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These 14 Gifts Will Set You Back Less Than $50, But They’re Still Plenty Memorable

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 6 Nov 2026 07:56:31 -0800

Fancy lotion, a fun puzzle, or a lighter cover that’ll jazz up their keyring—whatever you choose, these presents are sure to make your recipient's holiday season a little brighter.

Shopping for gifts around or under the $50 mark can be a bit of a challenge. On the one hand, you’re budgeting for something "nice"—a step up from your standard tchotchke. But on the other hand, it might not get you as far as it used to when it comes to charming, well-designed presents. That’s why we dug around the far corners of the internet to unearth a few unexpectedly wonderful finds that are at once playful, practical, and priced just right.

This sophisticated coloring book of flowers includes full-color images to serve as guides for the budding artist. If your giftee doesn’t feel like coloring, they can tear the examples out and frame ‘em instead.

John Derian Flowers Coloring Book

Gift shop favorite John Derian Company offers 20 coloring pages of beautiful blossoms, blooms, and buds. Package it with a set of colored pencils.

Perfect for the person who’s happy to spend $12 on a glass of orange juice at brunch.

Happy Tappi Citrus Juicer

Made by Italian brand Happy Tappi, this stainless steel juicer comes with a glass jar or attaches to any standard Mason Jar.

For the friend who’s always misplacing their lighter, this retractable lighter leash attached to a beaded fish is quite the catch. Be sure to buy a cute BIC to go with it.

Edie Parker Beaded Fish Lighter Holder

This clip-on keychain from Edie Parker, maker of luxury smoking accessories, extends over 12 inches and makes toting around a lighter more fun.

For the party host in your life, a sparkling blend of seeds and spices that adds a bit of glamour and big taste to everyday meals.

Big Night Crunchy Roasty Glitter Seasoning

Made in collaboration with the Hudson Valley-based granola maker Sweet Deliverance, each 12-ounce "Glitter" jar packs a different sprinkle of flavor. Choose between Original, A Little Spicy, and A Little Sweet.

Made for the commuter or coworker, an actually leakproof water bottle that’s also easy to sip from.

Brumate Era Flip Beverage Tumbler

This cleverly designed tumbler has a flip-down straw attachment that doesn’t drip, fits a standard cup holder, and keeps cold drinks extra cold for over 24 hours.

Emergency tubes of raw honey for the people in your life with an insatiable sweet tooth.

Honey Dept 3-Pack of Thick Honey

This ultra smooth hive honey blend of Wildflower and Mesquite blossom varieties stays thick and smooth thanks to two days of slow and patient stirs.

A cookbook that’s nourishing in more than one way. Give a copy to the person who loves to eat as much as they love to read wonderfully vulnerable personal essays.

Food is a Feeling Cookbook

Written after the dissolution of chef Carla Lalli’s marriage, this "divorce cookbook memoir" features 30 essays and 65 hearty recipes, such as warm chickpea stew, mom’s homemade alfredo, and kid-approved vanilla pancakes.

This one’s for the dog lovers on your list. But you already knew that.

MoMA Design Store Nesting Dogs Set

A nod to Russian dolls, but of classic dog breeds instead. Designed by illustrator Midori Komatsu, this wooden set of pups are perfect for displaying or hiding smaller trinkets.

Things have to be cut sometimes. Why not have a pair of gloriously well-designed scissors do the trick? Perfect as a desk tool, crafting supply, and more.

Craighill Spectra Scissors

Craighill is known for its thoughtfully designed, highly functional everyday products. You can be assured their new scissors will cut, slice, and trim with precision while looking pretty.

A collection of stamps—designed for children and adults alike—made for world-building, architecting, and designing homes of all stripes.

Stampville Stamp and Ink Set

Each box set includes 25 stamps of mix-and-match house and building exteriors and two ink pads for creating entire cityscapes, suburban towns, or single houses.

A hydrating cream that’s expensive, but worth every penny. The kind of practical gift for the person who’d never think to buy it for themselves.

Flamingo Estate Sage Rich Cream

‘Tis the season of dry skin. This super rich, sage-scented cream made with olive and sunflower oils is formulated to support the natural moisture barrier of thirsty-looking hands and feet.

It’s all about versatility! Gift this pouch set for your favorite travel companion, a parent who could use more organization, or a teenager whose backpack could use some help.

Baggu Polka Dot Mix Go Pouch Set

This three-piece pouch set collectively holds a surprising amount of stuff: the largest is big enough for shoes; the smallest can hold toiletries. Plus, they’re lightweight, made of recycled nylon, and machine washable.

Help start a new holiday tradition. This festive holiday cookie-themed jigsaw puzzle is the gift that will reappear every winter for years to come.

Piecework Frost Yourself 1000 Piece Puzzle

This 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle depicts classic holiday treats such as snowflakes, mittens, and ornaments. A tasty scene without the crumbs.

A reusable bag with a signature Marimekko print that’s sure to catch eyes and compliments at the market.

Marimekko Smartbag Unikko

Gift a bit of design history. Marimekko’s famous Unikko flower print was created by the Finnish artist Maija Isola, who happens to be the brand’s first-ever textile designer.

Top collage by Dwell with images (from left to right) courtesy of MoMA Design Store, Craighill, and Nickey Kehoe

We love the products we feature and hope you do, too. If you buy something through a link on the site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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Still searching for the perfect gift? View the rest of our gift guides here.

These 15 Gifts Cost Less Than $25, but They Still Stand Out From the Rest of the Pack

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 6 Nov 2026 07:56:26 -0800

From adorable scissors they’ll use everyday to special occasion artisanal Mezcal glasses, there’s something to satisfy everyone on your list.

These days, you’d be hard-pressed to find holiday gifts that are thoughtful, well-made, and priced under $25. But we found 15 options that are sure to delight even the most discerning people on your list. Whether you’re in need of last-minute stocking stuffers or have been assigned secret Santa to a coworker you barely know, here are some of our favorite, most affordable hidden gems.

A stocking stuffer for the pro-carb grocery shopper who’s averse to checking things off on their Notes app.

Mel Andrel Baguette Memo Pad

Perfectly sized for jotting down a list or sharing a quick memo. You can also tape magnetic strips to the back of the pad to stick it on the fridge.

These burnable French incense paper strips are an elegant—and cheap!—alternative to luxury candles or room diffusers.

Papier d'Armenie Perfume Strips

One booklet comes with 36 strips. Burn one into a glass dish to make the room smell of myrrh, wood, and a hint of vanilla.

Give the gift of a tiny snip and make opening an envelope, trimming thread, or removing a rubber band off a veggie bundle easier—and more adorable, too.

Niwaki Fridge Magnet Scissors

A small pair of Japanese scissors that lives on your fridge while dressed like a daikon radish? Come on.

This editor-approved onion jam has been described as "something I never thought I’d need in my life." Sweet, savory, and smokey, all in one spread.

Blackberry Farm Shop Smoked Onion Jam

Here’s a taste of what’s inside: Sweet Georgia vidalia onions, smoked and blended with sherry vinegar and benne seeds. Add it to pizza, quiche, snack plate, and more.

Cuter than standard shot glasses and priced at $10 each, these adorable yellow cups will make liquor-sipping all the more delightful.

Nickey Kehoe Yellow Small Mezcal Glass

Given that they’re handblown and thoughtfully considered by artisans in Michoacán, Mexico, these mini cocktail glasses look, and ought to be, more expensive than they are.

A little blue cutie to replace your favorite cook’s burnt and greasy oven mitt.

Big Night Essential Gingham Mini Mitt

Compact but mighty, this mitt is sized to hang on a hook or be tucked away in a drawer. A grippy silicone underside makes handling hot cookware or opening stubborn jars simpler.

For the tea or coffee lover in your life. This beautiful and durable glass set includes a mug, saucer, and spoon.

Bodum Copenhagen Glass Mug & Saucer Set

Don’t be fooled by the frosty, semi-transparent finish. This Copenhagen-designed set is made from Borosilicate, a type of glass that won’t crack under extreme heat.

Gift some of that calming Japanese onsen aura to the recipient who loves to bathe and pamper themselves.

Onsen Saru Hot Spring Bath Fizz

Himalayan pink salt, shea butter, and avocado and sunflower oils soften the skin while the Japanese matsu pine and cedarwood scent turns an ordinary bath into a fragrant and restorative session.

A set of lavender sachets to help your recipient freshen up the mustiest parts of their home or car.

Hawkins New York Windowpane Lavender Sachets

Better-looking than loose potpourri and more gorgeously stuffed than your standard white-cloth drawstring pouches, this sachet set is a crowd pleaser.

A ceramic match holder and striker for the person looking to upgrade their dish of loose matchbooks into a more organized vessel.

Hawkins New York Match Striker

Handmade in Brooklyn by LindaMakess, this scalloped match striker is perfect for wherever you might need a flame—in the bathroom, kitchen, or on the coffee table.

Punchy artist-designed notebooks for jotting down inspiration, to-do lists, and reminders.

Lucky Risograph Errands Field Notebook

Choose one of seven spiral-bound notebooks with cover art by Chuck Kuan and Amanda Chung.

Because there’s something more graceful about gifting candles made of unscented beeswax instead of typical scented soy wax.

Nickey Kehoe Rose Beeswax Tapers

Hand-dipped in coastal Maine, these tapered candles are designed to light up your tablescape without drips or smoke.

A little something for home cooks who need more Morris & Co. in their lives (and their kitchens).

Morris & Co. x Williams Sonoma Bluebell Spoon Rest

Help keep countertops and ranges clean with this porcelain spoon rest that’s shaped like an even bigger spoon.

If you’re looking to gift a fun dish towel, have it be made from from the super absorbent weaves Geometry is known for.

Geometry Ray Tea Towel

Made by Geometry, the textiles brand known for kitchen towels that use their signature Geoweave fabric—quick-drying, wrinkle-resisting, and built to absorb a good amount of liquid.

This air freshener is perfect for a car, gym locker, closet, or wherever else your gift recipient might need a sophisticated scent.

Earl of East Jardin de La Lune Air Freshener

The Jardin de la Lune scent fills spaces with its blend of tuberose, blackberry leaf, bergamot, and cade.

