A journey by bike to Strawberry Mansion and the homes of Jazz legends Sun Ra and John Coltrane highlights the inequity of historic preservation in Philadelphia

Tasso Hartzog writes a streets eye view of historic preservation inequities and imagines two possible outcomes to this ongoing tragic imbalance an Afrofuturist vision where jazz lives on in preserved historic homes, and a realpolitik vision with sad consequences.

On a recent Wednesday morning, I biked to a stone row home tucked into a quiet pocket of Germantown. The house was pretty but unassuming: built from sparkling Wissahickon schist in the Second-Empire style, it boasted bay windows, green trim, and a small porch. The only thing indicating that 5626 Morton St. is a special addressthat it was once home to the intergalactic jazz visionary Sun Ra, and still is home to Marshall Allen, the 98-year-old bandleader of the Sun Ra Arkestrawas a mural, painted on the front door, of Egyptian pyramids and distant galaxies.

There was a reason for my sight-seeing trip. On May 13, 2022, the Philadelphia Historical Commission added the Sun Ra house (also called the Arkestral Institute of Sun Ra) to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. In the days following, several outlets published articles celebrating the designation (Fader, Pitchfork, Philly Voice).

Initially, I was gratified to see the sites significance officially recognizedand I was a little embarrassed that, even though I have lived in Germantown my whole life and often passed within a block of the house while walking to school, I never knew that the Sun Ra house was there. But as I read more headlines and learned more about the history of the house, I became less certain that the Register held the answer to the problem of preserving Philadelphias rich but endangered jazz history.

Sun Ra, born Herman Blount in 1914 in Birmingham, Alabama, was a pioneer of far-out jazz who influenced generations of musicians, from Sonic Youth, whom he opened for in Central Park, to Solange and Erykah Badu. According to the lore, Sun Ra arrived on Earth from outer space. He and his band, the Arkestra, performed their unique brand of free jazz in colorful costumes that mixed celestial imagery with ancient Egyptian symbols, creating a time-bending aesthetic that would shape the Afrofuturist movement.

In 1968, Sun Ra and his bandmates moved to the house at 5626 Morton St., which was owned at the time by the parents of Marshall Allen. The house quickly became the site of prodigious musical creation. Allen described it as a commune, where the members of the Arkestra lived organically and collaboratively in the style of their music.

Sun Ra lived in the house until 1992, when he returned to Birmingham to be near family before his death the following year. Allen and several other members of the Arkestra continue to live and make music in the house.

Sometime in 2020, the basement of the Sun Ra house collapsed into the sub-basement. One day it justschlkupfell in, Allen told WHYY. In early 2021, the Robert D. Bielecki foundation, which supports music- and arts-related causes, committed $7,000 for repairs, and a Germantown contractor, Frank Reis, owner of Walnut Street Construction, volunteered to oversee the project pro bono. The basement was fixed, but the house had other problems like plumbing issues and water damage that, according to Allen, were too expensive to repair.

Properties can be nominated for inclusion on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places by anyone, not just their owners. This March, a year after the basement repairs, the Historical Commission itself nominated the Sun Ra house. The nominating documents supply a well-researched biography of Sun Ra in order to demonstrate that 5626 Morton St. is associated with the life of a person significant in the past, one of the criteria for historic designation. The documents do not mention the recent collapse. Their author was certainly aware of the collapsean article about it is listed as a major sourcebut officially, it is irrelevant; only the exteriors of most historic buildings are within the purview of the commission.

With only seven employees and a meager budget, the Historical Commission cannot offer much help to owners of historic properties beyond advice. The Philadelphia Historic Preservation Task Force admitted in a 2018 report that at a local level, there are no financial, zoning, or streamlined-process incentives specifically designed to encourage property owners to designate, maintain and preserve their historic properties.

Faye Anderson, founder and director of the public history project All That Philly Jazz, told me in an email that designation does not come with financial assistance to maintain or rehabilitate the property. The only benefit, she said, is protection from demolition, and even that is not absolute. While demolitions of historic properties are rarethe commission approved only 38 in the past 32 yearsthey do still happen.

Nevertheless, when the Sun Ra house was added to the Register in May, news articles described the designation not just as a win for its preservation, but as an all-out victory. The subhead on a Pitchfork article read, The legendary building is listed in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, ensuring its protection and upkeep.

PhillyVoice was Polyannaish, too, writing that the designation will guarantee that the property gets the ongoing maintenance and care it needs to be preserved.

In fact, far from assisting with maintenance, the listing of the Sun Ra house on the Register could make future repairs more difficult. Any significant alterations to the exterior of a building on the Register must be first approved by the commission. And in order to be approved by the commission, proposed changes must preserve the buildings historic character, a potentially costly requirement.

