$10,000 to an individual or team of designers seeking to develop a Big Idea

Metropolis seeks to identify the next generation of Big Ideas by the next generation of designers. We offer $10,000 to an individual or team of designers seeking to develop a Big Idea that will make our designed environment better, safer, and more sustainable. The Next Generation Design Competition was established in 2003 to recognize and encourage activism, social involvement, and entrepreneurship among designers. We invite you to submit your Big Idea to our 2006 competition and we encourage you to take a look at our past winners and finalists, by following the links below.
Read more:

Can love be part of our everyday objects ? Can design be a transmitter of loving acts and feelings?

The International Design Award DESIGN 21 invited young designers from around the world to create and present an original vision of the art of living in the new century.

Co-organized by UNESCO and the Felissimo Group (Japan), the two-year Design 21 Award was launched in 1995. The project aims to spark the creative genius of young designers in terms of the future transcending national frontiers. Many designers from all parts of the world have already been rewarded in the first four contests and their works given international promotion.
Read More

East meets West: New furniture echoes cultures of the world

HIGH POINT, N.C. -- New furniture this year can trace its heritage to a home fashion world that turns with Internet speed and reflects today's global culture.

Get ready for a multiethnic ride of decorating trends seen at the recent International Home Furnishings Market in and around High Point, N.C.

East Coast urban style salutes New York City: New York designer Bill Sofield has been described as a choreographer of space. He offers a refreshing take on modern design for Baker Furniture. This is a sophisticated collection that teams traditional elements and reflects his love of 19th- and 20th-century design. The mix of materials is especially interesting: American walnut, bronze, mercury glass, and solid onyx. The result is pure Sofield.
More here:

Custom-built playhouses are all the rage for the wealthy

NEW CANAAN, Conn. -- Andrew Oakes is almost 9 years old. He wants to spend his birthday at his grandfather's barn, but he hasn't built up the courage to ask yet.

That's because the barn, tucked away to the side of his grandfather's home in New Canaan, boasts more than horses, hay or old tools.

It's a gigantic playhouse, with more amenities than a Chuck E. Cheese's.

A new breed of luxury playhouses is being forged by wealthy families who want to pamper their children, builders said. The playhouses are bigger, more elaborate and can cost tens of thousands of dollars - or more.
Read more:

Stylish furniture takes the sting out of its prices

Move over, Martha. Everywhere you turn, celebrity home designers are joining forces with budget-minded retailers to offer well-designed, affordable furniture and accessories.

Nate Berkus at Linens ’n Things, Chris Madden at J.C. Penney, Ty Pennington at Sears and Thomas O’Brien – who went from furnishing Giorgio Armani’s Manhattan digs to Target stores – are wooing shoppers hooked on hours of TV home-decorating shows and dozens of home magazines.
More of this story here:

A Contemporary Loft Designed for a Dynamic Duo

Take a virtual tour of a loft designed by the editors of Decorating and Kitchen and Bath Ideas, both Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest Publications. The loft is part of the Brown Camp building in Des Moines, Iowa.
More Here.

Quiz: Is Loft Living Right for You?

Thinking of making a move from the suburbs to downtown? Take our quiz and find out if loft living could be right for you.
Take this quiz here.

Condos with lofty price tag: 4-story Lofts at Printer's Square would include $1 million penthouse

COLUMBIA - Is the Vista ready for its first million-dollar condo?

Earl Loftis thinks so. Loftis, an optometrist, plans to tear down his Eye on Gervais business in Columbia to build the Lofts at Printer's Square, a $10 million project.

The Lofts would be a four-story building with 11 residential condominiums. That includes three penthouses, one of which Loftis expects to sell for at least $1 million.

The plan still must be approved by the city's Design Development Review Commission.
Read More

Downtown Albany has been greatly revitalized

For those of us who work, live and enjoy entertainment activities in downtown Albany, it's apparent that Barb Goldstein's impressions of the city (letter, "Downtown Albany is so lacking in substance it's a ghost town at night," Nov. 14) do not accurately reflect the vitality of downtown.

