MIDCENTURY
CLASSIC
Lazri home is showcase
for 20th-century
furnishings and art

By KAY MCKAY MYERS
Photography AL RENDON

When Moe and April Lazri initiated the search eight years ago for a very special house, they knew the architecture would be mandated by a stellar collection of furnishings designed by mid-20th century architects and an art collection apropos the era.

Happening onto a thoroughly contemporary Castle Hills home built in 1964, April called her husband and said, “I have found the house. You must come see it.” He did, and it is theirs.

“There is a movement right now through the United States and Europe for these types of houses,” elaborates Moe. Especially those designed by famed architects of the era, he adds.

Moe is president and general manager of the historic Little Rhein Steak House. April is a fulltime homemaker in a busy household with sons Malek, a 16- year-old Winston Churchill High School student, and Omar, age 12, who attends W. W. Jackson Middle School. Tarik, 26, is stationed with the military in Korea.

When one hears the names of architects Mies van der Rohe and his colleague, Le Corbusier (whose birth
name was Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), along with those of the renowned husband and wife team, Charles and Ray Eames, aficionados of midcentury architecture find their hearts racing.

These architects, along with many others, were major forces in contemporary design that carried beyond exterior structures to interior furnishings. The Lazris are among those devotees, and every room in their home holds original furnishings. This furniture is not late 20th-century or current- century reproductions, but was designed by these very architects and others, as well. “I know for a fact that many of the pieces we have in our home are also in museums,” offers Moe.

Speaking of modern midcentury home construction and theirs in particular, he says, “I believe, by definition, it is beam and pole.” In other words, the structure is not dependent on supporting walls. The result is a very open feel, and adding to the ambiance in the Lazri home are great expanses of glass and white terrazzo floors — signature components of the modernist home.

Welcoming the visitor initially is a large red iron sculpture by Brother Cletus Behlmann, Marianist artist and founder of St. Mary’s University Art Center. Within a small courtyard is another sculpture. Designed by Moe and made by Jesse Cervantes, it features three boxes in red, yellow and blue, fitted within one another and made with perforated metal poles used in sign construction. It sits within a bed filled with multicolored tumbled glass shards. No sharp edges, either, as “Moe likes to show people how he can walk barefoot on glass,” smiles April. Cervantes made the front door of pressed stainless steel. It, too, is Moe’s design.

Within the entry, one finds three oilon- canvas works by Claude Venard, mid-century French post-Impressionist, whose work is found in museums worldwide, from the Paris Modern Art Museum to the Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan.

Two Paris scenes depict the hill of Montmartre, where the Basilica of Sacre Coeur is located. Also evident are Venard’s impressions of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral and the Obelisk in Place de la Concorde. Beneath the art is a console by Paul Mccobb, noted designer of vintage furniture. Nearby is the image of a Parisian woman — the work of French artist James Coignard.

Furnishings in the sunken living room include two Barcelona chairs by Mies van der Rohe, German architect and eventually a naturalized U.S. citizen, who practiced in his adopted country for 30 years. A black sofa is the work of Le Corbusier.

The coffee table centering the room is Moe’s creation. It is a massive square of heavy glass fitted at the corners with four “mega” casters used in meat plants, he explains, hence the wheels’ red hue.

A white gel-coated Fiberglas chaise longue with chrome steel supports is the 1950s design of the aforementioned Charles and Ray Eames. This design was created originally for a 1948 Museum of Modern Art competition.

Illuminating the area is an Arco lamp by Achille Castiglioni. Modeled after a streetlight, it projects light eight feet from its heavy marble base. More whimsy in the room is seen in two stools Castiglioni created in partnership with his brother, Pier Giacomo Castiglioni. The 1957 Sella stool features a bicycle seat pivoted on a tubular stem and cast iron base. The brothers had an affinity for adapting objects developed for a different purpose. Another example is the 1957 Mezzadro stool made from a tractor seat. Interestingly, as bike and tractor seat designs evolve through the years, modern versions of these stools are updated.

Stacked cubes in red, black, and chrome form a bookcase holding objects Moe and April have collected during travels through the years. Looking simple enough indesign, the cubicles required assembly by a factory representative. Here on finds a curious chrome object that is actually a shoehorn in quirky replacation of a Manolo Blahnik shoe and made by Habitat-VIP.

The dining room is centered with patchwork hide carpet beneath a black granite table. Having once lived in Los Angeles, Moe relates with continuing astonishment, “During the 1994 Northridge earthquake, this 1,100- pound table was moved a foot.”

With a twinkle in his eye and mounting enthusiasm, he tells of acquiring the chrome dining chairs fitted with black leather laced like a bodice on backs and seats. “I don’t go to estate sales because there are professionals there who know what they are doing and get there early,” he confesses. “But I saw an ad at one for some Eames chairs and was fortunate to be the first one there. I bought the Eames but also these chairs, and it is the best buy I have ever made because they are by van der Rohe.” They are the real deal, he exclaims with excitement.