Top collage by Dwell with images (from left to right) courtesy of East Fork, Hawkins New York, and Chante Vaughn for Big Night

We love the products we feature and hope you do, too. If you buy something through a link on the site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

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Still searching for the perfect gift? View the rest of our gift guides here.

This Multigenerational Home in India Will Change What You Think You Know About Indoor/Outdoor Living

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 5 Nov 2026 14:56:28 -0800

An architect designed a biophilic complex for their aging parents that the whole family can visit, and stay cool in the process.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, India

Architect: Spacefiction Studio / @spacefictionstudio

Footprint: 7,000

Structural Engineer: Simon Peter Engi Consultants

Photographer: Vivek Eadara

From the Architect: "The client wanted to move his parents from their ancestral home to a nature-centric one. The program was to fit more rooms for the children and grandchildren to stay comfortably on their visits, which their current home was lacking. The more people age, the more they are rooted to their environment, habits, and ways. So, uprooting someone in their twilight years and moving them to a new environment in the hope to enrich the remainder of their life is a substantial risk the client was willing to take for his parents. This translates to an even heavier responsibility on the architects’ shoulders. The familiarity and the set ways of their old living practices had to be reimagined in a new context, which should drastically improve their living experience without feeling too alien.

"Nellore is a fast-growing city of Andhra Pradesh, India, with a hot-humid climate dominating most of the year. The site is a 120-feet-wide square with roads on all sides. The program is split into a two-story linear, private west wing and a single-story linear, public east wing. These wings are separated by a double-height courtyard that runs across the wings. This courtyard is extended further, till the entire site width, on both ends, with double-height wall enclosures. The first floor of the west block is masked with undulating, double layer walls with an air gap in between to counter the harsh southwest sun. The east wing has a planter-shaded verandah, running along its length, opening onto a private front lawn. The water tanker and a skylight in the shape of two truncated pyramids break the visual linearity.

"Locally sourced, exposed burnt clay bricks make up most of the walls in the house. The brick patterns are ever-changing on the walls, with some bricks jutting out lit from the skylight above, making more shadow patterns which are ever-changing. The flooring composes of local marble, limestone, and granite. The skylight is a grid of thin, exposed concrete beams within which the punctures are dictated by the sun. The central volume has bridges running across connecting the west wing to the east wing’s large terrace. A metal circular staircase acts as a sculptural element in the heart of the courtyard. Openings into the bedrooms peek into the courtyard, the lush green plants are visited by small birds, wind flows through the courtyard not letting any humidity linger, and the god in the prayer room is lit from the light above. The client’s parents now spend most of their time relaxed in the green areas, watching their grandchildren play on their occasional visits."

Photo by Vivek Eadara

See the full story on Dwell.com: This Multigenerational Home in India Will Change What You Think You Know About Indoor/Outdoor Living
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Soccer Star Thierry Henry’s SoHo Penthouse Relists With a $1.75M Price Cut

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 5 Nov 2026 09:56:34 -0800

The former Arsenal striker is asking $25 million for the three-level residence, which has walls of glass and 3,400 square feet of private outdoor space.

Location: 39 Crosby Street, PHN, New York, New York

Price: $25,000,000

Building Built: 1874

Building Architect: Edward H. Kendall

Penthouse Renovation Date: 2010

Footprint: 6,086 interior square feet (5 beds, 5 full baths, 2 half baths); approximately 3,400 outdoor square feet

From the Agent: "Set atop a cast-iron condominium on one of SoHo’s most coveted cobblestone streets, the penthouse at 39 Crosby combines expansive interiors, multiple outdoor spaces, and an unusual degree of privacy in downtown Manhattan.

Spanning more than 10,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor living, the residence includes five bedrooms, five full baths, two powder rooms, and multiple living and entertaining spaces across several levels. Two deeded parking spaces and keyed elevator access allow residents to travel directly from the garage to the penthouse.

With 360-degree exposures, panoramic skyline views, soaring ceilings, and four private outdoor spaces, the residence feels more like a private house suspended above downtown than a conventional apartment.

The main living floor is anchored by a great room with approximately 14-foot-tall ceilings and walls of glass capturing views from the Brooklyn Bridge and One World Trade Center to the rooftops of historic SoHo. A gas fireplace and adjoining terrace extend the living space outdoors, while the great room opens to a dining area and contemporary kitchen.

Above, a 1,221-square-foot private roof terrace includes an outdoor kitchen and sweeping views across the Manhattan skyline. Elsewhere, an indoor bamboo garden leads to a sun-filled media room that opens directly onto a 983-square-foot terrace.

The primary suite occupies its own level and opens to a 795-square-foot private terrace."

Former professional footballer Thierry Henry and his longtime partner, Andrea Rajacic, bought the duplex penthouse and the apartment directly below it in 2010 for $14.85 million, shortly after Henry joined the New York Red Bulls. They later combined the units and customized the spaces into the triplex seen today.

Photo by Nathan Patrick Media for Sotheby's International Realty

Photo by Alejandro Leon / DD Reps for Sotheby's International Realty

The main living level pairs approximately 14-foot ceilings with walls of glass, a gas fireplace, and an adjoining terrace. The living room flows into the dining area and open kitchen, while a mezzanine office overlooks the common areas.

Photo by Alejandro Leon / DD Reps for Sotheby's International Realty

See the full story on Dwell.com: Soccer Star Thierry Henry’s SoHo Penthouse Relists With a $1.75M Price Cut

What Does "Trauma-Informed Design" Actually Mean?

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 5 Nov 2026 06:56:23 -0800

The architectural approach has gained momentum in sectors like supportive housing and healthcare infrastructure. Is it just a buzz phrase?

Tucked into a suburban area of Bozeman, Montana, the Barnard Center, a domestic violence shelter operated by the nonprofit Haven, looks a lot like its neighbors. The two buildings on the campus—which house 30 bedrooms, counseling rooms, administrative offices, and communal spaces, like a library, kitchen, and living room—feature pitched roofs and wood siding. Between them, there’s a vegetable garden and green lawns where children can play. And thanks to a perimeter wall, survivors and their families in the shelter can use the outdoor areas safely.

Previously, Haven’s shelter was a five-bedroom, two-story house in which up to 25 survivors at a time slept anywhere there was room, even on couches and the floor. While it filled a great need, "we recognized that it was not a healing environment," says Katie Madison, Haven’s executive director. Now, with an $8 million campus by MASS Design Group that opened in 2023, architecture is "part of the support service," she adds.

Haven’s new shelter is the result of trauma-informed design (TiD), an approach to architecture that integrates research on what helps people feel safe, secure, and emotionally regulated in spaces. "It really just gives us a shared or common evidence-based framework that’s anchored in principles of behavioral, mental, social, and public health that has been used for decades," says Patricia Gruits, co-executive director of MASS, which is known for its socially driven projects like the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama; the Butaro Hospital in Rwanda; and a maternity waiting village in Malawi.

Mass Design Group completed Haven’s Barnard Center, a two-building shelter complex for survivors of domestic violence in Bozeman, Montana, in spring 2023.

Photos by Iwan Baan, courtesy MASS

Trauma-informed design has become an architectural buzz phrase. The approach entered the design field in the 2010s and continued to slowly grow through the middle and end of the decade before becoming more prevalent in the last few years. It’s now applied to everything from shelters, like Haven’s, and supportive housing to hospitals, clinics, schools, and prisons. Professional organizations like the American Institute of Architects and American Society of Interior Designers have hosted lectures and continuing education courses on the topic. There’s even an organization dedicated to advancing the concept: the Trauma-informed Design Society. It offers a $2,000 credentialing course on the TiD framework.

The mainstreaming of trauma-informed design seems to follow the pop culturification of trauma itself, particularly since the Covid pandemic. Trauma plots in film and fiction have a stronghold in the zeitgeist and therapy-speak has permeated our everyday language, especially online, stretching what can be labeled traumatic to include a much broader range of experiences. The Body Keeps the Score by Dutch-American psychiatrist and PTSD researcher Bessel van der Kolk, which was published in 2014, was the #1 New York Times bestseller for over 30 weeks in 2021. Meanwhile, Canadian physician and trauma expert Gabor Maté’s 2022 book, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture, debuted as #5 on the bestseller list, where it spent 14 weeks. "Today, an entire industry has spawned around the idea that everything is trauma," Guardian columnist Katherine Rowland wrote last year. The term has also become part of the culture wars. In 2025, the National Science Foundation began reviewing grants with keywords like "trauma," "diversity," and "gender" to ensure they were in compliance with executive orders from the Trump administration.

That’s not to diminish or dismiss the reality that trauma affects many, many people. According to one commonly cited statistic, around 70 percent of people globally have been exposed to traumas during their life, and post-traumatic stress disorder is known to be underdiagnosed. Meanwhile, as doctors and scientists better understand human behavior, the definition of what is considered traumatic is changing. In 2022, the World Health Organization formally recognized complex post-traumatic stress disorder in its International Classification of Diseases. Researchers are now studying issues surrounding epigenetics and race and identity-based trauma, as well as trauma from poverty, the pandemic, and climate change. Architecture reflects the cultural shift, too. The built environment has long played an important role in health care—from quarantining ships during the plague to sanatoria that treated tuberculosis—so it makes sense that changes in how doctors understand the human body and mind would affect how they are designed.

But what are we actually talking about when we talk about trauma-informed design? As the phrase gains momentum in design parlance, some experts argue it’s a long overdue approach to creating better architecture, while others say it’s misused and overused, and perpetuates harmful stigmas about the people using those spaces. "Where trauma-informed design gets misunderstood is that it’s just a set of tools, right? Or it’s just a set of design decisions that can be applied to any project in the same way," Gruits says. "There are principles, but how do those actually show up in the built environment?"

Architecture firm NBBJ designed Montage Health’s Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health in Monterey, California, with a series of curving volumes.

Photo by Ty Cole, courtesy NBBJ

From medicine to architecture

The phrase "trauma-informed" came from the medical and behavioral health fields; as doctors and social workers began to better understand the effect of trauma on individuals, they adjusted their care practices in order to more effectively treat them and to resist harming them further. In 2014, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) published a manual on what this looks like. In it, it’s stated that physical environments should come across as "safe, inviting, and not a risk to their physical or psychological safety."

