STIR 4.1 2007

s t i rS H E R W I N - W I L L I A M S® W h e r e C o l o r a n d C r e a t i v i t y C o n v e r g e Vo l u m e 4 • I s s u e 1 • 2 0 0 7

Rub-Proof Paints ■ Dining in Blue ■ Colorful Cuisine With Chef Rick Bayless

®

Spyeye

How trend spotters like Brooklyn’s Grace Bonney are influencing style.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT — AND INSPIRATION

ou’ve no doubt been told that you have “good taste.” Not only

is this expression the ultimate compliment for a design

professional, it also reveals how closely married color is to food.

In fact, whether you’re describing a color as icy or rich, or

naming it saffron, butter or grape, it’s

nearly impossible to talk about your

palette without also talking about, well,

your palate.

There’s a fancy word for something that

affects more than one of our senses —

synesthesia — but you don’t have to be a

scientist to understand this concept. You

only have to trust your instincts as you

discover inspiration in the flavors you

sample, whether it’s painting with the

color of a curry that lifted your spirits or

an espresso that shook your soul.

In this issue of STIR, Chef Rick Bayless tells

us how color functions as an ingredient in both his award-winning

Mexican cuisine and the interior spaces of his beloved restaurant,

Topolobampo, in Chicago. Inside a new Minneapolis restaurant, Cue,

which sits inside a building designed by renowned French architect

Jean Nouvel, we discover a dining room that has broken one of color’s

cardinal rules: It’s blue. This project is a thrilling reminder of the ways

in which food inspires experimentation — and the importance of

understanding the rules before attempting to break them.

Like a memorable meal, we hope this issue stirs your senses.

Bon appetit.

Sincerely,

Sheri Thompson

Director, Color Marketing and Design The Sherwin-Williams Company

Order Sherwin-Williams color samples online atsherwin-williams.com.

For product or compliance questions, call the Architect andDesigner Answerline at (800) 321-8194.

For local service and advice, please see your Sherwin-Williams Architectural Account Executive or your local store.

STIR Advisory BoardEmily Blitzer Paul Segal AssociatesNew York, NY

Kathleen Neama The S/L/A/M Collaborative Glastonbury, CT

Ann Newton Spooner, IDS national presidentAnn Newton Spooner Interior Design Charlotte, NC

Karin Schluer, Allied ASID, LEED certified Karin & CompanyLong Valley, NJ

Leslie Shankman-Cohn, ASIDEclectic InteriorsMemphis, TN

Zara Stender, CID, IDS, Allied ASID,CMG vice-chair ZaraDesignsReno, NV

Kristine Stoller, NCIDQ certifiedKSID, LLCSharon, MA

Abby Suckle, AIA, FAIA, LEED certified Abby Suckle ArchitectsNew York, NY

Denise Walton, ASID, NCIDQ certified Denise J Walton Design Scottsdale, AZ

Y

The trademarks and copyrights of Sherwin-Williams appearing in STIR are protected.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Editorial Advisor:Tresa Makowski

Executive Editor:Bryan Iwamoto

Editorial Director:Dobby Gibson

Editor:Kim Palmer

Managing Editor:Laura Pigott

Executive Art Director:Sandy Rumreich

Senior Designer:Cate HubbardMonique Kelbrants

Senior Editor:Mara Hess

Production Director: Pam Mundstock

Production Artist: Neil Kresal

Project Manager: Linda Usgaard

Client Services: Steff Gumingo

STIR® magazine is publishedby Hanley Wood, LLC, onbehalf of The Sherwin-Williams Company, forinterior designers andarchitects. We welcomeyour questions andcomments. Please directcorrespondence to: Sherwin-Williams STIR MagazineHanley Wood 430 1st Ave. N., Suite 550Minneapolis, MN 55401 Phone: (612) 338-8300Fax: (612) 338-7044E-mail: [email protected] site: sherwin-williams.com

Printed in the United States, © 2007 Sherwin-Williams, Vol. 4. Issue 1, 2007

S H E R W I N - W I L L I A M S S t i r 1

s t i rS H E R W I N - W I L L I A M S®

Vo l u m e 4 • I s s u e 1 • 2 0 0 7

C O N T E N T S

5 12 18

ON THE COVER EYE SPY

Go behind the sceneswith today’s hottesttrend watchers andlearn how they’reinfluencing design.

6

PALETTE

CONCEPTS IN COLOR™

Thanks to designer input,Sherwin-Williams’new color collection is more client-friendly than ever.

2

COLOR TECH

RUB-PROOF COLOR

Vivid hues are now available in burnish-resistant,low-VOC paints.

5

STAGE PRESENCE

Cue, one ofMinneapolis’ boldestnew restaurants,breaks all the ruleswhen it comes todining- room color.

12

GOING GREEN

TOWER POWER

The HearstCorporation’sManhattanheadquarters sets a new standard forearth-friendly office design.

15

COLOR SPY

RICK BAYLESS

The celebrity chefexplains how colorhas become animportant ingredientin his award-winningMexican cuisine.

16

MOD MAKEOVER

Discover how a classical modernistpalette helped togive a modular-style1950s home a much-neededrenovation.

18

FINAL TOUCH

A mouthwateringlook at sushi’scolorful, edible art.

