Lego Watch: What is it about plastic bricks...

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Catch a Falling Starchitecture: See a Daniel Libeskind Building Swallowed by a Walmart

Monday, December 2, 2013, by Spencer Peterson

Image via Designboom

When the looming environmental collapse is finally upon us, and the failure of our governing institutions pits neighbor against neighbor in a desperate bid for survival, who, oh who, will think of the starchitects? In a series entitled Contemporary Futures, one Photoshop-savvy Design Boom reader imagines the effects of just such a fate on some of the world's most iconic buildings, and the results aren't pretty, unless we're talking the disaster porn kind of pretty. In this not-too-far-fetched vision of the future, corporate giants are the final custodians of our architectural heritage: Denver's Daniel Libeskind-designed art museum (above) has fallen into the hands of Walmart (much to the glee, no doubt, of the architect's many foes), Bernard Tschumi's Folies du Parc de la Villette has been turned into another architecturally significant gas station, and Dominique Perrault's BNF building went into its death throes as a decrepit Vegas-style casino.

Glimpse a couple of shots below (bastardized versions of Zaha Hadid's Riverside Museum in Scotland and Jakob+MacFarlane's neon orange cube in France), and for the full series of dystopian makeovers, refreshing irreverence by way of farcical corporate encroachment, head over to Design Boom.

Image via Design Boom

Image via Designboom

· contemporary future envisions reuse of starchitects' buildings [Design Boom]

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Recovery-less Recovery: Unemployment Duration October 2013

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On the Market: San Francisco's First Passive House Already in Contract

Wednesday, November 27, 2013, by Sally Kuchar The newly constructed 4564 19th St. in Eureka Valley is the first passive house to hit the market in San Francisco. Dubbed the Equilibrium House, the home was built to Passive House (Passivhaus) standards, a sustainable building method that's incredibly popular in Germany. A passive house is able to achieve up to 90 percent heating energy reductions over typical homes through a combination of construction techniques, super insulation and high performance European windows and doors that aren't currently available in the U.S. The 4-bed, 5.5-bath home recently hit the market at $3.8M, and after a successful open house is already in contract. · 4564 19th St. [Official website] [Photos via Open Home Photography] 4564 19th St., San Francisco, CA

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[Three Cents Worth #249 Miami] The Miami Housing Trend Breakdown

Posted by Jonathan Miller - Monday, October 28, 2013, 7:56 PM

It’s time to share my Three Cents Worth (3CW) on Curbed Miami, at the intersection of neighborhood and real estate in the Magic City. And I’m simply here to observe.

Check out my 3CW column on @CurbedMiami:

Miami has become a market with a lot of moving parts so it’s best not to throw all the data into one bucket and call it a day. Last week Douglas Elliman released the 4 South Florida market reports I author for them including Miami and this week’s charts were taken from data compiled in the report. I presented a bunch of metrics in the single family and condo market broken out by the distressed and non-distressed markets. Distressed property are defined here as short sales and foreclosures…

[click to expand chart]

My latest Three Cents Worth column on Curbed: The Miami Housing Trend Breakdown [Curbed]

Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed NY
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed DC
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Miami
Three Cents Worth Archive Curbed Hamptons

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Artistry: Tour Silver Screen Architecture... Through These Posters

Monday, December 2, 2013, by Spencer Peterson

Illustration via Arch Daily

If ever there was a cuter tribute to architecture in film, we haven't seen it: from the Vandamm House of North By Northwest fame to the Lautner-designed home featured in The Big Lebowski, Italian architect Frederico Babina's latest foray into graphic design does a great job of highlighting some of the most notable buildings ever to grace the silver screen. As with Babina's previous pet project, a series of pixellated portraits of starchitects like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, Archicine is both a charming exercise in design appreciation and an effective reminder of how much more you could be doing with your free time.

