Created in 1998 to the exacting specifications of a Star with 12 Grammies and 100 million viewers across the Latin world, this 50,000 square foot production complex is the dream facility for those desiring access to the rapidly growing global market for Latin-themed media.
At the heart of the building is a box within a box containing three studios. A clever placement of walls allows the removal of the interior spines to create future, larger combinations of the existing studios. Combinations of 2100, 4000, and 7200 square feet exist within the box. Studio A, largest of the three studios, was the driving force for the construction technology which is present within the complex today. As Studio A was envisioned as a modular set with several themed areas on a stage designed to allow the participation of a live audience of more than 200 persons, it requires abundant lighting and a huge amount of air conditioning with the water cooled chillers to be in continual use during production. Sound attenuation of the mechanical systems was paramount in the construction and has resulted in earning a rating of NC 25 even with the 400 tons of air conditioning running at full capacity. The interior and exterior sound proofing of the box combines with an elaborate and huge steel skeleton system to independently support the heavy loads of lighting and production requirements. Two additional smaller studios are arrayed along the spine of Studio A on the ground floor of the complex.
The complex has been thoughtfully planned to allow a large number of independently hosted and assisted guests in multiple green rooms which are accessed through up to five entrances to ensure the element of surprise when desired and security when needed. Separate audience screening and holding areas have their own entrances with on site parking for more than 100 vehicles plus ample space for several production vehicles, control facilities, satellite uplink trucks and back-up power generation. Office space, star dressing and reception facilities, conference and production rooms, and an employee cafeteria are located on two floors forward of the studios. Fiber optic lines serve the street adjacent the complex.
For a chart comparing the 3 studios, digital dimmer system ETC, and the equipment which is offered with the asking price, please click here. For a direct link to the home page of Blue Dolphin Studios, please click here.
Offered @ $18,500,000
Contact Rex Hamilton @ 305.776.8686 or rexhamilton@rexhamilton.com. Or visit www.rexhamilton.com.
Serums have become a huge buzzword in skincare recently and luckily the eco-friendly world offers its own alternative to the conventional products available on the market. Whether is it to hydrate, infuse with vitamins or minimize wrinkles, there is truly a product for every skin type. With the pursuit of perfection never ending, take a look at these Top 5 orGLAMic Skin Saving Serums that are as good for your skin as they are for our planet.
Available at major retailers nationwide, Juice Beauty uses natural ingredients in their Green Apple Antioxidant Serum to firm, rejuvenate, brighten and smooth fine lines. Using certified organic apple and lemon juices, raw cane sugar, age-defying peptides, DMAE, alpha lipoic acid, co-enzyme Q10 and vitamin antioxidants, according to the company, this serum is proven to reduce free radical damage by over 68%.
Nobody needs to know you are reaching a ‘more mature’ age with help from Dr. Hauschka. The company’s Regenerating Serum minimizes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Quince seed extract, kalanchoe and organic clover blossom honey work together to firm and revitalize skin with hydration and support the skin’s natural functions of renewal.
A favorite of the stars for decades, Paris-based Yon-Ka offers all natural skincare for face and body. The Serum Organic Cereals Germ Facial Oil is great for parched, aging skin. Made with a blend of oils from corn, sunflower seed, soybean, lavender, geranium flower, rosemary leaf, cypress and thyme, this rich serum can be used alone or under a night cream to repair and nourish skin. And shhhhh – it is also great post cosmetic surgery!
This Los Angeles-based company, founded by celebrity makeup artist Dawn Brocco, offers a range of facial skincare products that are all natural, vegan and cruelty free. Ahimsa’s Hydrating Serum is a gentle combination of hyaluronic acid and beta-carotene to restore elasticity, hydrate, stimulate the growth of new skin cells and protect against environmental damage. (I also swear by the Evening Elixir, which I used every single night.)
Even those with oily skin need not fear a little extra product on their face on the evening. The new Bearberry Oily Skin Balancing Face Serum helps reduce pore size and oil production, helping skin remain balanced and blemish free. Organic bearberry extract, rice, willowbark extract, and green tea work together in this certified organic, cruelty free product.
