Today the front pages of Yahoo and CNBC confirmed:  The McMansion- IT’S OVER, IT’S DEAD, and hopefully it’s not coming back-EVER!  For the past twenty five years I’ve watched McMansions destroy the once upon a time quaint neighborhoods of Los Angeles like Beverly Hills, Santa Monica and the Palisades.  Adorable, appropriately sized cottages and little haciendas with charming courtyards were replaced with bloated “Mediterranean Palaces”.  In addition to looking ridiculously out of place, wasting enumerable amounts of energy and resources and  encouraging owners to fill them with CRAP they don’t need, these structures keep occupants captive indoors.  It’s bad news for two reasons.  The indoor air quality in these types of homes is known to contain massive amounts of carcinogens- home toxic home.  And since  these McMansions contain their own libraries, media rooms, spas, playrooms (and anything else you can imagine in 3 to 12,000 square feet), residents feel less than compelled to go to the public equivalents.  It causes a disconnect and breakdown in communities when folks don’t interact regularly. It’s a trend that’s ripped through our nation for decades.  And now, thankfully, it’s over.   Smaller homes, less waste, better health for people and the planet, more human interaction- times they are a changin’!

Hotel DeVille Paris

Two weeks ago I returned from a lovely holiday in France.  The SoCal Contractor and I were invited to a lady friend’s 80th birthday celebration in Lyon, and there was no way we were going to miss that!  We began in Paris- where else?- and were wowed by the beauty that surprises me every time I step foot in the city.  What also surprised me and made me a bit sick were the hundreds of piles of empty, plastic,  water bottles in trash heaps all over the city. It was hot and there were TONS of tourists.  In California and many places I’ve visited there is a 5 or 10 cent value placed on these plastic bottles, so even when lazy people use them and chuck em, you have an army of people who collect them right out of the trash to redeem for cash.  It’s a system that has always left me wondering how the beaches of Indonesia (have you seen those photos???)  can be filled with hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of empty, plastic, water bottles.  My thinking: they’re worth money, if for no other reason, how can they be discarded on the beaches that way?  Well, there they were, all over  Paris, on their way to land fills, streams and oceans.  Not so green.  What was green and one of the best ways to see the city was the 10Pm-12AM bike ridethrough every arrondisement in the city, protesting Saudi oil.  There we were minding our business, eating chocolate and drinking wine in front of Notre Dame  when we saw about 200 bicycles cruise by us.  We weren’t sure what was going on and thought possibly France had just won the World Cup. I had seen a similar scene when France won in 1998. (Funny thing, is that France had been long gone from the games at that point.) We grabbed our city bikes and caught up with the parade. A few blocks later we learned we were part of an oil protest, holding up traffic, waving banners and honking our horns at every cafe in the city. I saw parts of Paris,  I never knew existed during that two hours, cheered and exchanged greetings with every type of Parisian. Very Green. 

Pantheon

Notre Dame

Luxemborg Gardens

We stayed in a great hotel a few steps from Musee D’Orsay and right across from the Louvre called Hotel Bellechasse.  Christian LaCroix just renovated it–super funky and right next to a public, bike station. Not too expensive, it’s a great place to stay on a couple’s trip.

Hotel Bellechasse

Lori Dennis Biking around Paris on an Anti Saudi Oil Protest

Musee D’Orsay

Loved Paris, but it was hot, dirty, crowded and we were ready to head to the culinary capital of the country- Lyon.  We weren’t sure what to expect and after seeing the hotels on line, didn’t expect much. There were only three nice ones. We booked one of them and hoped it would be ok.  After recovering from the shock of a $100 cab ride into the city from the airport, we fell in love with the place.  Our hotel, La Tour Rose,  was in the Vieux Lyon-the old city, every room in the hotel decorated  in a different  fabric of the prominent 18th century silk houses of Lyon.  I can not describe how luxurious and simply beautiful our room was with red velvet, silk covered walls, matching bedspread and floor to ceiling curtains.  It was a room befitting writer Alexandre Dumas and he actually stayed there when he wrote the Three Musketeers.    The town lived up to its reputation for cuisine (much more fairly priced than Paris food of lesser quality) and had two sparkling green rivers running through it: the Rhone and the Soane.  People were actually swimming in these rivers and the entire experience was all too civilized.  What was unexpected was that the majority of chefs, like Alain Aleaxnian, were  green food advocates, dedicated to promoting and supporting local producers and organic food and wine.   (Read the next three words in a French accent) But of course…  it makes total sense in a clean environment, surrounded by pristine waters and forests.  For a day, we ventured deeper into the countryside and visited Chamber, witnessing the fields of pure, white cows famous for so much of the region’s delicious cheese. I am so happy to have been exposed to the fantastic wines of the Rhone, earthy and full bodied- yum! 

La Tour Rose Hotel

 So Cal Contractor Roi Yerushalmi and Lori Dennis Rhone River, Lyon France

Cooling our feet at the Soane

Beautiful Lyon

Lyon City Square

Chambery France

We wrapped up the trip with a two day layover in London- unfortunately most of it was in the airport due to faulty British Airways planes.  In Heathrow airport, terminal 5, green is alive and well.  On one of our last eating and drinking extravaganzas, we were served a bottle of Belu Water.  This company donates ALL of their profits to clean water in places where people don’t have any.  Belu has successfully created the world’s first carbon neutral bottled water, launched the UK’s first plastic bottle made from corn not oil, promotes PVC-free bottle caps and provides over 40,000 people overseas with access to clean water. 

So we wrapped up the trip with a nice green, ribbon and came home to see our sweet little Elle Bell.

