January 7, 2010
On DO: Skating on the Edge of Taste
This is The American Restaurant in Kansas City, 1974, designed by Warren Platner and the subject of a long essay on that architect and interior designer’s career, posted yesterday on Design Observer. It is at the top of the Crown Center, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in a rather more sedate manner. As I wrote:
In this glass box, Platner installed what I can only describe as the meeting of a Thonet café chair and a Gothic cathedral. He described it somewhat differently: …it occurred to me that since our client was in the greeting card business we should treat the space in a very decorative way — like a huge lace Valentine — and everything we did was to enhance that impression.
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By Alexandra Lange
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