For more “sustainable luxury living” go to www.orGLAMic.com
Custom built by owner with steel construction, this estate is located at the far point of the private association of Hawthorne Beach. A long gated, cobble stone drive arrives at impressive bronze front doors which open to two story foyer featuring a marble “waterfall” wall and Koi pond. Large floor to ceiling glass walls are featured in the entertaining room which opens to terraces and mesmerizing views. The library/media room has a viewing screen which emerges from the ceiling and custom “book matched” paneling on the walls. A separate apartment contains 2 bedrooms, living room, bath and kitchenette, perfect for staff or guests. Professionally designed gardens highlight the enormous seaside pool with waterfall and poolhouse, and a large private beach. This is an estate of incomparable luxury offering the best of beachfront living.
Offered @ $22,000,000
Contact Ellen Roth @ 203.618.3158 or ellen.roth@sothebyshomes.com. Or visit www.sothebyshomes.com/greenwich.
Breathtaking Bay views from San Francisco to the San Mateo Bridge & beyond. 7,010 s.f. with 6 suites, 7.5 baths + office. Huge resort-like gated driveway with porte cochere, 3-car garage, 2 waterfalls & an outstanding yard with lawn, pool, & tennis court.
Offered @ $4,500,000
Contact Jim Arbeed @ 650.558.4248 or jim.arbeed@cbnorcal.com. Or visit www.jimarbeed.com.
Designed by famous Beverly Hills architect John Elgin Woolf in 1959 for members of the Huntington family, this cosmopolitan home commands expansive public rooms, 12-foot ceilings, incredible ocean/island views and an unrivaled Montecito location. This knoll top property is at the center of what is considered the crème-de-la crème, and commands 180 degree vistas. To blend modernism with authentic historiscism, extreme care has been taken by architects, designers and builders in recreating the entire residence with the highest quality construction, refined details and exquisite materials throughout.
The grand six-bedroom estate contains an elegant main Drawing Room, formal Dining Room, the ultimate Media/Family Room, and an extraordinary Master Suite with en-suite Den/Library, Lounge Room with fireplace and elaborate closets and his and her baths. An ingenious Gourmet ‘Cooks’ Kitchen of approximately 500 square feet includes walk-in china cabinets, pantry, a large central island, extensive countertops, informal dining area and an adjoining 2000 bottle Wine Cellar with case storage.
The main house sits on a promontory at the rear of its approx. 2.5 acres with panoramic views from every room. The long, grand central Galleria opens onto an inner courtyard featuring lushly planted gardens, a 38’ x 16’ solar heated pool and a one bedroom Pool House including a great room with vaulted ceiling and fireplace, a massage room and a kitchenette. In addition, there is also a charming two-room, two-bath Apartment with kitchenette and two huge, view terraces which sit above a 4-car Garage with storage and designed to serve as a catering facility for large functions.
A house so rare, sophisticated and functional which allows for tremendous privacy, is also capable of hosting the grandest of parties. Spectacular and unique indeed.
Offered @ $28,500,000
Contact Suzanne Perkins@ 805.895.2138 or suzanne@suzanneperkins.com. Or visit www.suzanneperkins.com.
Foodies rejoice- this is your quick pick for not to miss events of the year. “Toast of the Town” at the Field Museum features 500 world-class wines paired with gourmet dishes from over 25 of Chicago’s finest restaurants. Seriously, this culinary showcase reads like a who’s who of the Chicago restaurant scene with the likes of Aria, Blackbird, Japonais, Tru, Trattoria No. 10 and many, many more serving up signature sampling plates.
Hosted by Wine Enthusiast magazine, the annual gala will take place on Thursday, May 6th and has all elements in place to provide a rich, cultural evening. From the exquisite food pairings to the live music by Joey Edwin of Multi-Media Music, Inc. it’s ultimately the setting that proves to be the perfect pairing. The Field Museum sets the scene as a perfect local to satisfy your senses and thirst for knowledge and sets the stage for you to sip, socialize, and expand your palate. Guests have the opportunity to meet, greet, mix and mingle with worldly wine makers and world-renowned chefs and learn about the wines straight from the source- those most passionate and close to the action. Sample flavors from across the globe from Marlborough and Montalcino to New Zealand and Italy.
VIP tickets give you access to a private pre-event tasting at 6 pm of rare, reserve and estate wines and include admission to the museum.
Toast of the Town
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
VIP Tasting
6:00 – 7:00 PM VIP Tasting
7:00 – 10:00 PM Grand Tasting
Tickets are available for purchase on wineenthusiast.com/.
