Controversies: Here's a new one: the Frank...

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Mindblowing: Here's a Dustmite-Sized Model of St. Stephen's Cathedral

× 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. Thursday, March 15, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Photo via Architizer

Thanks to a bunch of smartypants at the Vienna University of Technology, some of the world's most impressive architectural achievements have been shrunken to the size of a grain of sand. According to Geek.com, researchers created "a system whereby a laser is directed by a series of mirrors through a liquid resin which then hits a surface and leaves behind a polymerized line of solid polymer. The thickness of that line is just a few hundred nanometers." Translation: an ultra-precise, ultra-fast 3D printer makes nanoscale models, like the Lilliputian version of Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral above. And that's no small feat.

· Watch a nanoscale race car get 3D printed with a laser [Geek.com via Architizer]

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Infographics: Here's a Simplified Timeline of the History of Real Estate

× 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, March 5, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

The good souls over at Movato have crafted a basic timeline of the history of real estate, beginning in 334 B.C. (when Alexander the Great conquered Persia, showing "aggressive acquisition of real estate by force") and ending now, when the market is saturated with foreclosures and short sales. Also represented are milestones such as the creation of the MLS, the launch of Craigslist, and the advent of Google Maps, a much-loved featured that died, sadly, last year. Find the full infographic below.

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Broker Fail: Here's a Kid Doing a Faceplant in an Ingenious Listing Pic

× 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. Wednesday, February 8, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Homeowners, if you've ever wondered how to incorporate your children into, say, marketing your home for sale, here, at last, is your answer. The above photo corresponds to a two-bedroom condo in Aldie, Va. Listed for $239K, it's got the nicety trifecta: granite countertops, stainless appliances, and hardwood floors. While the brokerbabble maintains that the space is "fully upgraded," something suggests there's a bit more work—you know, removing the kid from the bed—to be done.

· 24701 Byrne Meadow Sq., Northwest #213, Aldie, Va. [Redfin via Lovely Listing]

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Super Bowl Ad Watch 2012: Here's how the topic of real...

× 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. Tuesday, January 31, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

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? Previous: Website of the Day: Fuck Your Noguchi Coffee Table

? Next: Le Corbusier Meets Ikea in Portugal; Jon Corzine Lists

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Image Interlude: Here's a Snapshot of Donald Trump's Manhattan Penthouse

× 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. Tuesday, January 3, 2012, by Sarah Firshein

Photo: Sam Horine Refinery29

Today Refinery29 gets a look inside NYC penthouse of Donald and Melania Trump, a gilded, glittery space bedecked with a gold-and-diamond door, cherub statuary, an indoor fountain, a painted ceiling, a very expensive-looking chandelier, and Louis chairs as far as the eye can see. Not present, or so it seems: any of Trump's (comparatively) budget home lines. More photos: over here.

· Peek Inside Melania Trump's World (And Penthouse!) [Refinery29 via Curbed NY]
&!83; The Infinite, Inexplicable Home Lines of Donald J. Trump [Curbed National]

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Image Interlude: Here's a Photo of Rapper Ice Cube With an Eames House Bird

× 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. Tuesday, September 20, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

As Southern California readies itself for Pacific Standard Time—"an unprecedented collaboration of cultural institutions [...] coming together to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene—pre-release posters for the exhibition have seeped into the crevices of the Internet, even though some of the copy hasn't been finalized yet. Above: a photo of rapper and Los Angeles native Ice Cube standing tall with an Eames House Bird (presumably the original) perched on his shoulder. (As ArtInfo points out, the House Bird was not one of Ray and Charles Eames' designs but rather something they found, incorporated into their living room, used as a prop in many of their photos, and eventually licensed to Vitra to reproduce.) As one of the many Pacific Standard Time discussions, Ice Cube will host a lecture in which he "celebrate[s] how [the Eameses'] architecture and design have been important inspiration throughout [his] prolific career." The official poster will be released within the next few weeks.

