Today the New York Times tours the Nicol House, in Kansas City, Mo., which was built in the '60s by the famously adventurous architect Bruce Goff and is now owned by midcentury furniture dealer Rod Parks. "The house grabbed me like never before," Parks tells the Times. "It got me—and I got it." Though he filled the 4,200-square-foot home with Artemede lamps, Panton and Nelson seating, and Marimekko textiles, much was already in place when he moved in, including built-ins, furniture, and lighting designed specially for the space. Here now, the 10 wackiest details:
10. The front door's stained glass actually consists of purple and blue Italian ashtrays.
9. "Just under the eaves [...] Goff inserted tiny hobby-shop mirrors among the hexagonal cladding shingles."
8. The house is shaped like an octagon, with "a zigzag of triangular windows and a pyramid crowning its flat roof" and "an asterisk of steel balls and rebars on top."
7. Goff worked with the Nicols to design a honeycomb scheme inside, where each octagonal-shaped room was painted a different color—"from purple to tangerine, reflecting each family member's particular taste."
6. The property features a hexagonal pool.
5. Every room has a skylight.
4. There are "triangles everywhere: in the windows, kitchen cabinets, bathroom sinks and even toilet tanks."
3. Holding court in the center of a conversation pit is "a fire-and-water fountain made from a sawed-off boiler, an inverted showerhead and a copper ring pierced with flame jets. Overhead, [Goff] strung a veil of mirrors."
2. Built into the home: "platform beds, desks, vanities with baking tins as drawers and fixed-in-place dining and kitchen tables were integral to the design."
1. In one area (bottom photo), there's an octagonal table Goff cut, physically, from the side of the house to create an octagonal window.
· It Has Its Points [NYT]
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