Doing exterior repairs can be quite a bit more expensive when a house is on the historic register, said Frank Reis, the contractor who oversaw the basement project at the Sun Ra house, in an email. On most houses, for example, an old window could be replaced by a vinyl one. But for a house on the Register, replacing the same window with a historically accurate one could cost 10 times as much, Reis estimated.

Had the basement collapse happened after the Sun Ra houses addition to the Register, nothing would have been materially different. Allen and the other residents would not have gotten any financial help from the commission, but the repair wouldnt have been more expensive, either, because the basement is on the buildings interior.

Despite these complications, the historic designation itself is a good thing for the Sun Ra house. At the very least, it provides some protection from demolition and has attracted attention to the house and its story.

Whats damaging is the assumption that listing a property on the Register is enough. Were a prospective donor to read that the Sun Ra house has been designated a historic landmark and will therefore be preserved in perpetuity, they may put their money elsewhere. If, instead, they knew that the historic designation was merely papering over the cracks, they might be more inclined to help secure the houses future.

After staring for a while at the mural on the front door, I left the Sun Ra house and biked under an intense June sun towards another unassuming row home with a storied past. The ride was longer this time; 1511 North 33rd St., Google Maps told me, was 5.5 miles away by bike.

Five miles in, the route took me past Strawberry Mansion, the historic house in Fairmount Park that gives the surrounding neighborhood its name. Built by judge and abolitionist William Lewis as a summer home around 1789, Strawberry Mansion is encircled by immaculate gardens and signs warning potential trespassers of 24-hour surveillance.

After the house was sold to the Fairmount Park Commission in 1867, it became a succession of dining places until its restoration was begun in 1926 by a group of leading city women, as described on the mansions website, who received help from the mayor, the director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the commissioner of Fairmount Park.

Strawberry Mansion has a blue historic marker out front, but it is not on the National Register of Historic Places, nor is it a National Historic Landmark. Despite that, the house remains in pristine condition inside and out. Historic registers wont fund restorations and repairs, but if Strawberry Mansion is any indication, friends in high placesmayors offices, art museums, parks departmentsjust might.

After five more minutes on my bike, I came to another blue historic marker. Posted in front of 1511 North 33rd St., on the edge of the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood, it read, JOHN W. COLTRANE (1926-1967).

Coltrane bought the house at North 33rd St. in 1952 and lived there for six years, though he would own the property for the rest of his life. His mother lived there permanently, as did his cousin Mary Alexander and, for a time, his wife Juanita Austin, nicknamed Naima. (Coltrane immortalized both women on his landmark album Giant Steps, which includes the tracks Cousin Mary and Naima.)

While he lived in the house, Coltrane played in the bands of Duke Ellington and Miles Davis; recorded his first solo album, Coltrane; and famously had a religious awakening in the process of breaking a heroin addiction, setting in motion the musical-spiritual journey that culminated in A Love Supreme. Needless to say, it is an important address.

The city officially recognized the houses significance in 1985, when it was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. In 1999, the house became a National Historic Landmark, one of just 67 in a city crowded with historic sites of international renown. There are no more registers to which the Coltrane house can be added, no loftier historic designations that it can be awarded.

And yet, plywood obscures the windows of the house, and paint is peeling in sheets from its trim. A description of its condition reads like cliche: weeds are growing through cracks in the concrete stoop, and the sidewalk out front is littered with chip bags. In order to read the historic marker, I had to weave between three Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) vans that had been parked on the sidewalk directly in front of the house, nearly blocking access to the front steps.

As I stood out front taking pictures, a contractor next to one of the vans asked what I was doing. I told him that I was taking pictures of the John Coltrane house. Meanwhile, several PHA workers emerged from the rowhouse two doors down, at 1515 North 33rd. Actually, the contractor told me, that was the John Coltrane house, and the PHA was there to weatherproof it.

The contractor was wrong, but I couldnt really blame him for the mix-up: apart from the blue historic marker and a few faded Coltrane posters taped to the inside of the glazing in the front door, there was nothing suggesting that 1511 N 33rd St was any more or less special than 1515, let alone that it is one of the most important historical sites in Philadelphia. And, to the contractors credit, wouldnt it make more sense for the city to send three vans and a crew of contractors to weatherproof a National Historic Landmark, not the boarded-up shell of a house a couple doors down?

The contractor, like the music bloggers who applauded the Sun Ra houses historic designation, had unwittingly served a narrative that should be debunked: the City of Philadelphia is not, in fact, doing what is necessary to preserve these historic sites.

Last year, it was falsely reported that the Coltrane house had been demolished. The record was quickly corrected, but the rumors were grounded in real threats to the houses survival. There was a fire in the two rowhomes to the north, 1513 and 1515. Then the property at 1509 was sold, and the new owner, a faceless LLC, sought a demolition permit; the house still stands, but on shaky ground.

