Table of contents for Oct-11 in Dwell

Comeback Kids As sputtering false starts to this editor’s note prove, honing in on the exactitudes of American design is no easy task. Like most other aspects of our culture, our design runs the gamut. With some 300 million people spread out over 3.79 million square miles, you’re going to run into some differences. For contrast, look at Finland, a nation renowned for its straightforward design sensibility. There, you’ll find a mere five million souls occupying some 130,000 square miles, most of which is left to the reindeer. About a fifth of the population lives in and around Helsinki, the capital, so it’s no wonder they can all agree on using blond birch. But back Stateside, what’s tops in Toledo may not pass muster in Muskogee, and might not even…

Consider it an experiment in truly industrial design. Fifteen designers took on the challenge to produce prototypes using off-the-shelf manufacturing parts sourced entirely from the venerable McMaster-Carr catalog, which has been selling hardware for over a century. A warehouse in the NoHo Design District displayed the “McMaster-pieces,” and the hot spot for emerging talent offered an amalgamation of melted pipe fittings, affixed stickers, riveted leather, screwed nuts and bolts, lit wicks, and more. A. Smolten Mirror by Cmmnwlth commonwealth.nu B. Oil Lamps by Karl Zahn oboiler.com C. Clock by Timothy Liles timothyliles.com D. Tote Bag by Alissia Melka-Teichroew byamt.com E. Chess Set by Bec Brittain becbrittain.com…

A. Die by Frederick McSwain Tobias Wong once traded a cigarette for a die from a stranger on the street. McSwain honored his friend with a portrait composed of 13,138 plastic dice—–one for every day of Wong’s life. B. Reflection by Brad Ascalon The original Mirror Puzzle was a not-so-standard jigsaw—–Wong substituted reflective pieces for standard printed cardboard. Ascalon’s black-and-brass stained glass evolves the thoughtful concept. C. Secondhand Romance by Todd Bracher An iconic vice gets a delicate glass display. Bracher’s cigarette holder allows voyeurs to watch as smoke rises and ash descends. D. Convex Concave by Stephen Burks Wong once decked out a Parisian shop window with clever diamond-inspired designs. Burks opted for fragmented reflections from this faceted steel objet. E. Call Me or Copy Me by Marc Thorpe…

Benoit Jacob cut his teeth in automotive design at Renault, where he worked to develop the look of more affordable alternatives to the company’s existing fleet. Later, at BMW, he won praise for his work on the M1 Homage and CS coupe concepts. This past July, as the head designer at sub-brand BMW i, Jacob unveiled two new carbon-fiber-reinforced concept cars, the i8 and the i3 (below), which will herald the company’s foray into the world of electric cars. What set you on the path toward automotive design? Since I was a kid I’ve had a passion for cars and sketching. These two things together equal car design. Where do you see vehicular design moving in the next 20 years? Cars have to be cleaner, lighter and more sustainable—this is…

Project: Ski House H2o Location: Hobe Sound, Florida Architect: Hughesumbanhower Architects huum.com When you’re an avid water skier with property overlooking an aquatic slalom course, maintaining a view of your surroundings is key. “The home is really driven by exposure to the landscape,” says architect Scott Hughes. The residence was designed to provide not only an optimal platform from which to watch every Raley, backroll, and scarecrow, but also efficient shelter from Florida’s blistering sun and torrential rain. A series of floor-to-ceiling windows along the north facade open the cozy living room, dining room, and kitchen to an expansive vista of bucolic Otter Lake, while a simple corrugated-metal roof shades a terrace and directs cooling breezes through the upper transom. Despite the inlet’s obvious appeal, the resident’s favorite view is…

COUNTER ARUGUMENTS If your kitchen counters look more drab than fab, consider revamping with a sustainable surface. At your fingertips is a myriad of green countertops with the look and feel of traditional materials plus environmental creds that will ease your conscience and take a load off Mother Nature. We put them to the test to see how they coped with everyday culinary maladies—– stains, spills, an errant cleaver chop (or two), and heavy objects falling from great heights. Read on for the results.…