The series also touches on some lesser-known intersections of great design and great filmmaking, including the Lovell House, as seen in L.A. Confidential, the seaside abode from Moonrise Kingdom, and even Luke Skywalker's boyhood home. No word yet on how you can purchase one of your own, not that it'll do much to stop a film buff with access to a large color printer. Check out a few of the high points below:

Illustration via Arch Daily

Illustration via Arch Daily

· ARCHICINE: Illustrations of Architecture in Film [Arch Daily via Flavorwire]

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Curbed Cup 2013: Nominate Your Neighborhood for the 2013 Curbed Cup!

Monday, December 2, 2013, by Sally Kuchar

Every December, Curbed readers nominate and vote for San Francisco's neighborhood of the year. We call it the Curbed Cup. This year's edition is still being forged by our goldsmith, so please enjoy the artist's depiction of this glorious fake trophy seen at right. We're excited as ever, but before the tournament kicks off and a winner can be declared, we need your help.

Like every year, the Curbed Cup will be a bracket-style, 16-neighborhood format. We'd like your input before seeding is set. Think a certain neighborhood deserves a chance at scoring this highly coveted prize? Tell us why! The best arguments will be used to help sway fellow Curbed Cup voters once the contest kicks off. You can let us know your thoughts in the comments, or email us your nominations. What makes a neighborhood Curbed Cup worthy? It's a neighborhood that saw the most happen. We're talking new restaurants, new development, fun parklets, totally awesome retail, and the ineffable but real sense of where the action was in the past 12 months. Last year the Cup went to the Lower Haight.

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AM Linkage: Affordable Housing; Mysterious Mural; Bikeability; More!

Affordable Housing; Mysterious Mural; Bikeability; More! - AM Linkage - Curbed SF CityAtlantaBostonCape CodChicagoDetroitHamptonsLos AngelesMiamiNationalNew OrleansNew YorkPhiladelphiaSan FranciscoSeattleSkiTorontoVancouverWashington DCTop stories Curbed ComparisonsWhat $2,100/Month Can Rent You Around San FranciscoTop 10The Most Expensive Homes to Recently Come onto the MarketReal Estate SoldLast Week's Three Biggest Sales: All Sold for Under Asking×Get the latest from Curbed SFFacebookEmail newsletterTwitter Wednesday, November 27, 2013AM LinkageAffordable Housing; Mysterious Mural; Bikeability; More!Wednesday, November 27, 2013, by Sally Kuchar

[Photo via Sergio Ruiz]
· Sausalito myth of BofA mural turns out to be real [SFGate]
· San Francisco home prices skyrocket 26 percent, experts talk bubble [SFBT]
· SFMTA crews installing buffered bike lanes on Folsom Street [Streetsblog SF]
· 12 questions to ask yourself before you wake up at am to shop on Black Friday [SFist]
· Anniversary of Milk, Moscone slayings to be focused on housing affordability [SF Examiner]

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Sold Stuff: Sexting pays well, apparently: one of...

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House of the Day: Maziar Behrooz's Award-Winning Arc House Asks $3.95M

Monday, December 2, 2013, by Curbed Staff

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.

Location: East Hampton, N.Y.
Price: $3,950,000
The Skinny: From Maziar Behrooz, the architect who brought you the shipping container-based Insta House, comes this sleek, AIA Award-winning Arc House, which also utilizes both prefabricated elements and less-than-inspired naming conventions. Taking cues for its major design element from the U.S. military's humble Quonset hut, the roof and side walls of the home's upper level consists of a 60-foot by 20-foot self-supporting corrugated steel arch, though the similarities with Army digs end with the glass walls on either end of the 16-foot high open-plan barrel vault, not to mention the NEFF kitchen's decidedly non-Government Issue Carob stained black ash cabinets and Bulgarian limestone floors. Below the showy public living spaces, three bedrooms and bathrooms, one of which features a for the owner and his dog, are hidden beneath the grassy hillside, invisibly doubling the home's gross square footage to 5,173 square feet. Though it's hard to top a tandem human/dog shower, Arc House does have other features to recommend it, including geothermal heating, a 1,000-bottle wine room, and a sauna. The price is also moving in the right direction for buyers: the listing now asks $3.95M, a PriceChop of more than $1M from its original ask in June of this year.