Even before all that, in early 2020, the Coltrane house was deemed at-risk by Preservation Pennsylvania. Faye Anderson, director of All That Philly Jazz, nominated the property for the list of at-risk sites, hoping that an official acknowledgement of its dilapidation might encourage the city to do something.

This was not the first time that an advocate had asked for help on behalf of the Coltrane house. In 1987, Mary Alexander (1927-2019), the cousin of Coltrane who had by then founded the now-defunct John W. Coltrane Cultural Society, wrote to the Philadelphia Historical Commission. We are very much concerned about the condition of our property (The John Coltrane House), she said in a letter provided to me by Anderson. The building seems to be crumbling inside. Please advise us as to what can be done about this. For two years we have tried to get someone to look into this matter. (Alexander underlined the word in the original typewritten letter.)

According to Anderson, that someone could be Mayor Jim Kenney. He could compel the Department of Licenses and Inspections to conduct a structural assessment of the house, for which they do not need the owners permission. A conservator could then petition the Court of Common Pleas to take possession of the property. The Coltrane house, like the Sun Ra house, needs a benefactor.

In 2004, Mary Alexander sold the property to Norman Gadson, who wanted to turn it into a hub for jazz in Philadelphia. After Gadsons death in 2007, his wife, Lenora Early, prepared to renovate the house, but she passed away before realizing the plans. Responsibility for the house has now passed to Gadsons daughter, Aminta Gadson. She started a nonprofit in order to raise funds for preservation efforts, but the organizations website has not been operational since the end of 2020.

Last spring, the Strawberry Mansion Community Development Corporation (SMCDC) completed the John Coltrane Museum and Cultural Arts Center Site Feasibility Study, which included assessments of the property and preliminary designs for a museum. The study, produced in partnership with the current owners and funded by the Community Design Collaborative, projected development costs in the range of $3 million to $5 million.

In a May 3, 2021, press release, Aminta Gadson sounded optimistic. We hope and pray that as future stewards, SMCDC, can restore [the John Coltrane house] and share [it] with jazz fans worldwide, she said. The most recent news on the project, from March of this year, is that the feasibility study won the John Gallery Community Action Award from the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Whether or not the millions of dollars needed for development will materialize behind the award-winning feasibility study is unclear.

What is clear, however, is that historic preservation is not a priority in Philadelphia. Our historical commission is smaller even than that of a city like New Orleans, which has a third of the population, and less than 3% of buildings in Philadelphia are listed on the Register. The national average is twice that number.

Facing particular neglect is the citys Black history. That is because historic preservation in Philadelphia suffers from a sort of de facto redlining, but in reverse: if you look at the citys digital map of historic properties, certain neighborhoods are filled with actual red highlights, indicating addresses listed on the Register, and others are nearly bare. Most of those empty spaces are Philadelphias Black neighborhoods. While Society Hill, Old City, and Rittenhouseall wealthy, mostly-white Center City neighborhoodsare dense with color, Strawberry Mansion, which is more than 90% Black, has five highlighted addresses. The North Philadelphia planning district contains 57 sites on the Register; Center City, in a smaller area, has 19,786.

Of course, much of this disparity is due to the fact that neighborhoods like Old City are, quite simply, older. There will obviously be more properties on the Register in neighborhoods built around the time the Constitution was signed than in those built a century and a half later. But most of the houses in Strawberry Mansion and the surrounding neighborhoods are now over one hundred years old. And according to the Historical Commissions criteria for designation, a buildings age is irrelevant, so long as it is related to a historical event or person, is the work of an important designer, exemplifies innovation, or satisfies one of the other criteria.

Is it that nothing much of note happened in North Philly and other majority-Black neighborhoods in the city? No, of course notits just that very few people have paid attention.

In 2018, a house at 204 S 12th St. was nominated to be listed on the Register. It was once the home of Henry S. Minton, a prominent Black abolitionist and restaurateur; John Brown slept there shortly before his raid on Harpers Ferry.

When the nomination came before the Historical Commission in 2019, it was rejected. The lone dissenting vote in favor of historical designation came from the representative for City Council President Darrell Clarke, who happened to be the only Black member of the Commission at the time. The Commission ruled that, following a renovation completed two months after the Minton family sold the house, the facade of the building had changed too much to satisfy the criteria for designation (nevermind the other historic sites, like the Betsy Ross house, whose facades were altered and still found a place on the Register).

Last year, the Minton house was demolished by Midwood Investment & Development, a New York City-based real estate company. According to their website, Midwood celebrates the context and history of neighborhoods by developing buildings with thoughtful and tasteful design.

