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"One of Hollywood's most celebrated producers, Brian Grazer has made films that have been nominated for a remarkable 43 Oscars\u2014and in 2002, he took home the Best Picture prize for A Beautiful Mind. So who better to mastermind the 84th Annual Academy Awards? \"Having been both a winner and a loser has made my job producing the show this year easier because it's been demystified for me,\" he says.\n\nGrazer's office, overlooking Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, provides him with maximum support and style. Located in a midcentury building that serves as the headquarters of Imagine Entertainment, the production company Grazer founded in 1986 with partner Ron Howard, the suite was dreamed up by designer Michael S. Smith, another Hollywood heavyweight.\n\n\"Brian has a real artist's sensibility,\" says Smith of his client, for whom he has also decorated two houses. \"It was important that his office reflect his eclectic tastes, and that it feel creative and loose. But at the same time, it had to have a calming effect.\" Smith achieved all of this by dividing the L-shaped room into two zones. The first is dominated by an imposing Scandinavian-modern desk, usually piled high with scripts, while floor-to-ceiling shelves hold art books and photos of Grazer with colleagues and family. Then there is what the producer describes as \"the living room,\" a seating area with twin sofas, plush armchairs, and a cocktail table, all of Smith's design. \"This is where I have meetings\u2014it's very comfortable,\" Grazer says. (So much so, in fact, that most afternoons he throws a blanket down on one of the sofas and takes a ten-minute nap.) Unifying the two spaces are walls painted with subtle horizontal stripes\u2014Smith's homage to the architectural period\u2014and examples of tribal art, which both designer and client value for its warmth and exoticism.\n\nIn addition to enabling regular shut-eye, the office allows for seemingly all the human needs of a modern entertainment-industry potentate: It is a first-rate spa/gym/barbershop/ disco/media center. After cranking up the volume on his Beatbox, the wiry, spiky-haired producer grabs an electric shaver to give his chin a touch-up, then scoops up a dumbbell to perform bicep curls while scanning three TV screens. This display is cut short, however, when his assistant appears, weighted down with a three-ring binder labeled 84TH ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS.\n\n\"I want the show to be many things,\" Grazer says before taking his next meeting. \"But they are all very simple. I want it to be classy and funny, and I want it to be on time. I think we will succeed.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/brian-grazer-office-michael-smith-article>