21

16

™

2 S H E R W I N - W I L L I A M S S t i r

C O L O R N E W S A N D S O L U T I O N S F R O M S H E R W I N - W I L L I A M S

Designer research inspires

new color collection

P A L E T T E

Sherwin-Williams has launched a compact, elegant colorcollection, called Concepts in Color, which is designed to helpsimplify the color decision process for design professionals and

their clients. To make the collection as user-friendly as possible,Sherwin-Williams carefully studied how residential and commercialdesigners worked with clients to select colors.

The end result: a simplified color selection system, includingoversized color chips, that will put even a challenging client at ease.Best of all are the colors: Concepts in Color comprises 250 of today’smost popular hues, including 125 new neutrals and whites.

So how does the collection’s color selection system work? Forstarters, the colors are arranged by family and on large 3" x 5" color chips.Each chip includes a small, perforated window to help with the color-specification process. The back of each chip conveniently lists coordinating color recommendations.

Along with the large chips, the in-store color merchandiser includes30 idea cards that feature inspirational room scenes. Plus, five cardsshowcase current color trends and lifestyles.

Concepts in Color is an exciting new addition to the Sherwin-WilliamsCOLOR System.® If your project requires custom matching, the Sherwin-Williams Sher-Color™ Advanced Computer Color Technology system willensure you get the fastest, most accurate matches possible.

How to Order

Look for the new Concepts in Color display at a Sherwin-Williamsstore near you. You can order the Concepts in Color fan deck and large-size samples by going to the Professional section of sherwin-williams.com.

Featured wall color is new Stolen Kiss (SW 7586).

Concepts in Color™ is designedto put your clients at ease.

DESIGNER CYNTHIA ROWLEYDEBUTS CONCEPTS IN COLOR™ AT FASHION WEEK

Sherwin-Williams and designer Cynthia Rowley have

partnered to launch the new Sherwin-Williams Concepts in

Color collection, bringing coatings to couture, and helping

to cement color’s crossover from home trends to fashion.

The color collection debuted at Rowley’s show at Fashion

Week on Feb. 8 in the runway, lighting, signs and seat cards.

Rowley, who is known for the creative use of color in her

designs and is well-immersed in the home decor arena,

makes an ideal partner for Sherwin-Williams and the

Concepts in Color launch.

Rowley’s credentials

As a senior at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago,

Rowley sold her first fashion line to a number of New

York’s most prominent stores and has never looked back.

Today her line includes women’s, men’s and children’s

wear; accessories including shoes, handbags, eyewear,

jewelry, and belts; dishes; and a signature fragrance.

The line is sold in Cynthia Rowley Boutiques in New York,

Los Angeles, Chicago and East Hampton; in better

department stores and specialty stores;

and in more than 50 Cynthia

Rowley Boutiques in Japan.

The Council of Fashion

Designers of America

honored Rowley with the

New Fashion Talent Award

and a nomination for the

Perry Ellis Award for New

Menswear Design Talent.

She is the co-author of the

best-selling line of Swell books

and co-creator of Swell-related

television programs and home

products with Ilene Rosenzweig,

former deputy style editor of

The New York Times. Rowley has also

appeared as a judge on the reality

television programs Project

Runway and Design Star.

Silver wheels.

When it comes to car color, silver comes in

first. Maintaining its pre-eminence as the most

popular automobile color in North America,

silver adorned a full 24 percent of all North

American vehicles produced in the 2006 model

year. White was the second most popular color

at 16 percent, also retaining its 2005 ranking.

Black and red tied for third at 13 percent each,

followed by blue at 12 percent. Naturals, which

include light metallic beige, copper, orange

and brown, also came in at 12 percent. Green

secured a 7 percent share of the market.

Cool blue jewels.

Those with deep pockets and a taste for the

unusual can now buy striking blue pearls,

artificially created in cultured abalone

mollusks. The pearl is a product of the brightly

colored, blue-shelled paua abalone, indigenous

to New Zealand. Over the course of two to

three years, the abalone creates an iridescent

bluish-green stone with a flat side that makes

it easy to place into a bracelet, pendant or ring.

Abalones produce eight different color grades

of blue pearls, each sold at premium prices —

$1,000 to $5,000 apiece.

Bronze Age dye job.If you’ve ever found inspiration in a radical

new hair color, you’re part of an ancient

tradition. History has uncovered more than

100 different formulas that were used to alter

hair color. The Romans, who

were fascinated with

dyeing their hair, used

ingredients ranging from

leeches and charred eggs

to walnut shells. They were

certainly on to something —

some of today’s dye formulations

still use walnut shells.

MADE IN THE SHADEClimaGuard SPF may change the way you feelabout UV-blocking glass.

If you don’t usually recommend UV (ultraviolet) filtering windows for your projects, it might be

time to reconsider. UV-blocking glass can protect walls, floors and

furnishings from excessive solar heat gain anddamaging UV rays while maximizing natural daylightand thermal insulation. ClimaGuard SPF window glassis designed to block 99.9 percent of (UV) radiationwithout any visible change in day lighting, compared to a 76 percent reduction with low-E glass and a 43percent reduction with clear glass.

What Makes ClimaGuard SPF Glass Unique?• Comprehensive UV protection that blocks

99.9 percent of both UV-A and UV-B radiation.

• Glass appearance is not tinted or excessively reflective, suiting your design while providing plenty of natural daylight.

UV Tips• Direct sunlight can cause fading and discoloration

on upholstered fabrics. Keep your furniture as far away from sunlight as possible. Rotate your furniture frequently to avoid patches of fading.

