A San Francisco home known for its appearances on the sitcom “Full House” becomes a child-friendly haven of high art and chic antiques.
Read excerpted article here.
ReadyMade
That’s a Wrap
Published in ReadyMade, Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Packing up 900 pairs of glasses for delivery via the USPS is no easy task, but anything is possible with a little (or a lot of) help from your friends.
On a recent Thursday night in San Francisco’s Mission District, dozens of people congregated in the Southern Exposure gallery for a “wrapping party.” The event is like “going to an art opening, but you’re given something to do,” says Jonn Herschend, one of the evening’s hosts and a co-founder of the as-yet-unwrapped object in question: the latest issue of The Thing, an experimental periodical “in the form of an object” that goes out to subscribers worldwide. (Read More…)
Travel + Leisure
North Lake Tahoe’s New Look
Published in Travel + Leisure, Tuesday, December 1, 2009
A new Ritz-Carlton and a slew of shops and restaurants are bringing a dose of fresh glamour to this renowned playground.
Surrounded by 18 ski resorts—the densest concentration of slopes anywhere in America—Lake Tahoe is a winter-sports paradise. But despite its abundance of on-mountain thrills, the region has been lacking, somewhat, in off-slope amenities—unless you count the casinos and an all-night bar scene (not to mention attendant bachelor parties) on the lake’s south side. (Read More…)
The New York Times
36 Hours in Austin, Texas
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, November 29, 2009
The city’s unofficial motto, “Keep Austin Weird,” blares from bumper stickers on BMWs and jalopies alike, on T-shirts worn by joggers along Lady Bird Lake and in the windows of independently owned shops and restaurants. It’s an exhortation for a city that clings (Read More…)
Travel + Leisure
T+L’s Guide to Kyoto, Japan
Published in Travel + Leisure, Sunday, November 1, 2009
Japan’s ancient capital has one foot in the 14th century and the other firmly rooted in the 21st.
While the megalopolis of Tokyo catapults itself into the future, Kyoto—renowned for its temples, shrines, and vibrant geisha culture—has grown cautiously. Two years ago, the government banned rooftop and flashing ads and put a cap on building height to preserve the centuries-old landscape. Now, a surprisingly modern city is emerging as stylish restaurants, shops, and inns pop up in 19th-century machiya, or wooden merchants’ houses. (Read More…)
The New York Times
Next Stop: Fine Art Meets Fine Wine in Napa Valley
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, October 4, 2009
It was a crisp and sunny Saturday in Yountville, a wine-soaked town in the heart of the Napa Valley, and a steady trickle of day-trippers was hopping from tasting room to oak-scented tasting room, spearing Manchego cubes and sipping the latest vintages. (Read More…)
Dwell
Net Assets
Published in Dwell, Friday, July 17, 2009
Gesturing at the wood-and-iron house he designed for his family three years ago, the Buenos Aires–based furniture designer and architect Alejandro Sticotti declares, “It was like putting in a UFO, like something from Mars.” True, with its clean lines, open floor plan, and raw finishes (Read More…)
The Faster Times
Photo Essay: Rajasthan, India
Published in The Faster Times, Sunday, July 5, 2009
At first, I tried to resist the seduction. I felt that there was something shameful, whorish even, in tourists lusting after color, pointing their cameras at a retreating pink sari, or a flash of red turbans. Yet over and over again I swiveled toward the colors, camera in hand, as if magnetized. I was in northwest India for ten days, reporting a story (Read More…)
Interior Design
Time for a Change
Published in Interior Design, Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Some people mark new phases of life with adventure experiences (skydiving, safaris) or shiny purchases (jewelry, sports cars). Others renovate. Such was the case with a retired widow who had lived in a two-bedroom on San Francisco’s tony Nob Hill since the ’80’s. (Read More…)
Topos
Mint Plaza in San Francisco
Published in Topos, Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Just three years ago, this stretch of Jessie Street in downtown San Francisco was a gritty back alley, populated by parked cars, pigeons, and the down-and-out. On one side of the street sat a Vietnamese sandwich shop and a budget SRO hotel; on the other hulked the granite and sandstone Old Mint, a Greek Revival building (Read More…)
The New York Times
Save or Splurge: San Francisco
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, June 14, 2009
ON $250/DAY
SLEEP Carved out of a 1920s hotel, the new Hotel Vertigo in Nob Hill (940 Sutter Street; 415-885-6800; www.hotelvertigosf.com) recently emerged from a cinematic makeover inspired (Read More…)
The New York Times Style Magazine
The Skill Set
Published in The New York Times Style Magazine, Sunday, May 17, 2009
Indian artisans are breathing new life into old traditions.