It’s not often that you you’ll find Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan on the same side of an issue, but ask either one and he’ll tell you he’s all for buying American. But to buy American we have to make American. Though we’re not the manufacturing powerhouse we were at mid-century, there’s still plenty of good design rolling off our assembly lines and out of our workshops. First the bad news: According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, American manufacturing hit its postwar peak in 1951, when it accounted for 27.9 percent of the gross domestic product. By 2010 that percentage was down to just 11.7 percent—a small tick above the 2009 nadir of 11.2 percent—and the production of furniture and related products as a percentage of GDP accounted for…

Glacier National Park Blanket by Pendleton Woolen Mills Washougal, Washington Oregon’s Pendleton Woolen Mills produces a small group of colorful blankets inspired by America’s great open spaces that are a fitting and cozy ode to our great national parks. pendleton-usa.com Ball Wide-Mouth Pint Jars Lids and bands made in Muncie, Indiana; jars made in Indiana Before you got into urban homesteading, before you were drinking obscure Vermont microbrews out of them at the off-campus co-op, even before your grandmother started keeping her leftovers in them, Ball’s Mason jars were a near perfect example of food storage. freshpreservingstore.com ProStock Ash Wood Bat by Louisville Slugger Louisville, Kentucky As potent today as when the Great Bambino swung one. Nothing screams “America” louder or with such verve as a Louisville Slugger. They’re still…

Michael Iannone founded Iannone Design in Philadelphia in 2004. His team of two produces small quantities of handmade furniture with strong modern lines and a sustainable bent. He elaborates on one of the many challenges of being an indie designer and maker. “If I want to get into a new material or another area of design that’s a bit of a challenge. I was working on this table with metal legs and I had them made locally but they needed to be refined. I’m suddenly dealing with the issue that unless I buy this huge quantity of legs it wouldn’t be cost-effective. Which means then that my price at retail wouldn’t be what I feel is reasonable. “Right now we just do furniture, but I’ve always been interested in smaller…

“I hated Wichita. It was a Podunk cow-town and there was nothing for me to do here,” says Jamil Malone, a native who left for college thinking he’d never return. “But then I came back and fell in love with the place.” Malone calls himself one of the city’s “little cheerleaders.” “My friends visit from all over—–Austin, New York, San Francisco—–and they all say ‘Why didn’t you tell us about this place?’ No one expects it to be this fun.” A social creature who seems to know everyone, Malone has hosted several “alcohol-themed” parties and manages to wedge as many as 20 people into his studio. The gatherings are like gallery openings, with the walls of Malone’s apartment displaying a roving selection of locally produced art. “I love that I…

Project: 141 Spring Street Architect: Johnny Tucker Location: Charleston, South Carolina @ Extended slideshow at dwell.com/magazine In Charleston, South Carolina, the genteel city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, reigning style dictates an appreciation for deep porches, painted wood, and 19th-century antiques. For designers Helen Rice and Josh Nissenboim, a gamine artist and a chess fanatic with a homegrown design studio, merging regional roots with a sharply honed aesthetic proved a worthy challenge, and one that drew on the talents and craftsmanship of a community of friends. The self-admitted workaholics sought a historic house with a larger-than-average footprint so they could incorporate the operations of their design company, Fuzzco, into their living space. (They’ve since moved Fuzzco headquarters down the street, to a one-story structure they also gutted and…

If the great Wrightian strain of American modernism is about stitching a structure seamlessly into the landscape, Alden B. Dow is its most committed tailor, an architect who ardently took his small, Midwestern hometown as his cloth and thread. An heir of the Dow Chemical fortune and a pupil at Taliesin, Dow (1904–1983) lived most of his 79 years in Midland, Michigan. Over the course of a career that spanned five decades, he completed over 100 buildings there. The architect designed churches, fire stations, Dow Chemical buildings, and scores of houses, perhaps making Midland America’s most architecturally unique small town. With one foot firmly planted in mid-century design and the other in the materials lab—–having Dow Chemical’s considerable R & D team available for questioning does wonders when devising new…

Building Code: A collection of rules that lay out the minimum requirements for structures to safely house humans. Building Inspector: The individual charged by a municipality to check conformance with the construction documents (and the building code) on the jobsite. Building Official: The individual charged by a municipality to enforce and administer the building code. She reviews construction documents and issues building permits. Not to be confused with the building inspector. Building Permit: The document that declares the construction documents meet the requirements of the building code and zoning ordinance, as set by the building official. Unless you’re in a rural area that doesn’t require a permit, woe unto you if you start building without one. Certificate of Occupancy: What the building permit wants to be when it grows up.…

