Moscow and St. Petersburg 1900–1920 Art, Life and Culture Book by John E. Bowlt

Behind the Blue Door By: John Demsey Written by Alina Cho Photography by Douglas Friedman The decor of entrepreneur John Demsey’s six-story townh...

John Baeder’s Road Well Taken By: Jay Williams Echoing Paul Gauguin’s momentous decision of a century earlier, John Baeder, in 1972, suddenly made up his mind to forgo the growing riches of a career on Madison Avenue to become a full-time painter. With little more to bank on than an offer by the legendary Ivan Karp of a future show at his New York gallery, Baeder bravely gambled his livelihood on Karp’s evaluation of his first four efforts at serious painting: a diner, a motel, a gas station, a tourist camp. “They were works of cultural consequence, . . . works of visual power.” Based on color-postcards in his growing collection of roadside memorabilia, John had made blow-ups of the cards “to see what they’d look like as paintings.” It was a bold, inventive move, but typical Baeder as he continued to lay the groundwork for what soon became known, through his efforts, as “Diner Culture.” And his masterful technique inevitably put him at the forefront of the growing photo-realist movement, along with Ralph Goings and Richard Estes. Baeder’s paintings, particularly of vintage diners...

An Entertaining Life Designing Town and Country By: Paolo Moschino, Philip Vergeylen Foreword by Bunny Williams Join two of the world’s most celebrated designers, Paolo Moschino and...

Torti Gallas + Partners Architects of Community By: John Francis Torti, Thomas M. Gallas, and Cheryl A. O’Neill Foreword by Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Andrés Duany Passionate about designing buildings and neighborhoods that quietly transform the urban environment, Torti Gallas is committed to improving the living conditions of distressed communities throughout the United States and around the world. Combining the disciplines of architecture, planning, and urban design into a single practice, they have leveraged lessons from their early history as a suburban-based housing firm to create a practice devoted to designing and creating the housing that brings catalytic change to urban neighborhoods. Their residential commissions are not the “one-offs” of elite houses, but the multiple housing forms—mixed-use apartment buildings, rowhouses, single-family homes—that comprise the fabric of a city. Torti Gallas is dedicated to raising the level of this architecture to a new high. This aspect of the built environment is largely neglected by the architectural profession today but hearkens back to a tradition that, before World War II, was not only a respectable segment of the profession but also created some of the country’s finest neighborhoods, including Forest Hill Gardens...