Domenique Mora: Where Design Meets Vision

Konstantin Melnikov, a Russian architect and painter, designed and built the Melnikov House in 1927-1929. Two intersecting cylindrical towers designed with a pattern of hexagonal windows. His flow of commissions in 1926-1927 provided enough money to finance a three-story house of his dreams. At this time, many well-to-do Russians were lured into building their own city houses; Melnikov was one of the few who managed to retain his property after the fall of New Economic Policy. His request for land (790 square meters) had few chances to pass the district commission; to his surprise, a working class commissioner supported him, saying that "we can build public buildings anytime and anywhere, but we may never see this unusual house completed if we reject Melnikov". The city endorsed Melnikov's draft as an experimental, one-of-a-kind project.

Jean Louis Denoit brings French flair to a Chicago home. The Parisian taste-maker outfits a handsome prewar apartment with neoclassical-style details, bespoke finishes, and European refinement.  Chicago has long been a city of Francophiles. More than a century ago the eminent Chicago School architect Daniel H. Burnham was so enamored with the French capital that his famous partially realized urban scheme Plan of Chicago became known as “Paris on the Prairie.” And the classicism of Paris’s École des Beaux-Arts was a major influence in the 1920's, as developers put up one grand apartment tower after another along the waterfront boulevard Lake Shore Drive. How fitting then that a couple with a full-floor residence in one of those historic buildings would turn to a dashing Paris-based designer, Jean-Louis Deniot, to give them a suitably Gallic renovation. The apartment would be French, elaborated with Chicago eyes.  Deniot gave them the ooh-là-là. He aligned doorways an...

Art & Architecture selected issues from 1945 to 1967, the greatest niche magazines of the 20th century. A&A captures a particular moment in time perfectly  𝒟𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓃𝒾𝓆𝓊𝑒 𝑀𝑜𝓇𝒶 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓋𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓋𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝑔𝓃𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝓇𝒶𝒻𝓉𝓈𝓂𝑒𝓃 𝓊𝓃𝒾𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓅𝓇𝑒𝓈𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝑔𝓃𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒷𝒿𝑒𝒸𝓉𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝑒𝒻𝒾𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝟤𝟣𝓈𝓉 𝒸𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓊𝓇𝓎.