· 50 Green Hollow Road [Halstead Property]
· Arc House [Maziar Behrooz Architecture]
· All Arc House coverage [Curbed Hamptons]

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Sold Stuff: The New York Post reports that...

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Digital Age: Inside the Stern, Austere Airports of Your Travel Nightmares

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, by Amy Schellenbaum

This holiday season, Google has given humankind the great gift of Google Maps within transportation hubs, launching a service that allows over-preparing travelers Street View inside 16 airports, 59 rail stations, and 16 popular points of interest. This is, of course, in addition to the Ikea floorplan maps Google floated a year ago, as well as the Street View tours available for everything from earthquake-ravaged Japan to the canals of Venice. Inspired by Gizmodo, which recently showed off some of the features of the latest perk, here's a peek inside the symmetrical and oddly beautiful-in-a-utilitarian-way airport interiors that just might make the long holiday lines and delayed flights a smidge easier to bear.

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Fun with Urban Planning: San Francisco to Explore Idea of a Central SoMa Eco-District

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, by Alex Bevk San Francisco has always been at the forefront of sustainable design and planning, and these days the city's Planning Department is hoping to go one step further. A task force has been established to explore the idea of a Central SoMa Eco-District, or district-scale sustainable development projects that would work together to reduce environmental impacts. The task force describes it as a "interwoven and closed-loop system for waste, water, urban food production and energy" - think rainwater catchment systems that are used to irrigate parks and urban agriculture, on-site wind and solar energy generation, and wastewater filtration systems under the freeway. The district is generally bound by Market, Townsend, 1st, and 7th Streets, and the task force is using the already sustainable San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's headquarters on Golden Gate Avenue is an example of what they envision. The task force hopes to present their recent report to various city commissions and the Board of Supervisors in the upcoming year. After that, they envision establishing a non-profit to oversee the district, with implementation in the next 5-20 years.

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PriceChopper: After an unsuccessful stint on the...

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Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims November 21 2013

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Pantone's Color of the Year for 2014!

Here we are again, color lovers. Another December, another Color of the Year announcement from the gurus at Pantone. For the first time in a few years, I feel like things are moving in a more unexpected, bold direction. If this 2014 pick is an indication of our colorful future, then I say, let's go, bring it on!

According to Pantone, this color is "an enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones" that "inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health".

I believe its going to work well for interiors. It is a color that coordinates beautifully with pale yellow, and, the neutral of the moment, gray, as well as with pale, warm taupes, creamy whites and soft metallics, both silver and gold.

But, the designers and consumers ultimatly decide the success of these color predictions, so I'd love to know what you think of Radiant Orchid - do you see it in your home design Magic 8 ball for the coming year or is it a "try again later"?

For the full scoop: Pantone's Official Announcement

(Image credits: Janel Laban; Pantone)

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$@!%#: New Survey Reveals Which States Swear the Most — Design News 12.05.13

Oh, fudge: A new survey ranks states via their courtesy (or lack thereof) on the phone. Most likely to curse are the residents of Ohio, and the least likely are the those in Washington State. The most pleases and thank yous come from those in the Carolinas, while Wisconsonites don't bother with these courtesies.

In other news, Michelle Obama reveals the White House Christmas trees, and finding a famous painting at a flea market isn't all it's cracked up to be. See the headlines after the jump.

• Curses! U.S.'s Most Foul-Mouthed States Revealed [VIDEO] | The Wall Street Journal
• Michelle Obama Unveils White House Christmas Decorations | HuffPost Home
• Woman Who Says She Bought Renoir At Flea Market For $7 Challenged In Court | HuffPost Home

(Image credits: Shutterstock)

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Help Wanted: Curbed Seeks Longform Journalism—Here's How to Pitch

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, by Sara Polsky

Hear ye, hear ye, writers and photographers. Curbed is now seeking longform and narrative stories from freelance writers and photographers about the topics closest to our heart: architecture and design, real estate, and neighborhoods. We're looking for features that dig deep while also maintaining Curbed's voice. Interested in pitching? Read on!

