When David Carmel decided to propose to Kirsten Axelsen, he was at home in Manhattan and she was in Ethiopia, working to eliminate trachoma (the world’s leading cause of preventable blindness). No…
House hunting isn’t just about roving the streets and stopping at For Sale signs anymore; instead, prospective buyers will spend hours trawling the Internet to find their future home. The editor of…
Tired of tucking your camera, thumb drives, and power cords between alternating layers of t-shirt and trousers as you head out out on a trip? Grid-It offers a clever way to keep all your…
Like so many L.A. stories, the tale of the Courtyard House begins with a lucky break. One day in 2001, Thomas Robertson got a call from a friend he hadn’t seen in ages. The friend told him that his elderly aunt needed companionship in her twilight years, and that she owned an empty lot in a posh West Los Angeles neighborhood. Would Tom like to design a home they could live in together? “I thought he was joking,” Robertson recalls. And just like that, he had his first house commission. — David A. Greene
The thick stucco walls and tiled roof repels heat, and the cleverly positioned casement windows (even in closets) suck Pacific sea breezes far inland.