Michael Tilson Thomas’s Miami Pad [South Florida]
When he was an eight-year-old kid in Los Angeles, Michael Tilson Thomas and his best friend were sometimes watched by his friend’s much older brother-in-law, Frank Gehry. Mr. Gehry would ask Mr. Tilson Thomas about the music he was practicing on the piano. It was the beginning of a long-lasting association between Mr. Tilson Thomas, who grew up to become the well-known music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and Mr. Gehry, now one of the country’s best-known architects.
“We’ve had many conversations over many years about music and art and space,” explained Mr. Tilson Thomas, now 65. And over time, those conversations have led Mr. Tilson Thomas, whose wood-paneled Edwardian in San Francisco is filled with arts and crafts furniture, to include a more modern aesthetic in his 1925 pink stucco Mediterranean home here on prestigious North Bay Road.
Despite its opulent surroundings, the Miami house is modestly decorated with tropical patterned wicker furniture and round white paper lanterns designed by sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Sitting in the living room are three pieces designed by Mr. Gehry: his “Wiggle” and “Side” chairs made from layers of cardboard and his “Cloud” lamp, so-called because of its shade’s cloud-like appearance.