· Pacific Standard Time [official site]
· Eames House Bird Sighting [ArtInfo]
· "Ice Cube Celebrates Ray & Charles Eames" Really Happening [Curbed LA]

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Off the Market: Here's Mary McDonald's Project From Million Dollar Decorators

× 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. Friday, June 10, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

On Tuesday night, we watched with baited breath as designer Mary McDonald finished the guest house of a longtime client who, readying for a divorce, had plans to put her Beverly Hills, Calif., estate on the market. In response to the Realtor's request that the space be kept minimalist, McDonald said, "I’m not really interested in Realtors! Sometimes you have to teach people what they think they want!” Fast forward to now: listing photos of said property have surfaced on The Real Estalker, showcasing McDonald's work in its entirely—she decorated the main house, too. Some vital stats: the manse measures 5,545 square feet, has seven bedrooms, and sold for approximately $7.773M to a producer/director in December 2010. No word whether McDonald still considers the house "hers."

· Episode Two: Hypnotism, a Pickup Truck, and Really Old Tile [Curbed National]
· Mary McDonald Sunburst Madness in Beverly Hills [The Real Estalker]
· Episode One: the Osbournes, Divorce, and Snotty Guacamole [Curbed National]

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HGTV Dream Home Winner Revealed!: Here's a warm 'n' fuzzy story...

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? Previous: Click, Click, Click: Three Ways to Keep Up With Curbed National!

? Next: Grand Georgian; Japanese Building Codes; Alberta Ferretti; More!

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Celebrity Real Estate: Here's Where Tori Spelling's Lived For the Last Couple of Years

× 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. Tuesday, April 12, 2011, by Sarah Firshein

It's a special fortnight indeed when Tori Spelling makes two rare appearances on Curbed—first we looked at InvenTORI, her Sherman Oaks, Calif., furniture shop, and now we're peeking at the estate where the actress/reality TV star honed her decorating prowess. She and husband Dean McDermott have just listed their Encino, Calif., villa for $3.119, hoping to make a tidy li'l profit off the place they purchased for $2.495M back in 2008. The 6,700-square-foot manse has six bedrooms, 6.5 baths; decorating fanatic Spelling did the interiors herself. Shortly after moving in and changing up the decor, she told People that "[i]t's important for me to live in a beautiful space, but I also want my kids to feel they can play around," describing the overall feel as "Hollywood Regency meets eclectic antique tied together by cozy family style."

· Oh, Right, Tori Spelling Has a Furniture Shop! [Curbed National]
· Tori Spelling Selling Encion Home [Realtor.com]
· Inside Stars' Favorite Rooms [People.com]

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Crate and Barrel's Ultimate Wedding Contest: Here's a heads up for the...

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? Previous: Plywood Furniture Gets it Due

? Next: Who Put the Tiki Hut in This Basement?

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Vocab Lessons: Anyone Ever Say, "You're So Martha?" Here's a New Word For You:

× 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. Wednesday, January 19, 2011, by Sarah

Just announced this morning on The Martha Stewart Show: Martha Stewart wants you. To do, you know, Martha-y stuff like craft and decorate and bake and win a chance to get on-air. Amy Sedaris need not apply.
· Simply Remarthable [The Martha Stewart Show]
· Newest Amy Sedaris Tome Takes the Piss Outta Etsy [Curbed National]
· All Martha Stewart coverage [Curbed National]

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Here's a Really Fly-Looking Swedish Hideout: Co. Design offers a visual tour...

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? Previous: American Idol: Where Some of the Major Players Have Lived

? Next: Seven Average-Sized Homes With None-Too-Typical Prices

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On the Market: Here's What Someone Did to Martha Stewart's Old Penthouse

× 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. Tuesday, January 18, 2011, by Sarah

Is that a decorative bust we see? How very Martha Stewart to keep odd head accessories in plain view! In fact, the apartment shown here, the penthouse of a glassy Richard Meier building, used to belong to Stewart herself until it was sold to someone nicknamed "Captain Fun," reports the Wall Street Journal today. Elsewhere in the apartment, note our cousins at Curbed NY, there's a "giant bear swinging over the staircase, surrounded by traffic cones." Using urban and possibly found objects: that's nothing if not Martha-approved resourcefulness. But would she approve of the $13.M ask?

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That's Rather Strange: Here's a Wine Bottle Holder Shaped Like a Stiletto Heel.

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· Mark Roberts 'Shoe' Wine Holder [Nordstrom]

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That's Rather Strange: Armchairs With Two Arms Are So Last Year: Here's One With Eight.

