Organizations such as Friends of the Los Angeles River have been working on revitalizing the waterfront for decades, reserving years of planning and development that led a once vital source of water for agriculture to become a concrete-covered waterway known known by many as the site of gritty Hollywood chase scenes. Play the LA River wants to add to that conversation around revitalization.
The future of the Los Angeles River has much to do with restoring the natural lifeline of Dwell on Design's host city. Experts such as landscape architect Mia Lehrer (who spearheaded the river's revitalization plan) and Cynthia Hirschhorn, environmental designer and board member of the L.A. River Corp, will provide firsthand insights into how the river will be restored to a more natural state.
Play the LA River is a year-long initiative by the Project 51 collective to encourage exploration and engagement that's launching on September 13, 2014. The Army Corp of Engineers recently recommended approval of a $1 billion dollar project to revitalize 11 miles of riverfront property; politicians such as L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and President Obama have already pledged support.
Architect: YAMAMAR Design, Location: San Francisco, California
Lightroom 1.0, a photography studio, is a freestanding structure on the property. “Together, they represent an autobiography of my career,” Carpenter says.
Tasked with creating a multi-use guest pavilion on a relatively small Northern California vineyard lot that could also host sit down dinners for up to 60 people, designers at Anderson Architects started by asking the key questions: “Where should it be within the property?” “How much floor area do we need for a 60 person dinner?” “How much volume do we need for a basketball court?” “We also always tell ourselves to look at the landscape first, let it dominate and lead it through. The building took the form of a large Napa Valley barn.
Both the sitting and standing versions of DESK 01, a collaboration between Artifox and IdeaPaint, are outfitted with dry erase surfaces for recording sudden bursts of creativity.
Style: "#1"
"Shane enjoys both cooking and entertaining so we maximized the counter space to make meal prep and hosting easy," Priftaj says. "It was also very important that the kitchen include a gas grill so he could quickly and conveniently grill without having to climb up five flights of stairs to use the bbq on the patio." Priftaj selected high-gloss acrylic white cabinets from bulthaup's b3 line with an aluminum backsplash and b3 prism drawer system to keep things tidy. A Wolf hood and gas cooktop with chargrill give Carslake the flexibility he desired for indoor grilling. The counters are polished white quartz.
Sugarhouse reworked the living room storage and reoriented the room to better occupy the available space. An Ellison Studio sofa, recovered in Dedar Patchwork Fabric, fits the whole family for movie nights. The coffee table is from Etsy and the rug is Nordic Knots. The overhead light is a vintage Poul Henningsen via 1st Dibs.
The St. Louis Arch (1965), Saarinen's most recognizable architectural feat, is located in the heart of St. Louis.
Despite the cast-on-site concrete dividers, there's still an airy sense of space; the dividers support, instead of overwhelm. This approach came from the architects' constant sense of experimentation and playfulness, a deliberate approach that helped them find new ways to use recycled and salvaged materials.
"It was supposed to be as naked as possible," says Alexandru Popescu, one of the members of R3Architetti who helped design and build the 3 Vaults apartment. "The furniture is absolutely included in the architecture; it’s more like an indoor landscape instead of a typical open plan." The kitchen exemplifies their approach, with textured concrete walls contrasting with wood panels and salvaged industrial lighting. The table, custom built by R3Architetti, is made in part from pipes procured from one of their fathers, a plumber.
The exterior of Connect 4L 1,600 sf 3 bed 3 bath 2 story modern prefab.
The old barn's foundation, re-stacked by a local stonemason, was reused as a rustic retaining wall for the pool area. The property also came with a corn crib and blacksmith shop as old as the barn, seen behind the pool, which are both used for storage now. St. Tropez chaises from Kingsley-Bate line the pool.
A simple kitchen includes a traditional wood stove, but much of the cooking is done outside, on the outdoor wood-fired grill.
Top 9 Kitchens of 2020: The nominees for this year’s Dwell Design Awards are the epitome of style and function.
The kitchen island and cabinets at this Melbourne renovation are made of recycled timber, taking cue from the wooden bookcase that designer Kim Kneipp installed during the home’s first restyling.
Lauren and Brittan Ellingson, the owners of Notice Snowboards, a custom snowboard and wakesurf company in Whitefish, Montana, approached Workaday Design and builder Mindful Designs to concoct a new lake home for their family. The brief was, perhaps unsurprisingly, focused on getting the family outdoors as much as possible.
The multidisciplinary team at State of Kin, a Perth-based design studio, wanted to create a uniquely Australian home, one that incorporated a variety of both multicultural and local sources. The idea of such a mix, says director Ari Salomone, "is quite true to the Australian vernacular." <span style="font-family: Theinhardt, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;">When choosing what shades would go into the home's color palette, the design team drew heavily on the Western Australian landscape. "We looked to the Pindan red dirt of the Northwest, the luminous white beaches, the dusty eucalyptus greens,
The Lofthouse is built one of the many hills separating it from the couple’s main residence. "Excavation was a challenge, as we wanted to maintain as much of the existing landscape as possible, but needed to clear out trees for the foundation," says Tarah.
The architects designed the home’s expansion with the knowledge that the owners plan to continue the renovation when their budget allows it. "We wanted to put everything in the right place so it doesn’t have to be undone later," says Corti.
Parota wood continues in the spacious kitchen. Marisa and Christopher found the blue tile that runs throughout the home on a trip to León, Mexico. "It called out to us," says Christopher. Festooned with small stars, its tone matches the color of the ocean perfectly.
The sunken lounge was designed with "slowing down and appreciating the environment" in mind. A custom-made, built-in sofa wraps around the space, bleeding into the stairs and a custom wood display shelf. Not having a TV was an intentional choice. "We wanted the client to be able to lie back and watch the clouds and the sky, to have conversations, to read a book, to play with their pets," says Knights.
Large windows let in an abundance of natural light and views of the landscape.
Houston-based designer Barbara Hill is known for a stripped-down aesthetic that blends art-world cachet with Texas modernism. Vitra’s Slow chair sits in front of a powder-coated-steel bookcase made by Hill’s go-to fabricator, George Sacaris; it was originally built for the Houston house.
The architects embraced the modernist form of the new structure instead of cladding the extension in expensive brick to match the original Victorian’s exterior.
Honed Carrara marble lines the kitchen countertops as well as the backsplash.
The soft undulation of the outer brick wall continues playfully throughout the heart of the family home in a lattice form.
When architect Antonio Monserrat transformed an old 800-square-foot Brooklyn loft into his new home, he imbued his love of colorful, multifunctional design into an eye-catching renovation. Once used as a bakery in the early 20th century, the postindustrial space came with great bones—original exposed timber beams, 12-foot ceilings and large windows—that Monserrat used as a backdrop for his playful color choices, small-scale studio prototypes, and contemporary furnishings. From the emerald-green entryway with a hot-pink ceiling to the sunshine-yellow Kartell storage pieces, the Spanish architect’s loft beautifully blends creative inspiration with functionality.
Planning regulations required a gable roof, which the architects split into four shed roofs carefully designed to respond to heavy snow shed and meet spatial and aesthetic wishes.
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