Design industry energized by the emergence of lesser known companies

Followers of Italian design are familiar with the big manufacturing names such as B&B Italia, Cassina, and Kartell, but many believe it is the many small and medium-sized furniture companies that form the backbone of the Italian sector due to those companies’ particular attention to materials and new product development. As design legend Gaetano Pesce has noted, “The owners of (smaller) companies fuel the progress of design through research, experimentation, and the use of new materials.”
One such company is Pordenone-based Horm, specialists in wood furniture. The small manufacturer created an industry buzz when it enlisted the talents of acclaimed Japanese architect Toyo Ito. The collaboration yielded designs such as the Ripples bench, a striking limited edition consisting of five woods: beech, cherry, mahogany, oak and walnut. The Italian company, established in 1989, also sources talent closer to home. The Rome design studio Gruppo Grafite (Laura De Lorenzo, Luca Leonori and Stefano Stefani) conceived Horm’s elegant Astor table, which features alternating strips of aluminum and wood on its distinctive tabletop. Most recently, Horm collaborated with leading American architect Steven Holl, who Time magazine once cited for buildings “that satisfy the spirit as well as the eye.” For Horm, Holl designed the intricately-patterned Riddled table. Read more…

A Florida-based furniture-warranty company has plenty of stains on its record

Extended warranties can be big moneymakers for retailers. While such warranties are more closely associated with electronics and appliances, they are also a mainstay of the furniture industry. Extended warranties–essentially service contracts that are supposed to cover fabrics and manufacturing defects–are often seen as a sucker’s bet because their cost can approach or even outstrip the actual cost of repairs. Read more…

Two Waukegan men have been arrested and almost $100,000 in stolen property has been recovered as part of an ongoing investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities said Thursday that more arrests are expected in the case, which included the theft of high-end landscaping equipment and other items.

The stolen property was recovered following the mid-December execution of search warrants at two properties, including the home of one of the men charged in the case. Read more…

The 111-year-old former warehouse that Gill Holland and his wife are renovating on East Market Street is a drafty, gutted building clearly showing its age.

Wind sneaks in through cracks in brick walls. A sloping roof outside a second-floor doorway is too precarious to walk on.

But Holland envisions big changes over the next two years that will transform the building into offices, meeting rooms and possibly a coffee shop. Read more…

There were iconic buildings and tall towers aplenty, but the year belonged to small statements attempting to stem the tide of sameness, LISA ROCHON writes

For sending us into paroxysms of joy and dark shadings of the mind, the architecture of 2006 was another roller coaster ride of highs and lows. The country gained an opera house, and lost a remarkable champion of urbanity, Jane Jacobs. And though tract housing and big boxes continue to bust out across the nation, architecture located in the places in between was noticed most of all by the prestigious Governor-General’s Medals in Architecture. Read more…

A Modernist house designed in 1972 by Paul Rudolph (1918-1997), dean of Yale’s School of Architecture, was partially demolished this month.

A judge last week halted demolition of the 4,200-square-foot stucco house, built for Louis J. Micheels in Westport, Conn., but it remains in jeopardy. The Micheels House’s prospective buyer, Yvette Waldman, and her husband, David, want to build a new house on the waterfront site.

Workers put a tarp on the building yesterday, according to Helen Higgins, executive director of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, but the house had been left exposed during the rainy weekend. One wall of the house had been knocked down before Judge Taggart Adams of State Superior Court stopped the demolition on Dec. 22. Read more…

THE phrase “bachelor pad” may evoke shag rugs, an oversize bed and an overwrought and conspicuous sound system — or perhaps for the contemporary bachelor, coolly minimalist modular seating, an oversize bed and an overwrought and inconspicuous sound system.

But two young New York bachelors, one in real estate, one a designer, have found new ways to mark their territories.

One has suspended furniture from the ceiling and steadied it with cables; even the fishbowl hangs from above. The other has placed furniture, electronics and plumbing fixtures on wheels, sometimes encased in vitrines. The devices under the sofa include a large-capacity MP3 player, a turntable, a DVD player and a karaoke machine. Read more…

Community design trends are moving toward greater accessibility to public facilities, such as transportation and commercial activities.

Neighborhood design trends favor more mixed-use activities with infill and other higher-density development, and with dedicated areas for recreation and open space.

Traditional design of neighborhoods and homes with upscale exteriors, and windows and porches to encourage more street-level interaction, also are gaining popularity according to the AIA’s Home Design Trends Survey focusing on community and neighborhood design issues.
Read more…

“Divine” seems to be the best way to describe a local business man’s home.

Jim Newcomer, 54, is humble and low-key about his success as fourth-generation president of Newcomer Lumber and Supply Company in Mooresville and Greenfield. So building a $1.5 million home and subsequently having it featured in a magazine is out of the ordinary for the Mooresville native.

Newcomer said he and his wife Sandy, 52, are not ostentatious, so building a new home seven years ago in White River Township, south of Morgantown Road and Ind. 144 in Johnson County, was not an easy decision. But after their daughter Jamie had two bouts with thyroid cancer, Newcomer said the whole family wanted a change. Read more…

With a mixture of old and new, Pierre-area native Rick Jensen and his wife, Ana, are embarking upon the massive project of converting one of Pierre’s most historic homes into a bed and breakfast.

The home, currently located on East Wynoka Street, served as the governor’s mansion for Gov. Peter Norbeck from 1917-1921, and was completely restored, beginning in 1993, by former owners Dr. Kelly and Cynthia Krizan. Read more…