• UV rays don’t just affect furniture. They are harmfulto people indoors as well as outside. Limiting yourUV exposure is always recommended. ■

To learn more about ClimaGuard SPF, visit www.climaguardspf.com.

COLOR CHIPS Facts and trivia from across the spectrum


UV-blocking glass is essential to protect

furnishings from damaging UV rays.

hen interior designer Ann Newton Spooner’s grandchildrencome to visit, her walls get a rubdown — though not therelaxing kind. The girls slide down the staircase railing,

and their knees rub against the paint on the wall below it. “So I have thiswavy line of shine on the wall,” says Spooner, a designer based in Charlotte,N.C., and past national president of the Interior Design Society.

That shine is called burnishing, which is caused when a painted surface is scrubbed, rubbed or worn down. It often occurs in high-trafficareas, where a surface is washed or cleaned frequently, or when objectssuch as furniture (or kids’ knees) rub against it. It also can occur if a low-grade paint with poor resistance to stains and scrubbing has been used.

To prevent this, Sherwin-Williams developed Duration Home®, a specialpaint designed to hold up to activities such as washing or rubbing thatwould otherwise stain and burnish interior surfaces, says Steve Revnew,director of marketing, residential markets, for Sherwin-Williams. Thetechnology focuses on the resin that holds together the various componentsof paint — pigmentation, solvent, additives, for example — Revnew says.

“Normally when paint dries, it’s a physical process. Water evaporates,and the latex particles remain,” says Lisa DePaulo, manager of architecturalproduct development for Sherwin-Williams.

Duration Home paint is formulated with a special cross-linkingtechnology. “Components in the polymer are actually reacting [to each other] to create a stronger film,” she says.

The resulting paint is stronger and more stain-resistant.“You can wash stains without removing paint film, and because you’re not removing paint film, you’re not getting burnishing,” says Revnew.

Burnishing tends to happen more noticeably withdarker colors, where less light is reflected and surfaceimperfections are highlighted. “It’s the No. 1 complaint withbright, bold colors,” Revnew says. But, finally, there is a solution.

Duration Home is ideal for residential or commercial high-traffic areas. Though Spooner may not be repainting herown staircase any time soon, she says the Duration Home line will be useful in her work. “I get frequent calls from people wanting me tospecify paint colors and finishes. This will be a good sales tool for me.” ■

C O L O R T E C H


W

Durable, rub-proof colorFinally, bold hues are available in a burnish-resistant,washable and low-VOC coating.

Burnishing is the No. 1 complaint with

bright, bold colors — paintwashes off or mars when

you rub against it.

This spring, Duration Home will be available in accentbases, which means bright, vivid, bold colors can betinted in the Duration Home formula. And becauseDuration Home is a GreenSure™ product with low VOCs,designers can specify dark colors that resist burnishing,are washable and are environmentally friendly.


Spyeye


From the sidewalk and cyberspace,

trend spotters are increasingly influencing style.

Tom Julian, strategic director

of trends for ad agency

McCann Erickson, strives to

translate what he discovers

on the street into viable

business concepts for clients.

B y K I T T Y S H E A

he teakettle whistles in the background as trend-spotter JoshSpear strides around his art-filled, feng-shui-tuned apartment,Vonage Wi-Fi cell phone to his ear, and tries to explain how itis that, by posting nothing more than “stuff he likes” on hisnamesake blog, he’s become a celebrated eye for all-things

cool (even though “cool” is no longer in his hype lexicon). Spear supplies trend-minded types with five to 10 daily hits of

idea caffeine, posting photos and pithy endorsements of art, books,gadgets, skateboards, back-alley restaurants — whatever culturalsnippets he and his contributors find inspiring. He’s on the road at least once a month, digging around cities, visiting museums,knocking on shop doors after hours and gaining celebrity-like entrance. Solicitations also come to his mailbox.

“There are packages stacked up at the office for me to consider for posting,” Spear says. Consideration, for him, is viscerally fueled: “It’s all about the experience I have with each product or place: Is itup to a certain par?”

Spear’s conferral of coolness (that word again) is, to him, morepredilection than prediction, but marketers, brand managers andadvertising executives consider it genuine buzz. The Boulder, Colo.,chronicler has thus become a living, breathing brand himself.

“My readers are there to consume or take on what I’m curating,”Spear says. “They like it for the personal reasons they like it. They also like it because I like it, weird though it sounds.”

Trend ScouringFor trend-spotter Grace Bonney, whose Design*Sponge blog and its offshoots focus on youthfully charged modern design, staying true towhat she likes has won praise from esteemed corners. The New YorkTimes “Home & Garden” section put her on its cover. Time magazine’sdesign issue christened Design*Sponge one of its top blogs. House &Garden signed her as its product blogger. And New York magazineraved about her Web site’s high potential for addiction. Bonney’s discriminating picks draw more than 30,000 daily readers, nearly half of whom work in art, architecture and design, including a who’s whoof shelter magazine editors scrolling for leads to fill their pages.

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“Editors don’t have time to do what I do,” Bonney says, referring toher 13 hours of trend scouring every day. Twice weekly, she leaves herBrooklyn, N.Y., Pullman-style apartment (which is above a hardwarestore) to root around new retail shops and student art shows. Mostly,though, she surveys the scene via computer screen, obsessivelyresearching exhibitor lists from international design shows, artists’work, and the sites of product manufacturers in locales includingSouth Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Scandinavian regionand, stateside, the Portlands. (Portland, Ore., and Portland, Maine, arehotbeds for “really interesting handmade stuff right now,” she tips.)Wannabes court her consideration as well: Bonney receives 150 to 200 e-mail submissions a day, of which five might be post-worthy.

