The Simple Life

Nancy A. Ruhling

03/01/2005

Gonging for a serene space and a simpler lifestyle, Corinna Gordon and her husband, Larry Dale Gordon, traded their antiques-filled, century-old stone carriage house—along with its two acres on one of Montecito’s grand old estates—for the spare informality of a 1,600-square-foot penthouse loft in downtown Santa Barbara. The couple—she designs interiors and jewelry, he’s a renowned photographer—have brought their own Zen to the American Riviera by creating a private oasis of contemporary Asian design.

Artwork from Southeast Asia sets a tranquil tone. (Click Image to enlarge)

We love the fact that it’s compact,” says Corinna. “We have no yard, no parents, no kids, no pets, and we knew we wanted to do more traveling.” The Gordons are used to traveling light, each taking only one carry-on bag whether plying the lonely waters of Chile’s Beagle Channel on a yacht or wandering through the wilds of Africa for months on end. So it’s not surprising that they wanted their new space to be tranquil and convenient.

At the center of the living room, left, is a black lacquer scroll-leg coffee table by Charles Jacobson. (Click Image to enlarge)

The Gordons first came to the Santa Barbara area seven years ago, after a decade spent farther up the California coast in rural Big Sur. They had been thinking of relocating, and a diagnosis of breast cancer for Corinna set them on their new course. “I started to reprioritize because of the illness. I had a need to be closer to friends, community and culture,” she says. “I wanted to spend moretime with people I love, and to put more energy into that.” Their latest move downtown only increases the couple’s accessibility. “We are right in the center of the city’s culture,” says Corinna. “There are cinemas and restaurants that are just steps from our loft, and so are our studios.”Architect Barry Berkus designed the loft atop a new three-story Mediterranean-style building with a flowing, open floor plan, 14-foot ceilings and walls of windows. “It was built as an artist’s living/working loft,” Corinna says, “and I liked that because we’re both creative.” But, she adds, the “all-white, stark and sterile” space needed “warmth and style.” The interior designer—whose eclectic client list ranges from actor Kirk Douglas to hip-hop impresario Dr. Dre—painted half of the loft’s walls in a Chinese red lacquer and applied a soft, creamy yellow hue to the remaining walls and the ceilings. “The colors worked with all the Oriental art,” she says. “I’d never been hired to do a contemporary project. I thought it would be fun to design something that was functional but also warm and peaceful, that fit in with an Asian contemporary look, because I’ve always been drawn to places like Bali, and we’ve collected antiquities from Indonesia and Thailand.”

Corinna Gordon designed the black lacquer bookshelves in the library. (Click Image to enlarge)

Next, Corinna divided the space, creating “rooms” without erecting partitions. In some cases, boundaries for the living room, dining room, kitchen and library are merely pieces of furniture. A large Indian chest, for instance, eases the transition from the living room to the kitchen, doubling as storage space for pots and pans and as a staging surface for a buffet or bar. “So many people have living rooms that are not used for daily living but only for entertaining,” she says. “We love inhabiting an entire space rather than only using certain rooms. We use every space, every day, and it’s a great feeling.”

The Cambodian torso dates from the 8th century, and the wool rug came from Rugsunderfoot.com. The entrance to the dining room features an antique wooden Buddha from Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Click Image to enlarge)

On a typical day, Larry rises at six and makes the short bicycle ride to his studio to catch the early morning light for photographs. (The native Southern Californian published his latest book of photography, American Nomad, late in 2004.) Corinna follows later, walking to Larry’s studio’s gym for a session with their personal trainer before heading to her own nearby jewelry studio (www.spenderella.com). When they return in the evening, the loft’s multipurpose design comes into play. For more formal meals, when they invite another couple or two, they repair to the dining room, where they have front-row seats to the twinkling lights of the city. When they don’t have company, they occasionally end up dining in the bedroom, where large pull-out trays, housed in the black lacquer nightstands that Corinna designed, swing around to become mini-tables. For dinner and a movie, a push of a button brings up the flat-screen television set that is encased in the bed’s black lacquer footboard.“I designed everything so that it’s really comfortable and functional,” Corinna says. “The black lacquer couch in the living room is extra deep so you can lie back and put your feet up, cuddle or nap.” The loft may be short on physical space, but Corinna says that it has given them a lot of emotional room to grow. “It has increased our sense of being a couple,” she says, adding that after being married for 18 years, “we can just go out to a restaurant by stepping out our door, so it’s like being on a date. The fact that we are just a couple makes this possible. We are in constant dialogue with each other. We love the liberation of the open space. We love to talk. With this loft, wherever we are, we can continue our conversation. And because we each have our own studios, we can both escape.” Or they can expand their horizons by lounging on two rooftop terraces. “We have amazing views of the ocean all the way around to the Mission,” she says. “Sometimes we come out to sunbathe; other times we watch the sunsets or follow the path of the moon as it rises over the ocean.”

A Japanese Tomesode kimono and an early 19th-century bamboo Shanxi altar table from Kim3 lead to the bedroom. (Click Image to enlarge)

For the Gordons, the loft is only another stop in their travels. They don’t know where they will end up next. But wherever they go, the loft has given them a certain lightness of being: less stuff, fewer responsibilities, more possibilities. “We love the space—it’s what we always dreamed of doing,” Corinna says. “We like to reinvent ourselves all the time. Fortunately, we both love change. Maybe we’ll keep it one year or 10 years until we decide what we want to do next.

A large Indian chest acts as an informal division between the living room and the kitchen, and also serves as as a bar or a buffet when the Gordons entertain. (Click Image to enlarge)

Corinna Gordon, 805.963.9909, www.corinnagordon.com