Rose Tarlow
Interior Designer
"Go to the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque in Provence in June, when the lavender is out and the monks are chanting in the garden."
Thomas O'Brien, Aero Studios
Interior Designer
"Time pauses quietly while I’m looking at the bedroom from Venice’s Sagredo Palace that is installed at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even though the interior is seductively elaborate, it has such a peaceful spirit."
Pictured here is a field of lavender at the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque in Provence, France.
Madeline Stuart
Interior Designer
"At Hearst Castle in San Simeon, California, the remarkable architect Julia Morgan worked with her peripatetic client William Randolph Hearst to incorporate myriad decorative elements—ceilings, fireplaces—found abroad. A brilliantly successful collaboration."
Thomas a. Kligerman, Ike Kligerman Barkley
Architect
"At least once a year I visit the Stanford White–designed dining room at Kingscote, a Gothic Revival mansion in Newport, Rhode Island. It has an incredibly rich mix of marble, cork, mahogany, tile, oak, and Tiffany glass."
Pictured here is an interior of Hearst Castle.
Allan Greenberg
Architect
"The Villa Tugendhat in Brno, Czech Republic, is not only the apogee of Mies van der Rohe’s work in Europe but also his most important residential design, with sublime materials and uniquely articulated separations between the interiors and the garden."
David Zidlicky
Veere Grenney
Interior Designer
"Commissioned by Catherine the Great and conceived by architect Antonio Rinaldi, the 18th-century Chinese Palace at Oranienbaum, near St. Petersburg, Russia, is one of the world’s great decorating wonders. The salon’s glass-beaded walls are breathtaking—unlike anything I’ve ever seen."
Pictured here is the glass-beaded salon.
Shamukov Rusian/Corbis
Emily Summers
Interior Designer
"We take anyone who visits us in Colorado Springs on a tour of the U.S. Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel, built by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in 1963. It was inspired by flight, a theme that is evident in the winglike spires and the pews that resemble propellers.
Stocktreck/Corbis
John Berson, Sawyer⎮Berson
Architect
"The lobby at Manhattan’s 30 Rockefeller Plaza is pure and uncompromising Art Deco."
Gil Schafer
Architect
"Mount Vernon, George Washington’s Virginia home, manages to be both supremely elegant and surprisingly low-key. The grand façade has an almost wonky feel, with little regard to symmetry."
Toshiko Mori
Architect
"Kyoto’s Katsura Imperial Villa is an example of architecture that is totally integrated with its landscape. The sequence of spaces exposes you to the weather and seasons, exciting the senses and enhancing every moment."
David Mann, MR Architecture + DECOR
Architect/Designer
"At the 1937 Grace Miller house in Palm Springs you can see that Richard Neutra and his client did not rely upon the tried-and-true but instead cleverly rethought how to live in a better, smarter way."
Pictured here is the Katsura Imperial Villa in Kyoto.
David Piscuskas, 1100 Architect
Architect
"The Baroque chapel of Rome’s Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza cathedral sets a richly ambiguous tone—at once dynamic and serene. I consider it a clarion to the power of design."
Pierre Rochon Photography/Alamy
William T. Georgis
Architect/Designer
"I love the Villa Kérylos on France’s Côte d’Azur. The nostalgia for an imagined past is poignant and palpable throughout the neoclassical house, which was constructed in the early 20th century. Its beauty is sublime."
Massimo Listri/Corbis
Brian J. McCarthy
Interior Designer
"The Doge’s Palace in Venice defies imagination. I’ve spent entire afternoons just absorbing the energy of the place, reveling in the light that streams through the windows. It’s even more magical in the evening, when the crowds thin and the city descends into quiet."