From environmental psychology and neuroscience research, designers have evidence-based knowledge about what features in space can lower stress and increase feelings of safety, comfort, and well-being—or do the opposite. "When we design a space, what you want the space to be able to do is to help you calm your nervous system down and deescalate and go into a regulated state—that is what trauma-informed design, in our opinion, needs to be and should be," says Deanna Van Buren, founder of Designing Justice + Designing Spaces. Her firm designs projects around restorative justice, which has included peacemaking centers for survivors of violence, social service hubs for people who are navigating the court system, and a housing campus for people reentering their communities from incarceration. She says that across her projects, clients and the people those clients serve often talk about qualities like light, color, texture, and comfort. "Those are the things that we know make people feel safe," she says.

At the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health in Monterey, California, architecture is a form of treatment. The campus, designed by NBBJ and completed in late 2023, uses principles of biophilia (or the attraction humans have to nature) which has been proven to reduce stress. Located on a verdant hillside, the curved structures are mostly made of wood and feature floor-to-ceiling windows so that there are plenty of views outside. The facility offers 16 in-patient rooms, clinical space, and recreational areas, and resembles an elite school more so than a psychiatric institution.

Tami Chen, an architect at NBBJ who worked on the project, notes that clients—like Dr. Susan Swick, who commissioned Ohana—are just following the data about what makes patients recover faster. That means more success on the bottom line, too. "People are providing more of that actual data and support to prove out that the design moves do have real impact versus just this theoretical notion of: It’s good for you. Don’t you want it?" Chen says.

The Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health comprises an outpatient clinic and a 16-bed residential program, as well as amenities like garden spaces, a gym, and a music room.

Photos by Ty Cole, courtesy NBBJ

See the full story on Dwell.com: What Does "Trauma-Informed Design" Actually Mean?
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Charles Warren Callister’s Barrel-Vaulted Duncan House Lists in San Francisco for $7.9M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 3 Nov 2026 15:56:10 -0800

Floor-to-ceiling glass opens to a canopy of trees, anchoring the renovated midcentury interiors.

176 Palo Alto Avenue in San Francisca, California, is currently listed at $7,900,000 by Neill Bassi at Sotheby's International Realty - San Francisco Brokerage.

Commissioned in 1959, the Duncan House stands as a quintessential expression of Northern California modernism. Designed by Bay Area architect Charles Warren Callister, the Clarendon Heights residence pairs structural drama with an acute sensitivity to site and elevation.

Perched high above the city, the home’s defining architectural gestures—barrel-vaulted timber ceilings and expanse-spanning, floor-to-ceiling glass—frame uninterrupted, panoramic views of San Francisco and the bay.

A recent sensitive restoration updates the interiors with custom finishes while preserving Callister’s original interplay of warmth, volume, and light. It remains a rare, highly preserved artifact of midcentury architectural heritage in one of the city's most elevated enclaves.

Listing Details

Bedrooms: 3

Baths: 3 full, 1 partial

Year Built: 1959

Square feet: 6,246

Plot Size: 0.14 acres

Courtesy of Sotheby's International Realty - San Francisco Brokerage

See the full story on Dwell.com: Charles Warren Callister’s Barrel-Vaulted Duncan House Lists in San Francisco for $7.9M
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Jackson Pollock’s Former West Village Studio Lists For $2M

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 3 Nov 2026 09:56:15 -0800

Long before he became a household name, the painter lived and worked in this skylit top-floor apartment, which has been gradually updated over the course of its almost 200-year history.

Location: 46 Carmine Street, Unit 4, West Village, New York

Price: $1,990,000

Year Built: 1827

Designer/Architect: Albert Berdan (original builder)

Renovation Date: 1937 (residential conversion); 2016 (renovation)

Renovation Architect: Frederick S. Koeler (1937 conversion)

Footprint: 687 square feet (1 bed, 1 bath)

From the Agent: "Welcome to the Artist’s Enclave, a rare top-floor one-bedroom condo with nearly two centuries of New York history.

In 1932, a 20-year-old Jackson Pollock moved into 46 Carmine, Unit 4, with his brother Charles while they studied under Thomas Hart Benton. The apartment was Pollock’s home and studio before he became widely known: young, experimenting, and still finding his way.

After generations of owners, the home has been carefully updated, preserving the character and eccentricities that have always defined it.

On the top floor of an 1827 Federal-style townhouse between Bedford and Bleecker Streets, the 687-square-foot home sits just above the surrounding low-rise buildings. Inside, it feels like an urban tree house, with treetop views and light pouring in through skylights. A working fireplace and exposed brick add warmth and character to the living area. Upstairs, a loft makes for an ideal studio, home office, or creative retreat. Out back, a shared garden with a grill provides a quiet patch of green tucked away from the street.

Like the Village itself, 46 Carmine has been reinvented over nearly 200 years. A milliner sold hats and bonnets downstairs in the 1850s, artists lived and worked here in the 1930s, and in 2010, the building was landmarked as part of the Greenwich Village Historic District. Its latest renovation continued that tradition by layering contemporary design over the home’s original materials.

Outside, the West Village remains one of New York’s historic creative neighborhoods. Within a few blocks are jazz clubs, comedy venues, indie theaters and cinemas, and restaurants that have drawn people to the neighborhood for generations."

In 1932, a 20-year-old Jackson Pollock moved into 46 Carmine Street with his brother Charles while they studied under painter Thomas Hart Benton. The apartment served as Jackson’s home and studio before he became widely known.

Photo by Joel Pitra

Photo by Francisco Rosario

Built in 1827 by local carpenter Albert Berdan, the Federal-style townhouse sits between Bedford and Bleecker Streets in the West Village. In the 1850s, a milliner operated a shop on the ground floor. In 1937, architect Frederick S. Koeler converted the upper floors into a single residence above the shop.

Photo by Joel Pitra

See the full story on Dwell.com: Jackson Pollock’s Former West Village Studio Lists For $2M
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An Architect Couple Built Their Washington Home "With the Lightest Carbon Footprint Possible"

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 3 Nov 2026 07:56:24 -0800

A chapter from the new book "New Northwest: Residential Architecture in the Evergreen State" shows how they did it.

"Two years after starting our design practice, we got the itch to build," Annelise Aldrich recalls of the origins of this prototype house that she and Mark Keller designed, built, and live in. Having just returned to Aldrich’s home state of Washington after staying in house shares while they traveled across the country, the duo—who are partners in work and life—were eager to create a home of their own and settle down.

Their chosen 7,000-square-foot lot in Roslyn, a former coal-mining town east of Snoqualmie Pass, proved to be a convergence point in more ways than one. Besides sitting in a wildland urban interface area—with the Roslyn Urban Forest to the north and the town to the south—the site is also subject to National Historic District preservation guidelines. Aldrich and Keller approached the house as a template for a different kind of future. "The house is a transition from an extractivist, industrial past that caused a lot of environmental degradation to something with the lightest carbon footprint possible," says Aldrich.

The house was designed and largely built by the architect-owners.

Photo by Todd Rotkis

The duo started with the standard four-foot width of a plywood panel to rough out the house’s dimensions, organizing the building as a tall and narrow three-story volume to minimize its footprint and site disturbance. Elongating the structure east to west maximized solar exposure for the south-facing living area on the top floor, while a gabled roof nods to Roslyn’s historical buildings and creates voluminous interiors. To minimize materials and construction time, Keller and Aldrich developed a "tight-frame" timber structure that is elegant in its simplicity. Friends from Colorado-based Treecraft Design-Build prefabricated the structure and installed, sheathed, and waterproofed it in under two weeks. Exposed on the inside, the structure is protected by an envelope system called PERSIST which stands for "pressure equalized rain screen insulated structure technique"—a Canadian method that the duo came across early on. "We were doing a ton of building science research and wanted to try out what we were researching," explains Aldrich.

Solar panels help power the home.

Photo by Mark Keller

"We believe in wood and asked, ‘What if we used this material to the best of our ability?’" says Keller, who, together with Aldrich, constructed much of the remainder of the building. The result is a home that reflects the full spectrum of Keller and Aldrich’s interests. The kitchen is anchored by a 20-foot-long wooden counter/work table, where they spread out architectural drafting paper, roll out pasta, and host friends for dinners and game nights. "In the end, we wanted to build to effect our own ethos, both as ourselves personally and as our architect selves," says Aldrich. "It’s a demonstration of how we want to be in the world."

Post-Coal by Trace Design

Location: Roslyn, Washington
Completed: 2024
Principal Residence: 2,400 square feet
Greenhouse: 100 square feet

The house is situated at the edge of the Roslyn Urban Forest.

Photo by Mark Keller

See the full story on Dwell.com: An Architect Couple Built Their Washington Home "With the Lightest Carbon Footprint Possible"
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A Magical Bathing Retreat Hides on Top of This Tiny Cabin in the U.K.

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 14:56:16 -0800

A tall parapet creates privacy for the rooftop sanctuary, which holds a shower, sauna, and garden.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: East Sussex, United Kingdom

Architect: Built Works / @built.works

Footprint: 376 square feet

Structural Engineer: The Structure Studio

Photographer: Connor Duffy Photography / @connorduffyphotography

From the Architect: "Designed and built by hand by founders Will Gowland and Harry Kay, Bathers Cabin is a study in considered making. The cabin takes its cue from the traditional grain stores of Southeast England: modest, square structures, often raised on saddle stones, with operable louvres to draw air through the building. The cabin reinterprets this vernacular as a single beguiling, monolithic volume, lifted clear of the forest floor on screw piles so that it appears to touch the landscape only lightly. Angled larch shingles give the facade a quiet dynamism, softening the building’s silhouette and casting shadows that let it dissolve into the woodland.

"The larch was sourced from a nearby mill and installed green and rough-sawn, then finished in situ with Scandinavian pine tar to achieve its rich, blackened tone. The reference points reach beyond the agricultural: a pilgrimage to Peter Zumthor’s Therme Vals informs the building’s restraint, its sense of mass, and the way a dark, earthy interior turns the eye outward toward the landscape.

"Inside, the cabin is organized on a precise cross plan. Four full-height, off-center pivot windows face true north, south, east, and west, each framing a different view and curating a distinct quality of light. With an entirely open-plan layout, the architecture allows bathing to sit at its very center, the bathroom opening directly onto the bedroom and living space so the act of washing merges with the rhythm of the day.