Unlike 2009, this year’s DOD had a pulse, jam packed with people and product.  The producers and participants  turned up the heat  with every booth more stylish than the next. This year I was asked to speak on two panels: ASID Glamorous Green Secrets and the joint project of  the USGBC and ASID- ReGreen.  Paired  up for the third or fourth time with world renown Bau Biologist, Mary Cordaro, it was invigorating to see both  audiences with plenty of interested folks standing all the way in the back.

My daughter and I loved the Paul Frank sponsored kid’s play area and the gumball dispensed SEED BOMBS.   The idea behind the green ammo is to throw them at abandoned urban lots, wait for rain and watch the wild flowers grow.  It reminded me of being a bad little girl who always had a good heart. 

The show was a huge success and more evidence that green power continues to gain strength.

Last week we were invited to a private event with Marcus Samuelsson and Blue Star Appliances.  The two have recently joined forces to promote restaurant style cooking at home.  It couldn’t have been better timing because we’re designing a kitchen for a client who loves to cook and entertain so much that she takes it to a professional level.   Forget about the usual bangs and whistles, her must  have in the kitchen  is a salamander.  I do love to cook, but to be honest, before her request I had never even heard of a salamander.  That’s because they’re generally reserved for commercial cooking, giving meat and fish that sizzling, finishing touch.  After our meeting I got on the Internet and started my search only to find that A) THEY’RE HUGE (not ideal for pretty designs) and B) they’re not approved for residential use. Finally I spotted the Blue Star salamander, the only professional quality device approved for residential use and found the invite to their event in my in box the same day. 

In addition to being a total sweetheart, Marcus can cook.  He is a Top Chef Master, has competed against Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, stars on a few of his own tv shows and prepared a state dinner at Obama’s White House honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.  We were walked through the preparation of a four course meal and given invaluable tips along the way.  Two of my favorites were: when shopping for fish, tell the vendor you’re making sushi and they will walk to back and come out with an entirely different grade than what’s on display- without an additional charge.  Since ”we”  don’t cook with non stick coating because it’s toxic, to prevent food from sticking, make the pan as hot as possible so you hear a serious, sizzle sound when the two make contact.  We’ve tried this one on our Viking stainless and it does work.

The food was fab (surprisingly large portions) and I really enjoyed his green message: stay home and cook to enjoy fresh, well made and happy food.

Truth is that the entire store looks like a perfected, larger than life, 60s musical, set design.  It’s divine and totally defines glamorous green .   Some of the other eco friendly features were Mary Cordaro’s living green lecture at Bausman and the living wall at bookstore-bistro combo, Assouline.

Prosper Assouline chatted with me about how to curate a modern library. According  to him you must have a point of view and make it come to life.  He and his wife are charming folks and I highly suggest you pay the West Hollywood shop a visit the next time you need to purchase a present.  Their books are really something else and who else has candles that smell like leather, old paper and cigars? 

 Other star studded events included the Catherine Malandrino fashion show and an Elle Decor party at Baker to  close the three day extravaganza. I brought Elle to meet Margaret Russell.  She fell in love with my daughter and offered her an internship at the magazine.  Nothing like securing a position early.  Viva Legends of Design Quarter! I can’t wait to see what they do next year. To top this one, I’m expecting the Harlem Choir and elephants!

Some of my favorite items are the beeswax candles, which are eco-friendly, 100% beeswax, long burning candles that contain no artificial dyes or fragrances and are made in the USA.  Sweet, light honey smells fill the air and the wicks contain no metal or lead.

Since the weather is so nice, I am also loving  the outdoor furniture, especially the Maui Bed. There is nothing like getting some fresh air and lounging while returning work emails! 

If you have some time, check it out, I’m sure there’s something you’ll love.

She’s fabulous, French, in her eighth decade and cares tremendously for our environment and animals. It didn’t surprise me that she showed up with Earth friendly flowers.  In case you don’t know, most cut flowers are generally grown with toxic chemicals, preserved with even more toxic chemicals and then shipped half way around world. Not these simple, but beautiful, store bought babies- they came from less than 500 miles away and were grown with nothing that would make us sick. 

Even the packaging was recycled and recyclable, with a little triple R message reminding us to REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. 

I popped them into a Baccarat Vase  (that I’m sure will be passed to my grandchildren one day) and placed them next to my homegrown oranges. There you have it, simple, green elegant.

Unlike the Westweek event a few weeks ago, which completely neglected any greenspeak, Veranda celebrated the dynamic eco duo from the Q Collection, awarding them with one of their four coveted awards for the Art of Design. 

Each winner and all the panelists championed the green cause, one even defined luxury as a clean glass of water.  Again and again they reminded us that respect for the planet’s resources and healthy built environments go hand in hand with luxury, something our firm has been touting for over a decade.  The slides of their projects were breath taking and entertaining, especially the image of Kid Rock’s bedroom which looked nothing like I thought it would.  It was originally designed as a love nest for him and Pamela Anderson and apparently they were quite taken by a trip to St. Lucia.  Windsor Smith intelligently spoke about redesigning the way we use space, sharing plans on her new Mandeville Canyon equestrian compound. I wanna be Windsor when I grow up!

Dedar and Kneedler Fauchere held the reception.  As always the fabrics, flowers and food were scrumptious.  My favorites were the chocolate dipped macaroons.  Because an HGTV camera was following me around filming a day in my life, I received extra attention and a special, little interview from Carolyn Englefield, Veranda’s Editor At Large.  Fun fun fun.

We spent the past weekend planting our succulents, the beginnings of an herb garden and painting the patio fence.  The SoCal Contractor even made  three huge planters for the patio. 

We found the perfect spot with the right combination of shade and sun for the orchids and figs will be ready in a few weeks.  Can you say edible garden?

It feels like the garden of Eden and I can promise you I won’t screw it up by planting any apple trees!