UCLA Journal of Radiation Oncology SUMMER 2024 - Flipbook - Page 72
UCLA RADIATION ONCOLOGY JOURNAL
Being loved in your environment, being loved with
your experience, having your home give you a visual
and functional experiential hug every day makes you...
is everything to your longevity and health.” In Jessica
DuLong’s May 31, 2024, CNN article, “Do this Once
a Month and Extend Your Life by Up to 10 Years.
No Gym Required,” she interviews Your Brain on
Art co-author, Susan Magsamen, who shares that,
“just one art experience per month can extend your
life by ten years. The process, not the product, is
what’s important.” Even if you have no interest in
making art, the art you engage with—or place in your
home—has a direct impact on your health and wellbeing. Wearstler’s statement seems to indicate that by
simply creating a beautiful space for yourself in your
home, you will increase your happiness and longevity.
returning from a busy day to a calm space rather than
a chaotic one, we are allowed to remain present in our
lives, to experience awe and wonder in our temporary
space. When I worked in San Francisco 昀椀ne art
galleries, I would go for a week at a time to annual art
fairs in various cities, and I learned from the gallery
directors I worked for to 昀椀nd more comfortable
abodes to ensure personal wellness and rest—standalone vacation adobes in Santa Fe, boutique hotels
in Miami and London, and in New York, either the
pre-Airbnb studio or one-bedroom apartments by
the week on the Upper West Side or above a certain
昀氀oor at certain hotels along Central Park South.
Wearstler’s hotels embody what my gallery dealers
were after during those long art fair weeks: a place to
unpack, to truly live well while away from the comfort
of home. Austin Proper allows visitors to feel at
home.
I am awestruck by the quality of light and
incorporation of windows in Russian Hill, a redesign
Wearstler undertook in Toronto. Although I have
not seen “before” images of Russian Hill, it is easy
to see how these rooms could have once been
austere and cold. Instead, the home is elegant in a
comfortable way, the furniture and rugs appearing
soft rather than formidable. With her attention again
to natural light, the neutral dark tones and rounded
edges of pieces curated for the various rooms convey
sophistication and function. These are rooms you
can live in, you can touch and interact with, rooms
that might daily hug you, as I imagine they do for the
family living there.
Light—natural or otherwise—is a nuance I’ve always
been rather sensitive to, so naturally, one aspect of
Wearstler’s work that strikes me is her attentiveness
to light. The lobby of the Austin Proper Hotel &
Residences seems curated to showcase the daily
revolution of shadows as they minuet across the walls,
glass tabletops, and leather furniture enlivening the
linework of the 昀氀oors, ceiling, walls, and concierge
desk. The Texas-hacienda staircase, too, uses existing
light to further amplify the Escher-esque labyrinth
e昀昀ect, an elegant hush lying over the exit from one
space and the thrill of what may lie beyond.
For the traveler, however, Austin Proper Hotel &
Residence is an example of how peaceful, calm spaces
might be created in the middle of a bustling city, a
sanctuary for both short and long-term residency.
If we don’t feel a need to escape because we are
Kelly’s 昀椀xation is on experience, so her attention to
detail doesn’t end with design. “There are di昀昀erent
experiences you have if you go into a hotel and you
see someone waiting to serve you or there’s someone
there to greet you. It’s so di昀昀erent than going into a
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