Re: [in-enaction] not-superstars: Chareau et al: Maison de Verre sold to Architectural Historian

Architexturez. wrote:

> The sale of the Maison de Verre was a potentially sensitive issue given 
> that the house is designated a historic landmark. Dr. and Mrs. Vellay, 
> who are in their 80s, wanted to ensure the house’s long-term 
> preservation and accessibility, according architectural historian Brian 
> Brace Taylor,....
>
> cont'd...
> http://archpaper.com/news/2006_0523.htm

The house stayed in the Dalsace family for more than 70 years. In the 
1980s Dr. Dalsace’s daughter, Aline Vellay, and her husband considered 
selling it to the French government. Their thought was that it might be 
turned into a national landmark, as Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye was 
decades ago. But the government did not take them up on it.

Mr. Rubin and his wife, Stéphane, approached the family in 2004 at the 
suggestion of a mutual friend and bought it for an undisclosed price in 
2006.

“I think they finally sold it to me because of what I had done with the 
Maison Tropicale,” he told me recently in an interview in his apartment 
on Central Park West. “It was a very heavy responsibility to have.”

Although he loved the house, he added, “I didn’t want to fetishize it.”

The notion of owning a Modernist landmark has been fashionable for 
decades now. The usual impulse was to embark on a multimillion-dollar 
top-to-bottom renovation, then move into an immaculate architectural 
gem, upgraded with a SubZero refrigerator and a Viking stove

cont'd....
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/26/arts/design/26ouro.html?em&ex=1188187200&en=f54b5381e6d53c01&ei=5087%0A