Welcome to Curbed's new weekly round-up of architecture and design on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and (god forbid) even LinkedIn. Collected from retweets, inter-office chats, and, well, anything that sent us into a 140-character tizzy, this is what Curbed editors actually read this week. Please be in touch if you have a recommendation for next week.
1. A hat tip to Solange, a resident of New Orleans, on eight years of marital bliss with her black-and-white striped sofa, a true ride or die. We wish them both the best.
All photos by Gonzalo Machado via AD España
Marc Newson, the renowned Australian industrial designer and newly minted Apple exec, has unsurprisingly showered his amorphous, futuristic aesthetic all over his London loft. With the exception of the oak-paneled Victorian library, the work of his wife, fashion stylist Charlotte Stockdale, the 4,300-square-foot loft, has totally been molded by Newson. The pale green kitchen is colored like his treasured Aston Marton DB4 1960, the bathrooms feature his basins for Ideal Standard, and as the rest of the photos in this recent AD España feature on the home suggest, the space is a showroom for all kinds of Newson designs—the porous marble console called Voronoi, a special bottle and bucket for Dom Pérignon, the curving Wood Chair for Cappellini, to name a few.
Each spring, design denizens and Milan locals crowd the cobblestone streets of the city's Brera district and clog the halls at the 2.2-million-square-foot Rho fairground to peruse the latest in furniture during Salone del Mobile. It's a chance not just to see what's happening in the world of interiors and furnishings, but to ask the designers and manufacturers directly what's up with all the Kvadrat upholstery, tubular steel, 1970s sofa reissues, and nearly-ubiquitous Memphis retreads. We sorted through this year's offerings to pull out a few key trends that define the look of zeitgeisty interior design in 2015.
Have a nomination for a jaw-dropping listing that would make a mighty fine House of the Day? Get thee to the tipline and send us your suggestions. We'd love to see what you've got.
All photos via Marin Modern Real Estate
Location: San Anselmo, California
Price: $1,700,000
Brand new to the market in northern California, this 1960 midcentury shows off its original mahogany walls, floating wooden staircase, large glass windows, and tongue and groove ceilings. Yet the 2,800-square-foot home also looks warmly at peace with its slew of modern updates, including new tiled flooring and carpet, contemporary lighting, and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen. The $1.7M property contains four bedrooms and four bathrooms (and at least one of them comes with the an incredible shower window view). Surrounding the home is one acre of Asian-inspired landscaping, filled with Japanese maple trees, ferns, oaks, and outdoor patios.
This morning, the Miami Herald updated their article on the giant LED Miami Innovation Tower that developer Michael Simkins is proposing for Miami's Overtown neighborhood with two new renderings and a rather interesting piece of information: it's being designed by New York's SHoP Architects. The firm is doing some of the biggest projects in that city and has been showered with accolades. This 633-foot-tall tower of billboards is being designed by starchitects. Kinda makes it just a little tiny bit harder to hate, doesn't it?
Just wait until you see the prismatic profile pic >>
A cornerstone of the real estate industry, the open house has evolved quite a bit since the practice first began in the 1910s. According to a timeline of the sales tool's evolution at Realtor.com, open houses evolved out of a "Wild West" period of property selling, when laws, licenses and exclusive contracts had yet to be firmly established, and dishonest brokers, or "curbstoners," looked to flip homes and make fast cash. Yards would be littered with dozens of signs representing competing salesman. During those simpler, pre-Zillow days, agents would stay parked at a single home every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. for "open inspections," showing off modern marvels such as electric lighting and new kitchen layouts to potential buyers. While it helped move homes, it limited realtors to a portfolio of one property. Clearly, things needed to evolve.
Consider it something like the holy grail of postmodern homes in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. This thing is so '90s, it could have played a supporting role in Space Jam. While this angular three bedroom home looks shiny and new with its plethora of updates, it was once the subject of a very bizarre home listing when it first hit the market in May 2011. It's got wavy lines, glass block windows, a really sweet rooftop deck and white walls everywhere.
More, including the ambitious new asking price and shots of the interior makeover, at Curbed Chicago. >>
All photos via Campbell Architecture
A deteriorating Victorian villa in Sydney has been revived by Australian firm Luigi Rosseli Architects, who, in collaboration with a host of other local designers, stripped away the house's "ad hoc" extensions and alterations over the years and added a minimalist, modern wing. The historical origins of the original structure lives on in its façade, and the interior is only lightly sprinkled with streamlined contemporary furnishings. Meanwhile, a gorgeous staircase has been spruced up with a whimsical branch-like light installation. As for the new addition, bare walls and operable floor-to-ceiling glass openings guarantee a breezy, no-nonsense space for entertaining.
Photos via Coldwell Banker Preferred-Old City
Seeing one of these little gems hit the market never gets old. Nestled in the shadow of the Society Hill Towers in Philadelphia, also designed by architect I.M. Pei, lies a row of brick townhouses constructed as part of the Towers and Townhouses project, completed in 1964. This two-bedroom corner home features a garden, gated parking, and windows overlooking an expansive green space regularly littered with children and pets, and little to no riffraff.