What we're looking for:

We're seeking stories that run longer than our typical blog posts and that are thoughtfully reported. Here are some of our favorite past Curbed features: a look at the 1891 fight over a trolley along Prospect Park West, photo essays about Hurricane Sandy recovery and about New York City's awaiting-gentrification neighborhoods, narratives about the histories of specific New York City buildings, profiles of specific interior design projects and adaptive reuse projects, an analysis of active design, and an in-depth look at Huguette Clark's dollhouse collection. We're eager to expand our features coverage in the areas of architecture and neighborhoods, and we're looking for profiles, too. (And yes, Curbed is a paying market!)

No personal essays, opinion pieces, listicles, how-to pieces, or trend stories, please.

How to pitch:

There are a few things we like to learn from writers when considering a story:

· What the story is, why it's a fit for Curbed, and the expected length

· How you plan to report it and who you've talked to so far

· Why you're the most qualified writer for the story

Please include a couple of clips or links that illustrate your features experience. Ideas for photos, graphics, and other visual components for the story are also helpful as we consider your pitch. E-mail pitches to Sara Polsky at sara@curbed.com.

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Retail Therapy: Furniture Stores Behaving Badly: Five PR (Mega) Nightmares

Wednesday, December 4, 2013, by Lily di Costanzo Illustration by sewluang/Shutterstock

Ikea's main objective is to trick the average homeowner into believing they can successfully construct furniture without an iota of knowledge of the Swedish language, so the amount of trouble it—as well as its fellow furniture chain stores such as Pottery Barn and CB2—manages to rustle up politically is nothing short of jaw-dropping. Even without mentioning a certain batch of horse-laced meatballs—surely a PR nightmare in a category of its own—debacles like racist Halloween costumes, workplace mistreatment, and the unceremonious cropping of female catalog models offer more than enough scandal to keep the Internet properly enraged. Without further ado, above please journey back at some of the most insensitive furniture store blunders from the last three years.

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Video Interlude: Kanye Talks Design in the Forthcoming Rem Koolhaas Film

Wednesday, December 4, 2013, by Spencer Peterson

Screengrab via Vimeo

The latest installment in Yeezy on design comes courtesy of L.A.-based cinematographer Tomas Koolhaas, who's putting together a documentary on his father, architect Rem, that includes a sit-down with Kanye West. As anyone familiar with the phenomenon that is the Kanye interview could probably anticipate, West is (again) all over the place in this excerpted clip (below), spending more breath on his own status as an inspirational figure than anything he learned from working with OMA, Koolhaas' Rotterdam-based firm, on a pavilion for the 2012 Cannes film festival. Still, he's got a pretty wise take on the Twittersphere's reaction to any clip of him talking about design, even as he works in a bit of humble-bragging: "I probably sound ignorant when I talk about [architecture]… I'm fine with sounding ignorant… I'm not talking about something like music that I'm a complete expert at. I'm talking about something I want to learn about and I'm not afraid to talk in public about my desire to learn more."

Released alongside an official trailer for REM, the interview comes in support of a Kickstarter campaign hoping to raise funds for the film, which looks to forego heady critical discourse in favor of showcasing how people actually use Koolhaas' buildings. Commenting on the interview to ArchDaily—one of the only outlets to get Kanye's stop at Harvard right—the junior Koolhaas echoed that sentiment: "Since most people that actually use architecture are non-experts in the field, it seems strange that anyone should be ridiculed when they have opinions on the subject or want to be involved in collaborations with architects. Especially when they seem to be fully aware of their limitations regarding their own architectural expertise." Great points all around. Watch the excerpt below:

