5Ws of... The White House

 

What: The White House – the building that most symbolizes America – has had several names throughout its history, including “The President’s Palace,” “The President’s House” and “The Executive Mansion.”  President Theodore Roosevelt officially gave the White House its current name in 1901.

Who: President George Washington signed an Act of Congress specifying the location and size of the nation’s capitol; Washington and Pierre L’Enfent, the city planner, chose the site for “The President’s House” (now 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue); and the design was created by Irish-born architect James Hoban.

Where:  The official address of the White House is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  However, there have been several “other” White Houses, from the well-known “Weekend White House” (Camp David, in Maryland) to the lesser known “Woodley,” a Federal-style hilltop house in Woodley Park, Washington, DC.

When:  The design for the White House was selected in 1790 and construction began when the cornerstone was laid in October, 1792.  Eight years later, in 1800, the first residents of the White House, President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved in.

Why: Charles Collingwood : “Now why is this room called the Blue Room?” First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy: ”Because it’s blue.” – From “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy,” CBS-TV, February 14, 1962. (Note: Three out of four television viewers tuned in for insights such as this when the program was broadcast, and Mrs. Kennedy received an Honorary Emmy ™ for her work.) 

 Images from top: The White House; Library of Congress; AboutCampDavid.blogspot.com; InfoPlease.com; The Washington Post; arikhanson.com. 

WHO: Michael S. Smith

In 2008, Barack and Michelle Obama appointed Michael S. Smith to redecorate the residential quarters of the White House. During this project, Smith worked with Michelle Obama and White House curator William Allman to select art on-loan from museums to be displayed in private quarters and elsewhere.

In February 2010, President Obama appointed him a member of the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. Smith's makeover of the Oval Office was revealed to the public in late August 2010.  

In an interview with The Washington Post, he describes his style as "updated traditional"; in fact, his work blends vintage and contemporary looks with elements such as "Georgian antiques, Uzbek suzani textiles, 18th-century Chinese wallpaper, sun-bleached Moroccan carpets and a dash of Anthropologie and Pottery Barn".

He has created his own furniture and fabric collection, Jasper, and has licensed collections of tiles and stone for Ann Sacks, vintage and contemporary bathroom fixtures for Kallista, vintage lighting fixtures for Visual Comfort, floorcoverings for Patterson, Flynn & Martin, rugs, carpets and tapestries for Mansour Modern, and home fragrance products for Agraria.

For more information: http://www.michaelsmithinc.com/

Copy and photo via www.michaelssmithinc.com. 

WHO: Sister Parish

Sister Parish was the first interior designer brought in to decorate the Kennedy White House, and her influence can still be seen in the Family Dining Room and the Yellow Oval Room.

A stately and occasionally eccentric white-haired lady, Parish was the design partner of Albert Hadley, a Tennessee-born decorator, with whom she co-founded Parish-Hadley Associates (1962-1999). Both were equally influential: Parish for her homey, cluttered traditionalism and passion for patchwork quilts, painted furniture, and red-lacquer secretaries and Hadley for his clean-cut take on modernism.

She was partial to the understated English country house look, and her combinations of Colefax and Fowler chintzes, overstuffed armchairs, and brocade sofas with such unexpected items as patchwork quilts, four-poster beds, knitted throws, and rag rugs led to her being credited with ushering in what became known as American country style during the 1960s.

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