This week Vahram Muratyan ‘s book Paris Versus New York was released, which we only heard about after seeing some Tweets about an event at the Standard last night that no one told us about. La baise Français! Anyway, the book is very visually compelling, comparing the two cities with some gorgeous graphic design work, with a subtitle: A Tally of Two Cities. Muratyan is French-born, but has lived in New York before, and recently told CNN what he misses about either city when he’s not there: [ more › ]
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A Visual Comparison: Paris Versus New York City
Click here to view the full photogallery. While most listings of this world feature walls that lie perfectly perpendicular to floors, certain architectural marvels take the UFO-like shape of a perfect half-sphere. Often these “dome homes” come with promises of energy efficiency, and nearly all are modestly sized yet manage to make the most of their 360-degree circular views. For example, somewhere between Vegas and L.A. in Newberry Springs, Calif., is this, a home designed by prolific and versatile Southern California architect Harold Bissner, Jr. and completed in 1968. Inspired by the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station nuclear plant in northwestern San Diego county, the property now belongs to local semi-celebrity Huell Howser, who’s hosted a TV travel show for the past two decades. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom main house features a dome formed from concrete and bent-fir beams and grounded by glass walls; inside, a conversation pit keeps things centered around a fireplace. There’s also a one-bedroom guest house, a lake, 60 acres of untarnished land, a three-car carport, a rooftop observation deck on top of that dome. The property has been lingering on the market at its initial $750K ask. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Sited on a hillside on the U.S. Virgin Island of St. Croix, this five-bedroom, four-bathroom, 4,600-square-foot dome home enjoys breathtakingly uninterrupted water views. A nice deviation from the Mediterranean mega-casa, the place is asking $1.7M. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Here now, a 2,400-square-foot, three-bedroom residence in the central-Arizona town of Dewey. Built in 2004, the home is asking $185K (with discounts for cash buyers), and, according to the listing, it’s not only “unusual” but energy efficient, as well. Click here to view the full photogallery. ↑ Nestled in the dense woods of New Paltz in upstate New York, this house, dubbed “Domespace,” is a 2,300-square-foot, three-bedroom escape and the only French kit home of its kind to be constructed in the country. The entire structure, set on a 28-acre lot, rotates at the push of a button and boasts 40-foot ceilings at the peak, a spiral staircase, and eco-friendly bamboo flooring. It’s listed for $1.2M. ↑ Finally, a much smaller sight to behold: a 320-square-foot stucco dome house in dusty Taos, N.M. Constructed from a kit akin to a Tinkertoy set, it’s entirely solar powered and boasts sweeping views of the mountains. Even the brokerbabble manages to emphasize the positives: “Full length double-paned glass doors. Finish interior plaster and exterior stucco to your tastes.” It has, until relatively recently, been asking a meager $74K but it seems to have been delisted. · A Dome Home That Wasn’t Inspired By a Nuclear Plant [Curbed National] · Buy a House at the Very Top of a Volcano For Less Than $1M [Curbed National] · Here, Buy a Dome Home Smack in the Middle of the Desert [Curbed National] · Upstate New York’s Out-of-This-World Spinning Saucer House [Curbed National] · Minuscule Desert Dome Home With a Justly Minuscule Price [Curbed National]
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On the Market: No Right Angles: Otherworldly Dome Homes Here On Earth
Photo: Richard Perry/ The New York Times For $1,350 per month, Gray Burton, a publicist for online private sales site Gilt Groupe, rents a minuscule, 250-square-foot studio apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Where some in his situation might have opted for extreme minimalism to cope with the lacking space, Burton took the opposite approach. The Rhode Island School of Design grad has stuffed his tiny apartment full of collected furniture, plates, glassware, chandeliers and much, much more, found in thrift shops, local antique stores, and through relentless eBay trolling. The New York Times called entering Burton’s apartment “like stepping into a Fabergé egg,” and the paper has a few more photos and the full write up on these tiny, decked-out digs. · Living Small, Decorating Large [NYT]
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Small Spaces: Inside a 250-Square-Foot Maximalist Manhattan Apartment
Lena Dunham (along with co-executive producer Judd Apatow) will bring Girls to HBO this April , and in what is finally, hopefully , a post-Carrie Bradshaw New York City, we’re already counting down the days. Even if we haven’t been sent a screener and have only seen teasers. Here’s why: [ more › ]
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And, Now, A Few Reasons We’re Excited For Lena Dunham’s Girls
Photo: John Burcham/ New York Times According to a piece just out in the New York Times, stories swirl in Wapiti Valley, Wyo. about who built this handmade mansion and why. The tall tales range from “built by a madman” to lookout tower in case of volcanic eruption, but the real story is that one man, Francis Lee Smith, sought to build himself a family home and spent more than a decade assembling the place by hand. Construction halted abruptly in 1992, when Smith fell to his death while working to repair the roof. Today, the house stands in a ramshackle state of disrepair, as his family, unable to maintain the property, have all moved on to more conventional homes. Now Smith’s daughter is looking to raise money to save the aging structure on her website, SmithMansion.org. · Smith Mansion [official site] · Gone with the Whimsy [NYT]
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That’s Rather Strange: The Smith Mansion: True Craftsman House on the Prairie
Over at Apartment Therapy, they’ve taken up the cause of the long-forgotten, much-maligned conversation pit, those sunken seating areas so associated with the ’70s and shag carpeting. The Alexander Girard-designed number in Eero Saarinen’s Miller House is the gold standard for pits done right. [Apartment Therapy]
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The New York Times has written another letter to the NYPD urging the department to stop harassing journalists and better inform their employees on the rights of members of the press. The letter, obtained by Capital New York and addressed to top NYPD spokesman and wooden Italian marionette Paul Browne, details further police interference and abuse, and strongly urges the department to “not underestimate our resolve in working to rectify these issues.” [ more › ]
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NY Media Warns NYPD To "Not Underestimate" Them
We’ve spent the past few weeks looking back through Steven Siegel’s photo archive , which beautifully retells the city’s story over the past three decades, from the South Bronx to Bushwick. From utter destruction to Disneyfication. Turns out that Siegel also filmed what was going on throughout all that time, and his videos are no less spectacular. You can watch them all at his YouTube page (some even tell a story ), and our favorites are below: [ more › ]
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Now Playing: Steven Siegel’s Amazing Video Footage Of Old New York
Before disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner ‘fessed up to being a serial sexter, we were treated to a week of denials and finger wagging as Weiner pretended the crotch shots were not of his crotch—and then when he finally admitted he couldn’t “say with certitude” whether the wiener was his, he still maintained someone had hacked his Twitter account to send them. So how dedicated was Weiner to keeping up that pretense? Dedicated enough to pay over 13K to a team of private investigators to get to the bottom of his self-made mess. [ more › ]
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Weiner Wasted $13,290 To "Investigate" Twitter Crotch-Shots
A 67-year-old employee of the Archdiocese of New York has been accused of stealing more than $1 million from the church. According to the Manhattan DA’s office Anita Collins allegedly wrote herself more than 450 checks from the church, all under $2,500, over more than eight years. The worst part about the story? Collins has previously been busted for financial shenanigans . Twice . The church just wasn’t doing criminal background checks when she was hired in 2003. [ more › ]
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Woman Accused Of Stealing $1 Million From Archdiocese of New York