Men Like to Design Things!

Today's New York Times House & Home section carries an essay by Rick Marin about manly men who like to talk about fabrics and architecture. Like Brad Pitt and Lenny Kravitz, who apparently redid his New Orleans home: Mr. Kravitz's principal collaborator has been Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz, who did Mr. Kravitz's penthouse - Lucite grand piano, Donald Deskey pool table - and worked on the New Orleans place and the Bahamian beach house Mr. Kravitz is building with a local architect, Jackson Burnside. Mr. Noriega-Ortiz, who is not involved in the Kravitz Design venture, schooled his client in eclecticism: that midcentury could also mean mid-18th-century. As for his client's design skills, Mr. Noriega-Ortiz is generous. "He knows styles and proportions and color," he said. "And the shopping was great." And as a potential competitor? "I don't know how he'd mold his design to other people's taste," he said. For sure! Remember the leaky toilet in Kravitz's extravagantly self-decorated Crosby Street loft, which caused trouble for the rocker's neighbors? By the way ... Rick Marin?