New York interior designer and blogger Joe McPherson has been blogging about design trends for over 10 years.
In an interview with New York magazine, McPhersons vision of a Gothic Interior Design at the Brooklyn Brooks-Cookman Center (BCCC) came to life.
In the first episode of The Brooklyn Collection, McPartland shares the inspiration behind his first piece, “The Room That Never Was,” a series of photos of the original interior of the Brooklyn BCCC in 1966, before it was converted into the Brooks and Coleman Center.
The original BCCC was created as a collaboration between Brooklyn architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Brooklyn designer Louis Sullivan, and the architect John Ruskin.
McParting describes his original project as a “goth” interior designed by Ruskin with the help of Wright and Sullivan.
“The first piece was a room that had been turned into a Gothic room by Frank Lloyd.
He wanted to have a room like a Gothic house and a room with a little bit of Gothic flair,” McPartlands story goes.
“I went out and bought a little piece of space that I wanted to create a Gothic style of interior design for the BCCC.”
McPartings room has been turned from a Gothic home to an interior designed for the Brookline BCCC, but it wasn’t until the renovation that he and the BCDC became able to truly embrace the style.
In his piece, he describes his vision for a room designed by a man who would have lived there, a room he calls “the room that never was.”
“I wanted to do something with the space and with the history of Brooklyn that he was a part of,” McPhereson tells New York.
“It was about having a conversation with him and the space of Brooklyn, and I really feel that there was no better way to bring that to life than with a room.
He was a real, living part of that space.”
In this episode, McPaints story includes a look at the original room he designed for BCACC.
“Frank Lloyd’s original design for this room had this kind of airy space in it,” McPainters says.
“But the idea for this new, modern space was this very, very grand and grand and majestic.
I wanted that to be a room where Frank Lloyd could live, and he could walk in and have a conversation.
And I wanted it to be like the room that he had been in when he was in his prime.”
In the first two episodes of the show, we’ll hear from McPartons wife, Sarah, as well as the BCAC director.
“In the beginning, we had a lot of questions about how to get people to come,” Sarah tells us.
“How can you really be as beautiful as Frank Lloyd and not have to be at home?
I think a lot about how beautiful Frank Lloyd is in his work, but I also have a little girl who’s very, little, who can’t go to school because she has autism.
We’ve been trying to find the perfect place for her and our guests to come.
And the beauty of this room is that we don’t have to live in this room.
And it’s just a really beautiful place.”
We’ll hear more about the project from McPaintons wife as well.
We also want to know about the process of designing a room for a new home and what it took to build this piece of land.
McPainter says that he went back to the drawing board, and it took him years to get it right.
He explains: “My first design was this massive, huge, massive, gigantic, massive room.
But I was really in love with the idea of the whole house and I just wanted to make the most beautiful space possible.
I love the way that the roof looks up into the sky.
I think it’s the most elegant, most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
McPain is known for his beautiful works and his unique style.
For this episode of Brooklyn Collection we’ll talk to him about what it’s like to work with Frank Lloyd, what it was like to design an entire house for the Brooks Collection, and what he’s learned from working with Frank himself.
You can also watch part two of this conversation here.
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