Tech-giant honchos aren’t known for their spendthrift lifestyle: take Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who’s spent hundreds of millions of dollars on properties all over god’s green earth, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who’s so rich he’s got a private island lying around, and even, on a much smaller level, Facebook boy genius Mark Zuckerberg, who dropped $7M on a new place last year, and the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who had, at the time of his death, plans to build a nearly $9M new manse. Despite this, of course, Jobs had the reputation for living modestly—at least for this crowd—and it’s that tradition that his successor upholds: Tim Cook lives in a 2,400-square-foot house in Palo Alto, Calif.: “I like to be reminded of where I came from, and putting myself in modest surroundings helps me do that. Money is not a motivator for me,” Cook (who makes $1.4M a year and has a $378M, 10-year stock grant from Apple) tells Forbes of the house he bought for $1.9M in 2010. Technically the place is a condo because it shares land with another, smaller apartment out back. And what earthling dwells there? Bill Maris, the 36-year-old managing partner of Google Ventures. As Gawker puts it, “Who knows, maybe the men get on famously, grilling hot dogs and drinking beers together, collecting one another’s packages, trading Excel anecdotes, and not hacking into each other’s broadband hookups.” Or perhaps a West Side Story for the digital age? · Tim Cook Sleeps Near the Enemy [Gawker] · Tim Cook’s Modest Home [Forbes]
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Lifestyles of the Rich and Richer: Vital Intel on the Quiet, Modest Home of Apple’s New CEO
Photo via Creativity-Online From hosting massive in-store sleepovers to building massive, world-dominating suburbs to quarantining off male shoppers, Ikea is no stranger to adventurous marketing stunts. The Swedish flat-pack furniture chain is at it again, this time in the City of Light, where it’s fashioned a 54-square-foot apartment in one of the city’s subway stations. Then they filled it with five people and asked them to live there for five days, “the idea being to show Parisians how much they can do in a small space with Ikea products,” according to ad-industry site Creativity-Online. Sounds, uh, comfortable? · IKEA: The Subway Station Apartment [Creativity-Online via Ad Age ] · All Ikea coverage [Curbed National]
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Globe Trotting: Ikea Opens a Temporary Apartment in a Paris Metro Station
Photo: The Vineyard Knoll Estate, in Sonoma County, where this season of The Bachelor is being filmed SONOMA COUNTY, CALIF. —Reps for Vineyard Knoll, where this season of The Bachelor is being filmed, write in with news that the estate is available as a nightly/weekly rental. Unforch, “Ben not included.” [CurbedWire Inbox] NATIONAL —Wallcoverings juggernaut Graham & Brown has partnered with interior designer Kelly Hoppen on a new line of printed-canvas papers featuring “a mix of East-West themes that define Kelly’s unique style and aesthetic, synonymous to elegance, luxury and timeless classics.” [CurbedWire Inbox] NATIONAL — Kate Spade will release new bathroom products this spring; while the fashion house has previously done towels and bath rugs, the five new lines will each be full collections. [CurbedWire Inbox]
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CurbedWire: The Bachelor Estate For Rent; Kate Spade Bath; More!
Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill have completed yet another massive skyscraper, this time in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and this time with a twist. The asymmetrical building, the Al Hamra Firdous Tower, is constructed from concrete rather than the usual steel. Something tells us Louis Kahn would be proud. [Architizer]
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Concrete Skyscraper: Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill have completed…
This weekend we learned two wildly famous and wealthy people used their power and money for good. Just kidding! Beyoncé and Jay-Z used their fame and fortune to rent out an entire floor of Lenox Hill Hospital, inconveniencing others that also needed access to loved ones and medical attention. The couple were there for the birth of their child, Blue Ivy , and closed off the 4th (VIP pad) and 6th (delivery suite) floors, depending on where Team Carter was at the time. Problem is: they also closed access off to parents who needed to see their own babies in the neonatal intensive-care unit. [ more › ]
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Baby Blue Ivy’s Name Explained! Other Parents Still Upset With Beyoncé And Jay-Z!
Some of the more, shall we say, refined residents of the Mount Morris Park Historic District in East Central Harlem were recently mortified when a new wine shop opened up with bulletproof glass and garish neon signage that would make the Whore of Babylon blush. This kind of thing may fly over in North east Central Harlem, but this is the MMPHD , people! As the president of the local community improvement association, Syderia Chresfield, told DNAinfo at the time , “It brings down everything we are trying to build up. I don’t like to use the word ghetto, but that’s what it is.” And so, after a lot of hassle, the owner has transformed the ghetto into fabulous. But is he a sitting duck? [ more › ]
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Harlem Liquor Store Nervous After Nixing Bulletproof Glass To Placate Gentrifiers
Freed from the clutches of Kutcher, Demi Moore is back to work playing feminist icon Gloria Steinem in an upcoming movie about Bronx-born Linda Boreman, who—under the name Linda Lovelace —is most noted for her appearance in the notorious 1972 adult film Deep Throat . At the time, the film grossed millions, launched Lovelace into spotlight, and sparked a firestorm of debate on cultural permissiveness. Not since her starring role as a single mom stripper with knack for political bribery has Moore grasped a role with such gravitas. [ more › ]
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Demi Moore To Play Feminist Gloria Steinem in Porn Star Biopic
The rumor mill is buzzing today with the news that legendary Midwood pizzeria Di Fara , recently recovered from a nasty run-in with the DOH , might be expanding to New Jersey. Could it be true? [ more › ]
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Is Di Fara Moving To New Jersey?
Two days after Christmas, a 15-year-old apparently jumped in front of a city bus on Staten Island. Yesterday, Amanda Cummings succumbed to her injuries and passed away , and now her uncle is blaming classmates. Keith Cummings told the Staten Island Advance, “I’m not going to tolerate this. I’m gonna go full force. Kids can’t do this to each other.” [ more › ]
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SI Teen Dies After Stepping In Front Of Bus, Relative Says She Was Bullied
Oh look at this, according to the NY Times , Van Halen has invited music writers and critics to a short, intimate concert at the 250-capacity Cafe Wha? in Greenwich Village this Thursday. Meaning they’ll get an up-close and personal look at this ! But sadly, it looks like our invitation was lost in the mail. It’s cool though, we were Hagar fans anyway—mostly because he feeds us tequila . This concert, however, is a prelude to a tour which will bring David Lee Roth back to the forefront. [ more › ]
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Van Halen Playing Cafe What? On Thursday, But You Aren’t Invited