The chandelier was purchased in a Paris flea market, and April recalls they traveled with it in a box in a very tiny rental car as they traversed the wine country with another couple. Then the box was her awkward lap companion on the entire trans-Atlantic flight. It was worth every inconvenience.

African masks are hung nearby, and elsewhere, masks from other countries dot the wall. Replications of porcelain plates holding art by Milan-born painter and designer Piero Fornasetti grace another wall. They feature his favored subject, a woman he called Julia, in a variety of black and white poses and looking as enigmatic as the Mona Lisa. Rosenthal, renowned purveyor of fine dinnerware since 1879, produces them.

However, Moe and April have treasured pieces of Fornasetti’s original and authentic work — small items such as coasters, ashtrays and cups. The kitchen holds his work in a series of plates entitled Four Seasons. One trompe l’oeil plate features cookies almost realistic enough to warrant pouring a glass of milk.

The kitchen opens to the informal living area and has been renovated twice, note the homeowners. The most recent change brought in granite countertops and colorful custom cabinets holding a pale orange Italian laminate — the latter a feature true to the home’s midcentury era. Moe designed the cabinet doors of
frosted and clear glass in checkerboard design. “I did not want a frame on the glass,” he mentions, “so I put just a small brass latch like the tension latch on old stereo cabinets.” A slight press on the brass, and cabinet doors pop open.

The kitchen table of pale green opaque stone with roughstone Tuscan edge rests on a steel wire sculptural base — a design icon of the modern era created by Warren Platner. A smaller marble-topped Platner table is found in the living room. Familiar to the general public would be his design for the interior of Windows on the World’s terraced dining room, which opened in 1976 at the World Trade Center. The room also holds the Seven Chair by Danish designer Arne Jacobsen.

A 1960s photograph of a narrow cobblestone Paris street is joined in the room by a copy of French artist Fernand Leger’s whimsical painting Le Trois Musiciens.

Lighting in the room is offered by a reproduction of a Potence fixture by Jean Prouvïe, 20th-century French architect and furniture designer. “There are only some three or four original Potence fixtures in the world,” explains Moe, “and they would go for millions of dollars.”

A George Nelson clock adds delightful whimsy, and another “flight of the imagination” clock is elsewhere in the home. Furniture design was Nelson’s forte, but avant-garde clock design was a serendipitous extension of his creativity. Speaking of flight, midcentury French artist Curtis Jere’s Flock of Seagulls bronze sculpture hangs on the dining room wall.

The master suite maintains the minimalist feel evident throughout this ‘60s contemporary home. Floors are Brazilian black cherry. Yellow crushed velvet custom draperies are a clever contrast to the counterpane in turquoise and white.

Consoles are by Heywood-Wakefield, a company that specializes in retro furnishings with roots from the 1930s through the ‘50s. A hide-covered chaise is by Corbusier. Also in the room is a lithograph of Picasso’s Le Rêve. The original was damaged in recent months when Las Vegas hotel tycoon Steve Wynn accidentally elbowed the painting as he showed it to guests in his office.

However, the room’s piece de résistance is an Eames lounge chair. “I really lucked out on this because it has a rosewood base that is no longer made, and I paid less than $200 for it,” says Moe enthusiastically. One realizes its value when seeing the extravagant price tag on a current version made with veneered laminate plywood instead of rosewood.

With raised eyebrows, a sigh and faint smile, April and Moe pose the unthinkable — the possibility their children might one day unwittingly let the household treasures go at garage sale prices if not educated as to the value of what they would logically see as their ordinary everyday furnishings.

The master bath is awash in brilliant orange textured walls. Glass mosaic tiles in orange, blue, yellow and black are juxtaposed about the shower in delightful oblivion of rhyme or reason. Ash cabinets carry an orange stain without losing the charm of wood grain. Vintage light fixtures are by Lightolier.

The back porch of the home faces the pool. Furnishings are midcentury Fiberglas and metal from the retro collection of patio-furniture maker Woodard. The porch ceiling is color blocked in primary hues. It was Moe's ingenious idea to counter the overhead monotony and borrow from Dutch painter Piet Mondrian's color block art. After all, Yves St. Laurent once replicated the same design in fabric.

The Delight in this home is not merely the abundance of genuine treasures from a bygone era but the fact that the look is perfectly suited for today's world. The midcentury contnemporary and modernist design has never assumed an antique or aged apperance. It meets the design requirements for the 21st century as comfortably as it did the previous century. For example, two Plasma television sets serve the family in this home, and neither one looks out of place. They meld into the sleek minimalist décor almost without notice.

Retro is currently just as in as it was yesteryear. In addition, it is colorful, comfortable, uncluttered and fun. What more can one expect or desire in a home?