image via Apartment Therapy

2. Interviews with Architects: Love this! Thank you so much to the awesome ArchDaily for the tipoff about this, it’s really fun the way it’s been put together. My favorite cliche question? “Less or More?” I was shocked that the more won out over less in a landslide victory!:

Between February and August of this year, Luca Farinelli met with some 20 architects, critics, and historians and presented them with an identical sequence of questions, recording each meeting on video. Conversations with Emilio Ambasz, Peter Eisenman, Steven Holl, Bjarke Ingels, and Thom Mayne can be found in Log 23.

3. Be Aware of the Upcoming Venice Beach Modern Home Tour: If you live in Venice Beach, or if like me, you’re a Californication fan who is annoyed that they never seem to shoot there this season, head to this tour coming up on February 18 of 9 fabulous homes. We hope to share more about this tour in the future.

4. Speaking of quintessential L.A.: I hate to say “I’m swooning” due to overuse, but literally, this Sofia Coppola-directed ad for Marni at H&M gave me goosebumps. I’m not sure if it was the commercial (I love her eye), Bryan Ferry taking me back to the thought of some 8th grade crush, or being able to score some Marni somewhere outside of Jeffrey, at a reasonable price. Thank you for the tipoff, Refinery 29.

5. Oh just click on this. You won’t be sorry.

Four years ago, when I first learned that I would be moving to Cincinnati, I knew almost nothing about the city — I had seen WKRP in Cincinnati, I liked the work of Charley Harper, and I knew that the Afghan Whigs, a band I’d liked in high school, were from Cincinnati. Further research revealed that it’s home to Macy’s and Procter & Gamble, Larry Flynt got his start here, Jerry Springer was once Cincinnati’s mayor, and that there was an anti-obscenity kerfuffle involving an exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs at the Contemporary Arts Center. So, keeping my expectations firmly in check, I moved to this fair city, and discovered that it’s full of interesting and innovative architecture, art and design spanning the 19th through the 21st centuries.

The Cincinnati City Hall was built in 1887 in the Richardson Romanesque style. It was designed by Samuel Hannaford, a prominent local architect. Its castle-like form would be at home on an Ivy League campus or on the set of a Harry Potter movie.

Music Hall, located just north of downtown in Over-the-Rhine, is another Hannaford design. Completed in 1878, it is home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival Chorus, and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The $10 symphony tickets may well be the best deal in town.

Memorial Hall, just down the street from Music Hall, was built in 1908 and houses the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the annual MusicNow festival. Its interior is more posh than you might expect from the Greek Revival facade.

The Dixie Terminal Building was designed by Garber & Woodward and completed in 1921. It served as the streetcar terminal and stock exchange, and is now an office building. You may remember its arcade from the film Rain Man. The entry is decorated with tile made by the Rookwood Pottery Company.

Rookwood was founded in 1880 by Maria Longworth Nichols and quickly gained a reputation for beautiful craftsmanship and technical innovation. Its architectural pottery division started in 1902, and examples can be found in public spaces in Cincinnati and beyond, as well as fireplaces in many older homes in the Cincinnati area.

For 80 years, Carew Tower was the tallest building in Cincinnati. Construction started in 1929, right before the start of the Great Depression. It’s an Art Deco masterpiece but, as you look up the facade, you can see where the ornamentation stops and the plain brick begins. This was done as a cost-cutting measure.

The building now houses the Netherland Hilton as well as offices. The interior arcade features Rookwood tile, of course. Orchids at Palm Court, Hilton’s restaurant, offers great food in an incredible space.

Even more Rookwood tile, on the facade of the old Gidding-Jenny department store, currently TJ Maxx.

The John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge spans the Ohio River and connects downtown Cincinnati with Covington, Kentucky. If it looks a bit like the Brooklyn Bridge in miniature, that’s because Roebling designed both using many of the same structural principles.

Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine, opened in 1855 and is Ohio’s oldest surviving municipal market house. It’s located among the largest collection of Italianate buildings in the US. We live just a few blocks away and do a lot of our grocery-shopping here. I really think that our diet has improved as a result!

The Contemporary Arts Center, located downtown, was the first US project by avant garde architect Zaha Hadid. Completed in 2003, it is locally loved or hated, depending on who you talk to.

Across the street from the CAC is a block-long parking garage whose facade is an artwork by Polish Op Artist Julian Stanczak. What would have been an eyesore is instead an animated, colorful installation.

A little-known piece of public art is a mosaic mural by the late Charley Harper, located in the John Weld Peck Federal Building. You just go through security, head toward the elevators, and there it is!

My last bit of Cincinnati inspiration is this Googie pavilion located in Bellevue Hill Park. The pavilion was designed by R. Carl Freund and built in 1955 as a site for outdoor dancing. Cincinnati has an amazing, extensive network of parks, but this little park is my favorite. It offers a great vantage point for viewing fireworks displays over downtown.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little romp through some of my favorite Cincinnati finds. If you keep an open mind, it’s a great little city to visit!

Here are a few more shots I snagged at The Ace Hotel Palm Springs this past weekend. It’s such a perfect desert hangout, and again, I cannot recommend breakfast enough, though I must say, I felt about at least ten years older than the average guest at this joint.

I’m not sure I could have asked anyone to place these scooters in a more perfect spot for this shot!

This mid-century modern roofline is just so California to me. I love its relationship to the range beyond it.

No detail was overlooked. There are kitschy tchotchkes and vintage books in the lobby.

This shelf unit above was copied by one of my favorite bloggers, The Brick House, in her home as a D.I.Y. project. Check it out here.

The lobby has this fun natural history museum on ecstasy display.

Love this tile pattern by the pool.

Even the globe lights’ cords were wrapped in rope. It’s a small detail that really catches the eye.

I didn’t get too many great shots, but I’ll try to share some more with you later!

What’s so great about The High Line? Where to begin? I loved looking down on it from the 16th floor of The Standard. I loved seeing it from the street and thinking “I have GOT to get up there pronto!” I loved experiencing the city from that level, at eye-level with billboards, elevated cars, seeing building facades from a different height. I loved that at first glance one might be fooled into thinking the plantings were wild, but then upon seeing them seeing that they were carefully curated and that unseen maintenance was occurring. I loved all the different options for seating – some amphitheater style, some bistro tables, some lovely benches, some in the middle of a small grove.

I loved the mix of materials and the overall railroad industrial aesthetic, and I especially loved the metal tracks that remained and reminded visitors what the history of this place was all about – better yet, I loved where the tracks veered off on little side exits into brick walls, which reminded me of the entire industrial system that used to exist – the rail cargo having a direct entrance into the factory buildings. When we all try to be greener, we should think of this true door-to-door delivery where a product could go from the source to the destination in one trip.

Another thing that’s so interesting is that at one point in urban planning, skywalks were installed everywhere. This move was later blamed for the demise of street life in these areas. Conversely, the elevated public space of The High Line has made the neighborhood even more desirable and drawn even more business down at the street level on up. I’m nuts for this project. If you are too, you should become a friend of The High Line.