× 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. Friday, January 14, 2011, by Sarah

Yesterday it was a couch shaped like a cat; today it's an armchair shaped like a slithering, slimy octopus. The first in the Animal Chairs collection by designer Maximo Riera, the tentacular perch aims to "create a stronger link between the spectator, the piece, and the surrounding space." Well, all righty then. Expect to see a lion, a walrus, and a whale, among others, as the series grows. Can't wait!

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Gifting: Here's to an EnGAYgement! The Ultimate Design Junkie's Registry

× 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. Friday, January 14, 2011, by Sarah

Freelance writer and editor (and former lighting/interiors editor at Architectural Record) William Weathersby has a great eye for gift giving. Yet he's harnessed by a perennial problem: receiving. He can't technically get married in the traditional sense, at least not in most U.S. states. He’s gay. So he sought a single gal pal with equally refined taste and no pre-existing nuptial plans: Curbed National correspondent and Weathersby's fellow Southerner, a one Miss Sarah F. Cox. In a New Year’s haze of libations, licentiousness, and a smattering of greed, Weathersby and Cox decided to become affianced. Expressly for the gifts. So if you were wondering what to get them now that word has leaked out through their Facebook relationship statuses, below please find a curatorial selection of baubles, bricolage, and booty the soon-to-betrothed have in mind. And if you lose this post or forget to bookmark it, please direct yourself to the couple's wedding website. (What? That's not your homepage?)

1: Customized i-Case III trunk, $54,700, Pinel & Pinel. [link]
Why she likes it: Already in possession of an iPhone, it seems silly to make the small upgrade to an iPad when there's an entire portable office to iTrump all the other iJunk.
Why he likes it: That’s one big pocket office. What size are the pants!

2. The entire miniature seating selection, $130 to $670, MoMA Design Store. [link]
Why she likes it: Sit down? Hell no. Both of our firm asses still look mighty fine upright, thank you. Instead, let's get $4,010 worth of furniture that friends can neither sit upon nor sully with red wine stains. (William’s soirees tend to get out of hand.)
Why he likes it: The houseboy can Swiffer everything within a minute flat.

3. The New English dinnerware, $97 for a cup and saucer, SWITCHMODERN. [link]
Why she likes it: The Inkhead pattern by Florian Hunter reminds me of a tattoo’d dude I once dated. That reminds me, where's his number?
Why he likes it: I can’t decide between the insects-atop-the-plate pattern, Entomo Black by Monica Tsang, or Lisa Turner’s Anatomica, which is perfect for a Silence of the Lambs buffet (lamb with fava beans paired with a lovely chianti.) Plus, SWITCHMODERN's proprietor, Roy Otwell, is a hottie.

4. Fornace Venini Geacolor vase “in process”, $19K, Moss. [link]
Why she likes it: Colorful and obscure. Let’s help this exquisite SoHo store stay in business if nothing else. $19,000 for a fugly vase—boy, I landed the right guy.
Why he likes it: Mouth. Blown. Enough. Said. Plus, Murray M. has had enough tax troubles of late, so let’s offer a helping hand. And its designer is Gae! (Aulenti).

5. Bleu Nature's Nilleq Stools, $5,998, Barneys. [link]
Why she likes it: Looks like a good hard wood to me. And with Simon Doonan (Mr. Jonathan Adler) being recently named—perhaps downgraded?—to Barneys Creative Ambassador-At-Large, why not invest in solid goods in this economy?
Why he likes it: Always go with a hard wood. And at $5,998, we're not exactly asking you to spend six grand, people.

6: Lifetime membership to David Barton Gym, approx $1,400 annually. [link]
Why she likes it: William, isn’t this where Anderson Cooper works out?
Why he likes it: I’ll be in the locker room with a CNN “feed” for a while if you need me, Cox.

7. The Paris Dogs Bed, Chien Vivant Couture, $1,650. [link]
Why she likes it: I'm bringing the pup, Raleigh, into this relationship. Hellooo, puppy daddy!
Why he likes it: As long as that little bitch is nowhere near my separate bedroom she can have anything she wants.

8: Poltrona Frau's Lullaby Due Bed, $14,859, SWITCHMODERN. [link]
Why she likes it: Austin Powers Alert: Designed in 1968 by Luigi Massoni, this round bed is ultra-sweet. As they advertise, “The bed headrest is fitted on a 360° rotating base that swivels both clockwise and counter-clockwise, thanks to wheels fitted inside the base.” A set of cotton sheets is also included. Ready to rock.
Why he likes it: Don't even try, Cox—it's going in my room.