Alive by day with 40,000 workers and pulsing by night with thousands of people taking advantage of the many outstanding events, restaurants and performances, downtown Albany has experienced a renaissance into a new, vibrant cultural, social and economic scene.
Get the story.

Shameless Plug: 10% off everything over $999+ Free Furniture with select sofas.

STL Loft Style.com has a great sale on sofas and is giving away free furniture with select sofas. This is a once of year type of sale. Click here to go to STLLoftStyle.com Modern Holiday Special on Modern Furniture.

Dont be a bloat. Instead of giving the hottest high-tech gadgets this holiday, consider several less obvious alternatives that feature form or functio

This year's holiday gift lists no doubt are loaded with the latest must-have tech marvels, such as digital cameras, portable music players, smart phones, game consoles and even big-screen televisions.

But there are lots of less obvious choices that could surprise your friends and relatives while satisfying their digital desires.

Here are five suggestions (plus one bonus item), at a variety of prices:
Read More

Local retailers affected by Ikea

One week after Ikea's grand opening, everything along Stockwell Drive during the week appeared to be back to normal. Representatives from most companies along the retail road were breathing a sigh of relief, thankful to have customers filling their stores once again.
Over the Veterans Day holiday, tens of thousands of customers waited along Rte. 24, Central Street and Rte. 139 to get near the Swedish megastore. Ikea's neighboring businesses found customers turning around and leaving rather than waiting hours in traffic. Countless dollars in sales were lost, many employees were late for work because of traffic and at some stores, management found themselves sending staff home in order to meet payroll amidst lower revenues.
Read More

Designer says function for family as important as aesthetics

THANK GOODNESS.

Thanksgiving is over.

Because one more holiday spent wrestling with a slippery uncooked bird in a tiny sink, and rotating six pots among the only three stove burners that work, stepping over the dog that takes up all the real estate between the refrigerator and pantry, and setting off the fire alarm because the oven fan is faulty, would mean certain nervous breakdown.

So if sanity is indeed a precious commodity, you've got to remodel the kitchen.

"What happens a lot after Thanksgiving, and after the first of the year, is that people make a resolution that they're fed up with their space and they can't handle it anymore," says kitchen designer Jennie Gislow. "Aesthetics matter, but they want their kitchen to function well."
Read More

St. Joseph’s downtown is being revitalized, and part of that effort involves business owner Winston Bennett, who had never seen the city before decidi

Winston Bennett has worked in some of the world’s most glamorous cities.

As a vice president at Ralph Lauren working with its European licensees, Bennett spent three years flying among the company’s Caribbean factory outlets, its New York home office, its Milan women’s showroom and its Paris men’s showroom.

“I was paid stupid money and had the life everyone aspires to, or thinks they aspire to,” he said of his young go-getter life.

Today, nearly 15 years later, Bennett, 44, chooses to live part time and do business in arguably one of the most unglamorous of cities — St. Joseph, about 60 miles north of Kansas City.
Read More

New firm sign of growth in condo market

One of downtown's leading condominium developers has formed One Residential, a real estate company aimed at selling the rapidly growing number of for-sale lofts being built in several high-profile projects.

Corporate Realty Associates, which developed the Jemison Flats condo project downtown, formed One Residential to sell and lease not only its condos and lofts, but ones being developed by other developers.
Read More

"Noisy night life clashing with quieter residences" - Sounds like loft living to me!

Denver's lower downtown is riding high on a wave of change.

The once-neglected historic district reborn as LoDo in the late 1980s has evolved into the poster child of mixed-use development: a mingling of work, shop, live and play.

The hip and trendy collage includes million-dollar lofts, shops, restaurants, sports stadiums and a smattering of bars and nightclubs.

But the tide has started to turn for Denver's birthplace as competing interests throw the formula off balance, bringing increased scrutiny of liquor license applications and pushing the historic district into a collision course with its rowdy Wild West heyday.
Get More

What did your crib in the Lou' sell for?

