When the architect Elizabeth Diller talks about glass, she evokes the progressive, quixotic European doctrines of a century ago. Bruno Tauts Glass Pavilion, which was built in 1914 for an exhibition, inspired Paul Scheerbart, a poet and author of fantasy novels, to write Glass Architecture, an essay describing an imaginary transparent city of the future. If we want our culture to rise to a higher level, Scheerbart said, we are obliged, for better or for worse, to change our architecture.... We can only do that by introducing glass architecture, which lets in the lights of the sun, the moon, and the stars, nor merely through a few windows but through every possible wall. Diller describes her firms expansion and renovation of New Yorks Museum of Modern Art as guided by the modernist aspirations of glass, the utopian ones about democratizing space and about the extension between the outside and the inside.

Diller, whose practice emerged from collaborations with her husband, Ricardo Scofidio, is a co-founder of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, an architectural partnership whose work crosses over into the visual and performing arts. DS+Rs dictum of adaptive re-use is best demonstrated in its most famous (and most globally mimicked) project, the High Line, an abandoned elevated railway on Manhattans West Side, once slated for demolition by Mayor Rudy Giuliani and now repurposed as a public park. The High Line snakes northward from the meatpacking district, terminating at the new and controversial Hudson Yards development, where DS+R has again altered the citys cultural fabric by creating the Shed, a multipurpose arts complex with a sliding outer shell, which opened last year. These projects, expressing the firms commitment to democratizing public spaces, anticipated the challenges of reinventing MOMA, which, for ninety years, has stood as a monument to the paradoxical alignment of capital and counterculture.

When Tom Wolfe wrote that Modern Art arrived in the United States in the 1920s not like a rebel commando force but like Standard Oil, he meant it literally: the museum, New Yorks cathedral of culturethe first institution of its kind in the worldwas not exactly the brain child of visionary bohemians. It was founded in John D. Rockefeller, Jr.s living room, to be exact, with Goodyears, Blisses, and Crowninshields in attendance. The original seeds of this upper-class defiance can be traced to the infamous Armory Show of 1913, which introduced America to Cubism, Fauvism, and Futurism. The crowds were astonished by works by Paul Czanne, Mary Cassatt, Gustave Courbet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, douard Manet, Pablo Picassowho had declared that museums are just a lot of liesand Marcel Duchamp, whose shimmering masterwork Nude Descending a Staircase was the outstanding hit of the show. (Thats not art, Theodore Roosevelt announced.)

In 1928, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and the Boston textile heir Lillie P. Bliss seized on the idea of a permanent establishment for the kind of European art that they liked but could not find in museums like the Metropolitan, in New York. The two women recruited the lumber heir A. Conger Goodyear, who had been ejected from a gallery board in Buffalo for buying a Picasso, to be their administrator. Goodyear brought in Paul J. Sachs, an investor, and Sachs in turn recruited Alfred Barr, an academic who defended modern painting, to be the projects director. Their museum opened on November 8, 1929ten days after Black Tuesdayin a rented office space on Fifty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue. The first exhibition, a small collection of paintings by Czanne, Gauguin, Seurat, and van Gogh, drew curious crowds that overflowed in a line down the block. It was a fantastic atmosphere, Margaret Fitzmaurice-Scolari, the art historian, said. You felt an unbelievable vibration.... It was absolutely electric.

In 1932, when the newborn institution moved into a five-story townhouse on Fifty-third Street that was owned by the Rockefellers, its radical zeal was as undiminished as its breathless patronage by the one per cent, who, like their European counterparts, paid for the privilege of being disrespected, or even outright attacked. The first exhibit there included a mural by the Hungarian immigrant Hugo Gellert, a member of the Communist Party of America, which depicted Henry Ford, President Herbert Hoover, J. P. Morgan, and John D. Rockefeller, Sr., flanked by gunmen and bags of cash and accompanied by Americas most famous gangster. It was called Us Fellas Gotta Stick TogetherAl Capone.

Even before the museum erected its permanent home, on West Fifty-third Street, in 1939, it had fundamentally altered the trajectory of architecture and urban planning with a landmark 1932 exhibit grandly titled Modern Architecture: International Exhibition. The curator was Philip Johnson, a wealthy young aesthete whom Barr had invited to broaden the museums scope to include photography, graphic arts, and industrial fabrication. Johnsons Machine Art exhibit, in 1934, was, according to his biographer, the critic Mark Lamster, a sensation from the moment it opened... Here were things nobody had considered putting in an art museum before: beakers, a cash register, a circular saw, a Dictaphone, perfume bottles, pans, springs of all sizes, a toaster oven, a waffle maker, a telescope, a vacuum, and even a dentists X-ray machine.

