Lenny Steinberg invites us to her Los Angeles home: watch the film

The article offers an intimate look into the Venice Beach residence of designer Lenny Steinberg, providing insights into her creative process and personal collection. Located just a few doors down from Frank Gehry’s Norton House, Steinberg's home is a transformed 1960s post-and-beam duplex, now serving as an archive and showroom for five decades of her work, alongside her extensive art and object collection. This minimalist retreat, which she shares with her husband, Bob, features an impressive view of the Pacific Ocean. Steinberg's design philosophy is deeply influenced by movement and music, which she attributes to her background in music, initially at the University of Southern California and later at UCLA where she shifted her focus to design. She emphasizes injecting a sense of 'kick' or 'surprise' into her furniture, exemplified by prototypes for a Manhattan apartment featuring arms reminiscent of a 1950s Ford Fairlane, complete with red lens reflectors. Her work often combines Art Deco and Japanese aesthetics with elements drawn from Los Angeles car culture, a nod to her childhood experiences riding in her father's 1938 Buick and exploring the city's evolving landscape. The double-height living room of her home, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows inspired by Pierre Chareau’s Maison de Verre, showcases a deliberate departure from strict orthogonality with an angled cross beam, reflecting her desire to introduce a 'new note' into architecture, much like a musical composition. Her career trajectory includes a partnership with Sarah Binder in the 1960s, forming Vivid, which produced mirrored furniture, and later Links Design, where they experimented with cork and multi-coloured plastic laminates. By 1997, Steinberg established her own practice, Lenny Steinberg Design, venturing into full architectural projects. Her home displays a broad range of her oeuvre, from a Vivid mirrored side table that merges Art Deco with the Light and Space movement, to her 'Push-me Pull-U' sofa, a study in material contrasts. The collection is unified by what Steinberg calls 'space, time and energy,' a consistent vision that is evident in pieces like her Pyramids & Parallels series. This series, characterized by jutting angles and sculptural forms, is present in her kitchen island and outdoor furniture on the roof deck, where pieces lean obliquely, evoking the dynamism of wind and movement. This interest in dynamism is also informed by her engagement with modern dance, a passion shared by two of her daughters. Architect Annie Chu highlights Steinberg's acute awareness of the body's relationship to space and objects, noting her strength in creating evocative vignettes. Steinberg's designs also incorporate a subtle sense of humor, as seen in her 'Pony' chair, which features legs that kink like the hind limbs of a horse, designed to accommodate the sitter comfortably despite its unconventional appearance. The article concludes by noting the natural weathering of her home and some of her earlier works, which she embraces as part of the design process, evident in the 'Six Degrees of Disintegration' exhibit of her 'Pony' chairs, showing signs of rust from the salty ocean air. #LennySteinberg #VeniceBeachHome #InteriorDesign #ArchitecturalDesign #FurnitureDesign #LosAngelesArchitecture #ModernDesign #CreativeProcess #ArtCollection #LennySteinberg #VeniceBeachHome #InteriorDesign #ArchitecturalDesign #FurnitureDesign #LosAngelesArchitecture #ModernDesign #CreativeProcess #ArtCollection

30 months ago

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