After years of drooling over photos of guardrail-free, precipitously cantilevered Chilean beach houses, you have decided to take the plunge and live the dream yourself. But before you fall in love with a pristine design filled with adrenaline-inducing features, you might want to engage your reality sensors and proactively disarm some of the code landmines that have been lovingly placed by your building official. Don’t Trust Anything over 30 The IRC requires a guardrail for any occupied space adjacent to a vertical drop of 30 inches or more. Aside from designing a sexy guardrail system (which is certainly a possibility if your architect is up to the task), there are a couple of ways to maintain some spatial drama. Place the landing of a switchback staircase as the “fourth step”—–…

When is a wall more than a simple way to split up spaces? In Randy Brown’s Omaha, Nebraska, home, sculptural transparency reigns over opaque divisions. The architect turned to a local hardware store to purchase a collection of standard two-by-four and one-by-two wood slats; the inexpensive supplies offered an opportunity to truly “play up the contrast between unfinished materials and finished projects,” Brown says. He transformed the boards into an installation that separates his youngest son’s room from the communal living area. The entire endeavor, which took only “a day or two” to design, was completed in a week with the handy help of two students from his summerlong design-build workshop.…

I enjoyed the Beach Houses We Love issue (June 2011). However, you need to present more ideas about beach homes built above the ground. Too many are built on the oceanfront and at or near sea level, the result of which can be and often is disaster. The home on our oceanfront property in a rural part of the Big Island of Hawaii will, per building codes and common sense, need to be built off the power grid and well aboveground. Greg Druehl Menlo Park, California On the opening page of In the Modern World in your June 2011 issue you have a great photo of an environmental art piece. My first-grade son has just completed a homework assignment to make a robot out of recycled items. Because of my…

A. Déchirer Tile by Patricia Urquiola for Mutina A muted color scheme lets the vaguely pixelated pattern of Patricia Urquiola’s large-form ceramic slabs shine —–figuratively. The bas-relief appears to be pliable, but in reality the rock-hard surface is built tough enough for high-traffic floors or accent walls. mutina.it B. Prototype Lamp by Matt Gagnon Matt Gagnon spent five days as window dressing during Design Week. The designer stood in the front display at the Future Perfect shop in NoHo, treating passersby to a live demonstration as he created his signature Prototype lamps out of materials such as wool yarn, cotton rope, and surgical tubing. mattstudio.com C. Trash Me Lamp by Victor Vetterlein for & Tradition This rough-hewn lamp may look like a brutalist’s best friend, but it’s really more like…

Seattle, Washington, firefighters don’t need to bunk next to their trucks anymore. Thirteen architecture firms so far have been hired as part of a $300 million program to upgrade all 32 neighborhood stations by 2015 (20 substantial renovations and 12 new constructions), and each proposed a sustainable new style of fire-station living. —Tim Newcomb Fire Station 39 by Miller Hull Partnership www.millerhull.com Massive glazed doors invite the community to peep into this outpost’s guts and rigs, while an external steel sculpture acts as water feature, filtering rain from the roof to a 7,000-gallon underground cistern that supports toilet and truck-washing needs. Kitchen and sleeping quarters are separated from working areas, preventing smudges from dirty work gear. Fire Station 38 by Schreiber Starling & Lane Architects sslarchitects.com Color coding characterizes the…

California Design, 1930–1965, a new exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), explores the mid-century era through the work of icons like Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, and Edith Heath as well as lesser-known designers, offering a robust take on how developments in the west emerged and influenced the rest of the country. Curators Wendy Kaplan and Bobbye Tigerman began research for the exhibition five years ago, tracking down the now mostly octogenarian designers who lived and worked through the boom. They found many still firmly ensconced in their studios, forever refining their skills. “One of the most touching things we discovered is that most of these craftspeople never stopped creating,” Kaplan says. The 500 objects on display, from jewelry to furniture to ceramics, are presented…