For the architecture showcase, Johnson collected models and drawings of buildings by Europeans like Walter Gropiuswho had founded the Bauhaus, a neo-socialist collective of craftsmen, engineers, artists, and architectsand by the Swiss-French painter and architect Charles-douard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, whose utopian urban-planning concept, The Radiant City, was expressed in a 1925 sponsored study, called The Voisin Plan City, which proposed demolishing broad sections of Paris and replacing them with rows of identical cruciform residential towers interspersed with elevated freeways, concrete walkways, and courtyards of featureless grass. Wolfe wrote that Johnsons accompanying book, co-authored with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, a Wesleyan lecturer who wrote influential articles on design, gave no indication that the International Styleand their label caught on immediatelyhad originated in any social setting, any terra firma, whatsoever. Frank Lloyd Wright, declining an invitation to participate, condemned the style as communistic, disdaining the curators as a self-selected group of formalizers... superficial and ignorant.

The museums flagship structurethe 1939 faux-Bauhaus imposture done by Philip L. Goodwin, a society architect, and Edward Durell Stone, whom Rockefeller admired for the elegant deco execution of his Radio City Music Hallwas disdained by Johnson, who, in the process of remaking himself as a stratospherically prestigious architect, was invited to counteract the buildings shortcomings. MOMAs first westward addition, the taut and elegant Grace Rainey Rogers Memorial Wing, done by Johnson in 1951, and since demolished, was, according to Lamster, a masterpiece... the first glass-walled modern building to rise in New York, but thats the story of MoMA, the constant tearing itself down to remake itself, often for the worse. There is no visible trace of Johnsons next, larger addition, the 1964 East Wing, but his eternally serene Sculpture Garden, from 1953, remains essentially intact.

In the postwar decades, modern art, modern architecture, and the museum all faltered and languished. The once brazen International Style could now be found everywhere, its Platonic forms duly copied out in diluted, increasingly mundane degrees of fidelity to the thrilling European originals. In the late nineteen-fifties, Johnson collaborated with Pietro Belluschi, Gordon Bunshaft, Wallace Harrison, and Eero Saarinen on another Rockefeller project, planned with Robert Moses: the demolition of the San Juan Hill neighborhood to make way for the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, a set of ersatz-Italian piazzas flanked by white limestone brutalist auditoriums that present the surrounding streets with impenetrable stone walls. Lamster wrote, If you look at the new formalism of the sixties, Lincoln Center with its monumentality and its stark whiteness and its classicism and its insistence on authoritytheres something fascistic about that. (Johnsons defiant insistence on the amoral purity of his aesthetics reached its apotheosis in the kitschy towers he was happy to build, much later, for Donald Trump.)

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The Once and Future MOMA - The New Yorker

Harry Nuriev and Tyler Billinger were having a purple kind of day.

On a recent sunny morning in their NoLIta apartment, Mr. Nuriev, the founder of the design firm Crosby Studios, sat barefoot and cross-legged in purple pants on plush purple carpet while Mr. Billinger, his partner in life and work, lounged on silvery cushions in a purple floral shirt.

Around them sat numerous pieces that Mr. Nuriev had designed for the fashion brand Opening Ceremony a furry chair, cylindrical shelving units, a floor lamp with hand-shaped diffusers all realized in solid violet.

Mr. Nuriev, 35, is a Russian-born, New York-based designer with offices in Moscow and New York, and he has had dalliances with other colors in the past: dusty pink, powder blue and brilliant yellow. But he usually limits his palette for each project to a single eye-catching color, with the goal of creating furniture and interiors that visually pop.

It changes every day, he said. Today, I might have a blue mood, tomorrow a purple mood.

Committing to one dominant color for his home, therefore, presented a challenge.

I wanted my home to be very neutral and monochromatic, so I chose a gray color as a relaxing base color, he said.

But gray needs support, he added, to avoid falling flat. Eventually, he decided that bright purple was the ideal partner and one he could live with for a while.

The effect is invigorating, especially when taken together with material choices like squishy kitchen-cabinet doors upholstered in silver faux leather and square gray tiles that cover a number of surfaces, including the kitchen sink.

But perhaps the most surprising part of the extensive renovation the couple undertook last year which utterly transformed a respectable apartment that already had hardwood floors and an updated kitchen and bathroom is that its a rental.

The couple rents the 900-square-foot, one-bedroom duplex for $5,600 a month and, after discussions with their unusually permissive landlord, spent more than $50,000 on the renovation, an investment they wont be able to recover if they eventually move on.

Mr. Billinger, 24, was already renting the apartment while working in public relations at Moschino and Jeremy Scott when he met Mr. Nuriev about a year and a half ago. After just a few months, they decided to live together in Mr. Nurievs apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, which left the NoLIta home largely vacant. Mr. Billinger later became a partner at Crosby Studios, where he now handles business matters as the firms client list expands. (Mr. Nurievs latest creation is a transparent sofa stuffed with surplus clothing, which he developed with Balenciaga and introduced at Design Miami last month.)

I had this place sitting here, he said. Last summer, when both our leases were up, we were thinking maybe we should rent a new place and just start completely fresh.

But as they prepared to give up the NoLIta apartment, they realized it had several things going for it.

We really loved the energy in this neighborhood, Mr. Billinger said. And having two floors made sense for us, because a lot of times we end up working at home, so its nice to have that separation.