The rejection of the Minton houses nomination is a clear failure of historic preservation and a product of the Historical Commissions confused priorities. Thousands of historically unremarkable homes in Rittenhouse, Fitler Square, Society Hill, and Old City have been protected from demolition because they are old, expensive, and have facades that have remained intact over the years. What happened inside the Minton housevisits by the likes of John Brown and Frederick Douglass, for exampleis evidently less important than whether or not the front door has moved since 1893.

The facade of the Sun Ra house is beautiful, with its mural and sparkling schist, but the property is only on the Register because of the art that was created inside. Sun Ras music imagined a boundless, intergalactic future for Black people that was rooted in ancient Egyptian mythology; Afrofuturism has long borrowed ideas from the past in order to picture what is yet to come.

What is at stake in the preservation of Philadelphias jazz history, then, is not just the citys memoryand its Black history in particularbut also its cultural and artistic future. Let us imagine it for a moment, as an Afofuturist might: The plan to turn the Coltrane house into a museum and cultural center is realized. Backyard jazz concerts, once held by the John W. Coltrane Cultural Society, are revived, and passersby on 33rd St. can again hear saxophones through windows no longer covered by plywood. In Germantown, the Sun Ra house is repaired and continues to serve as a practice and performance spacea commune, as Marshall Allen described itfor artists from Philadelphia and beyond. Young musicians stop by to jam alongside Allen and the rest of the Arkestra. The past becomes the future.

Or, business continues as usual. Leaks in the roof of the Sun Ra house cause beams to rot, and its historical designation makes replacing the roof prohibitively expensive. The Arkestra moves out because of concerns about another collapse. Strawberry Mansion continues to host weddings and banquets in its immaculate halls and gardens, but a mile down N 33rd St., a demolition is underway. Not at 1511, yet, but at 1509the property attached to the Coltrane house. The millions of dollars projected in the award-winning feasibility study for the museum and cultural center do not materialize, and more windows are boarded up at the Coltrane house. Neither the Sun Ra house nor the Coltrane house is demolishedthe Register at least ensures thatbut they both become lifeless. Houses fall apart, their memories fade, and the past remains the past.

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A journey by bike to Strawberry Mansion and the homes of Jazz legends Sun Ra and John Coltrane highlights the inequity of historic preservation in...

When Iris van Herpen opened her couture house in 2007 after an internship at Alexander McQueen, she saw it as an opportunity to elaborate on several centuries of savoir-faire and propel it into the future with imagination and technological wizardry.

A lot of things I do are based on intuition, and my heart is with haute couture it always has been, she said in an interview ahead of her 15th-anniversary show on July 4 in Paris. Fashion to me is a form of art, and couture is really embodying the craftsmanship and the artistic side of fashion.

Even though we are in 2022, people value craftsmanship, and I dont think that will perish, she continued. I really believe in the value of couture, also for the future of fashion. Its a place where there is time and space for the development of new techniques, and new materials. And within the modern challenges of evolving sustainability within fashion, couture can also play a very important role.

For example, Van Herpen said her team works for three to four months before each collection to devise new sustainable materials, and these technologies are made available to other ready-to-wear brands.

It should come as no surprise that her show wont be a retrospective at all. Focus on the future, said Van Herpen, one of fashions most inventive and meticulous practitioners, employing cutting-edge technologies to realize her ethereal, otherworldly clothes, from laser cutting to electromagnetic weaving.

Indeed, she might be the industrys most metaverse-ready designer since shes been making 3D-printed garments since 2009, her programming awaiting the right digital devices and CGI capabilities to experience them in mixed reality.

Some guests at her fall 2022 couture show will don Microsoft HoloLens devices, while others can see augmented reality with their smartphones.

While the Dutch designer dabbled in rtw for a few seasons, culminating with the 2014 ANDAM Fashion Award, she returned her focus to haute couture since her painstaking techniques could not translate easily into rtw. It was really too restrictive to work with standardized techniques, she explained.

In a wide-ranging interview, Van Herpen reflected on her muses; her obsession with modern craft, science and architecture, and how her background as a dancer goes to the core of her work creating dresses that move like no one elses.

WWD: Did you have clients right from the beginning? Who are they?

Iris van Herpen: In the very early years, the clients were very related to art buyers acquiring a piece of mine as a form of art. Some would wear them; some would acquire them to put in their homes. Museums were also an important clientele at the beginning. But now the clientele has grown and become more diverse. We still work a lot with museums, but our main clientele is actually the couture buyers who acquire a custom piece from us.

The U.S. and Asia are the biggest regions for us, and we have some European clients as well. We have clients that acquire every year, and some less often. We make approximately 40 to 50 looks every year, not including the looks we make for VIPs.

WWD: Do you have a role model, mentor or hero in terms of haute couture?