"At the heart of this project is the volume of bespoke and handmade work. The bathroom floor and walls are laid with unglazed tiles made by Harry Kay and his family, including one-off specials pressed with wildflowers gathered with his children, sitting subtly amongst the bathtub waiting to be discovered; left unglazed to avoid a second firing and sealed with linseed oil, they carry their making in every imperfection. The living-room floor is English end-grain oak, cut to size on-site to align exactly with the setting-out of the tiles, with a central inlay of natural cork. The walls are finished in Detale CPH Kabric plaster, and the shower and kitchen are clad in stainless steel.

"Several pieces of furniture have been made from rough-sawn cedar blocks left over from the build, among them the dining table, coffee table, and bathroom island. The dining table inlays a small oak support into the cedar to carry a smoked-glass top. Hand-block-printed calico curtains, made by Harry and his mother-in-law, carry a custom print depicting the floor plan of the cabin itself. The cabin’s doors and windows were made by hand from Scottish Douglas fir, and, beyond a pair of Ferm Living chairs in the living room, almost everything in the cabin was made by Will and Harry themselves: the timber frame, cladding, flooring, joinery, soaking tub, furniture, textiles, and the rooftop garden alike.

"A concealed staircase leads from the bathroom to the cabin’s rooftop bathing terrace, set beneath the canopy of ancient oaks and wrapped in an oversize parapet that ensures complete privacy, offering a secluded forest-bathing experience in the open air. Conceived as a contemporary take on the Japanese karesansui garden, the terrace is landscaped with floating islands of ferns and native woodland planting set within a sea of dark gray pebbles, navigated by an elevated boardwalk that creates the sensation of drifting through the treetops. Handmade by Harry, a square larch bathtub sits at its focal point and is used as both a warm soak and a cold plunge, with a cedar stepping stone alongside. A freestanding shower stands between the bath and the sauna, whose exterior is thatched with branches foraged from the surrounding woodland."

Photo by Connor Duffy

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Magical Bathing Retreat Hides on Top of This Tiny Cabin in the U.K.

My Big Adventure to Paul Reubens’s "Big Auction"

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 14:56:15 -0800

Seeing some of the late comedian’s kitschy collections alongside other fans—some of whom bid thousands—felt like getting a deeper picture of the real man behind Pee-wee Herman.

A series of murmurs and gasps went up on a late October afternoon at an auction of some of the late Paul Reubens’s things. It wasn’t because of the heated back and forth between bidders on a Pee-wee’s Big Adventure replica bike, which Reubens rode at a 2011 awards show and ultimately fetched $19,200, making it the auction’s most expensive item. Instead it was because Reubens’s longtime assistant Allison Berry mumbled, "That was in Paul’s living room," when auctioneer Kody Frederick began to solicit bids on a relatively standard Atomic Era sofa to a crowd of 25 or so people at the Groundlings theater in Los Angeles. (Hundreds more were bidding on the auction online across the world.)

A midcentury Atomic-style sofa from Paul Reubens’s home sold for $7,680 in the Julien’s auction.

Photo courtesy Julien’s Auctions

It’s a fact that was noted in the listing for what Julien’s Auctions called a "vintage multicolored upholstered sofa," but it caused a buzz all the same. (The item’s presale estimate was between $400 and $600 but it ultimately ended up going for $7,680 including buyer’s premium.) The same can be said for other objects from Reubens’s home and garden, like a Brown-Saltman magazine coffee table sold for $4,480 or a cascading outdoor fountain that went for $6,400. One online buyer spent $3,520 on the four wrought-iron address numbers once screwed to a wall outside Reubens’s semifamous three-bedroom, midcentury home in Los Feliz while another paid $2,240 for two relatively small and crudely cast concrete animal sculptures that previously sat in Reubens’s yard.

For fans of Reubens, it seems nothing was too much to pay for the chance to own something beloved by the actor/comedian, who died in 2023 after a private, years-long cancer battle. Several audience members came in Pee-wee Herman costumes, paying tribute to Reubens’s most famous and long-running persona. Others drifted in hours after the auction started, clutching newly obtained bidder numbers but often choosing to mostly watch the sale roll on in person.

Other items from Reubens’s home that sold for thousands of dollars include a Brown-Saltman coffee table (left) and a decorative garden fountain (right).

Photos courtesy Julien’s Auctions

The 438-item auction spanned items from Reubens’s life and career. There were books autographed by his famous friends and costumes from his movies, bits of claymation from the "Penny" cartoons on Pee-wee’s Playhouse and a klatch of kitschy salt and pepper shakers. It seemed to represent the man as much as his work; part memorabilia sale, part personal estate auction. Much of what was featured in the auction wasn’t actually on-site, save for a few items significant to Reubens’s time at the Groundlings, where he first launched the Pee-wee character, and a signature Pee-wee Herman suit from the 2016 movie Pee-wee’s Big Holiday, but that didn’t stop fans from oohing and aahing over each item that hit the block. (In a tribute to the secret words from Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Frederick also asked in-person attendees to "scream real loud" every time they heard the word "sold," a charming gimmick that only lasted for the first 10 or so items.)

The original address numbers from Reubens’s home (left) and two painted concrete garden sculptures (right) also sold for prices far above their pre-auction estimates.

Photos courtesy Julien’s Auctions

See the full story on Dwell.com: My Big Adventure to Paul Reubens’s "Big Auction"

Budget Breakdown: With $691K, a Seattle Couple Turned Their Garage Into a Backyard House

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 09:56:23 -0800

The laneway ADU by Tokul Design balances custom and cost-effective finishes and indoor/outdoor space for a family that grew out of their Craftsman home.

Designing and building on a budget isn’t just a matter of choosing cost-effective materials and dialing in square footage. It’s also about relationships: working with people you trust—people you have mountain biked through the dirt with.

Seattle homeowners Steven and Libby Kady had previously remodeled their 1947 Craftsman, but after having a second child they were short on space. Steven, who frequently works from home, gave up his office (which doubled as a guest room for visiting family from their native Indiana) for the baby’s room.

This ADU by Tokul Design was constructed along a laneway in the Magnolia neighborhood, which meant the construction team had to be mindful of neighbors’ movement in and out.

Andrew Pogue

The Kadys didn’t want to move. They loved living in the Magnolia neighborhood, near Discovery Park along Puget Sound. But adding an additional floor would be expensive (requiring new structural support) and would mean vacating the premises for months, which they’d already done for the remodel.

Instead, Steven and Libby decided to replace their detached garage (which was in poor condition anyway) with a new two-story, 906-square-foot structure that included an upper-level dwelling with a guest quarters and home office. For the design, the couple turned to friends of over 12 years: architects Dawn McConaghy and her husband, Kozo Nozawa, of Seattle firm Tokul Design. The quartet and their kids had already gone on journeys together as part of a cyclocross team and family bike group.

When Steven and Libby Kady set out to build an ADU behind their Seattle home, they soon found out that they’d need to rebuild the sloping site’s retaining wall. The sitework added expense, but it allowed the construction of a level outdoor gathering area beside the yard.

Andrew Pogue

McConaghy and Nozawa had never designed a detached accessory dwelling unit (or DADU, as they’re known in Seattle) before. But in addition to Tokul’s portfolio of single-family homes (one of which was recently featured in the New York Times), both architects had previously worked at one of America’s top firms, Olson Kundig, collaborating directly with renowned partner Tom Kundig.

Custom oak cabinetry added $15,600 to the budget. The high-performance sintered stone countertops are by Neolith, and the backsplash is mosaic tile by Inax.

Andrew Pogue

See the full story on Dwell.com: Budget Breakdown: With $691K, a Seattle Couple Turned Their Garage Into a Backyard House
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Ikea Hacks Helped My Sister, Partner, and I Transform a Service Station Into a Cozy Shop

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 2 Nov 2026 08:56:17 -0800

After two years of DIY projects, Storyboard opened in June as a place where we can share our love of books, skateboards, and coffee with our community.

In 2023, I left New York City for Midway, Utah with my partner Galen DeKemper. We bought a beloved local ice cream shop and bakery whose owners were retiring. Our goal was to transform the space into a hybrid bookstore (my first novel The Responsible Party came out in August), skate shop (Galen taught me to skate at age 30 and now we hit the pump track or cruise with our dog Mars), and coffee shop (we’re addicted to the stuff). Over two years later, our goal has now been achieved, and it’s called Storyboard.

The space was originally an automotive service station, designed with a small greeting vestibule and two rooms with concrete floors and commercial overhead garage doors. It’s an old building and rehabbing it was a lot of work. We didn’t have a big crew of people helping us transform the space—most of the interior was created by myself, Galen, and steered by my sister, Julia Carusillo. Julia is a multi-hyphenate set designer, artist, doll house-maker, collector, and now, the creative mastermind of Storyboard, her first large-scale retail project.

Storyboard is located in Midway, Utah, a small town with a population of 6,000 located about an hour from Salt Lake City.

Photo by John Keating

The former owners of the Storyboard space laid the kitsch on a little thick.

Image courtesy of Claire Carusillo

We were faced with the project of stripping away the roadside Americana kitsch that we inherited along with the old building while still making the space feel totally analog and lived-in. The other design challenge is that our town of Midway, Utah, is somewhat bizarrely modeled after a Swiss Alps village. Most new commercial design on Main Street has to fit within certain Alpine-inspired parameters. Because our building is about 80 years old, we didn’t have to adhere to those guidelines, but we certainly wanted some nods to the surrounding architecture. We wanted the place to feel warm with wood (one wall of the book room is constructed entirely from ammo-box insulation, a holdover from the town’s early mining days), but we also wanted a lot of color. We live in a world where good design in retail unfortunately means sterile, Scandi, and blonde. To us, good design means colors and textures that bring us joy and subtle repeating patterns to tie each room together.

Julia and I haven’t lived in the same place for a long time, and working on this project together and apart felt like the culmination of decades of all our screenshotting, doodling, and memeing efforts. I’ve always gone to my older sister with vague ideas about how I want something to look and wait for her to design it for me on paper or via Adobe or AutoCAD. I’m always floored by how her brain works.

Claire Carusillo (center) asked her sister Julia Carusillo (left) to design the shop she opened with her partner, Galen DeKemper (right).

