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The Fontainebleau was gutted to the studs, its 22-acre grounds completely redrawn. Developers added three upscale signature chefs' restaurants and an enormous new beachfront spa to accommodate 1,504 guest rooms -- just under half of them suites in two new towers. Each features granite counters, walk-in showers and separate jetted tubs, flat-screen TVs and even a new Apple computer. That last part is the centerpiece of the "paperless" hotel -- meaning all guest correspondence will be electronic.

New owner Jeffrey Soffer's team, which bought the property for $500 million and shelled out another $500 million in upgrades, is also opening Fontainebleaus in Las Vegas (fall 2009), Dubai and a fourth, to-be-named location.

Though they wanted a new identity, designers strove to retain architect Morris Lapidus' original vision. For example, Lapidus' affinity for circles is clear throughout the hotel's spacious hallways, where elaborate chandeliers by Ai WeiWei, a consultant for the Beijing Olympics' Bird's Nest main stadium, hang from high-ceiling insets.

The grand lobby's original white-and-black bow-tie floor pattern was recreated out of new materials, and its furrowed columns were preserved and refurbished.

So too was the Fontainebleau's famed "Staircase to Nowhere," which historically led to a small coat room just above the lobby. Belles and beaus would take an elevator up, check their coats and descend the stairs for a grand entrance. The coat check is gone -- not a terribly sensible feature in the tropics, anyway -- but the runway remains.

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alan zweibel on lopate


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left wing political graphics


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45 Vintage ‘Space Age’ Illustrations

via zoller
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rain water harvesting


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dat dere


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frank lloyd wright an autobiography

rubble trench foundation


The desert offered a new challenge in materials. The architect's primary solution was "desert rubblestone wall" construction, usually shortened to "desert masonry." There are many ways of acheiving this, but all involved placing large stones into forms, then pouring concrete around the stones while leaving most of the face next to the form exposed. in the Bott house (S.404) wet sand was forced between form and stone surface before the concrete was poured. In the Austin house (S.345) crumpled newspaper was used instead of sand to keep stone faces from being covered with concrete. At Taliesin West, the mortar was allowed to seep around the edges of the stone face, and surplus was the chipped away to reveal the stone surface. Often, the stone was washed with acid to bring out its color.

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The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, has opted to court controversy with plans (to be announced at a 9 a.m. press conference today) that will plant a new 90,000-square-foot, Renzo Piano-designed building just west of Louis Kahn's 120,000-square-foot 1972 masterpiece.


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