The following list represents previous home sales as reported by the St. Louis assessor and the St. Louis County recorder of deeds. The properties are grouped by ZIP code, and the address of each property is followed by the sale price. This list was updated on
Nov. 23, 2005 by the Suburban Journals staff with the most current information available, covering the period Aug.15-19, 2005 for City and June 27 - July 1, 2005 for County. Get More

Cool Giant Lego Blocks for the 21st Century

Designed by Ora-Ïto, who has done crazy beautiful work for LG, Toyota, Swatch, and others, these stackable drives come in red, white or blue lego designs. Neat if you are trying to make your computer hardward blend with your crib.
Read More

Why Does One Noguchi Cost More than the other?

Why would someone pay $1,400 for an "official" (licensed) Henry Miller [sic] Noguchi coffee table from DWR, as opposed to paying $770 for almost the same exact piece from Modernica? Click here for more

Another good link to Alphaville Design's Noguchi Coffee Table.

The Mies Barcelona Chair: Can saving money mean a difference in quality?

This is a debate that will go on til the end of time but here are some key things you may want to consider before purchasing you Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Chair.

Clubbin it up in the new revitalized downtown St. Louis

Dance music lovers used to pour into George Baker's specialty record shop, On the Grid, after weekends of sweating it out nightclubbing on downtown's Washington Avenue to pick up the latest dance hits.

But that's not happening much anymore. St. Louis' dance club scene is in a state of flux - enough to leave one's head spinning like a disco ball.
Click here for more.

$3.5 million in damages to the Modern Furniture Manufacturers is due to Arson

Fire Investigators have determined that the October 30 fire that caused an estimated $3.5 million in damages to the Modern Furniture Manufacturers in Arlington, Wash., was intentionally set, Special Agent in Charge Phillip Durham, of the National Response Team, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF); Chief Jim Rankin, Arlington Fire Department and Chief John Gray, Arlington Police Department, announced today.

Read more:

Trying to stay trendy with Modern Contemporary Furniture?

Just like there is no dominating trend in fashion today, same eclecticism reigns in home design.

Just like there is no dominating trend in fashion today, same eclecticism reigns in home design. More and more people develop a taste of mixing contradictory furniture trends in their home decor, combining contemporary furniture with vintage finds and art pieces.
Click here for more

Living Gets Loftier in Downtown L.A.

Pedro Galindo moved into the Higgins Building four years ago, part of the first wave of urban adventurers who set roots in the fledging loft district north of skid row.

Back then, the 24-year-old substitute teacher recalls, the converted 1910 beaux-arts office tower had a definite vibe.

"The coolest people were here. There were rooftop parties and barbecues," he said. "It was a very social building. You would have parties every weekend."

That began to change two years ago, when the Higgins converted from apartments to condos, with units now selling for up to $700,000.
Click here for more

Lofts challenge occupants to a different way of living

As Ron Robinett watched his $6,000 imported Italian leather sofa dangle from a crane five stories in the air outside his loft, he quickly grasped interior
design tip No. 1: Make sure the furniture fits in the elevator.

Design tip No. 2: Throw out all preconceived notions of how a loft should look. Exposed duct work, concrete floors and brooding bohemians might suit some folks, but for others only Victorian motifs, lacy filigree and dainty china collections will do.
Read More

Possible new business/residential next to the St. Louis Arch

Three property owners want to transform the neighborhood south of the Gateway Arch into St. Louis' next hot spot. If any of their proposals take off, the area known as Chouteau's Landing could complement Laclede's Landing, and become a second bookend for the Arch grounds.Click Here to Read Story

Say goodbye to the old school Water Heater?

Pulsar Advanced Technologies has announced will next week launch its lead product, the Vulcanus MK4, a water heater USING microwave technology to heat water on demand. This technology with super-heating capabilities will drastically cut energy costs and totally eliminate the need to store hot water. The Vulcanus MK4 is making its world premier at Construct Canada in Toronto between Nov. 30 and Dec. 2.Get this story