Writing Archive

Prairie Home Abandon | Travel + Leisure
Minneapolis’s exuberant Chambers Hotel is taking Midwestern design to a whole new level. T+L pays a visit.
Secret Hotels of California Wine Country | Budget Travel
You don't have to spend a fortune to visit the fanciest farmland in America. We've found a crop of lovely, family-run inns in Napa, Sonoma, and beyond for less than $200 a night.
Las Vegas for Less | Travel + Leisure
You don’t have to be a high roller to travel to Vegas in style. Here, tips for playing your cards right—and saving a bundle—in Sin City.
Portland’s Retro Fit Hotel | T: The New York Times Style Magazine
For Alex Calderwood, Wade Weigel, Doug Herrick and Jack Barron — whose 79-room Ace Hotel opened in Portland, Oregon, last month — good design is about tapping into a city’s lifeblood.
In Miami Beach, Where Youth Is Still Served | The New York Times
Like the bronzed and barely clad bodies that saunter up and down Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive, South Beach is in a constant state of self-improvement. That's especially true this season, as a wave of new bars, lounges and clubs put up their velvet ropes.
Surfacing: In Chicago, Slaughterhouses to Art Houses | The New York Times
Stand on West Fulton Market in Chicago at around 3 p.m. and witness an incongruous changeover. Forklifts hauling greasy pallets of sliced bacon clear out, as bright young things in stiletto heels and luxury cars roll in. This is Chicago’s meatpacking district.
Check In, Check Out: Seattle: Hotel 1000 | The New York Times
After surfing Hotel 1000’s website, which tallies the hotel’s many futuristic technologies (a tub that fills from the ceiling, infrared occupancy sensors), you may arrive at the hotel expecting a scene from the Jetsons. If so, the low-tech but stylish lobby will be a letdown. The hotel-of-the-future is actually behind the scenes.
Sonoma’s New Star | Travel + Leisure
With a mix of chic hotels, creative chefs, and stylish boutiques, Healdsburg, California, has emerged as a cosmopolitan hub that still pays homage to its rural Sonoma roots.
Foraging: Berkeley, California: Jitensha Studio | The New York Times
At Jitensha, rare 1940's and 50's bike parts are displayed as artifacts behind glass. At the back of the shop are exquisite canvas-and-leather touring bags, woven willow baskets, handmade French tires, and tiny brass bells from Japan.
Learning on the Job | SAAS in Focus
Every May, SAAS's 12th graders step beyond the classroom for their Senior Project, a month-long internship that builds on the entrepreneurial skills they've been developing throughout their education. We visit 7 project sites to learn more about the meaning and impact of this signature experience.
Off the Beaten Path | SAAS in Focus
"We do want to embrace a healthy amount of risk," says Matt Edenfield, Outdoor Trips & Travel Director. "We strive to offer trips where students can convert danger, fear, or anxiety into achievement and mastery through skill, cooperation, and hard work. The reality is that this is where real learning happens."
Furniture Complex | GRAY
Don't call him a designer—intrepid artist Roy McMakin is scything out his own creative path.
Good Neighbors | GRAY
Architect George Suyama takes “not in my backyard” to its (semi)logical extreme.
Bringing it Home | GRAY
Legendary New York City–based architect and iconoclast Steven Holl pays tribute to the Northwest, the place where his obsession with light and space first took hold.
Finding Beauty | GRAY
Studio Gorm, a husband-and-wife creative team based in Eugene, Oregon, elevates the mundane with their quietly elegant designs.
Art & Culture

36 Hours in Austin, Texas | The New York Times

The city’s unofficial motto, “Keep Austin Weird,” blares from bumper stickers on BMWs and jalopies alike, on T-shirts worn by joggers along Lady Bird Lake and in the windows of independently owned shops and restaurants. It’s an exhortation for a city that clings to eccentricity, even in the face of rapid development.

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Food & Wine

36 Hours in Carmel-by-the-Sea | The New York Times

With its architectural mishmash of storybook English cottages and Swiss Alpine chalets, the small town of Carmel-by-the-Sea in Northern California resembles a Disneyland version of Europe. But walk a few blocks to Carmel’s steep, sandy beach and the view is pure California: a rugged Pacific coastline spangled with rocky outcroppings and ghostly cypress trees.

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Architecture & Design

A Lot in a Lot | Dwell

A Bay Area landscape designer works her yard like a jigsaw puzzle, packing a bevy of distinctive destinations into a steep and diminutive plot.

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Architecture & Design

A Platform for Living | Dwell

Setsumasa and Mami Kobayashi’s weekend retreat, two and a half hours northwest of Tokyo, is “an arresting concept,” photographer Dean Kaufman says, who documented the singular refuge in the Chichibu mountain range.

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Architecture & Design

A Simple Plan | Dwell

A Marmol Radziner–designed prefab house, trucked onto a remote Northern California site, takes the pain out of the construction process.

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Architecture & Design

A World Apart | Dwell

Inspired by her natural surroundings, a Dutch felt artist intuitively crafts a home on a northern Holland harbor.

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