I.V.H.: I did my internship with (Lee Alexander) McQueen, and that has been one of the most inspiring moments. It really opened my eyes toward craftsmanship, the combination of techniques, the persistence in his vision. He had a strong identity you could always recognize a McQueen for the craftsmanship and the combination of design elements. Its so rare and so valuable. Ive been so inspired by his vision, and I still am.

WWD: Haute couture is perceived by many people as a glorious but loss-making advertising campaign for perfume, but you dont even have one. How is your business performing?

I.V.H.: Its true, we only do haute couture. It all survives thanks to our clientele. We are independent, as well, and Im very proud of that, and that we found a healthy balance between art and commerce. Its a growing business, although I admit it was challenging during the pandemic, of course, because of the relationship that we have with our clients, the personal interaction, and the fittings. We managed to do some fittings through Zoom, but now we can actually invite our clients again to the atelier in Amsterdam and to Paris. So its actually a very nice moment because everything is opening up. We have a lot of client requests, actually more than we can handle.

WWD: How much of the haute couture business is weddings?

I.V.H.: Its a pretty small part, but we definitely do a few each year. As you can imagine, the bridal looks require the most time. So there is also a maximum capacity that we have on bridal orders.

WWD: What have been some of the most memorable and impactful weddings and events you worked on?

I.V.H.: The weddings we have worked on are quite private. Most of the time we are asked not to put photos out there because people prefer more intimate events.

By contrast, the looks we do for VIPs and the custom orders we do for them, they are quite public. The custom looks for VIPs are most of the time acquired, but sometimes we tailor an existing piece or a runway piece. Thats mostly a press effort.

WWD: Do you have a favorite VIP dressing moment, or moments?

I.V.H.: I have my own muses. One of the women Ive been working with for a long time now is Bjrk. She also has been one of the very first ones to acquire a piece. Im a very big admirer of her style, her vision, her multidisciplinary approach.

Ive also really enjoyed working with Lady Gaga. She is also someone who puts so much energy and dedication into her art. The Met Gala has also been a very special moment for me, like this year, and last year, when we worked on multiple looks at the same time for VIPs.

WWD: I notice you have a boutique section on your website selling belts and scarves. Is this something new?

I.V.H.: Weve had them for a long time already. These are permanent accessories that we have on the website, and its really nice for a larger group of people to be able to access some accessories from IVH. But we keep it small and we dont do seasons, because the focus is really on the couture.

WWD: Do you have a bestselling dress of all time?

I.V.H.: Its more the techniques. Interestingly enough, most of the clients who come to us will show one or two looks that are their favorites, and then most of the time I customize a design based on that technique. One technique that is an all-time favorite is from the Syntopia collection, which had all sorts of wave patterns, outlines on top of cutout silk layers, which creates a very different movement in the materiality. Most of the clients who come to us are fascinated by the movements of the garments, because they behave so differently on the body than looks made of a plain silk, for example.

WWD: When did you make your first 3D-printed garment? How did you even hear about it?

I.V.H.: I started working on them in 2009. I was collaborating with two architects who were using 3D printing for the model making. And then I started collaborating with a digital artist and architect, Daniel Widrig. He wrote the files for my first 3D-printed dress that was shown in 2010 in my Crystallization collection.

WWD: I understand youve used silicone, iron filings and resin. What are some of the most unusual and difficult materials and techniques youve used?

I.V.H.:The glass dress we did in collaboration with Bernd Weinmayer. It was fully blown from hollow glass, and it took four to five months to make. The development process before that was even longer as the dress is filled with plasma, which means its interactive: When you touch it, the colors suddenly change. That one was very challenging.

With every collection, we dive into a new process. There are a lot of failures, but also a lot of beautiful success. For the new collection, we have been collaborating with a Dutch duo on a new 3D-printing technique that is fully sustainable using the shells of cacao beans, and also algae. The only other material that goes into the printing process is a bit of glucose to make it more durable. It has been very challenging in order to get the softness and the delicacy into the 3D printing that is required for haute couture.

WWD: How much does technology drive your couture, and fuel your imagination?

I.V.H.: When I design, Im actually very focused on movement. The technology itself is actually not a driving force. Neither is craftsmanship, strangely enough, and this is a very strange quote coming from my mouth. (Laughs.) But when I think about the essence of my work, its actually my background in dance. Dance and art are the forces of my vision, and its the movement and transformation in relationship to the body that really excites me. And in order to push the boundaries of movement and transformation of the body, this is where technology and craftsmanship come in: These are my tools in order to really move beyond the physical constraints that Im facing on a daily basis. The laws of physics are what I have to deal with, but my goal is always to try and push the limits of those laws in the materiality that I work with. Thats where Im using technology and craftsmanship and combining these two to be able to push those boundaries. Technology itself really has never been a goal for me.

WWD: Your IRL designs seem prescient of the metaverse. How might the arrival of the metaverse affect your creative approach and your business?