Project: John and Grace Lee Frank House Location: Sapulpa, Oklahoma Architect: Bruce Goff The John and Grace Lee Frank house in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, is a one-of-a-kind icon and the result of an unusually symbiotic architect-client partnership. Architect Bruce Goff had already made a name for himself in the Sooner State by 1955, when John—owner of the now-übercollectible Frankoma Pottery company—commissioned him to design a home. Goff indulged his characteristic organic-futurist style in the sweeping crescent shape of the structure, which is anchored by a central cylindrical fireplace. This signature fixture was imagined and set by John himself, who also designed the 2,500 tiles that accent the interior and exterior—all of which were hand-glazed by Grace Lee. Frank House by the Numbers 1955: Year Goff set up his own architecture studio…

This Is It “Anybody can throw money at a house and make it green,” says designer Kevin Alter of Alterstudio Architects. “Anne and Sam’s approach is different.” For proof of this, look no further than Anne Suttles and Sam Shah’s stairwell, where a neon sign declares their long-term commitment to their 2,428-square-foot green home in Austin, Texas: “This Is It.” There’s a tankless water heater feeding the faucets and a TPO cool roof on top, but the most sustain able element is the couple’s lifestyle. They chose their hilltop site in Austin’s Boul-din neighborhood for its walking distance to downtown, weekend farmers’ markets, nearby corner stores, and bustling South Congress Street. With natural ventilation built into the house’s design, Suttles and Shah hardly use their air conditioning. And thanks to…

Importing foreign starchitects to design American buildings is common practice, but actually constructing them tends to be a local affair. And that goes double for factory-built structures whose parts need to be trucked to the job site as efficiently and cheaply as possible. Overseeing a slice of the prefab pie, at least in Northern California, is modular building veteran Karl Tarango, general manager of Zeta Communities’ factory in Sacramento. Tarango got his start in the 1990s building modular and HUD-code projects in Colorado before graduating to custom, multifamily homes and then to “selling builders and developers on urban infill and commercial structures.” He tells us about his unoutsourceable end of architectural manufacturing. “If you came into the factory today you would see single-family units and a couple of different types…

A couple sits in the back bar of Manhattan’s Freemans Restaurant. His destroyed work boots rest on the bent wood of a Thonet stool, as his flannel shirt stretches across the cobbled aluminum bar top to elbow the rib of her wispy chambray shirtdress. They signal their mustachioed bartender and ask for two long-forgotten cocktails. “Ain’t that America?” John Mellencamp sings over the stereo. From the looks of things, America—at least a nostalgia for the straight-shooting, built-to-last brand of it—is back. The trend is steaming ahead like an old B&O engine and seems to stem from a deep-seated longing for a simpler, more prosperous America. Add in a mounting fatigue with buffed-to-a-gaudy-sheen luxury hotels and lounges and you’ve got the right conditions for a back-to-the-land design movement. Much of the…

When six enterprising Wichitans banded together in 2008 to turn an old downtown broom factory into sleek new lofts, they gave themselves a guiding mantra: Don’t scare away the artists. The Commerce Arts District, located near the railroad tracks in downtown Wichita, is the heart of the city’s emerging art scene. In recent years, galleries and studios have sprung up alongside gritty manufacturing shops that produce everything from cabinets to urinal cakes. So when the investors began having grand residential visions for the boxy factory, they knew they had to strike the right chord—or risk pushing away the gentrification-averse creative types who give the neighborhood its life. The investors and architects met with the neighborhood’s artist pioneers to get their thoughts about what kind of development would best suit the…

“I am the most meticulous, picky person. You can tell,” says Robert Vanselow, motioning around his living room. “This place is showroom ready.” A transplant from Florida, Vanselow wanted to minimize the stress of moving and starting a new job, so he bought the loft’s display furniture outright and came to Wichita with just a few things. The only personal possessions in the apartment for the first nine months were a few appliances and his clothes, which line the closet like fashions in a high-end men’s shop. Born in Panama to a Jamaican mother and a German father, Vanselow now finds himself in the center of the United States, surrounded by open country. The Finn Lofts, with their clean lines—–and, in Loft R’s case, a balcony with a view of…

