While visiting Palm Springs this past week - we spent a lot of time looking at real estate and architecture, a sort of evil passion.  Architecture has always inspired me, and what designers and architects do with materials never ceases to amaze me (unless it’s really tacky).  Because my passion is unusual living spaces, I tend to gravitate towards loft living with an industrial and contemporary feel.  While driving down the main drag in downtown Palm Springs, I hurried to a loft development of only 12 units, all for sale.  Depending on your preference—one side of the property looks over a bustling pedestrian friendly shopping corridor (conveniently housing most of the modern furniture stores) or the base of the serene mountainside.  Ranging from the Mid $500s to the Upper $700’s, it’s a relative bargain for a brand new property in a vacation hot spot.  For about $570,000, you get a completely outfitted 1400+/- sq foot, two story loft with high end finishes like Wolf, SubZero, Glass Mosaic Tile, etc.  Until recently, comparable properties would be selling for the upper 700’s without question.  For better or worse, the economic climate has made this property a great find.

Location :  803 N. Palm Canyon - Palm Springs, CA. 

Contact:  Windermere Real Estate (Michael Weitzel) 760-340-9253 [ see website ]

If you are looking for a wall sculpture to light up your life, check out these designed by Foscarini.  The Field Wall Sculptures are simple yet elegant and just look really cool with the built-in accent lighting.

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Here is an interesting sink concept.  The Hidden Tap by Jelmer Moorman features motion sensing technology that allows the water to follow those dirty hands.  The water will also change temperature from hot to cold depending on which side of the sink you position your hands.  See how the sink works via Engadget

I’m a big fan of rings, but hate it when they lose their luster with all the scratches from normal wear over time.  Even platinum needs a buff or polish here and there despite it being a fairly dense metal.  If you are looking for an alternative metal to slap on your finger, try a tungsten carbide ring.  Tungsten carbide is the most wear resistant metal and always maintains a permanently polished luster.  Tungsten is about 10 times harder than 18K Gold, 5 times harder than tool steel, and 4 times harder than titanium.  Tungsten rings will hold their shape and shine longer than any ring on the market; they are literally scratch proof.  I have had mine for quite some time and I love it!  Trust me, you will get a lot of compliments!

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Located in Chicago’s Wicker Park, 1233 N. Marion is an architectual masterpiece I stumbled upon that is up for grabs.  From it’s TerraNeo façade, to the floating staircase, the white oak floors, to the fabulous italian design kitchen, this home boasts a lot of luxurious features under it’s roof.  All this can be yours for a mere jaw-dropping 1.39 million US dollars.  Other features include:

Exterior - masonry construction with TerraNeo innovative façade, limestone caps and parapet walls
Architectural lighting by Lightology
Professionally landscaped front and rear yards; 1200 sqft of deck space
2 ½ car garage with a roof deck
Living/Dining Room with an award winning SPARK “ribbon” gas fireplace.
White oak floors with contrasting reveal wenge stained baseboards
Custom floating staircase with wenge treads, stainless steel inlay and architectural railing
Living areas integrate with outdoors through a remote operated architectural overhead door
Italian Wenge/Glass/Stainless Steel Aran Kitchen Mia cabinets with full extension, soft close drawers
Gourmet appliance package by Wolf and Subzero
Honed quartz countertops in kitchen and bathrooms
Italian porcelain 12” X 24” tile flooring
Double bowl square under mount sink / Hans Grohe kitchen pull out faucet
Most bedrooms have direct access to decks or balconies
Lower level guest bedroom suite (maid’s room) offers private living quarters for live-in help
Master bathroom features 5’ X 5’ Neptune whirlpool with a waterfall faucet; steam shower has body sprays, a hand-held shower and a rain head
Custom mahogany cantilevered vanities in the master bathroom
All master bathroom fixtures by Hans Grohe; other bath fixtures by Grohe or Hans Grohe
Imported Italian porcelain and mosaic tile in various custom sizes
All toilets by Duravit (wall mounted in powder room and master bathroom)
Tempered glass frameless shower doors as installed
Duravit and Lacava sinks and vanities

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What do you do with a creative mind, 3000 ping pong balls, and a lot of time on your hands?  Make a chandalier!  This modern day chandalier, named The Troy by Zia-Priven, hangs at an impressive 9 feet.  It’s big, dramatic, and just big!  “This One of a Kind, oversized Troy Chandelier was the centerpiece of the Circular Ligne Roset Lounge at The Architectural Digest Home Design Show and is available for purchase or display with the proceeds to be donated to DirectEffect for HIV/AIDS Research at The Rockefeller University.” Very cool that the proceeds for this chandalier is going for a good cause.  Smaller versions also available and customizable to suit your lighting needs.

