And the TWA Lounge on the 86th floor of One World Trade Center, modeled after the iconic Eero Saarinen–designed TWA Terminal at JFK airport, plans to use the trees, too-with special Saarinen bases, naturally. Their breezy, hollow forms and lack of fussy greenery seem to work well in warm-weather locales. Since then, it’s fair to say that Stoecker would be dazzled by the success of his invention: Modern Christmas Trees have been installed in elegant settings including the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim (where they hang upside down from the ceiling), the Four Seasons San Francisco, the Fairmont Hotel in Dubai, the Ritz-Carlton in Hawaii, among others. Vintage photographs on the Modern Christmas Tree’s website show some of the early trees in their full vintage glory.Ī Modern Christmas Tree shown inside architect Charles Deaton's 1963 Sculptured House (aka the Sleeper House for its starring role in Woody Allen's 1973 film Sleeper). The trees were different colors each year, and Stoecker kept notebooks to plan each new variation as the holidays approached. Its translucence allowed light to pass through the tree’s entire structure, as though it were made from glass. Stoecker was so pleased with this first cardboard tree that he started making new ones every Christmas, testing out new materials like masonite board, and eventually deciding that plexiglas was the best choice. Bliss recalls seeing the tree-which was elegantly suspended from the ceiling, and positioned on a base-spin slowly in the lights, watching the shadows play on the wall as the ornaments sparkled. This first tree (in retrospect, the original prototype) comprised a series of concentric cardboard rings in graduated sizes, with the smallest at the top and largest at the bottom, each one connected to the next with wire, decorated with bands of fringed tinsel and glass ornaments. In the mid-1960s, he built a space age-style Christmas Tree in his home workshop. Stoecker also loved putting his creativity and know-how to use at home to surprise and delight his children and grandchildren.
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