Photo by John Keating

See the full story on Dwell.com: Ikea Hacks Helped My Sister, Partner, and I Transform a Service Station Into a Cozy Shop
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Designers Are Proving Spec Houses Don’t Have to Be Boring

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:56:13 -0700

Homes built without a confirmed buyer have a reputation for being bland and unimaginative, but some developers have found approaches that allow for more creativity without alienating their clientele.

The first thing to know about spec houses—homes that were built without a confirmed buyer—is that the people creating the most interesting ones may not even realize they’re building them at all.

"Spec houses, ew," quipped one source I reached out to. But then they thought about it some more: "I guess that is what we’re doing." The hesitation is understandable: For many, the phrase "spec home" conjures up a particular image of bland, conformist design—something created to appeal to the largest number of leads in order to move inventory quickly. Call it 50 shades of greige, homebuilder edition.

A new crop of developers, architects, and general contractors is starting to think differently. Instead of trying to net as many potential buyers as possible by appealing to the mean, these professionals instead are taking an approach more akin to spearfishing: designing spec homes with high specificity. In some cases, that means embracing interiors or massing with more derring-do than your average build; in others, it’s cultivating a property that embodies a strong set of values. Either way, these efforts are laser-focused on creating something that will appeal to a particular type of prospect, whether it’s a first-time homebuyer or a sustainability advocate. To figure out the smartest approaches, we talked to a handful about how they approach building thoughtful spec homes that still make business sense.

El Bosque’s home collection includes structures by many notable architecture firms, including Gensler’s Ceibo House (left). The interior of the Jobo House (right) displays the development’s emphasis on a sense of place.

Photos courtesy Harmony Projects

Zoom in on lifestyle

"People designing spec homes like to say they’re designing something that will appeal to everyone," says John Johnson, a developer of the El Bosque residential community in Nosara, Costa Rica, but "what actually happens is they design a home that will offend no one." For El Bosque, Johnson—alongside his wife and codeveloper, Susan—has commissioned a neighborhood populated with houses designed to tread lightly on the earth, by firms including Olson Kundig, Chip Webster, Gensler, and Years Studio. Structures employ locally harvested timber, use deep overhangs for solar protection and rain mitigation, and "float" over the forest floor so as not to impede the wildlife below.

In planning the development, the Johnsons are applying a lesson they gleaned through operating the Harmony Hotel, a neighboring eco-resort. "Sense of place deepens your market," says John, who notes that the return guest rate at the hotel hovers around 50 percent. Their logic is that taking a similar tack will work in a residential community, too.

Pursuing this deep-not-wide strategy meant that the typical developer formula of maximizing buildable area went out the window, says Roberto Meza, managing partner of El Bosque. "We built less and kept more of the site intact, and that restraint is where the value comes from," he says. So far, it’s also proven to be a sound financial model: "Buyers have shown they are willing to pay for what we chose not to build," says Meza, adding that half of the properties have sold in the first 24 months. The development is walkable and oriented around community—amenities that are increasingly recognized by developers as selling points. Whether it’s a tree house in the rainforest or an adobe dwelling in the desert, spec-house developers are wise to appeal to a sense of place, and the priorities that come with it.

Embrace the potential of the odd lot

Brian Wickersham, founding partner of AUX Architecture in Los Angeles, similarly sees value in bucking the conventional spec-house rules. After designing for a number of developers, his firm started looking at the numbers and saw that a bolder design could be just as financially compelling as a "safe" alternative. "We started to talk to developers so we could say, ‘Hey, look, if we start to do it this way, the economics are actually going to support you,’" he says. Eventually, his firm put their money where their mouth was.

At the moment, AUX is breaking ground on their first three-house development in Northeast Los Angeles, at a site Wickersham discovered while walking his dog. Another developer had purchased the property with a residential build in mind—but the project didn’t pan out, Wickersham says, because the previous owner had planned to level the steep grade and put in large retaining walls. The property went back on the market, and AUX swooped in, with a plan for homes that will follow the site’s natural sloping topography—a trio of homes, running down the hill.

Hillside developments like these can be challenging: "You have to be creative out of the gate," Wickersham notes. "The market thinks that they’re complicated, [so] that’s an opportunity for us." Because of the complexities involved with developing the land, Wickersham was able to acquire the property for a figure that would make the build of a spec home profitable. The homes they’re making are expected to match the area’s average of around $800 per square foot, and the sizes will be between 1,200 and 1,400 square feet. Wickersham explains that they are targeting first-time homebuyers interested in the eclectic feel of the Highland Park neighborhood—and, one can assume, also appreciate a bit of architectural audacity.

Having now sat on both sides of the spec-house table, Wickersham empathizes with developers seeking safe returns through cookie-cutter design, but ultimately stands by his approach, and advocates for other architects to similarly put skin in the game. To achieve profitability as well as a compelling design, spec-house developers must be willing to embrace an out-of-the-box solution—and have faith in the power of this thinking.

Erica Keberle of Major Jacks has collaborated with Thaddeus Stephens of design/build firm Wishbone on multiple projects, including Heute Haus in Glen Spey, New York (left), and Bear Run in Narrowsburg, New York (right).

Photos by Gabriel Zimmer (left) and Clay Banks (right), courtesy Anatole House

Use unique details to help your property stick out

For those who subscribe to Wickersham’s thinking, there’s a freedom in designing these projects. "I think not having the client is what makes this more fun and gives it creative freedom," says Erica Keberle, the interior stylist behind Major Jacks and a realtor based in the Catskills region of New York. Across three projects, she has partnered with Thaddeus Stephens of Wishbone, a design/build firm, on developing spec homes that are chock-full of personality—think tabasco-red cabinets, hearths made from handmade local tile, and a sunken living room. Since Keberle and Stephens are both the decision-makers and the executors, projects move quickly, and ideas resist the "watering-down" that can result from micronegotiations with clients over the course of a project. "It’s hard to tell a client, ‘Hey, I found two hundred square feet of old tile in a barn somewhere. It’s all dirty, but they’re going to clean up great!’" says Stephens. "But we can see it."

When it comes time to sell, Keberle represents the properties as the real-estate agent through Anatole House, a design-forward brokerage focused on the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions. The first spec-home collaboration between Keberle and Stephens—who together bill themselves as Beyond the Black Box—listed for $895,000 and sold for $865,000. "That property started a new comp for that not only that specific area, but then that became a new comp for the next projects for other people in the area," says Keberle. Their current project, Timber Lake in Eldred, New York, is on the market for $1,050,000, and boasts tactile details like tile by local maker Jessie Lazar and bullnose-rounded corners.

The latest collaboration between Major Jacks and Wishbone, Timber Lake, is currently on the market for $1,050,000.

Photo by Zach Hyman, courtesy Anatole House

See the full story on Dwell.com: Designers Are Proving Spec Houses Don’t Have to Be Boring

How to Build a Spec House That Feels Personal—And Financially Sound

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 13:56:28 -0700

Homes built without a confirmed buyer have a reputation for being bland and unimaginative, but some developers have found approaches that allow for more creativity without alienating their clientele.

Photos courtesy Harmony Projects

Zoom in on lifestyle

Embrace the potential of the odd lot

Erica Keberle of Major Jacks has collaborated with Thaddeus Stevens of design/build firm Wishbone on multiple projects, including Heute Haus in Glen Spey, New York (left), and Bear Run in Narrowsburg, New York (right).

Photos by Gabriel Zimmer (left) and Clay Banks (right), courtesy Anatole House

Use unique details to help your property stick out

For those who subscribe to Wickersham’s thinking, there’s a freedom in designing these projects. "I think not having the client is what makes this more fun and gives it creative freedom," says Erica Keberle, the interior stylist behind Major Jacks and a realtor based in the Catskills region of New York. Across three projects, she has partnered with Thaddeus Stevens of Wishbone, a design/build firm, on developing spec homes that are chock-full of personality—think tabasco-red cabinets, hearths made from handmade local tile, and a sunken living room. Since Keberle and Stevens are both the decision-makers and the executors, projects move quickly, and ideas resist the "watering-down" that can result from micronegotiations with clients over the course of a project. "It’s hard to tell a client, ‘Hey, I found two hundred square feet of old tile in a barn somewhere. It’s all dirty, but they’re going to clean up great!’" says Stevens. "But we can see it."

When it comes time to sell, Keberle represents the properties as the real-estate agent through Anatole House, a design-forward brokerage focused on the Hudson Valley and Catskills regions. The first spec-home collaboration between Keberle and Stevens—who together bill themselves as Beyond the Black Box—listed for $895,000 and sold for $865,000. "That property started a new comp for that not only that specific area, but then that became a new comp for the next projects for other people in the area," says Keberle. Their current project, Timber Lake in Eldred, New York, is on the market for $1,050,000, and boasts tactile details like tile by local maker Jessie Lazar and bullnose-rounded corners.

The latest collaboration between Major Jacks and Wishbone, Timber Lake, is currently on the market for $1,050,000.

Photo by Zach Hyman, courtesy Anatole House

See the full story on Dwell.com: Designers Are Proving Spec Houses Don’t Have to Be Boring

On a Former Cherry Farm, a Whimsical New Jersey Victorian Seeks $900K

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 12:56:40 -0700

The 1898 Maplewood home has a sky-blue exterior, stained glass windows, a wraparound porch, and a turret.

Location: 39 Oberlin St, Maplewood, New Jersey

Price: $899,000

Year Built: 1898

Footprint: 5 beds, 3 baths

From the Listing: "A truly special Victorian in the heart of Maplewood’s beloved College Hill neighborhood, this move-in ready home offers five bedrooms, three bathrooms, and more than 125 years of history, warmth, and genuine character. Built in 1898, this remarkable home is filled with sweet details rarely found today. A wonderful wraparound front porch welcomes you into gracious interiors with beautiful original woodwork, leaded-glass windows, pocket doors, and timeless architectural craftsmanship throughout. Generous first-floor living and entertaining spaces flow into an updated kitchen with a modernized half-bath. A spacious second floor features four bedrooms, one with an adjoining enclosed ‘sleeping porch,’ and a large full hall bath. The third floor has a lovely bedroom escape, additional bonus/office space, and another full bath, creating the potential for a large primary suite or work-from-home oasis. This very well maintained and updated home has plenty of additional storage areas on the third floor and basement as well as a lush and private backyard space. It’s ideally located with convenient access to Maplewood Village, restaurants, shops, parks and NYC transportation."

The Victorian home is built on the grounds of a former cherry farm.