When she sees something repeatedly, she christens it a “mini-trend.” Red and white accessories recently made the list, as did Delftblue accents reminiscent of 17th-century Holland. Also cutting into her consciousness: bright white furniture and objects that celebrateform over ornate decoration.

Virtual EyesThe Internet has made spotting trends less about surveying societyfrom behind dark sunglasses and more about click-happy sessionsonline, according to Reinier Evers, the Amsterdam-based founder oftrendwatching.com, which compiles monthly trend briefings andannual reports for an international corporate clientele.

“In a way, as information is ubiquitous, our spotters are less andless just eyes and ears in a specific city or region, but more eyes andears in cyberspace, scanning hundreds of sources,” says Evers.Nevertheless, for eyeing street life, “New York and London still rule,”he says. “Nowhere else in the world do so many different peopleconverge with so much ambition and, thus, output.”

Evers’ formalized feeder network consists of 8,000 trend watchers — entrepreneurs, students, frequent fliers, the curious and the savvy — in 70-plus nations who e-mail whenever they spy a new business idea or consumer behavior. Accepted submissions earn points redeemable for, appropriately, trendy gifts.

It’s one thing to spot something of seeming significance — and quite another to know what it means and how to capitalize on it. “With a lot of people, their only job is to inspire a company [by supplying ideas],” says Tom Julian, strategic director of trends for advertising giant McCann Erickson in New York, who spends 40 percent of his time spotting trends and the balance analyzing them (plus toiling on the red carpetAcademy Awards night, filing live fashion reports for www.oscar.com). “My job is to take those 10 ideas and make them into three actionable ideas for clients.”(continued on page 10)

f W H I T EDesign*Sponge calls the

mini-trend of crisp, white

furnishings “a reaction to

the highly decorative, overly

adorned objects we’ve been

seeing a lot of over the past

few years.” It can be seen in

everything from furniture

to place settings.

PHOTOGRAPH BY HANS HANSEN,COPYRIGHT: WWW.VITRA.COM, DESIGN BY RON ARAD

G R E E N eTrend-spotter Josh Spear calls himself a

devoted reader of the WorldChanging

blog, which is dedicated to sustainable

living. Spear recommends the new

WorldChanging print manual, recently

published by Abrams.

t r e n d sC U R R E N T


f M E TA L L I C SDesign*Sponge trend-spotter Grace Bonney

recently noticed metallic paints and finishes

appearing on tableware, such as this Kings

Road plate by designer Rosanna Bowles.

‘ B E I N G S PA C E S ’ hTrendwatching.com says “being spaces” — living-room settings such as a

coffee shop — will become increasingly popular as people seek out

communal environments in a lonely online world.

Youth Intelligence

Trends and youth have always had asymbiotic relationship, but the bondappears tighter than ever.

Now 22, Josh Spear has been gainingnotice with his namesake blog forthree years already and has launched

Spear Creative Group, a brand consultingagency. Grace Bonney, 25, launched herDesign*Sponge style prospectus when she was 23. Reinier Evers, the 36-year-old founderof trendwatching.com, is nearing retirementas a trend spotter: “I don’t see myself doingthis in my 40s and 50s, so time is running out,” he says. “I will probably migrate to a morestrategic role, translating trends to corporatestrategies, while a younger person takes overthe actual spotting part of our business.”

Why is the trend business so youth-driven?Something happens as we age, and in mostevery regard except the business of new, it’s positive. We gain experience andperspective. We become more satisfied. We grow surer of who we are and how lifeworks — too sure, perhaps.

“Young people tend to be more open to new things, less inhibited by what are thenorms,” says Evers. “There are super-sharppeople of age, but in general, myself included,you grow up with a certain framework, acertain way of doing things. Being deeplycurious about ‘the new,’ about alternative ways of doing that which you’ve done for a long time, really decreases with age.”

And the idea of what constitutes “youth”is relative: Among Bonney’s most proven andcherished sources for big ideas are designstudents, many of whom are even younger than Bonney.

f ‘ N O - F R I L L S C H I C ’Trendwatching.com has called “no-frills chic” a revolution

“here to stay.” Discounters such as Target and Jet Blue (aircraft

pictured left) have secured a devoted customer base by offering a

design-savvy consumer experience at low cost.

F L E X I L I G H T S e“I love the design options made possible

by designer Jos Kranen’s zero-profile

LED Flexilights,” Josh Spear says on his blog.

Kranen designed the Flexilight for Feek Furniture.


“Editors don’t have time to do what I do,”says Grace Bonney, who spends 13-hour days trend spotting.

Thus, rather than parking himself at a sidewalk cafe and noticingwhatever streams by, Julian has specific spotting assignments: Travel toX to observe Y for client Z. He’s bullish on London and the U.K. for retailaccounts, while nightlife, liquor and relationships right now are “drivenby the Las Vegas factor and its sphere of experiences beyond thecasino.” Whatever he spots and wherever he spots it, Julian views hiscollected observations through the loupes of business, statistics, historyand the marketplace. Content may be king for bloggers, but contextis what builds skyscrapers. ‘“Hot’ is happening, a quick fix,” he says. “A successful trend lives beyond and develops further into a lifestyle offering, concept or brand experience.” A profit source, in other words.