Project: Everett House Architect: De Leon & Primmer Architecture Workshop Location: Louisville, Kentucky Seeking a quieter and more kid-friendly existence, in 2007 Juliet Gray and Mathias Kolehmainen traded the glamour of the Hollywood Hills for Gray’s hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. Disappointed with the city’s meager stock of mid-century modern houses, they settled in a 2,200-square-foot “eclectic Victorian” in the Cherokee Triangle, an enclave of restaurants, shops, and historic homes on Louisville’s east side. Expanding their new living space with an addition was part of their plan from the start. “We wanted a family room that was connected to, but not on top of, the kitchen,” Gray says, ticking off their wish list. “We also wanted outdoor space off the kitchen where we could eat, wide steps that would spill into…

In an age when finding the George Nelson Pretzel chair you’ve been pining after requires little more than a few directed clicks online, the art of antiquing-—pawing through estate sales, garage sales, and thrift stores for that perfect diamond in the rough-— has lost some of its luster. Chicagoans Katherine Raz and Libby Alexander established the Vintage Bazaar (TVB) in late 2009, and the pop-up flea market is a place where like-minded design aficionados can go to find chic and affordable decor in the flesh. The pair, who share a passion for well-preserved classics, have hosted TVB events in theaters, ballrooms, and storefronts around Chicago. They recently set up shop in a warehouse in the Pilsen neighborhood, where over 50 vendors came together to delight in the social thrill of…

When planning her family’s new house in the Olde Seahorse Farmes sub division, Penny McWhistle hired a talented architect who was familiar with the residential building code and the zoning ordinance adopted by her city’s planning department. She and the architect quickly developed a program to suit her needs. Because the architect had a strong understanding of the site’s constraints, he was able to abide by the numerous setback and height restrictions out lined in the zoning ordinance. He developed a full set of construction documents, and after the contractor came back with favorable pricing, he dropped off three sets of the CDs with the city’s plan review and permitting department. After about a week, the building official reviewed the CDs and, finding them to comply with the minimum standards…

Years of bloodhound-like neighborhood exploring on the mean streets of Scottsdale, Arizona, have served Jeffy well in his new career as a junior building inspector. Check out the IRC violations he sniffed out on a visit to this prototypical modern home. 1. The ironic 1970s princess touchtone phone buttons serving as house numbers can’t be seen from the street. 2. The off-center pivot front door doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for egress. It needs to be side-hinged and at least 32 inches wide. 3. The eight-burner restaurant-grade superwoktop requires a restaurant-grade superrange hood. 4. The Danish woodstove was installed too close to surrounding combustible construction, thereby voiding its (IRC-required) UL listing. 5. The space between the imported Spanish glass stair treads allows a four-inch imported Spanish glass sphere to pass…

David Robert Elliot David Robert Elliot, a photographer based in Chicago, drove the short distance to Pilsen, Illinois, to shoot the Vintage Bazaar (Design Finder, p. 130). “Traveling is great and I love it, but it’s also nice to be able to work in town and meet people who share the same city,” Elliot says. “My only regret was that I didn’t have any time to grab some vintage stuff of my own.” Brent Humphreys Brent Humphreys, an Austin-based photographer, shot the nearby home of Anne Suttles and Sam Shah (Off the Grid, p. 62). “I had long admired the house from the outside but was absolutely blown away by the craftsmanship and the details inside,” he says. When not shooting, Humphreys is busy restoring his home and documenting the…

Bow Bins by Cordula Kehrer for Areaware The juxtaposition of natural rattan sustainably harvested in the Philippines against pop-colored plastic bins proves that opposites attract, and cut quite an attractive profile when combined. areaware.com Jupiter Scrap Lights by Graypants The duo behind Graypants studio are often found scouring Seattle’s streets for unblemished cardboard boxes—–the material that provides the structure for their signature fixtures. Laser-cut and fire-resistant, the corrugated orb pendants are upcycled odes to responsible design. graypants.com War Craft Coffee Table Wearing Dazzle by Uhuru Design When painted large on the exterior of a warship, the black-and-white stripes on this low table “dazzle” and confuse the eye of the enemy. Uhuru used teak from the deck of an authentic World War II vessel to create a collection inspired by the…

