I’m so glad I started following Dwell Studio on Twitter. Otherwise, I might have missed the blog post about Dwell Studio partner Jenna Chused’s feature in Martha Stewart Living! Her apartment is impeccable without being intimidating; for example, I love the way she used this school chart as art:

And I have some serious kitchen envy over this one. Wow, the power of a rug! This kitchen is strong like bull (as my father would say):

Check out the rest of the slideshow over at Martha’s place – I promise it will be worth your while! Also, you can get your own Dwell Studio style by browsing over here.

Photographs via marthastewartliving.com. Photographer name was not listed; if you know it, please comment so that I can add it to this post.

This just in from the fabulous Vanessa de Vargas of TurquoiseLA. If you are in L.A. this weekend, be sure to catch this sale!

We are delighted to invite you to our premier designer tag sale, a HIGH-END DESIGNER SHOPPING EVENT!! Please feel free to forward this to your friends and contacts!!

The Designer Tag Sale is an interior designer yard sale/tag sale organized by interior designer Vanessa De Vargas and design editor Vanessa Kogevinas. Hosted by entrepreneur Amy Swift (SMARTY.), the sale will feature over ten top Los Angeles designers selling items from their personal inventories including small furniture such as side-tables, lamps, rugs, pillows, art, accessories and more at incredibly low prices! Nothing will be over $200 and prices will run as low as $5.

Designers include Molly Luetkemeyer, Ron Woodson, Jamie Rummerfield, Lindsey Dann Miller, Vanessa De Vargas, Paula Smail, Carla Lane, Jennifer Culp, Michelle Workman, Krista Ewart, Kelly Van Patter, Erica Islas, Jonamor Décor, Stephanie Visser and Cory Pernicano.

Confirmed vendors are Sobe, Elixir G, New Editions, and Yelp who will be participating as a media sponsor.

Free gift bags will be offered to the first thirty attendees and will include items from Henry Road, Bueller Designs, Blue Pool Road, Yelp, Fauna Pet and C Magazine’s newest issue!

There will also be a raffle with gifts from Apartment Therapy, Kreme wallpaper and Anney Friday Jewelry. Complimentary entertainment will include Elixir G Margaritas, Yvonne’s Gluten-Free Cookies, light passed appetizers and beauty treatments. DJ New Berlin will be spinning.

Any non-purchased/left-over designer inventory will be donated to Biet T’Shuvah, a local Venice residential treatment, spiritual and education center.

The Designer Tag Sale will also feature free mini-consultations and appraisals by designers so we ask that you bring pictures of your home and furniture items if you wish to participate.

Entry fee is $10. Cash only please.

We look forward to your participation and support, and thank all of our participants, without whom this event would not be possible!

Check out our blog for websites and more info!!

 

Designer Tag Sale logo and invitation designed by Tatiana Kogevinas.
All rights reserved.

I haven’t, but I’m dying to! What did you think?

I’m a huge fan of Bill Cunningham, and he has a charming video here about the fashions he’s seeing on The High Line.

Speaking of fashion, check out the High Line Merch here. I love the Trina Turk green and white print hat:

Keep up with High Line news over at The High Line Blog and the ever-growing Friends of The High Line flickr group pool. This shot is from flickr member ljpsf.

top two photos from thehighline.org

Wow. I wish I could write like Alexandra Lange. It isn’t ALL that often that I actually read the text in a blog and admire the writing so much (I don’t mean any offense to bloggers at all, I’m just saying that this is a stellar example of a blogpost). This post over at Design Observer regarding the Standard Hotel in NYC and its precedents is a standard I wish I could shoot for and live up to as a writer, but it’s not ever going to happen (in fact, I’m lucky if I give my posts a re-read or even a spellcheck, so I have a long way to go). There is no unintelligible “archispeak” or blathering boring theoretical crap. It’s complete, it’s beautifully written, it’s has the teensiest tiniest, almost imperceptible dash of subtle snark. It understands history and context, and gets to the heart of the matter and asks brilliant questions, leaving the review open to discussion; that is to say the reader can complete the review for herself in a Choose Your Own Adventure kind of way. GO READ IT NOW! You’ll be a better architecture buff for it!

I don’t think I’d enjoy this building very much. Genius Brutalist engineering or not, my paranoid neuroses would not let me trust those legs to hold up the building. By the way, the legs are straddling The High Line.