9. Mattermade's Ceres G chandelier by Lindsey Adelman, $9,100. [link]
Why she likes it: Its linear profile looks like a connect-the-dots or Etch-A-Sketch drawing. And if you're marrying the former lighting editor of Architectural Record magazine—full disclosure, I was William’s intern there without any on-the-record hanky-panky—why not shed some light?
Why he likes it: It’s a steal at $9,100, a limited edition of 10, and, as designer Lindsey Edelman says, “chestnuts, acorns and twigs can be found affixed to arms and joints.” Festive!

10. Schlumberger Aquamarine “Bee” Ring, price upon request, DK Farnum Estate Jewelry. [link]
Why she likes it: Why was this not my engagement ring! It's 18-carat, bi-color gold with .75 carats worth of diamonds. A rectangular-cut aquamarine—William’s birthstone, a plus—and the diamonds are single, round, and marquise. It's an iconic piece of hand candy. Plus, it can be sized.
Why he likes it: Sarah is a size queen, too—that's part of our love connection—and is the price truly the question?

11. In-kind donation to Charity Water. [link]
Why she likes it: Because as crass and materialistic as the world may be, impoverished people always need clean wate.
Why he likes it: Because, like Sarah, I have a heart, too. And I love her.

· Decor Shop Faces Tax Troubles For One Week [Curbed National]
· Simon Doonan Ousted from Creative Director Position and "Promoted" to Creative Ambassador-at-Large [Racked National]
· Past columns authored by Sarah F. Cox [Curbed National]

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Finally, a Roof That Really Pops!: Here's a sustainable dwelling with a...

× 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. Thursday, January 6, 2011, by Sarah

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? Previous: One Last Holiday Hurrah: Behold the Creeptastic Talking House!

? Next: Random Selection of Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Rooms

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On the Market: Who Needs Paris? Here's a Slice of Impressionism on the Pacific.

× 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, January 10, 2011, by Sarah

Well, one certainly can't accuse the folks who decorated this bedroom—presumably the sellers and/or their hired interior designer—for being lazy. There's this floor-to-ceiling painting fun, of course, not to mention a dining room that boasts not one but three long banquet tables. The madness has just been price-slashed to $11.95M, report our cousins over at Curbed SF. Which comes out to approximately $50 per cloud.
· A Little Off the Clouds: Bel-Air Monet Room Drops Again [Curbed LA]
· 3121 ANTELO Rd [Redfin]

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Celebrity Real Estate: Natalie Portman's Pregnant and Engaged! Here's Where She Lives.

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

Actress Natalie Portman is engaged to choreographer Benjamin Millepied, and they're pregnant. How very Black Swan of her to be romanced by a dance master. Anyhoo, the news is a ray of sunshine at the beginning of what's a sleepy post-Christmas week for celebrity and non-celebrity websites alike, so we're here to shed light on the Israel-born and Harvard-educated Portman's recent real estate wheelings and dealings.

In 2005, Portman purchased gorgeous 2,500-square-foot digs in Richard Meier's glassy 176 Perry Street tower in NYC's West Village for $5.7M. (A small price to pay for an apartment that was later described in the listing as being "warmed by glorious sunsets!") Two years later, she began an East Coast, Good Riddance tour as she put her other home, in Syosset, N.Y., the market for $2.2M—perhaps hoping to escape certain ethnic stereotypes that often go hand-in-hand with Jewish women in this part of Long Island? Finally, in July 2008, she listed that Meier stunner for $6.55M. So, where did she end up? Just a little four-bedroom "mini mansion" (above) in the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A., which she purchased for $3.25M. Built in the '30s, the place boasts an impressive pedigree, having been owned by the likes of legendary jazz pianist Chick Corea and actor couple Dermot Mulroney and Catherine Keener. With 18,000 square feet of landscaped grounds, it's just the place for Portman to rest her weary, ballet-worn skin 'n' bones.

· Natalie Portman is Engaged and Pregnant! [People]
· Celebrity Real Estate: Portman Wants Off Island? [Curbed NY]
· On the Market: Natalie Portman Ditching Meierville [Curbed NY]
· Natalie Portman Purchases Celebrity Magnet Mini-Mansion in Los Feliz [The Real Estalker]

View the original article here