The fixes aren’t quite as quick in interiors as they are in fashion,according to Louise Chidgey, London-based senior interiors editor atWorth Global Style Network (WGSN), the leading online research, trend-analysis and news service for international style intelligence.“Furniture and textiles — more the high-ticket products — are theforemost areas for trends in surface, pattern, texture and craft, as wellas being the areas in which interior trends first appear in the market,”she says. The Milan Furniture Fair is the place for the leading trends,she notes. “The core trends will then progress and evolve in similarveins, but not change drastically or radically.”

Looking LongFor all the breathless, real-time reporting of the latest vibe, designatingan item or behavior as a bona fide trend and watching it seep intosociety is a long-haul discipline. Minneapolis research and advisoryfirm Iconoculture pioneered the industry’s first framework fortranslating trends into growth opportunities. Per its model, anobservation (dog sushi) becomes a trend (pet versions of people food),then becomes a macrotrend (pets are people, too). To merit designationas a macrotrend, it has to be influencing the whole of our lives.

“We need to see it demonstrating itself across different lifestyle categories,” says Vickie Abrahamson, Iconoculture’s executive vice president and co-founder.

Having identified a macrotrend, Iconoculture tracks its movementfor five to 10 years. Macrotrends are deeply rooted in consumer values,and people don’t change their core as quickly as they change the cut oftheir jeans. And, given the torrent of stylish new things we can do,wear, eat, drink, use and prize, that’s probably just as well. ■

For more on trend spotting, plus a full list of links to trend-spottingblogs and Web sites, visit swstir.com.

Design*Sponge blogger

Grace Bonney, pictured here

browsing Brooklyn’s The

Future Perfect, is a devotee

of the neighborhood’s

vibrant boutique scene.


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STAGEpresence

B y K I M PA L M E R

A theater restaurant makes a design statement as dramatic as its setting—and breaks a ‘tried and blue’ rule along the way.

Cue, the new restaurant at the Guthrie Theater inMinneapolis, is sophisticated, glamorous and very blue. The deep, saturated color envelops you like an indigo embrace. And while blue is the hue most cited as people’s favorite, it’s often avoided

by the food-service industry because it’s considered an appetite suppressant.

“Blue is not a great food color,” concedes David Toay, regionalvice president for Bon Appetit, the restaurant-managementcompany that developed Cue. “I was opposed to it. There reallyisn’t any true blue food.”

But Toay was trumped by Jean Nouvel, the celebrated Frencharchitect who designed the $125 million theater (his firstproject in North America), which is blue inside and out. Itsdistinctive shade, somewhere between midnight and cobalt,nearly disappears against the evening sky, leaving a magical glow of lobby lights and silvery images from past Guthrie productions, which are screened onto thebuilding’s facade.

Nouvel had submitted his own design for therestaurant, but the theater’s board of directorsthought its edgy nightclub vibe might intimidate some theater patrons, who range from urban hipstersto families attending a matinee of A Christmas Carol.

“A hospitality environment has to be friendly and welcoming,”says architect and interior designer Ira Keer of the DurrantGroup, who led the design of Cue. “We walked a fine line,trying to create an elegant restaurant that was also hospitable.”

Keer’s original design for Cue, chosen by the Guthrie in a competition, included dramatic, themed feature walls;decorative elements; and lipstick-red accents. “[Red] is a goodfood color, and it’s theatrical,” he says.

But Nouvel’s office, which had to approve all aspects of the Durrant design, envisioned something more stark, moreminimalist — and more blue. “He wanted the restaurant to be areflection of the building,” says Keer, who ultimately found a wayto create a welcoming environment within those parameters.

“We were gifted with a wonderful space that he created forus” — a horseshoe-shaped room with 25-foot-high glass

panels overlooking the Mississippi River. “Blue doesn’tbother me. Any rule can be broken successfully.”

The success of Keer’s final design included keeping the blue primarily on the perimeter of thespace, while the heart of the restaurant features a more neutral palette of silver and black, with blue used sparingly as an accent, such as in the

flecks in the granite bar tops. The walls andelaborately soundproofed ceiling were painted blue,

Cue, the new restaurant at the GuthrieTheater in Minneapolis, issophisticated, glamorous and very

blue. The deep, saturated color envelops youlike an indigo embrace. And while blue isthe hue mostcited as people’s favorite, it’s often avoidedby the food-service industry because it’sconsidered an appetite suppressant.

“Blue is not a great food color,” concedesDavid Toay, regional vice president for BonAppetit, the restaurant-managementcompany that developed Cue. “I wasopposed to it. There really isn’t any trueblue food.”

But Toay was trumped by Jean Nouvel,the celebrated French architect whodesigned the $125 million theater (his firstproject in North America), which is blueinside and out. Its distinctive shade,

somewhere between midnight and cobalt,nearly disappears against the evening sky,leaving a magical glow of lobby lights andsilvery images from past Guthrieproductions, which are screened onto thebuilding’s façade.

Nouvel had submitted his own designfor the restaurant, but the theater’s boardof directors thought its edgy nightclub vibemight intimidate some theater patrons,who range from urban hipsters to familiesattending a matinee of A Christmas Carol.

“A hospitality environment has to befriendly and welcoming,” says architect andinterior designer Ira Keer of the DurrantGroup, who led the design. “We walked afine line, trying to create an elegantrestaurant that was also hospitable.”