Architectural interior design duo Shea Soucie and Martin Horner of Soucie Horner, Ltd. present a stunning display of comfort at the Setai Wall Street in the heart of the financial district.
Soucie Horner breathed warmth into the one bedroom, one and a half bath model apartment, which otherwise could have had the potential for typical show sterility. Comforts of a luxury hotel and modern amenities combine with soft elements, lighting and a sincere atmosphere of a place to call home.
Large windows cascade natural light on eclectic, intelligent design with ethnic touches. Perks include Brazilian Walnut floors floors trimmed with black granite, state of the art appliances, an easy to access unobtrusive double stack washer and dryer, walk-in closets, and more.
“Our goal was to create a retreat within the city and incorporate multi-purpose materials and spaces,” stated Martin Horner, “For instance, the dining room table can also be used as a living room tea table and the home office can be used as a den or guest bedroom.”
The units are priced to sell at numbers that just a few years ago would have been unthinkable. Though the location may not be ideal for hailing a cab or finding a quart of milk, the payoff is the level of fine detail, exquisite layout and elegant comfort.
For more information on Soucie Horner: www.souciehorner.com
Surprise, surprise. Add to the list another model-turned-designer with her own jewelry line.
Continuing her tour de jewelry launch, Molly Sims will present her costume jewelry line called Grayce by Molly Sims on Friday at 11 p.m. at LIV in the Fontainebleau Hotel. Featuring earrings, cuffs, and bracelets, the line is inspired by “Sims’ love of photography and travel.” Whatever that means.
In March, Sims launched the collection at Henri Bendel’s New York department store with Aaron Eckhart and Shontelle in attendance. The line will sell on HSN in November.
LIV at The Fontainebleau Hotel is located at 4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach
Tom Huckabee, a native of Fort Worth, has dipped his toes in many pools of film production in his career, from writing to directing, editing to producing. Leaving Texas at 19 to pursue his dreams in Hollywood, Huckabee’s most recognized film project was 2001’s Frailty, featuring Bill Paxton, another North Texas native wh0 he remains close friends with to this day.
That isn’t to say Huckabee hasn’t been busy in the last few years.
Lucky for us, he returned to Fort Worth in 2007 to make his long awaited film Carried Away, a story he wrote 20 years ago and finally was able to make after selling his home in LA and using the proceeds to get it done using local talent and crew. The semi-autobiographical film premiered at the Oxford Film Fest in Mississippi, and played again here in Dallas at the International Film Festival this month, receiving much acclaim from critics and viewers alike.
What’s your favorite restaurant?
Huckabee says he loves the Spiral Diner, a vegan spot over in Fort Worth. Luckily, they have branched out to Oakcliff, so Dallasites can head on over to Beckley to get some great pancankes, fresh smoothies and tofurkey sandwiches.
What’s your favorite cultural hangout?
The Nasher Sculpture Garden. Huckabee loves the indoor/outdoor gallery space of the sculpture center in the Dallas Arts District, a perfect Spring hangout. Current Exhibits: Jaume Plensa: Genus and Species, now through May 2nd.
When Los Angeles media scion and former L.A. Times publisher Otis Chandler passed away in early 2006, only a small percentage of those who mourned him wondered what would become of his collection of prewar American automobiles. Fewer still wondered what would become of the building that housed the collection some 60 miles north of L.A., in breezy seaside Oxnard. The answer to that little-asked question surfaced on the evening of April 15, when one of Chandler’s friends and fellow automotive enthusiasts, Peter Mullin, reopened the facility as the Mullin Automotive Museum.
Just a cursory glance inside reveals the depth of change that the building has undergone since Mullin, a successful Southern California businessman and noted collector of prewar French cars, set about redesigning the facility with a new philosophy. While Chandler’s collection had been mostly pared to American makes like Packard and Cadillac, Mullin’s collection is flush with the most opulent and exquisitely designed coachbuilt cars of prewar France. Delahayes, Bugattis and Talbot-Lagos with bodies by Figoni et Falaschi, Chapron and Van Vooren now grace the main floor of the Oxnard museum.
The cars only represent one component of Mullin’s guiding mission, though. Also featuring a substantial collection of housewares, furnishings, and decorative art, the Mullin Museum promises to be the first publicly accessible museum in America dedicated to the Art Deco movement that influenced art and design between 1925 and 1939. Though his facility is labeled an automotive museum, Mullin hopes to present a more comprehensive vision of the Art Deco culture of prewar France.