They also liked that it had a large balcony with a view of One World Trade Center.

So they renewed the lease and brought in a contractor last summer. They demolished the existing kitchen, removed the island and added a transparent violet acrylic panel to provide some separation from the living room. They eliminated the full-size refrigerator and installed an under-counter model. Where there was previously a full-size range, they extended a new tiled counter and installed an integrated two-burner cooktop, largely for aesthetic reasons.

We dont really cook, as you can tell, Mr. Billinger said, pointing to the potted succulents artfully placed around the burners.

They covered the living rooms hardwood floors with wall-to-wall carpeting and tiled the wall, while also creating a platform that holds cushions for a custom sofa that is easily reconfigured.

Upstairs, they changed the layout to make space for a bedroom with a soft headboard upholstered in gold faux leather and a large dressing area enclosed by a tiled storage wall and outfitted with Ikea racks.

They also gutted the master bathroom to add more gray tile, a gray toilet and violet acrylic partitions. Crosby Studios collaborators supplied some of the finishing touches, including plumbing fixtures the firm created with the Australian company Dorf and a vanity produced with the Indian furniture company Hatsu.

After two months of construction, the renovation was completed in September.

Despite the uncertain future of their rental, they have no regrets. They are simply happy to live in the moment.

Cost-wise, its not the easiest thing to do, said Mr. Nuriev, whose first interior design project was his former rental apartment in Moscow, where he did the same thing in 2013. But its a very exciting feeling to be inside of your own environment every day.

We want it to reflect who we are as people, Mr. Billinger said. And I think this home really reflects that.

Although, as Mr. Nuriev noted, Most people probably think its crazy.

For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @nytrealestate.

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In NoLIta, a Rental Renovated in Shades of Purple - The New York Times

Address:729 Washington Ave. N., Minneapolis

Web address: https://www.thenordicminneapolis.com/

Size: 10 stories, 200,000 square feet

Architect:Hartman Cox Architects, Washington, D.C., lead design architects. LHB Architects, Minneapolis office, architect of record.

General contractor: RJM Construction, Golden Valley

Owner/developer: Minneapolis-based United Properties and Greco

Property description:Since it opened in March 2019, The Nordic has become a bit more than just another brick-clad, loft-style creative office building.

United Properties developed the two-building property from the ground up as a mixed-use project that incorporated the historic feel office tenants like about Minneapolis North Loop neighborhood. But the project also includes outdoor recreation space, a food hall and a massive lobby meant to pull in both tenants and neighbors with a hip coffeehouse vibe.

The lobby was pretty important as a gathering area for people, said Chris Wold, a United Properties asset manager. And we really wanted to get the outside to look like it had been for here forever.

The food hall, operated by Galley Group, has also been a heavy draw, filling up with lunch and dinner diners from The Nordics offices and from nearby residents, Wold said. The food hall opened in December with food vendors selling Detroit-style pizza, Hawaiian food, Asian soul food and fried chicken.

Construction has wrapped on The Nordic, with the exception of a planned fitness facility and tenant improvements on about 2,000 square feet of retail space on the Third Street North side of the property. That space is part of The Nordics nine-story mixed-use parking ramp. The building contains more than 400 parking stalls, restaurant Thr3 Jackon the ground floor and 58 condominium units collectively named The Sable. The condos hide the parking behind them and seem to have been popular among buyers with 41 selling so far. Minneapolis-based Greco co-developed Sable with United Properties.

Between the two pieces of The Nordic is a courtyard that links them, as well as the Loose-Wiles building next door. A construction crew was at work this week installing an artificial ice surface that will be used for curling.

Tenant spaces are already bustling as vacancy in the building has dwindled to 10%. Digital marketing agencyOvative/group and co-working space provider WeWork lease the largest office spaces in the building. Ovatives 38,000 square feet of office space on the ninth and tenth floors and amenity space enclosed in a small, rooftop space are all linked with wide stairwells.

WeWork, which leases about 60,000 square feet between floors four, five, six and seven, is on its way to filling its rental office spaces, said WeWork Community Manger Amada Hart. Offices at this WeWork location, which is one of three in Minneapolis, accommodate companies starting with a single employee to one with nearly 70, she said.

Its still getting ramped up, Hart said in a Thursday interview.

West Monroe Partners will surpass Ovative as the buildings second-largest tenant when it moves into 42,000 square feet of space in May. When the space is complete it will be a light, bright space, Wold said, thanks to banks of huge windows and a massive atrium space that links the two floors of the companys future working space.

The Nordics 20,000-squre-foot eighth floor has yet to be leased. United Properties is building out a speculative suite in half of the space that will be fully furnished sometime in February. The developer hopes to lease the suite built out as is, and the raw space on the rest of the floor as something a tenant would have built out to its individual tastes.

Were looking for both, Wold said. There are a lot of companies that come and they dont even want to think about design.

United Properties is seeking WELL certification for The Nordic, Wold said. The designation denotes a building designed with the health and wellness of the occupants in mind.

