Page 174 - People & Places In Time

Mary Pagel-Rabe became the support I needed to follow my plan. A plan that had become vague, but one I still held too by a thread. She was not the first woman to become my encourager. Of course, there was Mrs. Moffat, my fourth-grade teacher; but my grandmother was the first to recognize my ability. I’m pretty sure there are only a few twelve or thirteen-year-old boys given their own subscription to House Beautiful magazine by their grandmother. No one can appreciate more the value of the strong women who have pushed and encouraged me throughout my life.
So here I am, standing at this threshold, about to embark on the big- gest step of my life. For endeavors such as this, only youth can provide the blinders necessary, as we step so boldly into unknown territory. For the next three months of my life I will become devoted to creating Interior Dimensions, Inc. If attempting this today, I would become so stymied with concerns as to anything and everything that could possibly go wrong. In this Spring of 1974, I went ahead with no concerns; I did this because I knew that I could; any second thoughts were lost to my purpose. As I look back on this time, the most amaz- ing aspect to me . . . . is that Mary had such faith in me and my ability to begin this business from scratch.
How did I get to this point?
I can’t remember when, it just seemed as though I naturally began draw- ing house plans, using my grandfather’s drafting equipment at a young age. I do know that my designs then, were not unlike those I draw today; always inspired by the furniture that I imagined integral to the plan and how people would move through the space. A lifetime spent designing in my head, as well as on pa- per, and finally with a computer has allowed me to live inside these creations as I was working on them. I can listen to a piano in the next room, feel the texture on the floor as I move from room to room, sit in a Saarinen Womb chair while watching the light stream through high windows, reflecting off the walls onto a brightly colored rug. This has always been the fantasy world in my mind that I’ve used to escape reality at any time; likely to the consternation of those around me in those moments when I seem to be somewhere else.
I mentioned that my grandmother had bought me a subscription to House Beautiful magazine. At about this same time my sister Carol was work- ing at the soda fountain in The Exeter Drug Store. As a teenager on Saturday afternoons I would sit alone at the end of the fountain’s counter, near the front window with a milkshake made by my sister or maybe just a Coke. Beneath this window was a magazine rack displaying home design magazines, thru which while sitting at the end of the counter, I browsed for free. Even today there is a stack of newly bought architecture and design books stacked beside my reading chair in my home all the time.
A few years ago, while driving one morning in Carmel, I’m fascinated by the phenomena I’ve viewed and admired many times thru the years, but not
A house plan designed to be built partially underground. This draw- ing was made when I was sixteen or seventeen years old.
thought to much about. Of course beautifully designed and built homes have always been a passion of mine, yet as I look at one after another of perfectly lain cobblestone driveways, meticulously installed wooden garage doors with custom wood gates to match, facades of stone with intricately installed shingle or tile roofs I take pause to wonder. Beautiful homes have been purchased with millions of dollars only to be nearly rebuilt, refined with the best of materials perfectly applied in an unyielding push toward the perfect Carmel look . . . to the point of surreal. Oddly, as I ponder how strange this setting appears, the reality would be for me, if given the chance. I could be right in the middle of this place, designing, building and living my dream.
Later that day as I continue driving down Highway 1 along the Big Sur, there was a house I recognized. A home that I first viewed in the February 1961 House Beautiful magazine. Designed by Nathanial Owings for himself and fam- ily. It has been described, not by me, as the perfect sighting of earth, sea and sky in the design of a home. For me, it’s the perfect house in the perfect location.
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