“The center of Art Deco happened in Paris in the late 20s and 30s and it impacted sculpture and furnishings, graphics, vases and crystal, and haute couture,” explains Mullin. “It was the birth of a way to think about design, and the cars were certainly the driving centerpiece of all of that. The [original] concours d’elegance wasn’t about going to look at a car, it was to look at an entire package of a beautiful woman in a beautiful dress with her Russian Wolfhound standing by her side, with her luggage, her hat, and a car. Sometimes the car was painted to match the woman’s dress and sometimes the dress was made by a couture house to match the car, but when you went to a concours d’elegance, it wasn’t to look at cars, it was to look at a presentation.” Echoing this notion, Mullin offered guests just such a presentation at the museum’s inaugural event. Models in period couture dresses strolled amongst the million dollar cars, contributing to the multi-faceted cultural tapestry that Mullin seeks to re-create.
At least one major player in the collector car business has embraced the museum’s mission. Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S., the VW-owned company that has rekindled the Bugatti legend, has taken the unusual step of lending its four most important prototypes to the museum for display. The EB118, EB218, 18.3 Chiron, and Veyron prototype showcase the company’s evolution from the Italian produced EB110 of the early 90s to Bugatti’s current production Veyron supercar.
The Bugatti loan embodies one of many different states of presentation that the museum hopes to offer. While some cars, like Mullin’s prized 1938 Talbot-Lago T-150 C SS “Teardrop” Coupe, feature concours-quality restorations, others, like former pieces of the famed Schlumpf collection, are completely unrestored and unmolested. The furthest extremes of this spectrum are represented by two radically different Bugattis. One, a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Torpedo, was recently removed from the bed of Italy’s Lake Maggiore, where it had been laying on its side under 173 feet of water for 75 years. One side of the car was miraculously preserved by the mud in which it lay; the other has been stripped bare by decades of exposure.
Mullin’s Bugatti Type 64 sits at the other end of the spectrum. The car has the unusual distinction of never having been built, that is, by its original creators. The Type 64 had been designed to be the next iteration of Jean Bugatti’s wildly popular Type 57, but was never built due to his death in 1939. Inviting the collaboration of Stewart Reed, the chair of the Transportation Design Department at Art Center College Of Design in Pasadena, as well as a group of lucky design students from the college, Mullin utilized original Bugatti blueprints and design drawings to commission the construction of the Type 64 from scratch, employing the utmost in authentic materials to finally breathe life into the dangling legacy of Jean Bugatti’s genius. “It shows that, as a museum, we are trying to stay very involved in the conversation about style and design, and its relevance today,” comments curator Andrew Reilly.
Ultimately, Mullin hopes to increase awareness of the various disciplines addressed in his museum so that enthusiasts of one type of collectible might come away intrigued by another. “A lot of people will come here because they want to see the Art Deco displays, the furniture and the sculpture and the graphics,” he reasons. “And so a lot of people will come here really not caring about cars, and then will leave caring about them.” But beyond making converts to the evolving idea of the automobile as art, Mullin hopes to distance the motorcar from the negative role of environmental monstrosity that has been cast by many critics. To that end, he has overhauled the Oxnard facility so that it is completely self-sufficient in terms of its power needs. All electrical fixtures have been converted to energy-saving units, and 100% of the building’s power will eventually be sourced from solar panels on the roof and nearby wind turbines.
“One thing that intrigues me is that people, particularly environmentally sensitive people, think of the automobile as a disaster,” explains Mullin. “Breakthroughs in automobile design and in energy associated with the automobile are something to be embraced, not to be abhorred. I think an automotive museum that’s a green building that is completely energy efficient, and is generating 100% of its energy use, allows people to kind of rethink that a little bit, and actually ask themselves, ‘what was the role of the automobile in the development of the United States specifically, and the world generally?’”
For more information visit www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com
FASHION :: COUPLES’ RETREAT
COUPLES’ RETREAT
With the resort collections oozing throw back references, a high-society escape to the confines of a once-again-new Eden Roc Renaissance Miami Beach is the perfect scene of the crime for two couples to get caught up in the swing of things.