Excerpt from:
Building Blocks: The Nordic draws North Loop in - Finance and Commerce

Before she was Sonic Youths iconic bassist, sing-speaking recondite poetry over squealing guitars, and before she published her memoir, started a fashion line, and acted in films, Kim Gordon was an art-school kid staging interventions in friends apartments. The goal, she wrote at the time, was to use art to deconstruct design.

40 years later, the impulses behind those interventions still inform Gordons art making.Following the rather public dissolution of her band and marriage in 2011, Gordonmoved to her hometown of Los Angeles and refocused on her art practice, whichenacts some of the same public-vs-private tension thats ungirded her personal life over the past decade.

Its kind of ironic that I ended up as a public person whos sort of uncomfortable with it all, Gordon tells Artnet News over the phone from her home in California. Shes just returned from New York, where her show The Bonfire opened at 303 Gallery. Shes battling a rough head cold from the trip, but her voice is unmistakably familiar.

Lining 303s walls are blurry, amber-tinted photographs of friends encircling a beachside bonfire. The scene is jovial, but the context is not. Subjects are framed by digitized rectanglesthe type that pop up when facial recognition software hones in on a known pixel pattern; others have crosshairs trained on them, like the targets of a drone strike. Its all a reminder that even the most intimate of moments are threatened by technocapitalisms watching eye.

Meanwhile, a recent performance piece,Los Angeles June 6, 2019, blares from a stack of monitors in the center of the gallery. In it, Gordon uses LAs municipal architecturehandrails, benches, cornicesto play a screeching guitar, reclaiming the space through a kind of earsplitting ritual thats equal parts Vito Acconci and Glenn Branca.

Gordon spoke with Artnet News about her new show, the evolution of her art practice over the years, and her unease with being a private person in the public eye.

Kim Gordon, The Bonfire 7 (2019). Kim Gordon. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Lets start with the bonfire images. What is it about this scene that interested you?

Its just an archetypal image. Last summer I was in Provincetown and my friend organized a bonfire. She had to get a license just to have it on the beach. I took those pictures as it was happening and I just thought they looked really cool. The lighting reminded me of Old Master paintings.

I had been thinking a lot about the branding of different experiences. For example, the way Airbnb now rents out things like camping trips, selling you on the idea that youll live like a cowboy. These are special private moments that are being highlighted and sold. In actuality, there is no sense of real privacy anymore. And people dont care until it turns into something bad.

Atop the canvas prints are swathes of acrylic medium. Theyre almost unnoticeable until the light hits them. What was the intention of using the acrylic on those works?

I wanted them to be more than just photographs. Its almost like a shadow painting. Creating a secret painting in public is interesting to me.There are also overlaid, Photoshopped digital surveillance lines. They tie in with a video that Loretta Fahrenholz did for one of my songs, Earthquake. She had these special effects people use those graphics to hide peoples faces because we didnt have release forms. I liked the idea of tying it in with that. Ive always had my art and music so separate, but theyre starting to merge together more.

Those Photoshop graphics kind of create a hybrid design and an abstraction within a representational picture. You see that a lot in designeverything is designed to tie together. Its all kind of like a modern-day landscape to me.

Kim Gordon, Los Angeles June 6, 2019 (2019). Kim Gordon. Courtesy of 303 Gallery, New York.

Theres a great dialogue between the video installation and the bonfire prints. In the video, while youre roving around LA with your guitar, the viewer becomes hyper-aware of all the security cameras in the background and the way that public and municipal space is being controlled and privatized.

And the security guards were everywhere. It was like I was a terrorist. Understandably, I guesswhen you do something like that [Laughs]

Im interested in the gardens and the waterfalls and the way landscaping works in those corporate plazas throughout the city. Its something Im particularly aware of in LAeven more than New Yorkhow those things disguise this corporatization of city life.

You conceived this work,Los Angeles June 6, 2019, as a one-off performance. How does its current form as a video installation change the piece for you?

I actually made it for this show that took place between Ste, France, and LA. It was an idea Id had for a long time. I always liked the way skaters repurposed those corporate buildings, the stairways and the railings. I wanted to do the same thing, reclaim the space using those same railings as giant guitar slides. I asked a documentary filmmaker friend to shoot it and she did such a great job. She shot it with three iPhones. It was originally shown in a storefront on Sunset Boulevard, which was pretty cool because the sound of the traffic going by added to the experience and we didnt start showing it until the sun was setting so the light was interesting and then it got dark. I knew I wanted to include it in the New York show but I didnt want it to be this giant image of me on the wall, so I put them on the floor. Then the director of exhibitions at the gallery came up with the idea of arranging them like a bonfire and putting some fake tree stumps nearby.

Kim Gordon, Los Angeles June 6, 2019 (2019), still. Kim Gordon. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Even though the piece isnt explicitly about L.A., the subtext is thereyoure engaging with the bones of the city itself. You spent decades on the East Coast before moving back to LA in 2016. Since then, what influence has the city had on your work?

