n the early 1980s, as Doris Duke turned 70, she oversaw a major renovation at Shangri La following her acquisition of a mid-19th-century interior from Syria. What had previously been a billiards room, a bathroom, and an office was demolished to create two adjacent rooms for the painted and gilded wood paneling, mosaic doors, carved stones and pieced marble panels of the Syrian interior.
Historically, Syrian interiors such as that seen in the Syrian Room at Shangri La were often designed for seasonal use. For example, a summer room might be decorated predominantly with cool materials such as marble and stone while a winter room might be more insulated by elaborate wood paneling. Doris Duke combined architectural elements from both types of seasonal rooms in designing the installation at Shangri La.
In Syria, room usage included daily activities from sleeping and eating to formal parties. They often served as receptions rooms and so were extravagantly furnished with a family’s most impressive possessions in order to convey wealth, style, and good taste to guests. Frequently, multi-leveled flooring partitioned these reception rooms. The entrance area would likely contain a fountain and could be used as a space for greetings, ablutions, or to prepare food, drink and other accommodations for guests and family members. Further into the room there was often an elevated section which was the main seating area. The Syrian Room at Shangri La reflects this model with its lowered entrance and raised platform.
Doris Duke named the newly renovated rooms the Turkish and Baby Turkish Rooms. Though the interiors are Syrian in origin, Duke was probably referring to the Ottoman dynasty’s rule of Damascus from their capital in Istanbul, Turkey. Among the collection highlights Doris Duke displayed in the Syrian Room are Iznik ceramics of the Ottoman period, which were made in both Turkey and Syria from the 16th through 19th centuries.
Conserving the Syrian Room, recent efforts to preserve the historic interior
Introduction to Ottoman art at the Metropolication Museum of Art
Iznik ceramics at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
The Damascus Room at Shangri La