Today, my wife Peggy and my girls, Kate and Maggie wanted to visit a Museum down the road from where we are staying in Mid-town, just south of the UN building. So I agreed, it was about fashion, it is called the Morgan Library, a museum.  We got the headsets for the audio tour and proceeded into an older building, built around 1928. 

Pierpont Morgan was a great financier and played an important role in history in the early 1900’s.  He collected books, and art, some 20,000 plus books, rare, also some not so rare, and collectibles. He had so many that he didn’t have room in his house for any more, so he stored some and then built a beautiful building at 36th and Madison Avenue to house them.

The building is beyond beautiful the library building has three walkways that are elevated to house some of the collection. The ceiling has hand painted fresco’s depicting items in history. There is a secret entrance to a bronze stairway to reach the other levels. There is a also a separate hidden dumbwaiter to move the books and material between levels.

Another room was the stud, where the ceiling was imported and there was a vault for special items. In this study several items of history transpired.  Going to this Museum-Library was a true find and is on my top lists of things to see in NY city. The architecture is perfect, when it was built in 1912 it cost 1.2 million to build and it is a masterpiece.

The Campus of the Morgan Museum http://www.themorgan.org/about/campus.asp

Introduction about the Morgan Library: http://www.themorgan.org/about/default.asp

History of Pierpont Morgan: http://www.themorgan.org/about/history.asp

The Architectural Statement about the Morgan: http://www.themorgan.org/about/historyArchitecture.asp

The Timeline: http://www.themorgan.org/about/timeline.asp

From Curator of the Morgan Library:
From the beginning, Pierpont Morgan conceived of his library as something more than a repository of rare materials: it would be a structure that proclaimed the nature and importance of its contents, majestic in design yet intimate in scale. Charles F. McKim (1847–1909) was retained as architect and oversaw all phases of exterior and interior design. His firm, McKim, Mead & White, was the acknowledged leader of the “American Renaissance” style, which adapted the architecture and ornament of the Italian Renaissance. By 1900, New York was graced with several of their buildings, including the Villard Houses (1882), the Century Association (1889), and Low Library of Columbia University (1893). But “Mr. Morgan’s library” completed a few years before McKim’s death, is considered by many to be his masterpiece. The building envisioned by McKim was to embody the Renaissance ideal of the unity of all the arts, integrating architecture, sculpture, and painting, and utilizing the finest materials and craftsmanship.

When we first met Katie & Jarrod Hamilton in April they were very excited to be the winners of our room makeover contest and had a list of things they wanted to have done in their living room.  They are a young couple with a four year old, Shelby, and live in a lovely ranch style home built in the early 1940’s.  The house, which sits back off the street, has a lush green lawn and yellow paint with brick façade on the house that welcomes you in.

After walking thru the home to gain insight on their style, Authentic Home’s Kathy Banak created a beautiful color palette from the Authentic Home COLOR Paint™ line and we began the process of choosing materials to compliment this paint palette.

The area that the Fine Construction team concentrated on was to update the fireplace. The original orange colored brick lined both the hearth and surround and it quickly dated the entire room.  We agreed that a 12” x 12” tile for both the hearth and surround would improve the overall feeling of the room as well as enhance the original mantelpiece. We selected Castillian Gray tile that brought out the blue London Fog wall color.  Our tile team quickly transformed the fireplace which freshens up the entire room instantaneously.

Next, Kathy worked her magic and rearranged furniture and added beautiful accessories, some of which came from her secret stash, to create a conversation zone in front of the fireplace which is now the room’s focal point, moved the upright piano to the East wall, positioned the ivory armoire that houses the TV into the left of the room’s entry and placed it on an angle. An ivory shag rug anchors the conversation zone and decorative accessories in the color palette pull the room together and are the final touches to complete the new look.

“It was so easy working with Kathy Banak, Tom Fine, and their teams on our living room remodel!  Kathy brought fresh ideas to our living room which we’ve struggled with over the years to arrange and decorate.  We love the color palette that she chose and the updates to the fireplace by Tom’s team have given our living room a more modern feel.  The biggest change was to paint our wood paneled ceiling, we were nervous, but Kathy showed us examples from her own home to reassure us that it would look great.  We finally have a living room with the right colors, the right furniture placement, and the right décor.  We are extremely happy with the end result and highly recommend Authentic Home and Fine Construction.” –Jarrod and Katie Hamilton

We just had to show you this incredible video from the people at Corning. Innovation and creative design in glass.  Fine Construction will be looking into these and other amazing products to offer YOU! in the future. Very exciting stuff! Enjoy…