The Standard New York, Polshek Partnership Architects, 2008

Photo by Andre Balazs Properties via Design Observer

Since the weather in SF has been in the 70’s lately and everyone around the world has flocked to our neck of the woods to get out of the cold and feel the warmth, I’d like to formally invite you to the opening of Thomas Wold’s newest art installation: Come Together: New Installations by Thomas Wold.

His pieces combine childish whimsy, science fiction, dramatic lighting effects, cuteness and pop. Have a looksee: Read the rest of this entry »

Whoa. We’ve just dramatically discounted our sample sale items 60-80%.

Yes’m. 60-80%

Why? Because we are in a recession and everyone needs a little break.

The monster sale is for San Francisco pick up only and ends January 24th.

We’ll be rotating our collection daily so check back often to see what is new or sign up for our newsletter alerts.

Go get ‘em, tigers.

I feel as though around every corner there is something new and ingenious coming out of Thomas Wold’s studio. This past week we learned that he designed two pieces for the Good Hotel in San Francisco.

One piece is a computer station for the lobby constructed of a number of found items…

The other is a design that will be featured in his “Solid Wold” column in the holiday issue of ReadyMade magazine. We won’t spill the beans on what the piece is or what it is made of…but do keep your eyes out for this issue, it is worth it!

If you are not familiar with the Good Hotel, it is a new Joie de Vivre boutique hotel boasting to be the first of its kind “with a conscience.” The hotel believes in doing good by way of their philanthropic approach and eco-friendly designs (with a quirky twist!). The décor is made from reclaimed or recycled construction materials, “Be Good” is written on the walls of the rooms, they’ve got glow in the dark messages, and their vending machine in the lobby is stocked with wallets made from recycled FedEx envelopes. Not to mention Thomas Wold pieces are featured there….hot dog!

For more info on the Good Hotel visit http://www.jdvhotels.com/hotels/good/
Photo courtesy of Thomas Wold.

Wow. I just saw the renderings of the latest Herzog & de Meuron building at 56 Leonard in the AJC today. Holy Moly! My writing has even less flow than usual today, so I am resorting to bullet points for my thoughts on it:

• All of this playing with form and cantalievers in high rises lately reminds me of all of the experimentation that happened during the brutalist movement. I think architects are playing with these crazy new forms because, well, because they can. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.
• I’m not quite convinced how this structure fits into the Manhattan context, but one thing that stands out is its relationship to the many stepped back buildings. By the way, the shape of such buildings were an immediate response to building height restrictions, but their forms  wound up heavily influencing many Art Deco buildings in other cities that did not have such restrictions years ago.
• It’s also even way more JENGA-esque than this building.
• I like it more than the Chicago dildo building.
• All I can think about in regards to the individual outdoor areas is that the buildings this tall in Atlanta have falcons nesting out on their balconies, which has rendered them unusable, except to the wildlife guys in the Silkwoody suits who tag the birds and check on them. Maybe they won’t have that problem here, but there sure will be a bird doo problem!
• Which leads me to how in the name of Windex are they going to wash the windows?

renderings via Curbed (head over there for a huge range of comments and opinions on this design), copyright Herzog and de Meuron, Basel 2008

Have you heard of Majora Carter? She rocks. In 2001 she founded Sustainable Bronx, an organization that “aims to alleviate poverty and remediate the environment through green-collar jobs.” She says “we believe that don’t you need to move out of your neighborhood to live in a better one. We believe we need to create opportunities for people who are living here already so they can stay.”

She wrote a $1.25 million dollar grant for The South Bronx Greenway:

She’s big into  green roofs as well.  There’s a Smart Roof Demonstration Project video here. To make a contribution towards the Greening the Ghetto effort, click here.

quotes and first two images via CNN.com

before and after renderings by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects

Going to be in the New York area next week with your little brown dog Finney and not sure what to do? Go to Pet Fashion Week!

Not only will this be THE pet show to go to but we are proud to report that two of our pet loving designers will be featured at the event.

You’ll find all the Marmalade pet care products at the Ecouture exhibit…

And…

Jed Crystal from Hepper has a soon to be available NomNom food tray which was chosen as one of the eight finalists for the Pet Fashion Week Lifestyle Innovation Awards. This highly coveted industry award is presented to one of the eight companies that has demonstrated the highest excellence in pet product design. This year, Pet Fashion Week NY has chosen “pet dinnerware” as its featured category for the PFW Lifestyle Innovation Award. So, I present to you the NomNom! Good luck, Jed…we are rooting for you!

* Above Pet Fashion Week photography by Nathan Shanahan, Dog accessories by Fab Dog, Styling by Annemarie Aldrich, Courtesy of Pet Fashion Week NY