This is a book I have been looking forward to browsing for quite some time. While it was published back in 2010, I just had not gotten around to it until it popped up at the library recently. However, it was worth the wait, and I hope to have my own copy take up residence on my coffee table soon.
Written by Thomas Jayne, a wonderful designer I was lucky enough to meet some years ago in New York (visit his website here and blog here.), the book reviews his top fifty selections that he considers the most influencial spaces in America. What a wonderful idea. He begins with the Tea Room at Moticello, and ends with an Albert Hadley Manhattan apartment taking many a detour along the way. What is great about the book is that despite Mr Jayne's personal design tastes, he reviews all kinds of rooms, including rooms by Saarinen, Wright, and the Eames.
I also love that he chooses specific rooms in historic buildings, not the entire house. That takes a great deal of disipline. For example, choosing a dressing room at Vizcaya, not considering any of the much more grand rooms throughout this massive mansion.
It is a great collection, and just adds to my ever growing list of rooms and building I must visit before I die. I look forward to Mr Jaynes next book- American Decoration, due out later this year.
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