Located off the bedroom’s sitting room in the Gothic suite is the private library. Here, Hearst kept his impressive personal book collection as well as conduct business meetings as his office was next door; the man and his work were never seperated!

The focal point here is again the ceiling. Polychrome wood ribbed arches are seperated by Moroccan lanterns which are barely needed during the day with all of the light from the gothic transom windows. I think I could work here, don’t you?

As with all of my San Simeon posts, written permission was kindly granted to post my interior photos of the estate on this blog only. Please respect that and do not copy. Thanks!

The January 2010 issue of the World of Interiors featured a stair that I just couldn’t get out of my head; it looked so familiar. The Copenhagen police headquarters is a masterpiece of modern Neoclassicism from the 1920s that contains this gem.

This image looking up towards the skylight finally reminded me of where I had seen this before. Nature!

The spiral stairs perfectly mimic the shape of a chambered nautilus shell. Does this prove that most beauty is derived from nature? Perhaps not, but it sure is an arguement for the statement!

Photographs from WOI, January 2010 by James Mortimer