Beantown Dream

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• Is accessibility a tenet of good design? I don't know. However, let's just pretend that it is. The median home price in the US is between $185,000 and $285,000, depending on the region, as calculated by the National Association of Realtors. http://www.realestateabc.com/outlook/overall.htm. Let's use the high number and you can even add 10%. How about an entire issue devoted to houses that are below that benchmark ($313,500). Let's be fair and account for square footage as well and this time we will deduct 10% from the median. This would leave us with about 2050 which would be $153/sqft. Show me the modern designer who can do this and they will be the one's who lead the design revolution. I love your magazine; but, just one issue which is devoted to that which is accessible to me and millions of others would really be great. Thanks.

  Ryan Corbin 07/02/2009

• Here! Here! I agree with Mr. Corbin Give us something!

  ray ream 07/16/2009

• well said, Ryan! I've been looking for nice, modern house plans/designs that are around 2000 s.f and affordable to a middle class family and it's practically impossible. One issue! that's all we ask!

  Ayida 07/21/2009

• I couldn't concur more. The current modus operandi of these articles "sustainability + good design = boutique home=rich people" and which sends a terrible message and alienates a large swathe of regular people who want a house with a reasonalbe square footage and a reasonable price tag. Dwell should lead the charge in publicizing green design for DWELLings, not PALACES.

  Olwen HUxley 07/24/2009

• I echo your sentiments for an issue with homes that are more accessible in price. I love the design that Dwell delivers, but because of the inherent high cost of most of the homes that are featured in the magazine, I'm often reminding myself as I read: "Don't try this at home". Dwell for the people!

  Paul 08/06/2009

• wow, this article blithely dismisses the boston triple-decker housing typology with the single word "elementary", which it is anything but. considered not just as a singular stand-alone building, but as a part of a built-up urban fabric, it's quite a complex spatial phenomenon that supports quite well a rich variety of ways of life - from the extended families that lived in them in the past, to groups of college roommates now, and things in between. considered on its own, the triple-decker's design is quite flexible in ways that have absolutely nothing to do with wall baseboards with clean corners.

  rja 02/01/2010

• Nice phrasing, Ryan, I can't help but notice that Dwell has increasingly turned into a modern version of Architectural Digest. Perhaps the tag line should be "People with an unlimited budget can have a really nice house."

  Mason 03/16/2010

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