I dont know if LA has really influenced my work. I kind of feel like I always carried a bit of LA with me in New York. I dont think it really changed in that way. I always liked the architecture, the weird customized houses, how you can have a tutor house next to a ranch. LA is a melting pot anyway. People move here from all over and the architecture reflects that. I also find it interesting how customizing ones house or car is kind of the ultimate freedom of expression for people here. Its always been my favorite city to look at. Theres so much space and distance; its very voyeuristic. But I think LA influenced my record more than my art.

Your history with art is longer than your history with music. Do you feel more comfortable in the art world than you do the music world?

Yeah, I do actually. Like a lot of people, I just kind of fell into music as a way to escape the art world. It was the spirit of post-punk do it yourself. I didnt have any training in music at all. But I did go to art school, and I grew up wanting to be an artist since I was five, as cliche as that sounds. Thats why I moved to New York.

I dont really think about the music world at all today. Ive had to recently because I did the solo record, but I still dont interact that much with the music scene in LA.

Installation view of Kim Gordon: The Bonfire, 303 Gallery, New York. Photo: John Berens. Courtesy of 303 Gallery.

When doing research for this interview, I found that most of the pieces of writing that were ostensibly about your art tended to focus more on your fashion and your time in bands. Rarely did they address your artwork critically. Do you find that people have a hard time separating, say, Sonic Youth Kim Gordon from artist Kim Gordon, or past Kim from present Kim?

Oh yeah, totally. Its just something I feel like I always have to overcome. I should probably have more fun with it. [Laughs] I do feel like a lot of the pieces have been like the kind of journalism you often get in the music world, where its clear the writer just read the press release or something. But I havent had a straightforward, conventional art career. You have to really dig around to actually know what my work is. Its kind of a drag. I think its just something I have to work out for myself. I dont want to worry about what other people are thinking.

Your work is also quite disparate. Your word and wreath paintings, your sound and performance pieces, your abstract and figurative sculpturesif these were all to share the same room, unknowing visitors would conceivably be surprised to realize they were done by one person. Do you feel the same way?

For me it all goes back to design. When I did the survey show at White Columns in 2013, I brought it all together under the title Design Office With Kim Gordon and I was actually surprised at just how clearly you could really see a thread running through the whole thing. It was a lot of lo-fi design.

In the early 80s, when I started Design Office, the idea was to do interventions in peoples apartments that were part psychologicalI would take something personal about them and turn it into an art object, then physically alter the space in some way and write about it all in a magazine. I did a few of those. And if you look at the materials in the rest of my work since, the logic behind it, you can see those roots in some way. Im still interested in interiors and Ive always been influenced by how art and design interacts. Its all somewhat performative.

Maybe Im more of a sociologist. Think of me as a sociologist and it all makes more sense. [Laughs]

Kim Gordon, The Bonfire 10 (2019). Kim Gordon. Courtesy 303 Gallery, New York.

Youve spoken about the stranglehold the market has over the art world. Is this something you contend with in your own work or do you make things with the understanding that you cant control their life after they leave the studio?

Its definitely something I contend with, especially with installations. Theres something about professionalism in art that I just want to resist. Its hard to make art thats awkward anymore, or to make something thats unexpected or surprising or unsettling in a way thats not like blatantly offensive or sexual or cheap, especially in spaces like commercial galleries which are just white boxes.

Kim Gordon: The Bonfire is on view through February 22, 2020 at 303 Gallery.

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There Is No Sense of Privacy Anymore: After Kim Gordons Personal Life Went Public, She Decided to Tackle Surveillance in Her Art - artnet News

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Original post:
New FloroStone With Its Fast Turnaround, Lower Cost Installation and Luxurious Beauty is a Revolution in Decorative Epoxy Flooring by Florock -...

If you have flooring you dont like whether its carpet, vinyl or unappealing wood it can feel like theres no way to escape it, no matter how many rugs you pile on top. But if you have floors you love, walking across them can be a daily pleasure.

Thats because the floor is the base upon which all other decorating decisions are built. Change your floors, and you change the character of your home. Its as simple as that.

So its no surprise that new floors specifically, hardwood floors are at the top of many renovation wish lists. Not all wood floors, however, are equally appealing or appropriate for every space.

We look at a building holistically, so the walls and windows, and the environment that were in, all feed into the decision-making about the floors, said Paul Bertelli, the design principal of JLF Architects in Bozeman, Montana, whose firm chooses a different wood floor for almost every project.

The wood flooring industry has evolved considerably in recent years, as wider planks have increased in popularity and finish and installation options have expanded. Given all the choices available, we asked architects and flooring professionals for advice on how to pick the right one.

Browsing through flooring samples to choose a type of wood and a color for your new floor is probably the most enjoyable part of the process. At this stage, much depends on personal preference and your overall vision for your home.

One of the most popular species is white oak, a classic, durable and widely available wood. It can also take stain very well, said Chris Sy, the president of Carlisle Wide Plank Floors. That means it can be customized for a wide variety of aesthetics, from bleached off-white to ebony.