Photo by Lisa Kollberg

See the full story on Dwell.com: On a Former Cherry Farm, a Whimsical New Jersey Victorian Seeks $900K
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On a Former Cherry Farm, a Whimsical New Jersey Victorian Seeks $900K

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 29 Oct 2026 10:56:33 -0700

The 1898 Maplewood home has a sky-blue exterior, stained glass windows, a wraparound porch, and a turret.

Location: 39 Oberlin St, Maplewood, New Jersey

Price: $899,000

Year Built: 1898

Footprint: 5 beds, 3 baths

The Victorian home is built on the grounds of a former cherry farm.

Photo by Lisa Kollberg

See the full story on Dwell.com: On a Former Cherry Farm, a Whimsical New Jersey Victorian Seeks $900K
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Before & After: Swedish Barns Inspired a Film Editor’s Dramatic Brooklyn Brownstone Revamp

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 12:56:26 -0700

After a Scandinavian-style update by architect Sarah Jacoby, the 1890 Bed-Stuy home pairs several shades of red with restored architectural details.

A film editor by trade, Julia Bloch went to school in Denmark, lived in Copenhagen for a few years after that, and traveled extensively before moving to New York City. After 15 years of renting in the city, she was ready for a larger, permanent home—one that could evolve with her needs, and that reflected her experience abroad and innate creativity. She also dreamed of a welcoming space where friends and family could stay, relish long dinners, and linger.

When she first toured this brownstone in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood, the paint was chipping and peeling off the woodwork, the bathrooms were dark and decrepit, and the floors were worn from decades of use. But she loved the generous proportions, the original doors, and the crystal doorknobs—so she put in an offer. After losing out to a higher bidder, she was surprised to get a call: Their offer fell through, and—just three weeks after the disappointment of losing out—the house became hers.

Elated and eager to get started, Julia enlisted Brooklyn-based architect Sarah Jacoby to bring her vision to life. Known for balancing historic preservation with a willingness to take risks, Jacoby helped honor the brownstone’s past while updating the space for Julia’s lifestyle—and her penchant for bold hues.

Before: Entry

Before: When film editor Julia Bloch purchased this Brooklyn brownstone, brown trim carried through the entryway and up the stairs to the top level.

Photo courtesy of Sarah Jacoby Architect

After: Entry

Architect Sarah Jacoby removed the ceiling tiles, brightened up the space with paint, and refinished the flooring.

Photo: Ty Cole

Color makes its first impression at the entry, where the interior doors and trim are coated in Deep Rose by Benjamin Moore, a rich red in a shiny semigloss finish. The saturated shade energizes the space and draws the eye into the home and up the staircase.

The color pays homage to Julia’s travels: "I’ve always loved the color of barns, which I saw a lot in Sweden when I lived in Scandinavia. I’d go into the Swedish countryside, and there is a specific color, a deep, earthy red that is a national color that they use to paint barns in Sweden– It’s the perfect red," she explains. "There is something very satisfying about it, so I was trying to match that."

The home has a bold red entry, muted pinks on the upper level, and rusty tones elsewhere. "It’s a combination I haven’t seen before, and it really works," Jacoby says.

Photo: Ty Cole

See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: Swedish Barns Inspired a Film Editor’s Dramatic Brooklyn Brownstone Revamp
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This $2.1M Utah Home Has Been Ahead of the Curve Since 1938

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 28 Oct 2026 09:56:42 -0700

With nautical-inspired details, flowing lines, and a history of subtle renovations, the rare Streamline Moderne residence has held on to its looks for nearly a century.

Location: 1865 Herbert Avenue South, Salt Lake City, Utah

Price: $2,100,000

Year Built: 1938

Original Builder: Rich Jensen

Addition Date: 1998

Addition Architect: Jerrold Green

Renovation Date: 2017

Renovation Designer: Enzy Design, Nicole Zeigler, SLC

Footprint: 3,363 square feet (4 beds, 2.5 baths)

Lot Size: 0.189 acres

From the Agent: "Built in 1938, the Henderson House is a rare surviving example of Streamline Moderne architecture in Salt Lake City’s Yalecrest neighborhood. A response to the machine age, the style is characterized by horizontal lines, streamlined forms, aerodynamic curves, rounded corners, industrial components like metal accents, and nautical elements like railings and porthole windows—all reflected in the home’s design.

In 1998, architect and then-owner Jerrold Green expanded the house with an addition that remained faithful to its original style. The current owners purchased the property in 2017 and undertook an eight-month renovation, updating its systems and interiors while preserving its historic character. Today, the 3,363-square-foot home has four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, a primary suite with a private deck, and multiple outdoor living spaces.

Listed as the Henderson House with the Utah State Historical Preservation Society, it is widely recognized for its architectural significance. The Henderson House has been periodically studied by University of Utah architecture students and featured in tours by the Utah Heritage Foundation."

Built in 1938, the Kenneth Henderson House is a rare Streamline Moderne residence in Salt Lake City’s Yalecrest neighborhood.

Photo by Jared Medley, Medley Creative

The home's rounded corners, metal railings, and porthole windows reflect the nautical influences of Streamline Moderne design. Architect Jerrold Green added the stainless-steel front door during a 1998 expansion.

Photo by Jared Medley, Medley Creative

The home’s rounded corners, metal railings, and porthole windows reflect the style’s nautical influences.

Photo by Jared Medley, Medley Creative

See the full story on Dwell.com: This $2.1M Utah Home Has Been Ahead of the Curve Since 1938
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Asking £3.5M, This Legendary Arts and Crafts Estate Started as a Simple Cottage

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Tue, 27 Oct 2026 10:56:15 -0700

Designed by famed architect Alfred Powell, Long Copse grew from a four-room summer home into a sprawling retreat with stables, a guest house, and a barn with a theatrical past.

Location: Pitch Hill, Ewhurst, Cranleigh, Surrey, England

Price: £3,500,000 (approximately $4,669,000 USD)

Year Built: 1899

Architect: Alfred Powell

Footprint: 3,301 square feet (6 beds, 3 baths)

Lot Size: 8.63 acres

From the Agent: "Launching for £3.5 million, Long Copse in Ewhurst, Surrey, is one of the finest and rarest surviving houses associated with the Arts and Crafts movement, designed by architect, designer, and ceramicist Alfred Powell. Available for only the third time since it was built in 1899, the Grade II–listed home remains an extraordinarily intact example of one of Britain’s most influential design movements.

Originally commissioned as a four-room summer cottage for Mrs. Mudie-Cooke, Long Copse was conceived by Powell as an elegant country retreat, deliberately disguised as a modest Surrey cottage. As his client fell in love with the house, it was gradually extended into a larger family home, with each addition designed to appear as though it had evolved organically over centuries.

Powell was a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement, which emerged in response to the industrial revolution and championed traditional craftsmanship and natural materials over mass production. Although perhaps best known for his work with Wedgwood, where he helped revive hand-painted ceramics, Powell’s architectural projects are exceptionally rare, making Long Copse one of the most important surviving examples of his work.

The house also features the work of Ernest Gimson, another influential Arts and Crafts architect and furniture maker. Described by architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as "the greatest of the English architect-designers," Gimson designed much of the home’s existing oak joinery, original doors, fireplaces, fitted furniture, flooring, and timber detailing.

The craftsmanship extends throughout the house, from its Bargate stone exterior and leaded windows to exposed roof trusses, handcrafted oak staircases, original fireplaces, and bespoke cabinetry. Decorative sgraffito by Italian artist Cavaliere Formilli appears in the garden room, while a detached thatched guest cottage and timber-framed barn complete the property.

Long Copse has attracted architects and historians from around the world and was featured in Lawrence Weaver’s seminal Small Country Houses of Today. Set high on the slopes of Pitch Hill within the Surrey Hills National Landscape, the property enjoys breathtaking views across the Sussex Weald alongside beautifully established gardens, woodland, paddocks, and direct access to miles of surrounding countryside.

Lindsay Cuthill, co-founder of Blue Book Agency, comments: ‘The Arts and Crafts Movement was founded on the belief that good design enriches everyday life. More than 125 years later, Long Copse still embodies that philosophy. It isn't simply an important historic house; it’s a wonderfully comfortable family home where every beam, fireplace and handcrafted detail continues to serve exactly the purpose it was designed for.’"

Designed by leading Arts and Crafts architect Alfred Powell in 1899 for Mrs. Mudie-Cooke, Long Copse began as a four-room summer retreat that resembled a modest Surrey cottage. As its owner’s ambitions grew, so did the house, gradually evolving into the larger country estate it is today.

Photo by Freddie Ardley

The Arts and Crafts movement emerged in Britain in the late 19th century as a response to the Industrial Revolution and the perceived decline in craftsmanship and quality brought on by mass production. Championing traditional techniques, natural materials, and thoughtful design, the movement sought to improve everyday life for both makers and consumers. Alfred Powell and Ernest Gimson were among its leading figures, and their work at Long Copse reflects those ideals.

Photo by Freddie Ardley

See the full story on Dwell.com: Asking £3.5M, This Legendary Arts and Crafts Estate Started as a Simple Cottage
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Georgia O’Keeffe Lived Next Door to This $14M Santa Fe home

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Mon, 26 Oct 2026 10:56:31 -0700

With room for horses and a serious car collection, Los Piñones once belonged to the famed artist’s neighbor and confidant, Juan Hamilton.

Location: 4010 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Price: $13,750,000

Year Built: 1920

Footprint: 9,326 square feet (8 beds, 8 full baths, 2 half baths)

Lot Size: 7.69 acres

From the Agent: "A rare legacy property of remarkable provenance, this 7.7-acre estate in Santa Fe’s historic Eastside neighbors Georgia O’Keeffe’s storied Sol y Sombra property and was once owned by artist Juan Hamilton, O’Keeffe’s closest companion and confidant.

Hamilton’s former art studio has been reimagined as one of the property’s two casitas, preserving the creative spirit and cultural history that define this place. The compound is anchored by a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath main residence and includes six heated buildings, four additional support structures, a private home office, a pool and pool house, and a tennis court. Set against sweeping views of the Jemez Mountains and Sun and Moon Mountains, the property also has an archaeological easement tied to the historic Old Santa Fe Trail.

