Around Aspen: May Madness

What a party May Madness was this year. It seemed everyone who was in town was there. Teachers, parents and friends of the schools all turned out to enjoy cocktails, a sit-down dinner, all kinds of silent and live auctions and dancing at the St. Regis Resort. The event was a benefit for the Aspen School District, put on by the Aspen Education Foundation. This year’s theme was Flamingo A-Go-Go, with plastic pink flamingos everywhere you looked.

There were so many people there and I took so many photos … there will be several weeks of Flamingo A-Go-Go in the column.

It seems that Aspen photographer David O. Marlow has his photos in almost every issue of Architectural Digest Magazine. The June issue is on the stands now and features three articles and the cover photo all taken by Dave. The cover is the living room of a 12,000-acre ranch in Western Colorado designed by Avon and San Francisco architect Gordon Pierce and interior designer Ellie Cullman from New York. The stone and wood ranch house is nestled on a hillside with incredible unobstructed Rocky Mountain views. Also included in the June issue is a 7,800-acre ranch Dave shot near Gunnison. This most unique ranch house and guest cabin were created by New York designer Bill Sofield of Studio Sofield with extraordinary landscaping by Tom Pritchard of Madderlake Designs. And the third article features Aspen’s own Little Nell hotel with interior remodels by Chicago designer Holly Hunt. The redesign celebrates the hotel’s 20th anniversary.

Undercurrent … I really don’t understand the United States. In Europe people live and work happily in buildings hundreds of years old. But here we scrape and bulldoze everything and build something new … often not as attractive as what came down.