Other types of wood offer different looks. Hickory has a lot of color variation, from light tones to dark tones, Sy said.

Those who want a rich, darker brown usually select walnut, while those who prefer blonder wood may opt for maple or birch.

As for choosing a stain, the current trend is toward subtle colors that leave the wood with a natural look. Some designers even eschew stain altogether.

We dont ever recommend staining floors, said Elizabeth Roberts, an architect in Brooklyn, although she does occasionally use oak darkened by a process called fuming.

If youre having trouble deciding which species and color is best for your home, consider the other wood elements in the room, Bertelli suggested. If you have walnut cabinetry, for instance, a walnut floor is an easy match; if you have oak doors, oak floors are a natural choice.

Limit the palette, he said, to make it more tranquil and serene.

The way that logs are sawed into boards has a big effect on the grain pattern thats visible in the floor.

With flat-sawn (or plain-sawn) boards, the grain has a wavy appearance. The defining feature is this arching cathedral, said Jamie Hammel, using the industry name for the pattern.

Hammel, owner of the Hudson Co., a supplier of wood flooring and paneling, noted that quarter-sawn boards offer a more linear appearance, with faint striping: The prized feature are these medullary rays, which some people call tiger stripes.

Rift-sawn boards offer the straightest, cleanest grain, whereas live-sawn boards may include all types of grain patterns.

A floor can use one cut exclusively or can incorporate various types of cuts. A mix of quarter- and rift-sawn boards, for instance, is a popular option for flooring with understated grain patterns. For a warm, woodsy appearance, using only flat-sawn boards might be the best option.

In addition to the way the wood is cut, you can choose how many knots and other distinguishing marks you want to see.

We call it character, Hammel said, noting that options include clear (no knots), light character (a few smaller knots) and character-grade (the most, and largest, knots).

Reclaimed wood is another option. Many flooring companies offer wood salvaged from barns, factories and other structures, which can have even more character with nail holes, cracks and saw-blade marks.

You can find oak siding off a 150-year-old building thats been weathered beautifully and use that for flooring, Bertelli said, adding that his firm frequently does just that. We want character in the floor, and our philosophy is that there are perfect imperfections.

Another major decision is whether to buy prefinished flooring, sold with its final color and topcoat in place, or unfinished flooring that can be stained and finished by an installer after its put down.

One of the advantages of prefinished flooring is that it can be installed quickly, usually in a single day.

When floors are finished on site, the home has to be vacated to allow for sanding, staining and finishing, including drying time.

Its very messy work, and its very important that nobody step on it for days, or weeks, at a time, Roberts said. It really alters the construction schedule.

Because prefinished flooring is made in a factory, companies can also produce it with a wide range of exotic finishes that might be difficult for an installer to re-create on-site and with great consistency.

You know what youre going to get, said Jane Kim, an architect in New York. Some installers who do their own finishing, she noted, may not have the experience to get the color you want, especially if you want shades of gray or a really pale finish.

A key difference, however, is that prefinished boards usually have beveled edges to allow for slight irregularities, which creates more pronounced lines between the boards after installation.

Because unfinished flooring is sanded flat after it is installed, the finished floor typically looks more like a solid plane, without gaps.

Most hardwood floors today have a finishing coat of clear polyurethane. Polyurethane essentially sits on top of the wood, protecting it from moisture, wear and staining, Hammel said.

Water-based polyurethanes have grown in popularity in recent years, and the finishing sheen can range from matte to glossy.

A polyurethane finish is very durable, but once damaged or worn, it can be difficult to repair, Hammel said, because it typically requires refinishing an entire board, if not the whole floor.

An alternative is an oil-based finish. Oil penetrates into the wood and therefore tends to make it look a bit richer, he said. And because it doesnt leave a film on top of the wood, it allows for relatively easy spot repairs.

The downside to an oil finish is that it requires more regular maintenance. An oil floor will dry out over time, Hammel said. But it can be easily refreshed, with more oil.

Solid wood is just what it sounds like: a plank of your chosen wood, cut from a log. An engineered wood floor is composed of a thinner layer of your chosen wood on top of a manufactured base of layered wood, like plywood.

Engineered wood has a number of benefits. Its built to be more dimensionally stable, Hammel said. It will expand and contract less, reducing the chance that the boards will warp or shrink over time.

Engineered flooring is especially good in basements, in high humidity areas and over radiant heating systems, he said.

And in homes with concrete subfloors, like many high-rise apartments, engineered flooring can be glued directly to the slab, whereas solid wood usually requires a plywood subfloor so it can be nailed in place.

If your ceiling height is low, saving that extra bit of space by using engineered flooring can be important, Kim said: Some clients are really obsessed with getting the highest ceiling possible, so if they can save an inch on the floor, theyre going to go with engineered flooring.

But it isnt always the best option. Some people simply like the idea of solid hardwood better, and in extremely dry areas, solid wood may perform better.

Engineered floors are made to work best in environments that stay above 30% relative humidity, Sy said. If the environment is going to be consistently below that, engineered floors may experience slight cracking in the wear layer.