· Tomas Koolhaas Releases Official 'REM' Trailer, Exclusive Interview with Kanye West [ArchDaily]
· 'REM' - Rem Koolhaas Documentary [Kickstarter]
· All Kanye West coverage [Curbed National]
· All Rem Koolhaas coverage [Curbed National]

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Conspicuous Correlation: Retail Sales September 2013

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Curbed Comparisons: What $2,100/Month Can Rent You Around San Francisco

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, by Mallory Farrugia

Welcome back to Curbed Comparisons, where we scour San Francisco's rental listings to see what your monthly budget will get you across the city. This week, we're investigating apartments listed for $2,100/month. Studio in a nice neighborhood or a one-bedroom elsewhere? You tell us which lease you'd sign.

In Lower Pacific Heights, this ground-floor studio is asking $2,100/month. There's hardwood and a nice little kitchen, and the owner pays all utilities except PG&E. It's located close to the shopping on Fillmore, but there's no laundry onsite and no parking, and the big window overlooking Pine Street might make for some noise.
Just up the hill in Pacific Heights, this studio is under budget at $2,025/month. It's got hardwood and a breakfast nook, a quieter location on a residential street, and laundry in the building. But the kitchen is really cramped, and the neighborhood's topography make it not-too-pedestrian-friendly. In the Outer Richmond, this one bedroom is over budget at $2,195/month, but it includes a parking space and a storage unit. The kitchen has updated cabinetry and - oddly - a built-in desk and the bedroom is extra-spacious for this price point. Pets under 20 lbs are negotiable and there's laundry on-site. But renter's insurance is required, so that takes the monthly price tag up even further. In Buena Vista/Ashbury Heights, this studio is asking $2,100/month. It looks small and rather dim, with windows directly facing another building. The kitchen is tiny but at least has new appliances. There's laundry onsite and it's pet-friendly. Parking is available on a month-to-month basis for $200/month extra. In Chinatown, this one bedroom is asking $2,000/month. It's got hardwood and a clean kitchen. The bedroom and living room are adjacent to each other, separated by French doors. No parking and no mention of laundry. Cat friendly.

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Sold Stuff: Because San Francisco's housing market has...

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Small Tricks, Big Difference for an Evolving Home

To accommodate our large Thanksgiving crowd, we swapped our living and dining room furniture. The switch turned out to be great for daily life too, so it stayed. However, it took a bit of tweaking to make our furniture not look like a bunch of squatters. Can you tell which (free) change made the biggest difference?

Adjusting the curtain rods! I know, groundbreaking, right?

After years of bemoaning my cheapo adjustable curtain rods, I finally came to appreciate them. I'm humbled. Visually, I still prefer the look of a single solid rod, but when it comes to playing musical chairs with entire rooms of furniture, adjustable rods have their place. Pulling them out to their max width allowed me to pull the curtain panels over to frame the sofa, which makes the whole window appear larger too. A long sofa looks much more at home against a wide window than a narrow one.

Other small changes were made to make the somewhat cramped conditions look deliberately cozy, such as adding a few more toss pillows and a throw to the back of the sofa. I'm usually a big believer in "less is more," but when it comes to fitting big furniture in small spaces, I take the opposite approach. You can't make a room look spare and elegant when a mammoth sofa is in the mix, but you can make it look purposefully cramped and snug by adding on layers.

What small, free changes have you made that saved a room?

(Image: Leah Moss)

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BuzzFeeding: At long last, BuzzFeed runs a...

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Extended Unemployment: Initial, Continued and Extended Unemployment Claims November 07 2013

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On the Market: Quintessential San Francisco Home Lands on the Market

Tuesday, November 26, 2013, by Sally Kuchar We say quintessential not just because of the high ceilings, period details, and the lovely and quirky kitchen and dining room, but because the price is $999K. Only in San Francisco is it par for the course for a 2-bed, 1-bath condo to cost a million bucks. The building (which is in Pacific Heights) was built in 1904 and retains a good chunk of its original charm: original glass paneled entry door, a wood paneled entry hallway, bay windows, walnut inlays in the hardwood flooring, stained glass windows, crown moulding, brass chandeliers, built-ins, and more. There's also a shared backyard and roof deck. Monthly HOA dues are $338 and there's parking nearby if you want to shell out $275 per month.
· 2134 Green St. [Redfin] 2134 Green St., San Francisco, CA

