Remains Lighting invites you to a New Collections Open House at our Los Angeles showroom. Join us for hors d’oeuvres, wine and a viewing of our new fixtures on Thursday, February 16th 2pm – 7pm For questions or more information, email losangeles@remains.com.
I was in LA to present a paper on the Illuminating Engineers Society, which is another story, and took the opportunity to visit with Hutton and Ruth Wilkinson, the creative force between The Tony Duquette Company. Their house is a wonderfully grand affair just above Duquette’s legendary Dawnridge in Beverly Hills. Hutton’s filled the house with layers of very nice old things of Duquette’s, Venetian paintings, intricately carved coral, bronze, and lapis bibelots, and other extraordinary curiosities.
We had made a few custom chandeliers for their entrance and hall. You can see the gold rays of the Duquette California Sunburst Chandeliers reflecting off the polished black stone floor and the cool white ceiling when you approach the house’s glass doors… You’d notice also, over the dining table is an original of the Aurora Pendant.
Hutton apparently originally intended to hang an original Duquette chandelier designed for James Coburn (that looks like something out of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) in the dramatically tall living room that opens out to a waterfall and the gardens of Dawnridge. It obstructed the view of the 18th century Italian paintings however and is now out among the palms, keeping the koi company. That fixture is pictured in the Duquette book written by Hutton and Wendy Goodman.
The March issue of Harpers Bazaar has an article about the house with a slideshow showing many of the rooms.
-David Calligeros
Coach just launched its collaboration with Tony Duquette on a line of jewelry which can be seen on their website.
The colorful bracelets, wide, dramatic necklaces, and pendants refer to Duquette’s historic archives and iconic designs for Hollywood royalty in the 1940s, 50s, 60s, and 70s… and throughout his long life. We are particularly tickled with the sunburst pendants… I like to forget the dates and think that they must have been inspired by our California Sunburst chandelier.
-David Calligeros
Tarryn Brodkin, from our Los Angeles showroom, and I went to see a project William Hefner is designing in Bel Air the other day. It’s a jaw-dropping affair of many, many square feet and acres of tawny limestone. We reviewed the lighting schedule and worked on some custom concepts.
Leaving the property and heading back home, we stopped to admire these spare remnants of an estate across the street. The large parcel had been scraped clean of all vestiges of the early 20th century house that once occupied the precincts, except for these 2 pairs of wrought iron gates and pier lights. They are fairly intact though one set has inexplicable jail-break like damage… why wouldn’t you just climb over the 4’ wall?
-David Calligeros
I was presenting some research to the LA chapter of the IESLA on the relative benefits of different lighting technologies from a sustainability point of view (basically: incandescent vs. fluorescent vs. LED) and I was asked by a gentleman at the end of the talk whether I had an answer; which one was the “most sustainable?” I was mainly concerned in showing the path to describing a lifecycle analysis; figuring out where to look and what questions to ask, rather than to complete the research. The hard nitty gritty research and calculations are immense and I was just scratching the surface. Nevertheless, I hazarded a guess and put a big caveat on it of ”the greenest thing you can do is buy renewable power”. You have to consider the power source to assess whether you are impacting water and air quality, and consuming water, against which you can weigh the benefits of using less of that power.
This gentleman’s response to me was “You can’t buy renewable energy. That’s not a viable suggestion.” We argued the point back and forth a bit but without heading to an internet connection with his zip code, there was no resolution.
If you are out there, here’s where you get the goods: http://apps3.eere.energy.gov/greenpower/buying/buying_power.shtml
Remains Lighting is proud to be 6 years into its commitment to buy or produce 100% green, renewable power and proud to be an EPA Green Power Partner.
Solar panels on the roof of Remains Lighting, Brooklyn NY
-David Calligeros
