MNN - Mother Nature Network

ArchDaily fawns over the gorgeous and neighborhood-revitalizing adaptive-reuse overhaul Lake|Flato Architects performed on the formerly derelict eyesore — a "vacant and heavily vandalized building shell" and "the biggest homeless shelter run by the homeless"— otherwise known as 1221 Broadway in San Antonio.

 

The San Francisco Chronicle is a bit tardy to the Mason jar party. Writes Sophia Markoulakis of the "DIY catalyst": "What started as a cottage industry of mason jar transformations has quickly become an entry point for entrepreneurs, who are churning out everything from pump dispensers to sippy lids to leather holsters and cocktail shakers funded by Kickstarter pitches. It's easy to be nostalgic while clinging to a hand-milled-coffee-filled mason jar mug and reflecting on a seemingly simpler and wholesome past. But even John Landis Mason suffered from the cruelty of one of our greatest American inventions: capitalism. After losing sole rights to his jar in 1879, competitors put him out of business. He died in poverty in 1902 — a sad twist all too common in America's dog-eat-dog marketplace."

 

The New York Times has ID'd the 3-D printer as the "home appliance of the future, much as personal computers were 30 years ago, when Dick Cavett referred to the Apple II in a TV commercial as "'the appliance of the ’80s for all those pesky household chores.'" 

 

Co.Design considers itself a fan of  architects/developers/builders Matthew and Tina Ford, who, through their firm Shade House Development, have managed to bring attractive and affordable sustainable housing to the heart of our nation's spendy, AC-dependent sprawl-beast: Houston. In addition to the Co.Design piece, Dwell recently featured the Ford's flagship project, a cluster of nine Hugh Newell Jacobsen-inspired row house residences in hip Houston Heights called Row on 25th.

 

Architizer gets into the spirit of the Oscars by wrangling up 10 contemporary buildings featured in recent cinema including chez Cullen from "Twilight" (Hoke House in Portland, Ore.) and Martin Vanger's minimalist house of horrors from the 2011 reboot of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" (the stunning Villa Överby in the Stockholm Archipelago).

 

The Wall Street Journal lends its nose to a story on how scent can help sell — or not sell — a house. Long story short: If you're trying to push a property DO NOT bake cookies or burn potpourri as "complex scents, even if they're pleasant, can be a distraction because some people subconsciously dedicate time and energy to figuring out what the aroma is." Eric Spangenberg, real estate odor expert and dean of the college of business at Washington State University, recommends simple scents such as lemon, basil, or pine as they're "easier to process and less distracting and thus more conducive to spending."