Like us and you'll find top breaking news in your Facebook newsfeed. Sign up for our daily email newsletter and get top stories and breaking news delivered to your inbox.
Monday, December 27, 2010, by Sarah
It's only been three months since Curbed National launched, but even still we decided to make up a bunch of awards as a way to recap the stuff we've covered. Over the next few days, we'll be feting the most deserving people, places, and things in the national design, decor, and real estate sphere. Herein, we unveil the first annual Curbed Awards!
The Martha Stewart Ubiquity Award
Awarded annually to magazine publisher, talkshow host, and author Martha Stewart, for being everywhere, all the time, often while holding a plate of cream puffs and/or staring at this or that ceiling.
Stewart has tippled with Oprah, Brandon Fraser, and Jimmy Fallon. She has been enthroned in the Barneys holiday windows in NYC. One Sunday, she strapped on a magic backpack and paid The Simpsons a visit, refreshing their modest Springfield house with Christmas decorations. She has hosted sleepovers while wearing Manolos and holiday parties where she's managed to craft with celebs such as Jennifer Garner and Claire Danes. She has even moonlighted as her 10-year-old self in cartoon form for a Hallmark Channel Christmas special. All while branding home accessories and furniture with her name, of course.
The Philanthropy of Tabletop/Tabletop of Philanthropy Award
Before Food Network host Sandra Lee displayed prowess in matching her outfits to her (respectively) Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas decor, she announced that she would be auctioning off 13 tablescapes from Semi-Homemade Cooking (above) to hunger-focused children's charity Share Our Strength. A powerful move by a powerful woman. Luckily, the kids will receive neither the semi-homemade food nor the tablescapes themselves.
The Shelter Journalism of Twitter Award
Despite what appears to be a real-life propensity for modern architecture and interior design, Kanye West exhibits an entirely different personality online. In the first five months of his Twitter account existence, the hip-hop megastar referenced sofas, chairs, and credenzas; fur pillows, drinking glasses, and Persian rugs; baroque and mod aesthetic styles; and Versace and YSL home goods. We hear the freelance market for shelter mag features is drying up, but c'mon, it's not like Kanye needs the cash.
The Talkshow Gaffe of the Year Award
When we published a handful of early-word Tweets about The Nate Berkus show back in September, just a week or so after the talkshow launched, Curbed National commenter moochi opined, "one of the worst TV shows i have ever seen. bring back anything but him." The next day, the adorable Jenny from My Favorite and My Best blog lashed out against Berkus after the talkshow host invited a bunch of design bloggers to a taping and never acknowledged their presence (nor, really, design). MFAMB penned a hilarious video entitled "Berkus, Why'd You Jerk Us?"—lyrics include "We made a special day for you/Are you sniffing fabric glue?" A month later, ratings for Berkus's show had fallen below Swift Justice With Nancy Grace. Not exactly the success one would expect from someone with an Oprah pedigree.
The Most Sophisticated Movie Decor Award
The digital world of Tron: Legacy garnered much attention for the way its set designers made spaces like Safehouse, where the protagonist will spend all eternity in a digital state, surprisingly stylish. Think: white lacquer chairs, an antique chandelier, damask upholstery, and midcentury classics from Mies van der Rohe and Eames.
The Ikea Brand Expansion (EXPANDIT) Award
Awarded annually to a party or parties that uses IKEA creatively and/or to IKEA, which uses itself creatively.
3) As a marketing stint, the Swedish furnishings chains unveiled a quiz to help shoppers decide which furniture collection best suits them. Five hard-and-fast categories of individuals seemed to include narcoleptics and couch potatoes.
2) Ikea, the Book and the new Ikea cookbook
1) Top Chef: All Stars contestants live in Brooklyn's most expensive apartment, a $7.25M number, amid $19.99 LERBERG shelving.
The Most Promising for 2011, Hopefully? Award
We know that celebrity decorator Martyn Lawrence-Bullard will star in Bravo's forthcoming new series Million Dollar Decorators, along with Kathryn Ireland and Jeffrey Alan Marks. According to Bravo, the show will "explore the work and personal lives of some of LA's hottest high-end interior decorators as they navigate a world where millions of dollars and massive egos are constantly on the line." Sounds fun! As of Dec. 7, though, the Bravo press team tells Curbed National that the premiere date has yet to be released. Sad face.
View the original article here
[Listed in May for $16.5M, this Pacific Heights abode was purchased by the Pincus clan in July for $16M]
A shot of the Bower family's sitting room, from 
["Larry Ellison on the Joystick" Photo Credit: 
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has just 
AT&T Performing Arts Center Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, Dallas / 
The Barnard College Diana Center, NYC / 
Ford Assembly Building, Richmond, Calif. / 
Horizontal Skyscraper Vanke Center, Shenzhen, China / 
New Acropolis Museum, Athens, Greece / 
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C./ 
One Jackson Square, NYC / 
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Rooftop Garden / 
U.S. Land Port of Entry, Warroad, Minn. / 
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Mich. / 
In October, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and wife Lyudmila 
As part of the White House's "Simple Gifts" holiday-decorating theme, Michelle Obama