A 15-year run as an actor in New York came to an abrupt end in 2000 when Michael Curry awoke in the middle of the night with an epiphany about a mosaic and a dining room table. He’d been working at night in “Cabaret” on Broadway, his days free, and was creatively antsy. He’d recently...
Marcello Becchi remembers his days as a child when he’d walk into a toy store with his parents and see things that they couldn’t. “It was a fantasy,” the Italian-born vice president of business development for the international firm Trend Group says. “I was a fan of Legos – not as blocks,...
It’s said that one of the bookplates in architect Richard Morris Hunt’s library read: “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis Est” or “Art is Long, Life is Brief.” Perhaps the conservatory at Biltmore Estate near Asheville, N.C. is a case in point. Developed in collaboration with Frederick Law Olmsted for George...
Out at the end of Long Island where the land fishtails into the North and South Forks, a tiny dollop of of sand appears to have slipped between the two tines and split them. Shelter Island is twelve square miles of beach accessible only by an eight-minute ferry ride. Twenty-five hundred people live there...
A rare temple to 120 years of American attitudes about athletics and race stands empty today near Princeton University – staring into the abyss of demolition. Over the years the little Romanesque building at 86 Olden Street has been known as Osborn Clubhouse, the Third World Center, and the Carl A. Fields...
The clients wanted plenty of land for their children to grow up with, all of it within the crowded city of Los Angeles. The architects set out to help them find that property, meet those needs and satisfy a desire for inside/outside living. Four acres in Glassell Park, between Mount Washington and Silver...
Ellen Blakeley’s works in glass initially were fueled by bursts of vandalism in 1994 San Francisco. “There were teenage boys there shooting out the bus shelters, just because they liked watching them blow up,” she said. “So there’d be these piles of beautiful glass lying there on the sidewalk,...
Not by a long shot. The three Philadelphia partners in MODA botanica derive their pleasure and inspiration from art, from architecture, from the auto supply store and from Home Depot. In the case of the Philadelphia International Flower Show, where they’ve just racked up five major awards – including...
Alys Beach is built for the long term. It’s made of hurricane-proof, sustainable materials that last, like concrete, steel and plaster. It marries a vision from Bermuda with the typology of Antigua and Guatemala. Its walls and rooftops are white, not just to resemble their counterparts in Bermuda,...
On the peninsula where Gen. Douglas McArthur once turned the tide of the Korean War 60 years ago, a new and modern city is rising rapidly. At Incheon, seventeen miles southwest of Seoul, Phase I of New Songdo City opened in August 2009. It’s now home to more than 10,000 people, with about...