I.V.H.: We are exploring it. The last three years, weve been collaborating on a project to be launched later this year, and which will also be part of a mixed reality experience that will be shown in our exhibition in Paris (slated for fall 2023 at the Muse des Arts Dcoratifs). And we are collaborating for our upcoming show this Monday, which will be a physical show extended with mixed reality as well.

My reason for waiting (to enter the metaverse) a little bit is actually more because of the devices themselves. If you can imagine my designs and their level of intricacy, I need the right devices in order to express my vision, and we are at the horizon of that moment. We are working with Microsoft with their newest HoloLenses, and they are in a very good quality of showing the intricacy of my designs.

Theres also the Epic game engines that we can work in now. They are such high fidelity, and such high polygon counts and level of quality that I can really express the work in a way that is close to the couture. That is really my goal. Again, for me, its not about the tools themselves, but its about expressing the vision of of my designs and the craftsmanship.

I really believe that digital couture can add a beautiful additional layer to physical couture, and they can relate to each other or they can be experienced simultaneously. And I dont really believe in choosing one or the other. Im all about mixed reality blending the physical with the digital and thats also why I chose to have both in the upcoming show.

People will understand the concepts within the collection even more.

WWD: What do you hope to accomplish in haute couture the next 15 years?

I.V.H.: There will be so much changing. I am very excited about a multidisciplinary approach. My core is fashion and couture, with art, science and technology also playing an important part. I feel this is accelerating within my own process.

Architecture is also a big part of my world and my inspiration. Ive already done a little bit with architecture, but I want to do more, especially within the metaverse, which offers new land for architecture as well as fashion. I feel I can fuse those two together.

I think fashion is in a transformation itself. Of course, I cant predict whats going to happen. But the fact that it is transforming and changing is very positive on multiple levels. Its becoming more democratic, more diverse. There are more important messages within the collections, also politically, and I think all of these movements are very positive for the general consciousness of what fashion means as an industry.

And then one of the most important topics is sustainability. Even though it goes too slow, a lot of positive things are happening. This is a key focus point for me in my own development, but also for inspiring young generations on how much we can change, and how our decisions, for example, between rtw and couture, can make a real difference. The new generation is still focused on rtw, but there is a business in couture as well, and its a very sustainable one. So I really hope there is a growing hybrid possible that has the advantages of both couture and rtw. This is actually where the metaverse also comes in.

One very important subject to tackle first in sustainability is overproduction. As we all know, 40 to 45 percent of all the garments that are being made are not being bought. Meanwhile, couture is an example of how customers collect, and therefore only what is wanted is produced. There are promising conversations going on now about brands releasing their collections digitally first and finding out what their customers actually want before making their physical production. That could help tackle the big problem of overproduction. So I think the metaverse and digital fashion can actually have a very positive influence on sustainability as well. I just want to keep on exploring these new possibilities and also to be an inspiration for a new system and a new way of production in fashion.

FOR MORE, SEE:

Iris van Herpens Skydiver Gown Is the Pinnacle of High Fashion

How a Creative Agency Is Helping Luxury Brands to Understand the Metaverse

Balenciaga, Olivier Rousteing for Jean Paul Gaultier Among Highlights of All-physical Paris Couture

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Iris van Herpen on Couture, the Metaverse and Making Dresses From Algae - WWD

Patrick Martinez Photo

Designer Shaleesa Mize prioritized natural light in the design of her own home.

As a child, Shaleesa Mize liked to draw floorplans of her dream home. It had big windows and rolling hills beyond, with various features she'd mentally tack on as she grew up and pursued becoming an interior designer for real. As a young adult, Mize interned with Spokane-based Integrus Architecture PS and HDG Architecture and completed her interior design degree from Washington State University. In 2017, she opened her own firm: Pacific Design Co. (formerly Little Pacific Design Studio).

At that point, at least part of her dream had come true.

But designing her own home proved elusive until 2019. After years of renting, living with others friends, her husband's parents and even a fantasy about buying her childhood home and moving it onto a piece of property, Mize got to design her first home, start to finish. And as she did so, she learned that big dreams come with big challenges.

"It's given me a lot of empathy," Mize says, noting the process has spanned years.

Mize spent a long time perfecting the house's design while she and her husband, Connor, searched for the perfect lot. "The concept was there pretty early, of what we wanted, but there were lots of little tweaks over the years while we were waiting to find land," says Mize. Ideally they wanted 10 acres and if the stars aligned a stream. Over those years of tweaking, as Mize clicked away at her home computer, adding and subtracting from the design, "I was (working) night shift," says Connor, "so I bought her a silent mouse."

In fall 2019, they found the land they had been looking for: an 11-acre plot in the Wandermere neighborhood known as Dartford Creek. "We had actually been looking for probably five, six years before finding something close to town," Mize says. And yes, there was a creek.