The property also includes three wells, adding rare utility and long-term value to the estate. With four kitchens, including an outdoor kitchen, the property is designed for effortless gathering across multiple indoor and outdoor living spaces. Ten enclosed garage spaces provide exceptional capacity, ideal for collectors, car enthusiasts, or those seeking significant storage and functionality within a private estate setting."

The 7.7-acre property sits in Santa Fe’s historic Eastside, next to Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sol y Sombra estate, which Dwell featured in 2024.

Photo by Jenna Peffley

The home was once owned by artist Juan Hamilton, O’Keeffe’s longtime companion.

Photo by Jenna Peffley

See the full story on Dwell.com: Georgia O’Keeffe Lived Next Door to This $14M Santa Fe Home
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Jeweler Karl Stittgen’s $1.2M Island Home Is an Ode to Frank Lloyd Wright

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 09:56:34 -0700

Decades after joining the fellowship at Taliesin West, the late designer and ceramicist built Halcyon Days with his wife, Nora, in British Columbia.

Location: 3326 Port Washington Road, Pender Island, British Columbia, Canada

Price: $1,689,000 CAD (approximately $1,184,598 USD)

Year Built: 1994

Designer: Karl Stittgen

Footprint: Main house: 2,800 square feet (2 beds, 2 baths); Guest house: 650 square feet (1 bed, 1 bath)

Lot Size: 6 acres

From the Agent: "Presenting Halcyon Days — an enduring work of art born from fortitude and love. The late British Columbia–based artist Karl Stittgen designed and built this North Pender Island residence with his beloved wife, Nora, as a tribute to Frank Lloyd Wright.

Set high on a private six-acre property overlooking the ocean, the estate includes a 2,800-square-foot main residence, a tea house, a separate 650-square-foot guest cottage, an elevator, and two kilns. True to Wright’s principles, the house emphasizes horizontal lines, natural materials, an open floor plan, carefully placed windows, and an integration of architecture, furnishings, and landscape. Custom built-in furniture appears throughout the home.

The single-level main house is reached via natural rock steps from the driveway, with an elevator providing additional access. Inside, large windows—including a distinctive triangular one that projects outwards—open the living spaces into the view of the forest below and the ocean beyond. Extensive custom woodwork is paired with aggregate stone flooring, gray counters and tile, and a restrained palette of brown, gray, and white.

At the heart of the living area is the library, where custom shelves, a built-in study, and seating are lit by a geometric skylight. A central stone fireplace separates the sanctuary from the living area. Above it, the white wall is engraved with the Latin phrase Voluisse mihi, satis est: ‘To have wanted, for me, is enough.’

Born in Bad Dürkheim, Germany, in 1930, Stittgen arrived in Vancouver in 1952 and established himself as a watchmaker and jeweler in West Vancouver. He became a key player in Vancouver’s active midcentury art and design scene as his bold, architecturally inspired jewelry gained international recognition. In 1962, he stepped away from jewelry design for a time to join the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at Taliesen West. He later opened stores in Calgary, San Francisco, and New York, and in 2009 received a British Columbia Creative Achievement Award of Distinction for his ‘profound and lasting impact on applied art and design in British Columbia.’

After retiring from the jewelry business in 1995, Karl and Nora turned their attention toward what would become their ultimate collaborative work: their own home. Karl meticulously developed Halcyon Days around Wright’s ideas about architecture and daily life while continuing his own creative practice in ceramics.

Following Nora’s death, Karl spent his remaining years in the property’s compact one-bedroom guest cottage, using it as both his residence and studio. Although small, it makes effective use of space and contains a more recently upgraded kitchen, a bathroom, and a living area with a woodburning fireplace. Near-finished pieces, unfinished ceramics, and raw materials from Karl’s practice remain untouched in the guest house today.

An extraordinary sanctuary for an artist or collector, Karl and Nora’s legacy awaits its next steward."

After an internationally recognized career in jewelry, Karl Stittgen turned increasingly to ceramics, receiving a British Columbia Creative Achievement Award of Distinction in 2009. He and his wife, Nora, built Halcyon Days on six wooded acres on North Pender Island, decades after Stittgen joined the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at Taliesin West in 1962.

Photo by Nicole Eastman, Sotheby's International Realty

Stittgen conceived the home as an homage to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian principles. It features an open plan, natural materials, strong horizontal forms, and a close relationship to its site.

Photo by Nicole Eastman, Sotheby's International Realty

See the full story on Dwell.com: Jeweler Karl Stittgen’s $1.2M Island Home Is an Ode to Frank Lloyd Wright
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What’s More Impressive—This Belgian Home’s Slatting, Floating Stair, or Construction Style?

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 15:56:07 -0700

The panelized CLT build also means the first level doesn’t have any interior walls.

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Duinenkranslaan, Belgium

Architect: Vantieghem Talebi / @vantieghem_talebi

Footprint: 2,852 square feet

Structural Engineer: Util Structural Engineering

From the Architect: "Here skin, structure, and space are formed simultaneously. Built from structural and zoning constraints, a new construction is placed on top of existing foundations and is limited to the maximum allowable height. As such, the design grew out of the original coastal dune house foundation—an asymmetrical cruciform geometry where each structural bay of the cruciform created a ‘house of cards.’

"Each triangular bay was unique in geometry and prefabricated from CLT panels. Over the course of three days, the CLT panels were brought on-site, delivered onto the sand itself, hoisted up as four chapels, and bridged together via an off-center geometry. The result is a primary level free of structure, with each chapel as an expressed room.

"The project envelope considers the larger impression of the house as an abstract volume and is built as a timber rain screen of chemically seasoned Douglas fir battens. The roof, considered a facade element due to the steep pitch, uses the same timber batten construction technique as vertical surfaces. Assemblies and details carry forth the abstraction holistically: timber battens were prefabricated to avoid visible screws or nails and streamline construction on-site, while gutters and drainage elements are concealed behind the rain screen with minimal impact on the exterior surface.

"The project’s fusing of structure and volume is expressed explicitly; the CLT serves directly as interior finish. In the primary level living area, four CLT floor panels express the structural bays in the ceiling. On the upper level, the CLT panels remain exposed in the pitched chapels of bedrooms and the central hall, demonstrating the full extent of the triangular structural bays. Interior elements continue to highlight the opportunity that the column-free prefabricated CLT structure allows; a central staircase floats in the space, suspended within a wood floor grid spanning between the CLT bays. Within the house is a Type D central ventilation system with heat recovery and rainwater collection and re-use.

"The geometry of the house is reminiscent of historical beach house architecture in the area characterized by steep roof angles. The dune landscape was restored, with concrete retaining walls carving obliquely for pedestrian and car access to the house’s subterranean level. This site context, and the restrictions of the existing foundation, steered both the structural and architectural logic of the project."

Photo courtesy of Vantieghem Talebi

See the full story on Dwell.com: What’s More Impressive—This Belgian Home’s Slatting, Floating Stair, or Construction Style?
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The Nobel Prize–Winning Physicist Who Named the Quark Lived in This $4.6M Pasadena Home

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 11:56:51 -0700

The midcentury home of Murray Gell-Mann features a copper-clad fireplace, colored-glass panels, and big exposed beams—and it’s one of architect William E. Blurock’s few residential designs.

Location: 1024 Armada Drive, Pasadena, California

Price: $4,599,000

Footprint: 5,307 square feet (5 beds, 5 baths)

Lot Size: 0.32 acres

Year Built: 1956

Architect: William E. Blurock

From the Listing: "Believed to be one of only a few private homes ever designed by William E. Blurock, this striking residence is quietly tucked behind mature landscaping within Pasadena’s storied, National Register–listed Prospect Historic District. The five-bedroom, five-bathroom home is anchored by an aspirational reverse floor plan that lifts the main gathering spaces to the upper level, which has soaring living-room ceilings, a copper-clad fireplace, and a bespoke midcentury light fixture stretching the entire length of the living room that washes the interiors in a welcoming, warm light. A dramatic open-plan stairway becomes a sculptural centerpiece for the home, animated by inset colored-glass panels and highlighted by cork flooring and an architectural railing wrapped in wood. Below, the floor plan opens around a zen-style garden and an expansive pool, with a private pool house/guest studio completing a resort-like retreat built for modern California living. Flagstone, stucco, and a subdued facade let the house blend in effortlessly among the district’s Craftsman and period-revival landmarks. The home carries a remarkable provenance as the longtime residence of Nobel Prize–winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann, who lived here during his most creative years at Caltech. The scientist who named the "quark" and reorganized our understanding of the building blocks of matter found his home in a house designed, quite literally, to lift its inhabitants toward the light and the view."

The home is located on the edge of the Arroyo Seco, a piece of protected parkland in Pasadena, California.

Photo by Michael McNamara

William E. Blurock’s architecture firm worked on a number of landmark civic and educational buildings around the word.

Photo by Michael McNamara

See the full story on Dwell.com: The Nobel Prize–Winning Physicist Who Named the Quark Lived in This $4.6M Pasadena Home
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What in the Name of Preservation Is Happening With Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges House?

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 08:56:32 -0700

Neighbors are convinced the famous Los Angeles home is falling apart. The owners don’t seem to know what they’re talking about.

Roughly a dozen years ago, if you walked up the steep incline of North Skyewiay Road in the upscale Brentwood Heights neighborhood of West Los Angeles, you might have seen Jack Larson’s dog sprawled on the deck of the actor’s brick-and-wood home soaring over a steep embankment. The richly-colored redwood structure leaned over a hilly yard ringed in ivy, and Dewey, a white shepherd, loved to lounge in the sunshine on what resembled the prow of a ship.

While the home, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Sturges House, was always considered a source of neighborhood pride, today, its condition and future are being called into question. Many neighbors have worried in recent years that it’s entered a state of disrepair, and some have even said they’ve seen coyotes on the grounds, though those claims have not been independently verified.

The Los Angeles Conservancy placed the home on its 2026 watchlist for endangered buildings and starting in late August, a series of stories about the state of the home, especially an Artnet piece, explained how the home, an official Historical-Cultural Monument (HCM), was at risk of what’s called "demolition by neglect." The Artnet piece and a number of additional stories raised the tenor of concern about the architectural marvel, one of eight in Wright’s exceptional Greater L.A. body of work, including the Hollyhock House, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But the current owners of the home vehemently deny that the home is in some state of decay or poor maintenance. The property was purchased during an auction in 2016 by the All Right Now Foundation, a nonprofit set up by a group interested in preserving the home that includes Robert Brisco, CEO of online publisher Internet Brands. Foundation lawyer Wendy Giberti says the claims made by neighbors are all categorically untrue and defamatory. Why would a foundation spend millions of dollars to buy and maintain a property if they didn’t want to take care of it? "I can tell you there has been a considerable investment in the property," says Giberti. "The idea that we are being neglectful is a little bit insulting."

