Built at the dawn of the Gold Rush, the Heldsburg Hotel is located in a small provincial town 60 miles north of San Francisco. Minimalism of the situation suggests that the authors did not escape the influence of Japanese design of the fifties

Passing the gallery

Text: Dmitry Kopylov

Materials: - (c) Cesar Rubio

Magazine: N11 (67) 2002

In North America, a country that is obscenely urbanized, you can still find places with pristine, virgin nature. This is all the more surprising in California, where every year, like migratory birds, hundreds and thousands of businessmen from all over the world rush, artists, world cinema stars - to the coveted fabulous land, where every acre of blessed land costs fabulous money Contrary to popular belief, California is not only Disneyland, Malibu’s endless white sand beaches, the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the annual Academy Award in Hollywood. The most flourishing, colorful and fertile province of the former Mexican empire has now become a truly wine paradise, where the most popular grape varieties are carefully cultivated. Just 60 miles north of San Francisco, among protected forests and lakes, the small provincial town of Heldsburg, the capital of North Sonoma County, is comfortably situated, where for more than a century wines have been produced that are in no way inferior to the famous European Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Cabernet Merlot and Sauvignon. The sights of Heldsburg are not only wineries, but also a hotel, modestly bearing the name of his native city, built at the dawn of the Gold Rush. In the US, there are few hotels with a hundred-year history: the more careful and touching it is to treat them, and to understand the logic of the owners of the Healdsburg hotel, who reconstructed it four years ago, is difficult at first sight. The creaking, revolving salun doors, the long, full-length bar, with the leaks of gallons of whiskey spilled on it during cowboy fights, heavy cast-iron baths in which the dust of the plundering roads of Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson washed off the dust, but unassuming but romantic, disappeared forever Wild West disappeared forever. The current building of the Heldsburg Hotel is more reminiscent of the European construction of the late thirties of the last century. Deprived of all forms of excess, gray-blue neutral color, "French" windows and doors. The abstractly calm cosmopolitanism of the building contrasts sharply with the deliberately Americanized template-standard architecture of the city. The minimalism of the situation is very expensive suites suggests that the authors have not escaped the influence of Japanese design of the fifties. Everything has been carefully thought out down to the smallest details: relaxing indefinitely yellow color of the walls, strict wooden handmade beds, narrow tables stylized as Tibet with crossed legs, elegant lamps, small, faded tones of the picture, modest ikebana. Nothing distracts attention from the main thing - the enjoyment of serene peace after a visit to the careless, slightly refined, but still hospitable and sincere city of St. Francis.