Sunset over The High Line

The newly opened High Line park is part of the return-to-nature going in New York with parks, green markets and cloth bags everywhere.

Architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (the only architects to ever win a MacArthur “genius” Award) and landscape architects James Corner Field Operations designed a heavily planted and interesting promenade. Aside from some benches and a few double-wide wooden recliners, there isn’t much sit and hang space. It’s more of a stroll and view — and what a view.

Looking West:

Who knew New Jersey could look so good.

 

Looking East:

 I love the idea of being just a few stories above the city. Close enough to see, smell and hear it all but in a removed, tranquil spot.

Quick History:

The project took 10 years: two area residents formed the Friends of the High Line in 1999. In June Section 1 opened from Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District to 2oth Street in Chelsea, between 10th and 11th avenues.

Brooklyn is the New Richmond

We’ve moved!
Goodbye to our adorable but small-for-Richmond 1,000-square-foot house

and hello 500-square-foot, third-floor-walkup apartment in Brooklyn.
(Half the size and twice the price!)

“Bubba Likes Trees”

A friend decided to impart this particular nugget about her boyfriend, Bubba, while taking a road trip during college, and boy did that stick with her. But, you know, Bubba has a point. I was reminded of this notorious quote recently when I spotted this amazing house on interior designer Amanda Nisbet’s web site. 

Nothing can make a house like trees.

I wrote about this eco-friendly house in the Woodland Heights neighborhood in Richmond several years ago. Architect Patrick Farley designed the structure, and its bridge-entrance, narrow enough to squeeze between mature trees on the property. The owner helped maintain the character of the ‘hood by building around the land’s already existing occupants. How refreshing. Apparently he liked trees, too. 

In other tree news

The new book, Remarkable Trees of Virginia, is a reminder that big, old trees have personalities, too. A forestry professor and horticulturist spent two years seeking out the biggest, oldest, most unique and culturally significant trees in the state. People could submit their suggestions and the resulting 200-page book is filled with magical photographs by landscape photographer Robert Llewellyn.

On the cover, a boy plays around an ancient Tulip Poplar tree in Richmond’s Maymont park.

Yesterday I spotted blooms on our dogwood and even better, a cherry tree in our neighbor’s yard. The cherry is boring 50 weeks of the year but when it blooms for those precious two weeks each March/April, life is good. I mean really, I’m literally happier. I sit on the porch and stare at it a lot. Last year I decided I’d rather have that ephemeral beauty than a year of lackluster leaves. Isn’t the fact that it’s not around all year what makes it better?

Some day I’ll check out the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. This year it’s March 28-April 12.

This Man Will Not be Throwing Stones

After researching the post about the new Kimber Modern hotel in Austin, I got curious about architect Burton Baldridge’s other work. Turns out he caused a stir in a one of Austin’s historic bungalow neighborhoods when he built this amazing glass house (below) for himself.

He cleverly hid the glass with the wooden screen. And look at that amazing fireplace and patio. Read an article about Baldridge’s plight in Metropolis magazine. Read  my post about his work on Austin’s Kimber Modern hotel.

Mid-Week Escape: Far Out Stay in Austin

The South by Southwest festival is upon us, do you know where you’re staying? The first (and only) time I was in Austin we stayed at the super-funky (in a good way) Austin Motel, with its irresistible slogan: “So close yet so far out.” I remember we shared some pooltime with a band named Estradasphere who played a gig nearby. Although that felt like the quintessential Austin experience, this time, I’d like to bump it up a notch and stay at the five-month-old KimberModern.

Built by two women who love to travel and had hospitality in their blood. Partners Kimber Cavendish and Vicki Faust spent $1 million to build the modernist five-room hotel in the South Congress neighborhood. With rates at $250 to $320 a night it\’s a tad steep, but take a look at some of the cool features.

 Architect Burton Baldridge had to contend with a steeply sloped 1-acre lot. Because it was facing the back of a strip of stores, he decided to create an inner courtyard. I love the way they built the deck around the old Texas oak tree.

They feature three Austin artists’ work in the hotel. This bunny painting by Martha Gannon is fun and intriguing and totally makes the room.  

The exterior is clad with energy efficient concrete board that resist’s the sun’s heat, the windows and doors are made with low-e glass. Modernist details appearing throughout the property include bath fixtures by Philippe Stark, Arne Jacobsen egg chairs in the common area and Eames desk chairs. The design is top notch, lets just hope there’s a band staying.

For more, check out the recent New York Times Real Estate section piece, or the post at Apartment Therapy.

Mid-Week Desk-Chair Travel: English Cottage Escape

Lets go back to a time before the recession, a time when we did things like travel for fun and throw away paper towels and partake in the fine luxury that is the dry cleaners. Well I’m exaggerating, but I am feeling terribly vacation-deprived. So here goes the first of a new series of mid-week desk-chair travel pieces.

I dream of a solitary vacation, where I can read and rest and write and drink tea and sit by a fireplace and make like Emily Dickinson or Virginia Woolf (minus the depression and lesbianism). “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,” Woolf said. So here tis.

Boy it would be a good novel coming from here. I’d call it: “Eat, Sleep, Chill.”

Seriously though, you can rent this cottage through the Royal Oak Foundation, an American booster-group for the National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Cottages start at $352 for a week in low season. And now that the dollar is creeping up on the pound, you’ll get more pints at the pub than you could last year. 

From a jazz-era Warwickshire cottage (a holiday home to the 2nd Viscount Bearstead) to a cliff-edge lighthouse-keepers cottage in Devon, the properties are all historic and special – and staying at them helps support their preservation.

If you’re an Anglophile, you can join the Foundation for $55, which grants admission to more than 300 historic homes and gardens, 700 miles of coastline and 620,000 acres of open countryside, plus stateside lectures and events. Coming up is the 2009 Garden Tour of “New” Gardens of the English Cotswolds, which sounds amazing if the rest of the gardens are anything like this one below. 

Apparently the Cotswolds is where much of the country’s garden innovation is born. The group tour will have access to private gardens and meet owners and lunch on the properties. Sounds devine! Maybe I should skip the seclusion and take my camera to these gardens instead. Sounds like a great book.

Where shall we go next wednesday?