Writing Archive

The Place: Napa Valley | T: The New York Times Style Magazine
It's been a long time since California's most glamorous wine region felt like farm country. Today, the area buzzes with Michelin-starred restaurants, new hotels and shops, and nearly 150 tasting rooms. Here's your ultimate guide.
Check In, Check Out: Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin, Texas | The New York Times
Named after the patron saint of music, Hotel Saint Cecilia is already a favorite of big-name musicians who swing into town to play on the city’s countless stages.
Point of Departure | Town & Country
With a lifetime of great houses behind them, a couple chooses to simplify—on a hallowed stretch of California coastline.
Malibu Wines | T: The New York Times Style Magazine
“If anybody said this was Malibu, you’d say they were crazy,” says Richard Hirsh, the millionaire clothier-turned-vintner standing in the vineyards of his Cielo Farms estate.
That Big Farm Called San Francisco | The New York Times
"Lots of people in San Francisco make their own hooch," says Melinda Stone, a part-time farmer. "Alcohol is often the gateway to urban homesteading." Adds Todd Champagne, owner of Happy Girl Kitchen: "There’s an enduring quality to these skills. Once you get a taste of your own pickles, it’s hard to go back."
36 Hours in Kyoto, Japan | The New York Times
Kyoto, the former imperial capital of Japan, is a vibrant mash-up, an ancient city electrified by the breathtakingly new.
Elle Decor Goes to Tokyo | Elle Decor
Japan’s capital is a compelling study in contrasts—sprawling yet full of intimate neighborhoods; ancient yet up-to-the-minute. Here’s how to navigate its riches.
That Buzzing Could Sweeten Tomorrow’s Tea | The New York Times
If you spy a dark-haired woman gliding down Mission Street, past the taquerias and bodegas, in a white, head-to-toe bee suit — picture a hazmat suit crossed with a fencing mask — chances are it’s Cameo Wood, en route to a beehive.
El Cosmico: Trailer Made | ReadyMade
The brainchild of Austin-based hotelier Liz Lambert, El Cosmico is a new kind of lodging: part trailer park, part creative commune, “a Trans-Pecos kibbutz for the 21st century.”
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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