Hats off to History
Dorian Lapadura is a 20th century design cognoscente. In 1995 he closed his custom mural business in New York City and moved to Michigan to live in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Goetsch-Winckler home. Six months later he was renting Frank Gehry’s Spiller residence in Venice, followed two years later by a stint in a Gregory Ain house in Mar Vista. “I wanted to spacially experience each of these classic homes,” says LaPadura, who plans to someday build his own home in Malibu.
His latest address, which he shares with girlfriend Frances Vincent, is a loft in the 1919 Kress building overlooking Broadway’s Historic Theater District. “If Jean Cocteau were alive today, he’d be living in a loft downtown and eating breakfast at Clifton’s,” says LaPadura, referring to the early 20th century French genius and to Los Angeles’ 1931 landmark cafeteria.
LaPadura, a graduate of New York City’s New School for Social Research, wears many hats. But even the gifted painter, photographer, muralist, furniture designer and color consultant found his narrow loft (20 by 84 feet) a design challenge. It has four exposed columns and windows only at one end. “Normally I love a lot of color in my interiors, but I needed to bring as much light into the interior space as possible.”
He painted the walls Benjamin Moore’s Super White--”a warm white, an architectural standard; Gehry used it in the Spiller house,” adding three orbiting mirrors along the wall to bounce light down into the space. He gave one end of the loft a jolt of color: Scandinavian Blue with a large silver-and-gold orb that hovers by a bank of windows. LaPadura calls it his sky. “Since I can’t actually see any I thought I would paint some.” He painted the kitchen’s back wall an orange-red color called “Glowing Ember,” explaining, “I don’t have a fireplace.”
Without building walls, LaPadura subtly divided the long space into four alcoves. A desk adjacent to a large exposed column juts horizontally to divide his paint studio from the living room. The bedroom is sandwiched between the living room sofa and a low bookcase. The kitchen is tucked behind the bookcase. “I wanted to divide the space visually. Walls would have blocked the light and made it very claustrophobic in here.”
Furnishings are a mix of his collection of 20th century masters: Le Corbusier’s LC-4 chaise lounge, Charles Eames’ Eiffel Tower chairs, Tom Dixon’s Jack Lights, Alvar Aalto’s Savoy vase, Eero Saarinen’s tray, along with LaPadura’s own furnishings. “I filled the loft with strong design pieces to create an oasis of calm and beauty in the middle of the city.”