Keer’s original design for Cue, chosen bythe Guthrie in a competition, included


Cue successfully flouts restaurant design

rules by embracing the possibilities of blue.

custom-mixed to match the rest of the theater using Sherwin-WilliamsColor Accents® alkyd in a satin finish. “The paint had to be washablebecause of grease spatter and drift,” Keer says. “The painted surfacesare close to the kitchen.” Accent hues, painted with Sherwin-WilliamsColor Accents alkyd and ProMar 200XP™ latex, included Black Magic(SW 6991), White Pepper (SW 1912) and a custom-mixed shade of gray.

Cue exudes drama, thanks to its theatrical lighting and reflectivesurfaces. The Waldorf show kitchen, which echoes the theater’sthrust stage one floor above, is a shimmering performance space all its own, clad in cobalt blue glass tiles and a curving LED light panel.

Interior columns were wrapped with a wall covering made of polished aluminum fibers that are lit in the evening to glow blue, withmagenta and gold halos. The bar is set with illuminated “coasters” —fiber-optic lights with dichroic lenses on their surface, so that theyappear to be different colors when viewed from different angles.

A huge stainless-steel wine tower, designed by Keer, creates agleaming focal point as well as a dividing wall between the bar andthe dining room. Even the tabletops cast a glamorous spell, thanksto the reflective twinkle of crushed glass, silvered mirrors and quartzembedded in their surfaces.

“We had decided upfront to eliminate table linens,” Toay says.“We looked very hard to find a product that gave [the tabletops] amagical quality.”

Ultimately, the project limitations became a source of inspiration,Keer says. “As designers, we rely on color to help create a mood. It’s sosimple. But it’s almost a handicap.” Faced with a restricted palette,Keer became more creative in his use of patterns, materials, texturesand lighting. “Because we did not have the option of color, we had tolook in different directions,” he says. ■

For more on on the Cue project, including links, visit swstir.com.

BLUER THAN BLUEOne of the biggest design challenges the

Cue team faced was trying to keep Jean

Nouvel’s blue consistent across different

materials and textures.

“How do you go from flat glass to

crushed velvet?” Keer says, referring to the

blue tile in the Waldorf kitchen and the

custom-dyed blue curtains covering the

wall on the theater side of the restaurant,

which serve both an aesthetic and acoustic

purpose. “Even when the blues match,

they read differently because of the

different textures.”

For example, the ceiling paint appeared

darker in the samples than it did when

applied, and it now looks a shade lighter

than the adjoining wall. The blue tiles

picked up green and gold tones from the

reflected river view.

But instead of fretting about the

subtle variations, Keer embraces them as

a positive. “I find the drifting of blues

welcoming. It’s less than perfect, and that

makes people feel more comfortable.”

MORE ABOUT THE COLOR:Blue: The History of a Color, Michel Pastoureau (Princeton University Press, 2001) A beguiling and beautiful mixture of art book and social history that shows how the rarestof all colors became the most common.



G O I N G G R E E N

The new Hearst Corporationheadquarters proves that even in theheart of New York City, amidst 46 stories

of glass and steel, you can build green.Designed by London-based Foster

and Partners in conjunction with GenslerArchitectural Design and Planning, the tower uses 26 percent less energy thanconventional buildings, thanks in part tohigh-performance, low-emission glass,which minimizes heat gain. Internal wallswere kept to a minimum to facilitate naturalillumination, with daylight sensors dimminglights when natural lighting is sufficient.

“The primary design goal was to create a new environment that embodies daylightand visibility — an open work environmentto promote interaction and collaborationamong employees,” says Bob Seitz, a seniorassociate at Gensler.

Built above Hearst’s former headquartersat Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan,the project received a Gold Rating from theU.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership inEnergy and Environmental Design.

The construction of the tower itself incorporated environmental conservation.Eighty-five percent of the steel was recycled, and the unique design of the tower’s “diagrid” frame usedapproximately 20 percent less steel than a conventional perimeter frame, Seitz says.

Environmentally friendly materials alsowere chosen for the building’s interior. “Oneof the simplest things you can do to make a building green is to pick paints that havelow VOCs [volatile organic compounds],”says Brian Schwagerl, vice president of realestate and facilities worldwide for the Hearst Corporation.

BREATHING EASYMost of the interior space of the Hearst Towerwas painted with Sherwin-WilliamsHarmony® Interior Latex paint, which offerszero VOCs and is a low-odor, silica-free coatingwith antimicrobial properties to resist mildew.

Choosing no-VOC paint was a no-brainer,according to Schwagerl. “If you can getquality paint in beautiful colors and notcreate toxic emissions that your employeesare exposed to, why not do it?” he says. “Wehave the cleanest air of any building in NewYork City, and the paint is a factor in that.”

“The interior color palette is clean, brightand fresh,” Seitz says, and it incorporates a variety of whites and grays, includingMorning Fog (SW 6255). “We relied ondaylight, the view and the quality of finishes to make the environment.”

“We looked at this project as a home renovation,” Schwagerl says. “We view corporate employees as part of the Hearstfamily. Why wouldn’t you put the bestproducts in your home?” ■

TOWER powerThe Hearst Corporation’s Manhattan headquarters sets a new standard for earth-friendly office design.