More details and the rest of the story over at Curbed Philly. >>
Alfredo Ceschiatti's Mermaid statue greets travelers in front of the Hotel Nacional. All photos courtesy of VOA.
It's said that Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer drew inspiration from the curves he saw gracing Rio de Janerio's beaches, so it's only fitting that the modernist icon eventually designed his own mermaid by the sea. Rising up from the beachfront of Rio's São Conrado neighborhood, just a short drive from his famous Das Canoas House, the glass-and-steel Hotel Nacional was one of his later-period masterpieces, a gleaming tower atop a gorgeous, curvaceous base. For the last two decades, it's also been a ghost, abandoned and neglected, even covered in graffiti. But that will soon change. After businessman Marcelo Henrique Limírio Gonçalves bought the property in 2009 for $35 million, momentum has built towards restoration, which was officially set in motion earlier this year, when architectural firm VOA won a competition to retrofit and reopen the landmark building.
"He tried to emulate what the sea could provide by pushing this mermaid out of the ocean," says project architect Marcos Bastos. "It's amazing what is there on site to be preserved."
The Safdie Architects design for the National Medal of Honor Museum. All visualizations by Neoscape, Inc. via Safdie Architects.
If the National Medal of Honor Museum opens as planned in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, in the first quarter of 2018, it will be one of the few institutions to celebrate the nearly 3,500 winners of the United States military's highest honor. New renderings released by the office of Moshe Safdie (he of Habitat 67 fame) show a light-filled pentagonal structure of concrete and steel, composed of five connected galleries, a nod to the five-pointed-star form of the actual medal. The museum—which will house 10 exhibition halls, educational spaces, and memorials—is being designed in collaboration with Gallagher & Associates.
A couple shops at an Ikea store in Chengdu, China —Photo by Liu Jin/Getty Images
It's often joked that Ikea's labyrinthine stores and hard-to-assemble furniture can ruin relationships (see: Tina Fey and James Marsden's Ikea-induced fight on 30 Rock). But according to a new Wall Street Journal report, the struggles of tackling Ikea as a couple are so real that at least one psychologist started using the retailer's furniture as a tool for improving couples communication. According to Santa Monica-based clinical psychologist Ramani Durvasula, Ikea stores have become "a map of a relationship nightmare," with the kitchen section stirring arguments about who shoulders more of the cooking, the children's section opening a whole different can of worms, and so on.
The living room at the 2015 San Francisco Decorator Showcase, designed by Phillip Silver. Photo via Patricia Chang Photography
Every year for the past 36 years, a stately abode on a tony street in San Francisco has been hand-picked to play host to the annual San Francisco Decorator Showcase. Each year a few dozen of the West Coast's top-tier interior designers each reimagine a room in the home, from a 50-square-foot linen closet to a 2,000-square-foot music room. The designs can be outrageous and over the top, and they can also inspire and provide a platform for showcasing some of the best design work this coast's got to offer. This year's showcase—which opens to the public April 25 and runs through Memorial Day—takes place at a Julia Morgan-designed Elizabethan mansion.
Lovely photos of the interiors and all the details over at Curbed SF. >>
All photos courtesy of Arup
The Thomas Heatherwick-designed Garden Bridge faces a new challenge, as a judicial review has temporarily interrupted plans to build the controversial Thames crossing. After the £175 million ($265 million) project earned the blessing of Mayor Boris Johnson and the Lambeth and Westminster Councils in December, amid complaints that the £60 in taxpayers funds being given to this public-private partnership could be better spent, Michael Ball, a volunteer and former director of the Waterloo Community Development Group, requested a judicial review challenging the planning permission decision. He claimed the structure would crowd the South Bank area and impact the view of nearby historic buildings such as St. Paul's Cathedral, and that proper funding for bridge maintenance hasn't been secured by the Garden Bridge Trust, the group developing the project. After part of the challenge was dismissed earlier this year, Ball's claims were taken up by a second judge this week, who has granted permission for a judicial review. Ball said that in all his time working with developers, he's "never dealt with anyone as difficult" as the Garden Bridge Trust.
All photos courtesy of The Herald Sun
Melbourne, Australia's The Herald Sun is reporting that a beachside home once rented by Ricky Martin (he of "Livin' La Vida Loca" super-fame) is set for auction on May 18, so you have plenty of time to call your money manager. The quite-nice pad, set high on a hill in Bronte Beach—a suburb of Sydney south of the better-known Bondi Beach—is expected to snag more than $10 million USD. An assemblage of glass, steel, and New Guinea rosewood, the two-story retreat features broad picture windows that capture rad panoramic views of the sand and South Pacific surf. Built by local firm Walter Barda Design in 2014, this is the house's first time on the market.
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