If you close your eyes and block out the visual cues — the red ocher 18th-century buildings, the brightly colored bazaars, the monkeys scrambling maniacally over the dusty rooflines — you would still know you were in Jaipur, India. The country’s center of traditional craftsmanship has a distinctive soundtrack (Read More…)
Elle Decor
Elle Decor Goes to Athens
Published in Elle Decor, Friday, May 15, 2009
Hip hotels, restaurant and museums are transforming the city of Socrates.
Read excerpted article here.
Dwell
Profile: Terunobu Fujimori
Published in Dwell, Thursday, April 16, 2009
A modern eccentric with an architectural sensibility drawn from ancient Japanese traditions, Terunobu Fujimori designs projects that are exercises in playful experimentation and sophisticated craft.
One of the first things you notice about the Japanese architect and architectural historian Terunobu Fujimori is his voracious appetite. His particular brand of hunger extends not only to food—which he devours swiftly and animatedly, crumbs flying Cookie Monster–style—but also to an ardent intellectual curiosity (Read More…)
Dwell
Site Unseen
Published in Dwell, Sunday, March 1, 2009
Few people would spend their life savings on a plot of land they’d never seen. Two exceptions are Adrienne Webb and Stefan Dunlop, who, while living in a loft in London, snapped up an acre of land in northeastern Australia, 10,000 miles away. (Read More…)
Town & Country
A San Francisco Treat
Published in Town & Country, Monday, February 9, 2009
Exploring the California Academy of Sciences, the greenest museum on earth.
The California Academy of Sciences, which reopened in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this past fall, is now in a new building that resembles a high-style space station — all glass and recycled steel and capped with an undulating green roof (Read More…)
The New York Times
Check In, Check Out: The Good Hotel, San Francisco
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, February 8, 2009
THE BASICS The Good Hotel, which opened last November, claims to be the first “hotel with a conscience.” Anthropomorphizing aside, the hotel does have many admirable qualities: low prices (rooms start at $89), eco-friendly touches and a philanthropic streak. (Read More…)
The New York Times
36 Hours in Carmel-by-the-Sea
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, January 25, 2009
With its architectural mishmash of storybook English cottages and Swiss Alpine chalets, the small town of Carmel-by-the-Sea in Northern California resembles a Disneyland version of Europe. You half expect a bereted Parisian to saunter out of one of the ridiculously cute (Read More…)
The New York Times
Foraging: Kuraya Japanese Antiques
Published in The New York Times, Sunday, October 26, 2008
Kuraya doesn’t look like much from the street — just a nondescript warehouse on the industrial fringe of the Mission District. But climb the loading-dock stairs, and you’ll find yourself surrounded by some real Japanese booty: hundreds of antique tansu chests from the mid-19th to the early 20th century, each built for a specific function, from tea preparation to kimono storage. (Read More…)
My best-laid plans were scrapped the moment I arrived in Oaxaca City. “You want to see the real, authentic Mexico, right?” asked Alejandro Ruiz, one of the city’s most renowned chefs, as he giddily steered his SUV through narrow cobblestoned streets (Read More…)