Also, depending on the thickness of that top layer, engineered floors may allow for sanding and refinishing only once or twice or perhaps not at all while solid wood can be refinished many times. (To avoid this limitation when buying engineered flooring, look for a product with a thick top layer.)

Narrow boards with widths of about 2 to 3 inches were once standard for hardwood flooring. Not anymore. Five- to 8-inch widths are now commonplace, and some homeowners opt to go even wider, with broad planks measuring up to a foot wide and beyond.

We make floors up to 20 inches wide, Sy said.

In general, the wider the boards, the higher the cost. And the wider it gets, the less stable it gets, because the wood wants to move, Roberts said. When we get into really wide flooring, we almost always recommend an engineered floor, because that prevents it from cupping and warping.

Most floors are installed with the boards in straight lines, but there are many alternative installation patterns, including herringbone and chevron, which are enjoying renewed popularity.

You can also mix it up. Roberts sometimes uses wider boards and complicated installation patterns in the primary living spaces, and narrower boards in a straightforward arrangement in secondary spaces, like hallways and bedrooms.

This approach has been favored for centuries as a way to save money, but it can also prevent extravagant flooring choices from overpowering smaller rooms.

Remember, Roberts said, the goal is to create something timeless not to make your entire home look like its three boards wide.

See more here:
How hard can it be to choose a hardwood floor? - Seattle Times

Installation view of Dreams of a Sleeping Worldby Oscar Oiwa at the USC Pacific Asia Museum (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

PASADENA, Calif. Imagine being in a soft bed, eyes fluttering to brush away sleep, and slowly noticing that youve been transported to a garden. The world has turned black and white, your room has no floor or ceiling, and the cosmic textures of the universe swirl before your eyes. You might feel this way in Oscar Oiwas immersive, 360 installation, a new world created inside a large nylon dome. Its part of Dreams of a Sleeping World, his first solo exhibition in the United States, on view at the USC Pacific Asia Museum.

Before stepping into the showpiece, viewers get to see Oiwa through his paintings, which take on different degrees of fantasy. In Light Shop, a Japanese convenience store is partially hidden behind a burst of bright globules, a sight that is magical, but grounded. Hotel Office 6 taps more into a dreamscape. It depicts a room in a traditional rykan, or Japanese inn, transformed into a zen garden. Tatami mats become makeshift bridges across koi ponds, but the fish swim above the futon and the low work table. Oiwa is not present, but an open laptop, a camera, and a bottle of sake suggest that hes only stepped away for a moment.

Theres also a short documentary documenting Oiwas process for the immersive installation another tease before stepping into the space. We see Oiwa speedily working through timelapse, hand-drawing the Dreams landscape on a nylon, inflatable dome with black Sharpie. It took Oiwa two weeks to complete the drawing.

The gallery director describes Oiwas dome as Yayoi Kusama meets Keith Haring meets Salvador Dali, but none of these comparisons feel quite right. Dreams of a Sleeping World doesnt use optical illusions to create an infinite space, and his surreal landscapes painted in black ink are simultaneously too detailed to echo Haring and too minimal to match Dali.

If any comparisons make sense, Oiwas style immediately brought to mind Googles DeepDream, a program powered by a neural network that picks up patterns in images pixels that might resemble a human face or a dogs tail, for example and repeatedly processes them until they have been distorted and amplified in surreal, sometimes nightmarish, ways. Oiwas landscape is far too tranquil to be mistaken for the softwares creation, but his line work warps into natural elements quite often. A recurring pattern of rippling, oblique circles resemble hundreds of eyeballs that follow you through the dream space; rabbits emerge from black voids, plant life springs out of stippled marks, and reptilian creatures emerge from hatched lines. The ornate, decorative patterns conjure Art Nouveau illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley and Harry Clarke, but Dreams distinctly belongs to Oiwa.

The biggest pitfall of Dreams, however, is how easy it is to be pulled out of the experience. Its easy to spot the stitching that runs through the inflatable dome, and the air machine that keeps it afloat roars loudly. Another issue is the lighting, much of which comes from natural light, that shifts and casts shadows, distinguishing the floor from the walls and breaking up any illusion of being in a void. I was constantly aware that I was inside a manufactured experience.

Part of what has made experiential art so successful is that it hides its scaffolding. The dark Infinity Room makes the mirrors less obvious, and the Museum of Illusions rents out an entire warehouse, hires interior designers, and makes you believe that the pop-up has always been a permanent fixture. Some will find Oiwas scrappiness part of the charm, even refreshing from such overproduced spaces; I thought I would favor it, instead, I was too anchored in reality.

Oscar Oiwa: Dreams of a Sleeping World continues at the USC Pacific Asia Museum (46 N Los Robles Ave, Pasadena) through April 26.

Read more from the original source:
A 360 Installation Can Transport You to a Dreamy, Black-and-White Universe - Hyperallergic

If it's time to install a new heating system in your home, you might consider baseboard heaters. While they aren't the most efficient options on the market, they're affordable to install and make it easy to control the climate in your homea must in a mid-Atlantic state like Maryland.

