Dwell March/April 2024

Your results may vary. Property in Portland, Oregon, doesn’t cost the same as in Portland, Maine. Good plumbing contractors charge different rates in Sacramento and Santa Fe. And whenever we ask anyone anywhere for the grand total of what their home project cost, the math is hard to pin down. Do you count the garden they finally finished three years after the renovation? Or put a price on the afternoons they and their friends spent DIYing some final touches? The numbers are slippery, but in our weekly online Budget Breakdown column and here in our annual issue about what good design really costs, we gather as much info as residents are ready to share in order to tell stories about where people choose to save and to splurge. We include…

Mason Trinca Photographer “Invitation to Enter,” p. 54 After college, Mason Trinca worked as a photo-journalist for various newspapers around the country. In the decade since, he’s added many commercial and editorial clients to his portfolio, yet has maintained an approach rooted in documentary. For this issue, Trinca photographed a men’s shelter in Bellevue, Washington, which required depicting the architecture without any of its primary residents in the frame, in order to protect their privacy. A challenge, when trying to bring architecture to life. “How do we respect the community but at the same time tell this story?” asks Trinca. “Showcasing the workers and the volunteers involved helped demonstrate the humanity of the space.” Anjulie Rao Writer “French 2D,” p. 38 Chicago journalist and critic Anjulie Rao covers a wide…

“Beautiful—thoughtful—a place to gather friends.”Linda Foster via dwell.com Re: “Breaking the Mold: Haddock Studio preserves a San Francisco apartment’s Victorian details while giving its interiors a sculptural twist.” January/February Beautiful renovation respecting the Victorian bones of the space while making it entirely their own, and I think the most beautiful use of white paint I’ve ever seen. Their art and taste in furniture, color, appliances (the gorgeous kitchen and hood) are so strong and comfortable. Great home, guys. ROBERT VIA DWELL.COM It’s a shame all of the wood trim and wainscoting were painted, but perhaps it had already been painted before the renovation? I also like the green-stained plywood cabinets. Very cool. REX MILLER VIA DWELL.COM I love to see what they did with 1,200 square feet! When I lived…

Giving me Excel spreadsheet vibes. @kaileighc Love! Nothing matters and life is short—add color! Nope. This is not the good ’80s look. Might as well have neon signs and Patrick Nagel posters to go with it. @mellie.parent I like it when it matches the tiles. @amys500 If you like graph paper. @smanninsight ’70s rerun. @lauriedecredico Love the look but can be very difficult to clean, especially colored grout with white tile. @jendetrempe Love it. Never worried about mold and mildew with a sealed powder grout. @jbaross Colored mortar with iron oxide for a warm, natural look on masonry. @studio___north It’s a No. We will see houses with that and be like “that is so 2023.” @interiorsbymb Hotels? Yeah. You are there for 2–3 days. My house? No. You get tired…

The Aluminaire House started with a small budget and a big dream. Architects A. Lawrence Kocher (6, right), a longtime Architectural Record editor, and Albert Frey (6, left), a former apprentice of Le Corbusier, designed the full-scale model as a case study for affordable houses that could be mass-produced quickly without sacrificing style. Today, the country’s first all-metal prefabricated house is considered a modernist masterpiece, one that brought International Style—already popular in Europe—to the United States. (The design was later included in the seminal book The International Style: Architecture Since 1922.) But in the decades since it was constructed, the prototype house has had a rough run, facing multiple relocations and periods of disrepair. This spring, the Palm Springs Art Museum will become the structure’s permanent site. These are the…

Splashing Out When you’re dreaming of ways to really level up your space, you often ask questions with an obvious answer: Do I need a wine fridge? Shouldn’t my shower have half a dozen sprayers? That answer of course is usually, for logistical reasons, no. But it’s also sometimes worth considering a compromise. Maybe sticking with your dorm room French press is fine, but you really need that pot filler. Or you’re content to wash your old dishes in a new sink worth writing home about. Here are some splurges that don’t necessarily make sense, but maybe sometimes they do. Day to Evening Today’s kitchens are more than a place to make meals. They’re where we start our mornings and where we can return throughout the day for tiny top-ups…