Patrick Martinez Photo

The cabinet doors and drawer fronts feature single-slab front panels with aligned wood grain.

But they were too late; someone beat them to it. The Mizes experienced the roller coaster of disappointment followed by elation when the original buyers backed out and the couple's offer was accepted. "It's a blur," Mize says with a laugh.

With the land secured, and financing after a few hiccups lined up, it was time at last to finalize the house plans. Although Mize says the single-story home she designed looks nothing like what she remembers drawing as a kid, it does thoroughly reflect her concern with how people move through and use each space in a home, as well as how those spaces are connected.

"I remember daydreaming about how I would welcome people into the entry or gather in the kitchen and living room," Mize says of her childhood sketches. And indeed, the entry of the new home offers a gentle landing zone, before opening gradually to reveal an expansive great room with eight-foot windows. "A lot of natural light was important to us," Mize says, easing open the three-panel, 13-foot sliding doors that span the width of the living room and allow unfettered access to the back patio. "I love sitting here in the evenings," Mize says, noting the house is oriented to allow sunset views year round.

A fireplace anchors the room, flanked by large windows, with purposely low sill heights that Mize designed to allow their young children to peek out.

On the opposite side of the great room, the kitchen highlighted a classic challenge in home design: how to proceed when couples have different design aesthetics. Connor preferred a more modern "ultra stark" look, says Shaleesa, while "I'm personally more inspired by Scandinavian stuff, so I just wanted it to be all kind of uniform, a quiet modern feel."

"So we're like, 'OK, how can we blend it to feel like warm and cozy, but still have those modern lines?'" Mize says.

The couple settled on wood cabinets with inset, single-slab front panels set in matching boxes. "I was like, 'Oh, this is a really clean simple look. This should be easy!'" Mize says, but as she learned, "Nobody does this and it's for a reason." The veneer doors took stain differently from the solid wood boxes, leading to an unanticipated and, to Mize, unacceptable "two-tone" look. "I finally found a cabinet guy who understood what I was wanting to achieve, and basically we had to do veneers on everything so that the stain would read consistent," Mize says. "So they did a beautiful job grain-matching everywhere."

Patrick Martinez Photo

The cabinet doors and drawer fronts feature inset, single-slab front panels with aligned wood grain.

The counters are a subtly polished quartz, while the Fisher Paykel appliances include a smooth top induction range instead of gas. "I got to go down to the Fisher Paykel showroom in California, and the chef there talked a lot about it, and that's where I first kind of decided on that," says Mize. A trip to the Monogram Design Center in Chicago confirmed her choice, as the chef there told her, "Induction is where you need to be," she says, noting she appreciated its safety features. "It's good to hear their opinions when they're cooking on stuff every day, but for me it just came down to cleaning it. Like, I'm not cleaning out those grates every day, and I know he won't either! So it's really nice for that."

At the far end of the kitchen, somewhat tucked away, is a little pantry, one of Mize's favorite elements in the home. Rather than being closet-style, the pantry also opens on its far side into the large mudroom as well as the bedroom hallway. "I loved that on the floor plan, our house is a circle... It's great for Nerf gun fights," Mize says.

The hallway to the bedrooms features a windowed breezeway, with a carefully crafted surprise along the way: a small courtyard. "When we were laying out the angle of the house we factored in the view from here and what it was going to capture... It's going to feel like a separate, little more intimate courtyard here, that's right off of our primary suite, and then it will come out to a more public, outdoor seating area," says Mize, who's waiting for the final finishing touches on the courtyard areas.

Patrick Martinez Photo

The spacious primary bath and closet area provides separation from the bedroom to accommodate the couple's different sleep schedules.

The private zone of the home features three bedrooms, although one room was originally slated to be Mize's home office. "Right when I was like, 'Yay! I finally get an office,' then I found out I was pregnant, and I was like, 'OK, this will be an office for six months,'" she laughs. She quickly altered the original floor plan that had featured a guest bath in the private wing to include instead a Jack-and-Jill bathroom between the two kids' rooms, and then she added a powder room for guests near the front entry.

At the far end of the hallway is one of Mize's favorite spaces in the 3,250-square-foot house. "This is another example of what was important for us layout wise," Mize says. With Connor working the night shift, being able to close off the room during the day was important. "We can feel like we're out there living a normal life and not tiptoeing around while dad is sleeping but also...basically as he is coming home and going to bed, I am getting up and getting ready, so I wanted to have our bathroom and closet all in space that I could come in, get ready, close it off and then sneak out," she says. With sweeping views from the tub, and yes, even the toilet, Mize says, "I love starting my mornings here and ending my days here. It's probably my favorite room of the house."

