RHONJ: Which Cast Member Has The Highest Net Worth? - Showbiz Cheat Sheet