Jack White is well known for his music, but make no mistake—–the man also has the heart and soul of a designer. Last year, the onetime upholsterer decked out the eclectic Nashville headquarters for his Third Man Records. More recently, he converted a delivery van into a record-slinging mobile unit fully capable of supporting heart-thumping live performances. “We want to take it all over,” White says. “Just have little hootenannies right next to the truck.” Here’s how he pimped his ride: “We installed a whole mic panel on the side of the truck so bands can stand outside, plug right in, and perform. Turntables allow us to have guest DJs show up and spin for the crowd.” “The first sofa I thought of was George Nelson’s Marshmallow. We got this…

Project: Hsu House Location: Danby, New York Architect: Epiphyte Lab epiphyte-lab.com “The trick to designing in the Ithaca climate is to balance day lighting and heat loss through windows,” explains Kevin Pratt, principal at local architecture firm Epiphyte Lab. “Lots of glass just doesn’t perform well here—it gets too bloody cold in the winter.” With that in mind, the exterior of this home for a family of four received the bulk of the budget, encompassing extensive insulation and solar-responsive siding, resulting in a house that’s almost entirely passive.…

An Epic Plot Working as ER doctors at a hospital in eastern Anchorage, Alaska, Tanya Leinicke and Rick Navitsky are accustomed to high-pressure situations, like ministering to the aftereffects of moose stompings and bear maulings. So when two stressful events intersected at the same moment in the couple’s life—–a political revolution in Nepal jeopardized their adoption of a son just as the design and construction of their 2,100-square-foot house ramped up—–they handled the situation with an uncommon measure of grace and perspective. Four years later, the couple told us how it all began—–and how hiring the right architect made all the difference. Navitsky: We came to Alaska from New Mexico in 2001, not necessarily to make it our home, but for adventure. Leinicke: I had to pay back my Air…

In 1999, architect Garrett Finney landed a dream job at NASA. As a habitation module designer, he mocked up rest-eat-sleep spaces for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Four years later, however, when he realized his capsule would never see the light of day, let alone the dark of space, he left NASA and turned his attention to a new venture. Combining his small-space expertise and backpacking background, Finney designed the Cricket Trailer, a small, self-contained pop-up camper. It’s his response to bigger-is-better RV culture: “It’s not a house on wheels but a portable adventure living space,” he says. Each trailer weighs between 1,000 and 1,500 pounds and costs from $10,000 to just under $18,000 depending on how heavily it’s out-fitted. “I fabricate the shell and you make the dozen…

We spoke about the state of American manufacturing with Howard Wial, an economist and fellow at the Brookings Institute, where he directs the Metropolitan Economy Initiative. Wial paints a sobering picture—albeit one with a few glimmers of hope. What has the last ten years of American manufacturing looked like? The last ten years were the decade of greatest manufacturing job loss in absolute and percentage terms. The United States had a big loss in the 1980s—that’s when we began to decline—though that rate let up a bit in the ’90s, when the losses weren’t as severe. But it’s really fallen off a cliff in the 2000s. Any bright spots today? Right now durable goods are enjoying a mini boom. Though it’s not much compared to the jobs we’ve lost, it…

Housed in a recently remodeled building on Pacific Street in Brooklyn, the high-end, high-design team of wallpaper makers at Flavor Paper don’t mind putting their manufacturing process on display. The workshop is on street level and passersby freely gawk at the massive sheets of colorful paper—–and the people making them—–through a massive window. A mirror on the ceiling shows pedestrians even more of the process in what founder Jon Sherman calls “open kitchen–style production.” He founded Flavor Paper in New Orleans in 2004, but moved to Brooklyn in 2009. Here’s what you’d see if your nose were pressed to the glass. Screen Time A sheet of Flavor Paper wallpaper starts with the screen. Once the pattern —– digital or hand-drawn—–is finished, it’s printed onto a large sheet of film. Next…

“We went from 3,000 square feet to 720,” says Melissa Bishop, sitting on her leather couch. “Crazy, huh?” That’s what their friends in Hutchinson, Kansas, thought, too, when the Bishops decamped from their McMansion (Melissa’s expression), sold most of their possessions on Craigslist, and, shockingly for steak country, became vegetarians. “I think they thought we were having a mid-life crisis.” But really, they just wanted to simplify, ride their bikes everywhere, and start anew. “We downsized our lives,” Melissa says. “We streamlined.” Childhood sweethearts—–“We used to touch feet under our desks in grade school,” Keith remembers—–they’ve found that living in a smaller space has added a new dimension to their relationship. “In our house there were rooms we didn’t use. We didn’t even open the doors,” Keith says. “We’ve gone…