INNOVATION IN CONSERVATION

The Hearst Tower’s ahead-of-the-curve conservation features include:

Recycled water. A rainwater collection system on the

roof reduces by 25 percent the water that normally would

flow from the site into the city’s sewer system. That collected

water is harvested in a 14,000-gallon tank in the basement of

the building, where it replaces water lost to evaporation in

the building’s air-conditioning system and also irrigates plants

and trees inside and outside the building. Captured water is

also used to create “icefall,” a special feature in the building’s

grand atrium, designed to humidify and cool the lobby.

“Thinking” elevators. The building’s “destination

dispatch” elevators conserve energy with an organized system

that “pre-plans” trips. “Rather than board an elevator with a

crowd of people where everyone pushes their numbers, you

punch in your number before you board in a kiosk, and it tells

you which elevator to go to,” says Bob Seitz, a Gensler Interior

Design firm senior associate who consulted on the building’s

interior design and architecture. The efficient system meant

that fewer elevators were needed to transport the Hearst

workforce from floor to floor.

B y K I M I E I S E L E

STIR: You just returned from Mexico.What did you do there, and whatwas the most memorable thing you saw or tasted?

RB: We were shooting the fifth season of theshow (PBS’ Mexico – One Plate at a Time), allon the Yucatan peninsula. What was mostmemorable? That’s easy. Everything. A wholepig baked in a pit, wrapped in banana leaves … seeing the Mayan ruins at Uxmal …fishing on the coast and cave-diving.

STIR: When you picture Mexico, whatcolors immediately come to mind?

RB: It varies. The Yucatan is much lighter, with Caribbean colors. Central Mexico is moreintense. There I picture Mexican pink, or rosaMexicano; a blue that they call colonial blue,which is cobalt; and a yellow that I’ve neverheard anybody describe, that veers just offyellow into green.

STIR: What role does color play inauthentic Mexican cuisine and itspresentation? How would you compareit with other culinary traditions?

RB: There’s the real simple stuff: red, white andgreen — like guacamole, ceviche [a seafoodsalad] and salsa. That palette runs through somuch of the cuisine. Beyond that, it turns veryearthy. Mexican food is the earthiest-coloredcuisine, because it weaves so many chiliestogether. The chilies dry to different colors. Someare completely black; others are cranberry red.

STIR: How do youadapt or interpret thatpalette in your cooking?

RB: I like to add fresh greens and white onions as an intense, bright contrast to all that earthiness. I try to keep that balance. InMexico, you live surrounded by so much color.Flowers are everywhere. They’re surroundedby that so they don’t have to put it on theirplate. Their food presentation is simple. Theydon’t like decor; they think it’s silly. I have totry in my translation of dishes to capture thebeauty of Mexico. I have to put it on the plate,because it’s not surrounding us. I mightsprinkle marigold petals over a salad, likeedible confetti, or put an edible bloom in a plate of ceviche. That would be prettyunusual in Mexico.

STIR: Colorwise, what’s the mostbeautiful Mexican dish you’ve ever seen?

RB: You’ll laugh. It’s molé poblano. It’s thisalmost mysterious dark color. It looks like itwas cooked too long, but not quite. In Mexico,if you can pick out any one flavor in molé, it’sa poor molé. They’re going for unified flavor,where everything has lost its identity andbecomes part of a whole. The color is thesame way. You can’t describe it.

STIR: What is the color palette in yourrestaurants? How does Frontera Grill’sdiffer from Topolobampo’s?

RB: Frontera is all warm colors. It has two-toned walls, with pale gold above thewainscoting and a rusty burnt orange below. It’spainted to really look old. In Topolobampo, thetop of the wall is stuccoed white, then glazedwith a hint of amber. The bottom of the wall iscobalt blue. In Topolobampo, we have a hugecollection of fine art, and it shows beautifullyon the white walls. Frontera has more folk art,and the golden color embraces the art. It’s amore relaxed atmosphere, with brightacoustics, and you have a sense of the foodbeing really communal. It’s the color of thehearth, and the food calls less attention to itself.Topolobampo has more design elements, andit’s quieter. It’s a slower dining experience. ■

Find colorful recipes at swstir.com. For more on Bayless, visit www.rickbayless.com.


A chef’s palette

The flavors of Mexico have inspired Rick Bayless to create award-winning cookbooks, TV shows, a line of prepared foods and a pair of Chicago eateries: Frontera Grill and Topolobampo — one of America’s only fine-dining Mexican restaurants. He’s known for his modern interpretations of traditional regional dishes, turning them into a feast for the eyes as well as the palate.

C O L O R S P Y

B y K I M PA L M E R

PHO

TOG

RA

PHO

FR

ICK

BA

YLES

SB

YA

ND

RE

AN

DJO

HN

MC

ART

HU

R


There’s a false notion that a

Mexican party is putting up lots

of crepe-paper flowers. … For me,

it’s the combination of brilliant

color and really earthy food.”

“

When Barbara Boardman and her husband bought their1957 steel-and-glass modular home in Carlisle, Mass., it wasn’t out of a passion for midcentury modern

architecture. They liked the home because it was unusual, with its Acorn partitions, its glass walls — and its stilts. “We didn’t wanta colonial,” says Boardman. “They’re so boring.”

But after living in the home, which was designed by architect JohnNickols based on a plan published in the 1937 book The Modern Housein England, the couple quickly became converts to the modernistaesthetic, despite the challenges.