When I walked on the sidewalks on the perimeter of the property on September 29, it was ringed with a number of signs declaring the site private and the cantilevered, wooden portion of the residence showed its age. The wood looked weathered, and in a handful of spots, small gaps were visible between the planks.

Neighbors of the Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges House in Los Angeles say that the home is falling into disrepair. Photos from this year show a piece of the decking coming apart.

Photo by Daniela Velazco/L.A. Conservancy (left); photo courtesy Patrick Sisson (right)

When asked about the foundation’s investments, Giberti pointed to regular gardening and repair, an on-site caretaker, and "large expenditures, including planning for what is to come next and making sure the building stays safe until such time as a larger project is going to be undertaken." A statement from the foundation on September 2 also mentions "regular maintenance, upkeep, and inspections by licensed experts, including structural engineers, waterproofers, electricians, and plumbers."

This situation—preservationists and neighbors raising concerns that private owners of a historic property aren’t living up to their public duty, and the owners pointing out that they’re following the law and it’s nobody else’s business—isn’t unique. Preservationists have criticized Los Angeles’s preservation laws for lacking teeth and clear enforcement powers. As Barbara Gordon, executive director of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, sees it, preservationists feel their hands are tied if ownership doesn’t meet the public’s expectations for conservation. "How do you enforce preservation rules moving forward if all the owners are getting small fines?" says Gordon. "How do you enforce it at a larger scale? Because I think it's not just this building. This is one of many."

Other such examples of landmark homes suffering from what preservationists have deemed insufficiently dedicated owners include the Walser House in Chicago, another Wright design, which entered a period of disrepair after the owner passed away, and the Wattles Mansion in Los Angeles, a Hollywood mansion that was at one point falling apart due to disrepair and poor city ownership. "It’s more common than not in L.A. because the consequences are just not stringent, unfortunately," says Jaime Rummerfield, an interior designer and cofounder of the preservation nonprofit Save Iconic Architecture. "People get a slap on the wrist."

All Right Now Foundation purchased the Sturges House in 2016 for approximately $1.85 million. The foundation, based in nearby El Segundo, California, won an auction held after Larson’s death in 2015; Larson and director James Bridges bought the house in 1967 from the original owners, Lockheed engineer George Sturges and his wife, Selma, who had commissioned Wright to design a home for them in 1938. Designed by Wright with construction supervised by architect John Lautner, the Sturges House was built around the same time as Fallingwater, and is recognized as a striking example of cantilevered architecture and Wright’s Usonian residential style.

The home sits in the Brentwood Heights neighborhood and was built in 1939.

The foundation, according to Giberti, remains committed to maintaining the home, who adds that it will always, primarily, be a residence. "It’s not going to be a museum or open to the public or any of those other things," she says. The website maintained by the foundation has a Tours section, but it remains blank except for a single photo (it also recently posted a number of interior photos marked fall 2026). Architect Joshua Moratto, who was listed as a member of the foundation’s board in its 2024 tax return, declined to comment on the story. (On his Instagram, there are a pair of posts from last year partially captioned with "an addition to an Usonian").

The foundation has yet to announce its plans, despite more than a decade of ownership, and in the same September 2 statement the foundation sent to media, noted that the board, which "consists of private citizens who prefer to focus their resources quietly on the work of preservation rather than engaging in public debate," were still coming up with a long-term plan for the property. The statement went on to say the issues with the wooden exterior were "cosmetic," and that the "functional condition has improved from when it was acquired."

So far, according to Gordon, the foundation hasn’t reached out to the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy. That’s odd, says Gordon; the community tends to be tight-knit, and the nonprofit can offer extensive resources around the restoration and maintenance challenges of Wright’s work.

Giberti argues that it’s simply nobody else’s business but ownership. "It has been our experience that when they are left in the dark or feel they’re not getting information that they think they’re entitled to, they resort to other means," she says, in reference to what she calls disgruntled neighbors who have complained about the foundation’s work. "I can’t control their desire to be involved, or their desire to control, especially the timeline. But they have made it clear they intend to continue attempting to insert themselves into the process, and I will continue to insist they shall not be inserted into the process."

According to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety (LADBS), the home was issued what’s called an "order to comply" on August 24, which directed the owners of the building to repair and maintain the existing wood balcony and the existing historical building. A LADBS spokesperson said "the related portions of the building have been deemed unsafe." The property is still listed as "under investigation" on the department’s website and the spokesperson reiterated on October 5 that the issue hasn’t been resolved.

Giberti says the foundation paid the requisite $300 fine, that the basis for that complaint was a "drive-by by an inspector," and that they obtained a structural engineering report saying it wasn’t unsafe, and was "probably more safe than what current code is for new homes." She said the deck is structurally sound, the report that says so was provided to a city inspector, and assumes the issue is resolved. (Numerous attempts to contact the city inspector listed on the LADBS site have been unsuccessful).

Some neighbors have repeatedly complained about the state of the house, arguing that what they call disrepair and desertion is a safety issue. Nearby resident Lisa Chadwick, who reached out to Gordon, sent images to local media, and has brought up the building’s conditions to the city and L.A. councilmember Traci Park, believes that more pressure is the only thing that will get the owner to do something. "I think the more attention it gets, the more pressure he’s going to have, either to sell it or to do something," Chadwick says.

The residence, pictured here in 1962, is an example of Wright’s Usonian style homes.

See the full story on Dwell.com: What in the Name of Preservation Is Happening With Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sturges House?
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Former NFL Coach Mike Tomlin Is a Total Lighting Snob

noreply@blogger.com (GRAPHĒ) — Wed, 21 Oct 2026 11:56:30 -0700

The first episode of his "Minecraft" YouTube series, which has gone viral, reveals some surprisingly considered interior design decisions.

The private lives of professional football players have long been their own spectator sport. Their faces populate advertisements, their relationships make headlines, and their extracurricular pursuits attract nearly as much attention as their performances on the field. But what about their coaches? Unless you’re former Patriots honcho Bill Belichick, it’s rare you get a spotlight off the field.

But in September, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin became another unlikely exception. He released the first episode of his own YouTube series, giving the world wide web a tour of an elaborate city he’s spent the last 12 years building—in Minecraft. Naturally, the internet exploded. The popular video game, which launched in 2009 and lets players build open-ended worlds, commented under a video on its own YouTube channel, "i'm honored to be here coach [two-hands-raised emoji]". Barstool Sports joked on X, "Imagine drinking beers with the fellas in the Mike Tomlin Minecraft speakeasy." Former Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell was less impressed, posting, "we were tryna win super bowls and coach T was on minecraft building cities [loudly-crying-face emoji]."

Former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has spent hours building cities in Minecraft. This one started around a body of water.

Screenshot: Mike Tomlin/YouTube

Tomlin spent 19 seasons at the helm of the Steelers, winning a Super Bowl and never recording a losing season, before stepping down in January of this year. For much of his professional life, he was an authority in one of the most scrutinized jobs in professional sports. But in Minecraft, which he started playing as a proverbial rookie more than a decade ago, he’s been able to quietly hone is craft, mining iron ore, evading exploding monsters (a.k.a creepers), and, yes, designing buildings.

When his kids were in middle school they were obsessed with the game. First released in 2009, players Tomlin says he began by watching them play, fascinated by what could hold their attention for such long stretches of time. He eventually picked up a PlayStation controller and started a city of his own. At some point, his kids lost interest. He did not. "I started small and, of course, over the course of 12 years, you develop neighborhoods and communities," he says in the video.

Tomlin designed an apartment building that features an aquarium on every level.

Screenshot: Mike Tomlin/YouTube

In the nearly 20-minute first installment, ROOFTOPS, PENTHOUSES, AND URBAN LIVING [sic], Tomlin starts with the first building he ever built: a "boutique hotel" on a bay. Just off the lobby is the "executive spa"; across the way, a multipurpose space doubles as both a conference room and ballroom. And then there’s the basement: a stone-walled speakeasy whose pièce de résistance is a window looking into the swimming pool.

For all the fantasy Minecraft affords, Tomlin is equally attentive to the less glamorous side of running a hotel. The speakeasy has a kitchen and employee work area; elsewhere, men’s and women’s restrooms are complete with sinks and stalls, even if the game requires none of it. Unlike The Sims, Minecraft isn’t built around the logistics of human habitation. In Survival Mode—where players must source food and fend off zombies—nobody needs a toilet. And he doesn’t belabor the point: his bathrooms are relatively spare, not an excuse for some aesthetics-driven folly. "I was always really conscious of appropriate amenities," he says.

But Tomlin’s concern for realism goes beyond imposing real-world requirements on imaginary buildings. Some design problems, like lighting, are actually real within the game. "I was really lighting conscious," he says, explaining that when he started the city, illuminating interiors was a challenge. He added the glass ceiling in the hotel’s conference room mainly to let in light and "less for the architectural component of it." Down in the windowless speakeasy, he used Glowstone—Minecraft’s conspicuous, light-emitting block—not because he likes the look (he doesn’t), but because lighting, to him, is just that important.

Tomlin’s vision doesn’t begin and end with a collection of show-stopping structures with empty interiors, as many often do. From the get-go, he had a larger plan: a densely populated urban center, with high-rises clustered around bodies of water. (It’s unclear in the video if his city includes a football stadium, though there is an "MLS soccer stadium" and a baseball field.) Sometimes that required reshaping Minecraft’s randomly generated terrain. "I’d have to blow up mountains and hills and so forth and redevelop land around it," he says. "I would work areas around bodies of water and then over time the areas grew together." It’s actually a natural approach to urban planning; waterways, after all, have been shaping cities since ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt.

Tomlin walks us through his design decisions for one of the aquarium apartments.

Screenshot: Mike Tomlin/YouTube

See the full story on Dwell.com: Former NFL Coach Mike Tomlin Is a Total Lighting Snob
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