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Architecture is a big thing in Chicago and I am always happy to see new modern architecture at it’s finest. Pictured below is a single family home around the corner from my apartment that is absolutely amazing; this is in the Northcenter area of Chicago. As you can see from the picture below, the dramatic bay window exposes the main living section of the home.  With the blind fully retracted, you can see right through the house into the living room and kitchen and through another bay window exposing the backyard. The picture does not do this home justice, but believe me, the home is just breathtaking.  I have yet to stop and ask the owners more details about their home, but soon enough I will hopefully write more about this house and the thought that went into building this spectacular gem.

On my virtual bar hopping tour, I now take you back home to Chicago where the sound drives your soul at this trendy bar.  Sonotheque features a state-of-the-art sound system in a nice modern lounge.  This venue is also a “platform for local and international DJ’s and a superlative showcase for artistic musical and visual collaboration”.  Depending on your style of music, this bar will take your experience to the next level.  More about Sonotheque...

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Not an actual count of caps, but I am sure it’s way up there.  On my visit to San Francisco, I came across this hip bar (Impala) that had their DJ booth faceted with bottle caps.  An interesting concept; reminded me of those Pseudoisochromatic tests but with style!  Very neat after many cocktails. 

Well we arrived in London and have spent most of the past day in one of two activities… sleeping or exploring our new neighborhood. It’s a interesting experience to drop into a new life and place to call home for an extended period of time… so I’ll try to share some of that experience here as we make it thru the next month in London.

it’s always fun to find something unique and in this case the “Bridge of Aspiration” is just that… steps from our front door this beautiful piece of modern architecture links the classic structures of Royal Opera House on the left to the Royal Ballet across the street.

...And you KNOW you’re bathroom is really about you!  Featured at ICFF (one of my favorite booths), Lacava debuts beautiful bathroom collections that make the statement.  Experience “luxurious elegance in your bathroom” with this Chicago based company of Italian origin (they are also GREEN at heart).  As you can see pictured below, the Double Reflection Washbasin Vanity is crafted from brushed stainless.  With a sink this beautiful, you’d be obsessive on maintaining this sink’s beauty and luster by washing your face or hands elsewhere!  If a mountain inspired this designer, then the sky is the limit for your bathroom design!

See more pictures below

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Industrial designer/architect Giovanni Pagnotta’s bold creations capture the benefits of the ultimate lightweight material carbon fiber in his furnishings.  His prototype line of carbon fiber furniture demonstrates what can happen when a material is taken to extreme limits of its strengh-to-weight ratio. His products are layered in plies of carbon fiber to create an extremely thin profile. The Z5 chair for example (chaise pictured below) weighs a mere 14 pounds, with a maximum thickness of half an inch, yet can carry 3,000 pounds with no indication of impending structural failure.  For the price, that chair better see a lot of a*s!

The Intel Shell was imploded this morning at 7.30am in Austin

If you follow the real estate development market - you know that Austin TX is the bright spot of the country—so much so it was featured in the NY Times just a week ago… as cranes dot the skyline in about 8 hrs from now this building - known as the Intel Shell will come down… Intel started and left abandoned the building shell and all the city tax incentives in 2001 when tech boom turned to tech bust and they cut their losses. Now the site will become the new federal courthouse. I know, I know why do we need a new courthouse - well the existing one is outdated and overburdened - and our greed obsessed city council couldn’t find a way to stop the courthouse and get another highrise condo development on the site (like the 3 on the surrounding adjacent blocks...) Those condos are much better cranking out the revenue than a few judges, white collar criminals and the suburban lawyers who defend them.

So tomorrow at 7am, I my friends and neighbors and a couple of those judges, a few senators, a bunch (i.e. hundreds) of local who’s who and an army of media will watch from a nearby rooftop as this building implodes… it should make for great video - so give me a little time to get home with the camera to get it posted…

Wallternatives, the makers of totally cool wallcoverings is now.... WALLTERIORS… check out their new website at wallteriors.com.