Open House: Modern Homes Built for Entertaining

Radio show hosts Rico Gagliano and Brendan Francis Newnam offer their best design ideas for a festive evening.

The architect and academic has maintained a ledger full of ephemera that details memories of every get-together she’s hosted for the past 14 years. Here, she shares a few pages.

Vivian Manasc’s rooftop loft is a bright spot—and a model green building—in the Canadian city of Edmonton, Alberta, where downtown living is rare.

Most folks who kit out a trailer intend to take it on the road, but Burton Baldridge’s design is happy to stay put.

Hufft Projects carves out a conversation pit–style seating area in an open-air scheme designed for entertaining.

What if anyone could set up a cafe or a bar in their home, serving strangers specials du jour from their own kitchens?

Dr. Kenneth Montague’s loft is both home and art gallery thanks to two kitchens, a rooftop deck, and no shortage of conversation pieces.

The bamboo-clad farmhouse doesn’t hide the technical elements that contribute to its green features.

An L-shaped Glassell Park home brings friends, family, and a fleet of urban gardeners together for a classic West Coast gathering.

San Francisco architect Cass Calder Smith invites us inside his home away from home in a modern Manhattan high-rise.

The Borrego Springs home quite literally built for entertaining references Le Corbusier and Luis Barragán in a low-slung love letter to late modernism.

Flash back to the 1970s for visionary Italian designer Joe Colombo’s mod—and moveable—take on a casual soirée.