Freeze Frame

A closer look at the hottest solutions from November

Staff -- Interior Design, 11/1/2004 12:00:00 AM

A sea of smiles

Finding Nemo, the nautical animated adventure that's charmed legions of young movie-goers since 2003, is now working its magic on patients at North Shore Dentistry for Children in Evanston, Illinois. In reception, Design Collaboratives used a 6-foot-wide aquarium filled with tropical fish to establish the theme, then carried it through with colors and patterns. Coral-orange vinyl upholstery covers the ganged seating, carpeting is a sea of blue and green bubbles, and walls are painted teal.

The plastic laminate that principal Tom Marquardt chose for the top of the U-shape reception desk is patterned in aqueous swirls of teal and white. At 44 inches high, though, the counter escapes the view of the littlest patients. Fortunately for them, Marquardt built another desk surface at a child-friendly height of 29 inches. "Not Quite the Tooth Fairy," page 82. —S.K.J.

The key to the city

In the 4,400-square-foot lobby at California's Le Parker Meridien Palm Springs resort, walls of white-painted slump block inspired the reception desk by MR Architecture & Décor principal David Mann. The desk's 10-foot-wide front displays designer Jonathan Adler at his naughtiest—with 100 of his handmade ceramic tiles composing a frieze honoring the seven deadly sins. A woman lounging in a bikini suggests sloth. Gluttony takes the form of a couple in a Jaguar E-Type coupe, laden with shopping bags. Flowers with petals of dollar bills or high-heel shoes are, of course, lust.

What's that above the frieze? No, not the counter of plain white plastic laminate—the giant key. It's oak, 19th-century. "New Kids on the Block," page 146. —E.C.