“The views are amazing, but it’s cold in the winter and hot inthe summer because of all the windows,” says Boardman. Oh, andthen there’s the fact that the house wobbles in a strong wind,thanks to the stilts.

Boardman’s sister, New York City-based architect and designerAbby Suckle, loved the house immediately and frequently urged hersister and brother-in-law to let her give it a tender-loving “update.”Finally, in 2005, 18 years after they moved in, they were ready.

At the rear of the home, Suckle removed the Acorn partitions thatdelineated two small bedrooms, creating a large master bedroom,bathroom and closet. Creating the “spa-like” master bathroom, which


Modmakeover

B y L A U R A W E X L E R

This midcentury home always stood out among the colonials and Cape Cods that surrounded it.Now, a respectful renovation has revealed its potential.


Removing walls opened up the house,

celebrating colorful views in every direction.

is painted Meditative Blue (SW 6227) and Waterscape Green (SW 6470), was an exercise in compromise, given the twin challenges of 50-year-old plumbing andexposed infrastructure. “You can’t just cutholes and run things where you want in ahouse like this,” says Suckle.

In the center of the home, Sucklereconfigured the living space by removingtwo walls in what had been the “horrible,horrible kitchen” and opening up the room toboth the dining room and the stairwell thatleads to the outside. She added a 22-foot-longisland and updated the cabinets, appliances,flooring and fixtures, achieving the “Jetsons”look her sister wanted.

To continue the space-age, industrial feel — and to create a neutral backdrop for the commanding views of the five-acre property — Suckle chose PassiveGray (SW 7064) for the wall coatings (inSherwin-Williams SuperPaint® Interior latexEg-Shel) and darker Worldly Gray (SW 7043)for the window frames and trim. The metalceiling was scraped down (a painstakingprocess that took two months) and painted

Arcade White (SW 7100) in SuperPaint®Interior semi-gloss, which she chose for itscoverage and sheen.

In choosing accent colors, Suckle looked tothe classic modernist palette: red, yellow andblue. “We didn’t use any blue because wehad the black on the outside of the house,”she says. “But the ceiling beams are paintedin high-gloss Cheerful Yellow (SW 6903), andthe furniture provides the red accents.”

Suckle, who worked with architect I.M. Peifor 20 years, says her goal was “to make thehouse into what it could have been originally.I didn’t fight the architect,” she says. “I did itabsolutely in the spirit of his work.”The renovation garnered an Interiors Citationfrom the Boston Society of Architects and anHonor Award for Renovation from the Societyfor American Registered Architects in 2006,and the house was featured in the June 2006issue of Dwell.

For her part, Boardman is even more inlove with her home than ever, and she wishesshe hadn’t waited 18 years to do a face-lift.“The house feels right now. It’s happy in itsskin. I don’t think it was happy before.” ■

WORTH SAVING?Architect Abby Suckle argued for renovating,

rather than for preserving, her sister’s

midcentury modular home. Suckle says,

“There was no one thing you could point to and

say, ‘This is worthy of preserving.’ You’re not

talking about a Frank Lloyd Wright house.”

But a house’s pedigree shouldn’t be the

only measure of its worth, says Michelle

Gringeri-Brown, editor of Atomic Ranch

(www.atomic-ranch.com), a quarterly magazine

devoted to 1940s–1970s ranch-style houses,

and author of the new book Atomic Ranch:

Design Ideas for Stylish Ranch Homes. “Not

every postwar house is an architectural gem,

but they’re very livable,” she says. “They were

great for families then and they still are.”

Gringeri-Brown urges new owners of

midcentury homes to learn about the palette of

the era. “Postwar houses were optimistic,” she

says. “They used fun, vibrant colors.” Sherwin-

Williams has collected a variety — Harvest Gold

(SW 2858), Avocado (SW 2861) and Stratford

Blue (SW 2864), for example — in its Suburban

Modern Preservation Palette.

Ranch-style homes have been “the architectural

stepchild,” according to Gringeri-Brown, but

younger homeowners, in particular, are

discovering their merits. The era of renovating

midcentury homes is just beginning, she

predicts, and period-sensitive materials and

pieces will soon be widely available. “It used to

be you couldn’t get a pedestal sink to put in your

bungalow, and now you trip over them at every

home improvement store,” she says. “The same

thing will happen with midcentury homes.”

Find a Q & A with Gringeri-Brown atswstir.com.


The house has a classic modernist palette, anchored by red and yellow.

Bold, primary colors both create warmth

and acknowledge the past.

Atomic Ranch (GibbsSmith), 192 pages,

cloth, $39.95

EDIBLE ART. According to Japanese tradition, food is eaten not just with the mouth,

but with the eyes. In fact, presentation is such an essential part of Japanese food preparation

that sushi masters often study the works of landscape painters for inspiration. Colors, textures

and flavors must be perfectly balanced to harmonize with each other and with the serving

dish, which is almost as important as the food itself. Contrasting colors, such as rich red tuna

next to cool green cucumber or avocado, are frequently chosen because they are believed to

make the sushi appear more vibrant and interesting. And because colors have important

symbolic meaning in Japanese life, sushi palettes often reflect the season: reds and golds in

autumn; whites in winter; greens and pinks in spring; and red, green or purple in summer. ■

F I N A L T O U C H


PRSTD STDUS Postage

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Sherwin-Williams400 1st Ave. N., Ste. 200Minneapolis, MN 55401

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STIR 4.1 2007

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