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Globe Trotting: This Superbly Green 'Villa' is Half Raised and Half Buried

Thursday, December 5, 2013, by Amy Schellenbaum

Photo via Dezeen

The owner of this villa in a rural bit of The Netherlands came to Amsterdam-based firm Paul de Ruiter Architects with a tricky request. The owner wanted a "simple, abstract, yet spectacular villa," the architects write. It had to use very little energy and it needed to have a limited impact on the protected ecological site it would sit on. It was like a riddle, and the natural solution lied in the composition. The result: two stacked squares, one an "uncompromising glass box" hovering above ground, the other an "underground volume" for a garage, workspace, and storage. While certainly not the first perched contemporary spread, nor the first underground dwelling, Villa Kogelhof has done both so superbly—the glazed glass! the reflecting pool! the stone stairs! the photovoltaic panels! the "planned windmill!"—the design just took home a prestigious Dutch ARC13 Architecture Prize.

Photo via Dezeen

The owner was only allowed to build here on the condition that the land was returned to its "pre-agricultural state." This meant planting some 71,000 six-year-old trees and digging up a rectangular pond. The house was built to be energy neutral and comfortable in all seasons, so besides solar panels and a windmill, the architecture itself boasts a so-called climate-façade—basically a layer of sun-reflecting fabric that can be rolled and unrolled on the interior of the glass walls. Other than that, it's hard to know how exactly an isolated glass box in The Netherlands would manage to use less energy—but we'll just have to take their word for it.

Photo via Dezeen

Interestingly, the commenters over at Dezeen are unimpressed: "Ugh, this is too artificial for a living space. I think one day the owner would like to open the window..." and "who would want to live in that mausoleum?" and "it'd be more ecological without so many sport cars." Sheesh, tough crowd.

· Ecological house in a glass box raised above the landscape by Paul de Ruiter Architects [Dezeen]

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News From the East Bay: Thinking of leaving San Francisco proper...

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, by Michael Conrad Comments (  extant)

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Office Spaces: Find the War Room From Dr. Strangelove in Airbnb's New HQ

Wednesday, December 4, 2013, by Spencer Peterson

Photo via Metropolis

The inspiration for Airbnb's new San Francisco headquarters, like that of the company's Eames-filled first office, is drawn from some of the vacation rental site's most memorable listings: there's the Milan Room based on a flat still regularly listed, and a skee-ball machine that's a nod to an early offering—possibly this one—that suggested one as a potential bed. As one employee told Metropolis Magazine, which took a peek inside the office in this month's issue, "We view this as our listing, as if this was our Airbnb." If the converted warehouse actually did have its own listing, the most insane feature would undoubtedly be this: an aspirationally democratic, down-to-brass-tacks conference room (above) modeled after the iconic war room from Dr. Strangelove. Ironically enough, this reference to Kubrick's take on the Cold War is a clear sign of the ever-escalating arms race for the most fun-looking office in tech.

Global design firm Gensler came up with the basic structure of Airbnb's new office, including the central atrium that looks dollhouse-style into the windowed conference rooms, and shepherded Airbnb through the implementation of their ideas for individuals spaces. The so-called President's Room—which any employees can use, of course, as they have the freedom to work wherever they wish—is based on the building's original president's office from 1917, and would be the only room that could be called traditional if it weren't such a self-conscious anachronism. To Airbnb's credit, Metropolis says the place avoids the "Ikea Effect" in that it looks more like a collection of lived-in living spaces than painstakingly curated showrooms. Judge for yourself:

Photo via Metropolis

Photo via Metropolis

· Rooms with a View [Metropolis]
· All Office Spaces coverage [Curbed National]
· All Airbnb coverage [Curbed National]

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