D: To start off, can you give me a basic rundown of how you would describe your vision for the new Penthouse?

C: Well, the vision for the Penthouse is a really a Draper vision, because it harkens back to the time when the world was a world of glamour. When Dorothy, and the people who worked with her, were involved with the project of the original Penthouse for the private owners at the time, the world was a different place. We weren’t involved in the immediate information time of blogs, computers and TV, and so there was more of a unity within the framework of an environment. In other words, it took a little bit of time to get information from one place to another. When the Stoneleigh Penthouse was done, Mrs. Draper’s look was highly glamorous and Texas was on the beginning of its recognition to the outside world, and that’s why a lot of people in that era went to New York or Hollywood and so forth, where glamour really originated. Now, that is not to say that there isn’t anything glamorous in local refinements. There is certainly a character of Texas that has its own identification which has been transported around the world for many years, as there is a look of New Orleans, Boston, and so and so.

So, when you bring glamour of the Dorothy Draper ilk, you must remember that Mrs. Draper in her time was the most well known home stylist of anybody in the world, particularly in America, and her image was far greater in the 30’s and the 40’s than Martha Stewart ever was in the world of today. The thing that was different is that Dorothy was actually a designer and Martha is not a designer, she is a reporter. Mrs. Draper brought to American culture the look of what is called “American Baroque”, which is a lot of classic detail and a lot of magical color – and this office has always been a color place. We are a color office. People don’t come to us for beige. The world unfortunately, has gone beige. But, there is a renewal in certain things, thanks to the paint companies and to other design elements that all have to do with the re-invention of the use of color and the way in which people are happy.

I always blamed television in many ways in the fact that color became secondary in the American home. I can always remember coming back from LA, where I was working on a project a while back. I went to a hotel in LA at the airport, and I went into my room and the walls were sort of a creamy-color, grey-stripey, kind of beigey-white and the carpet was a twisted Burberry look, and the curtain was a cream color, and the bedspread was biscuit beige. Even the artwork on the wall was beige and white with maybe a dash of melon in it. And then when I went to take a shower, the entire bathroom was white with white curtains, and white fixtures and beige fixtures. I said, you know, when I got out of the shower, “here I am, standing in a bowl of oatmeal”. The only color in the room was actually on the vase on the TV set. So, the people began to focus totally on an image, the only color they looked at was on the television set.

Dorothy Draper’s kind of look is far more electrically colorful, and so to the Stoneleigh we are bringing back all of those brilliant reds, that black and gold look she was famous for, that kind of Baroque style, the Thomas Jefferson aqua blue (which is really the Tiffany Box blue, slightly watered down). And then, the use of beautiful, elegant fabrics and glamour. It’s a Hollywood recreation in many ways. You have to remember that Dorothy was Hollywood. Films that had her recognition were Cover Girl with Rita Hayworth and Gilder, and a lot of those movies and brand hotels with big black and white floor and black furniture with a gold trim or silver trim. So the Penthouse at the Stoneleigh is going to really be a recreation of the world of glamour in a very positively extensive approach. I mean, we’re even doing the hallways on the floor below the Penthouse, with white chair rails with bright red carpet, Chinese wall coverings, new ceilings, and Baroque light fixtures, so there will be a name identification to the look.

Now, everybody doesn’t have to like a look this way. People, often times, feel that they have to live in a beige and grey environment. Draper never did, so this offers the people who come to Dallas probably the most luxurious Penthouse in the city, which is not furnished in a manner that looks like a hotel. This is actually like a very beautiful private residence in the sky.

D: That’s great, and it’s going to be used for receptions, parties, and such?

C: Yes, all kinds of receptions and private parties. It’s called making a statement, and the Penthouse will make a statement.

D: It seems like the Penthouse will certainly be a tribute to Dorothy.

C: It is, Sure. We just finished closing a show in Dallas called the High Style of Dorothy Draper at the Women’s Museum, which ran for six months.

D: I’m curious; how far long is the project at the moment?

C: The project is very far along. All of the steps of the furnishings, carpet, and drapery- everything has been written, and a lot of it is in place.

D: So, you all are shooting to open in..?

C: It will open in December; let’s hope it opens at Christmas so we can put up the Christmas tree.

D: Great. Okay, in regards to these two rendering of the Drawing Room & Dining Room, is there anything you’d like to say about these rooms in particular?

C; Well, I think they are pretty explicit as to what the general feeling is going to be- they are of that English Regency and French Regency period – the “Regency” period I would say. A lot of it was – well, there. The beautiful panel walls are all still there, the details in the dining rooms are there, the ceilings- we’re not changing it architecturally, we’re just bringing it back to life again.

D: I was actually able to go up into the Penthouse in April, and while it was empty, I was able to get a feel for the way it used to be, because I have seen all of those old black and whites of when Colonel Stewart used to live there. It’s going to be really cool, especially for me, to see the change, after seeing the before, after, and in-between. So, I’m definitely looking forward to the grand opening. I wanted to ask, are you going to be working on the Penthouse for the Residences as well, or just the hotel?

C: No, just the hotel.

D: I was looking through your portfolio at the different hotels and projects you’ve worked on like the Waldorf Towers in New York and the Greenbrier in West Virginia, and while I understand that this project is very much a tribute to Dorothy Draper, I’m curious if there’s any of your previous work that has inspired you in any way in your re-design of the Penthouse?

C: I’m always inspired by everything. I was very much inspired by the fact that there was an oriental touch that the Colonel had done on his terrace. We’re incorporating all of those details, with that open terrace with elements of Shanghai in it. He reached out to other cultures when he was bringing his feelings to his home in Dallas. Certainly there was an intermingling of tastes and feelings from places that he had been, which he wanted to keep around him, sentimentally. He was right on target then, because it was a new world. People were fascinated about someone being up in that penthouse because he had acquired so much vision through his travels and etc. He did have a house in Mexico too.

D: That’s great. It’s going to be some project. I like how it brings out a different side of Dallas, more of a worldly, more cultural view on things.

C: You can’t deny that Dallas is worldly, because that it is. We’re just jump-starting it again.