Surrounded by cattle-flecked plains smack in the middle of America, Wichita generally has a reputation as a sleepy, middle-of-nowhere kind of place—–even though it’s Kansas’s biggest city (population 382,000). Its main industry is aircraft manufacturing—– Boeing, Learjet, and Cessna all have operations here—– while Koch Industries, known for funding right-wing causes, also calls it home. That means there’s money—– but money tied to conservative priorities. With the exception of the Finn Lofts, and a Moshe Safdie–designed science museum, “there’s nothing even remotely progressive” about the city’s design scene, says architect Doug Stockman. But for creative people yearning for low rents and plenty of space, Wichita is a sleeper hit. The hub of the city’s budding art scene is the downtown collaborative Fisch Haus, a madcap studio-gallery-home in a 21,000-square-foot warehouse…

Project: The Douglas House Architect: Richard Meier Location: Harbor Springs, Michigan It took nine months before Michael McCarthy and Marcia Myers fully realized what they’d actually purchased in Harbor Springs, Michigan. “We saw this white house listed on the Internet with a lot of glass looking out at the lake,” says Myers, who, along with her husband, had searched for years for a waterfront property. They scouted lake houses and talked about beachfront property in New Jersey and Delaware. “But we kept going back to the Harbor Springs house,” she recalls. “The price kept going down when prices everywhere else were going up.” So they traveled to Lake Michigan to see it in person. They knew about the basics of architecture and modernism, but they were only vaguely aware of…

Stuff happens to buildings. Fires burn them down, storms knock them over, quakes shake them up. As occupants, we add to the chaos with our own bumbling actions: We tumble down the stairs while texting; we zap ourselves while fishing a jammed Pop-Tart out of the toaster; we topple over the balcony while trying to escape a wayward bee. Danger surrounds us like the maniacal vuvuzela cloud that surrounds a World Cup match, and there’s no way around it. Building codes don’t guarantee our protection from tragedy, but when crafted with care and foresight they can at least give us a fighting chance. Unfortunately, progress in the development of building codes is typically made in response to some major catastrophe. After the London fire of 1212, a law was enacted…

When planning a detached two-car garage for the matching PT Cruisers he bought with his lottery winnings, Muculus Grigsby assumed he didn’t need a building permit. This assumption was confirmed by his brother-in-law, Kenny, who agreed over a few cold ones to build the garage for “cost plus a dime top-nut,” which was Kenny-speak for “construction cost plus ten percent.” A week after their fateful agreement (solidified though a spirited beer bump), Kenny got a $5,000 deposit from Muculus and started digging the grade beam that would define the perimeter of the garage. His construction documents consisted of a series of shakily drawn lines on a piece of plywood, with the words “two cars + mower” written in the middle. The next morning he called in his order for concrete,…

50 My House Steve Bull for Workshop AD workshopad.com Cabinets by Jon’s Woodworking LLC jonswoodworking.com Metal fabrication by Anchorage Sheet Metal anchoragesheetmetal.com Landscaping by Jon Cobb for Green Acres Landscaping greenacresusa.com Windows and doors by Dynamic and Jeld Wen dynamicwindows.com jeld-wen.com Tatami mats from Oriental Furniture orientalfurniture.com Sofa and coffee-table base by Room & Board roomandboard.com Fireplace by Rais rais.com Peacock rug by CB2 cb2.com Playtable and chair by Lego lego.com 58 Dwell Reports Icestone icestone.biz Eco by Cosentino cosentino.com Recycled Collection by Caesarstone caesartoneus.com Bamboo by Teragren teragren.com PaperStone paperstoneproducts.com Bio-Glass by Coverings Etc. coveringsetc.com Squak Mountain Stone by Tiger Mountain Innovations squakmountainstone.com 62 Off the Grid Kevin Alter, Ernesto Cragnolino, and Tim Whitehill of Alterstudio Architects alterstudio.net Ford Strei, S&W Construction swbuild.net Come and Take It Structural Movers…