The Chancery Rosewood

Standing in front of this familiar facade felt like stepping back into another chapter of my life. For years, to those of us involved with US visa applications, this was the spot for early mornings, visa interview nerves, clients clutching documents, and long lines curling around Grosvenor Square. This used to be the Embassy of the United States in London. Today it is a luxury hotel, the Chancery Rosewood, where guests stroll in for coffee and people chat along the in front of the iconic Eero Saarinen façade where anxious visa applicants once waited. The energy has shifted completely, yet that eagle still watches from above as if remembering every student, artist, entrepreneur, and family who stood under its gaze on their way to a new chapter in the United States.

Safari in the City

To commemorate the start of Spring, we went in search of blooming buds and flowers. Much to our dismay, we did not find any (yet) to share but instead came across this giraffe springing out of the bushes in Mount Street Gardens in Mayfair. Grazing upon the greens of the 19th century churchyard garden, sits a small bronze giraffe. Who would have thought that our morning jaunt for flora would take us on an urban safari?

90” Triacontahedron by Anthony James

In London’s Berkeley Square, 90” Triacontahedron by Anthony James beckons the passerby.  A British-American artist, based in Los Angeles, Mr. James uses specialized glass, LED, and steel to draw spectators into his work. Hailed as of one of the world’s leading light artists, he incorporates an array of industrial objects, vitrines of steel, aluminum, and waste and debris, to illuminate and reflect on themes of light and dark, death, destruction, and rebirth in his brilliant pieces. As light and color frolic within the panels of the sculpture, 90” Triacontahedron transports us to another dimension, even on the greyest of London days.