When most hear baseboard, they think of electric baseboard heaters, which heat a house room by room. There is, however, a second option: hot water baseboard heaters, or hydronic baseboard heaters. These systems use central heating that channels hot water through pipes to baseboard heating units throughout your home. If you're looking to install a new heating system in your home, read on to learn how these two options work.

Electric Baseboard Heaters

This popular system uses electric resistance to provide baseboard heating in individual rooms. Cables inside the unit warm the air and push it outward. Meanwhile, cold air enters the bottom of the unit to be warmed. Homes with baseboard heating will have thermostats in each room.

Overall, electric baseboard heaters are less efficient than most central heating systems. However, this room-by-room control allows homeowners to only heat certain zones as needed to make up for that efficiency. Plus, they require no expensive duct work, so the initial installation won't cost an arm and a leg.

Hot Water Baseboard Heaters

Unlike electric baseboard systems, hot water heaters work from one central system. A boiler heats water and sends it through pipes from heater to heater. These systems tend to be more efficient than most alternatives. Installation can range in price, depending on your home. A low-end installation will mean units further away from the boiler get less heat. To avoid this problem, you'll need to install flow control valves, which can be adjusted so smaller rooms receive less heat than larger ones.

Other Considerations

Baseboard heating, while not unsightly, is visible in your interior design. Take care not to hang curtains or other wall hangings too close to your heater.

Additionally, another option for hydronic heating is to be used with radiant heat systems, where heating pipes run under the floor. But unlike baseboard heating, this will require an invasive, expensive installation. And, many homes don't have the right kind of flooring to make this probable. If you're considering a new heating system, meet with a professional contractor to talk about the most affordable, efficient and safe system for your home.

HomeAdvisor is a Patch promotional partner.

Read more from the original source:
Maryland Homeowners: Install Baseboard Heating This Winter - Patch.com

This weeks house is a farmhouse built in 1825 and recently renovated to reflect current trends. The house, at 200 Moe Road, Clifton Park, is just less than 3,000 square feet and has three bedrooms and three full bathrooms. The current owners bought the property for $160,000 in 2018 and overhauled the interior.

Before and after pictures of the bathroom off the kitchen.

They took down walls on the first floor to create an open layout and a laundry room. They made changes upstairs as well to create a better master bedroom arrangement. All three bathrooms were gutted and rebuilt. The flooring downstairs were either replaced or refinished. New carpet was installed on the second floor and the owners also installed new electrical and plumbing throughout the house. There are two gas fireplaces and a three-car garage. Other highlights include an enclosed porch, back deck and two-plus-acre lot. Shenendehowa schools. Taxes: $6,280. List price: $419,000. Listing agent Nicole Fettuccia of B&L Property Group will host an open house from 12 to 2 p.m. Sunday. Contact her at 518-888-6907.

Photos here. Listing here.

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House of the Week: Modernized farmhouse in Clifton Park - Albany Times Union

Chances are, you don't put too much thought into your heating system here in Georgia. But even in mild climates such as ours, you may need to upgrade to a new system eventually. If so, baseboard heating is a popular option that's also affordable to install.

When most hear baseboard, they think of electric baseboard heaters, which heat a house by individual room. There is, however, a second option: hot water baseboard heaters, or hydronic baseboard heaters. These systems use central heating that channels hot water through pipes to baseboard heating units throughout your home. If you're looking to install a new heating system in your home, read on to learn how these two options work.

Electric Baseboard Heaters

This popular system uses electric resistance to provide baseboard heating in individual rooms. Cables inside the unit warm the air and push it outward. Meanwhile, cold air enters the bottom of the unit to be warmed. Homes with baseboard heating will have thermostats in each room.

Overall, electric baseboard heaters are less efficient than most central heating systems. However, this room-by-room control allows homeowners to only heat certain zones as needed to make up for that efficiency. Plus, they require no expensive duct work, so the initial installation won't cost an arm and a leg.

Hot Water Baseboard Heaters

Unlike electric baseboard systems, hot water heaters work from one central system. A boiler heats water and sends it through pipes from heater to heater. These systems tend to be more efficient than most alternatives. Installation can range in price, depending on your home. A low-end installation will mean units further away from the boiler get less heat. To avoid this problem, you'll need to install flow control valves, which can be adjusted so smaller rooms receive less heat than larger ones.

Other Considerations

Baseboard heating, while not unsightly, is visible in your interior design. Take care not to hang curtains or other wall hangings too close to your heater.

Additionally, another option for hydronic heating is to combine it with a radiant heat systems, where heating pipes run under the floor. But unlike baseboard heating, this will require an invasive, expensive installation. And, many homes don't have the right kind of flooring to make this probable. If you're considering a new heating system, meet with a professional contractor to talk about the most affordable, efficient and safe system for your home.

HomeAdvisor is a Patch promotional partner.

More here:
Heres Why Baseboard Heating Is A Popular Option In Georgia - Patch.com