Mize is the first to note that even after more than two years, there are a number of projects left to complete at the home. The basement is unfinished, and while a garage is planned, it's not even started. And that's OK. Mize says the couple prioritized finishing elements that would be hard to change out later, such as the windows, while recognizing their home could mature along with their family. It's a philosophy she also conveys to her clients. "You can have what you want that's really important to you ... And then the things that are easy to add later can be done ... It doesn't have to be a masterpiece right when the construction is completed."

Additional reporting by Carrie Scozzaro.

Patrick Martinez Photo

The powder room near the entry features a custom panel vanity.

Expert Advice

Designer Shaleesa Mize's tips for designing your dream home

Daydream! Designing a home can be overwhelming once you get into the logistics of things, so I think it's really important to spend time just being free with your wildest dreams before starting.

View your home as a work in progress. Not all of those amazing things you daydreamed about will fit within your budget. Oftentimes, there are many ideas that can be completed at a later time or easily added on.

Build a cushion into your budget.

Find the right team. Everyone gets to a saturation point where after that point hits, decision fatigue is REAL. Have an architect and/or designer do the heavy-lifting of sourcing and bring your visions to life!

Be realistic. Our current building climate is a whirlwind of many less-than-ideal factors, and those preparing to embark on a building journey during this time should be over prepared ... with extra funds, extra time and extra patience.

SHALEESA MIZE

Project Profile

Appliances: Ferguson (Fisher & Paykel brand)

Cabinets: Faber Built

Counters: Capaul Stoneworks

Fireplace: Falcos

Flooring: Duchateau

General Contractor: Timofey Solodyankin, Solo Homes Co.

Hardware: Spokane Hardware Supply, Inc.

Paint: Miller Paint

Tile installation: Design Tile & Flooring

Windows: Andersen Windows

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Designer Shaleesa Mize makes her childhood dream a reality in a home that's ready to grow with her family - Inlander

If youre searching for a retreat with resort appeal, this new construction gem in the Heath Golf & Yacht Club could be just what youre looking for. Kim Woodul of Ebby Halliday Realtors has the listing for a brand new, contemporary-style home thats slated to be ready by December 2022 that means you could be spending your New Year in a new home.

Heath Golf & Yacht Club, a growing community of 1,200 homes, is located just south of I-30 on the southern shores of Lake Ray Hubbard in Texass most affluent county, Rockwall County. Follow a winding path through the luscious green golf course to find this exclusive section of premium, custom homes with stunning lake views.

The estate at 1712 Canal Street in Heath is a 4,266-square-foot home with four bedrooms and four and a half baths. The home is being built by Rockwall-based Whittle & Johnson Custom Homes,of which, Whittle isresponsible for this and other amenity-richdevelopmentsnearby, including in theRockwall Harbor District.

Whittle and Johnson Custom Homes create beautiful, luxury custom homes, Woodul says. My favorite thing about their homes is that they maximize space in living areas to make the home feel more spacious and open, but more specifically in this custom home section of Heath Golf & Yacht Club, I love that the builder takes advantage of every opportunity he can to captivate picturesque views of Lake Ray Hubbard in his designs.

Inside this incredible home, custom designer finishes complement the stunning architecture. The first floor features a huge family room, a connected dining area, modern study, and two garages. Remember, youll need parking for your golf carts.

Renderings and photos of completed kitchen concepts by Whittle and Johnson show the open concept and modern kitchen surrounding an oversized island, perfect for entertaining.

Additionally, the first floor features two primary suites, each with its own oversized ensuite bath and spacious walk-in closets.

Take a stroll to the second floor where youll find a multi-level game room. Its a perfect place for a bar, media room, or even billiards hall. Two additional bedrooms flank this level, each with its own bath and closet, of course. Can you say epic game night?

Lastly, a sweeping balcony with incredible views completes the upper story of this home. This is the perfect place to wind down and relax with loved ones, looking out over the beautiful lake. On a nice day, youll see many sailboats gliding along the unique waterfront. In fact, you can watch them year-round. Lake Ray Hubbard is one of Texass best lakes for sailing and if youre not a yachtie yet, Heath Golf & Yacht Club offers yachting lessons on site.

The home is just seconds from some great stuff, too. In this one-of-kind community, youll enjoy access to the clubhouse, complete with world-class dining and entertainment. Also, theres a lakeside pool, private boat docks, sand volleyball, tennis, golf, sailing, hiking, and biking trails.

This incredible community is certainly heavy on the amenities, including an active fitness center with yoga, pilates, and aerobics classes. Basically, those who enjoy entertaining and great, on-site extras will feel right at home in this luxury lakeside palace.

The home is zoned for top-rated Rockwall-Heath ISD and is located just 30 minutes from Downtown Dallas for those times that you actually have to go into the office, or want a night out on the town.

For further inspiration, check out this walkthrough comp from Whittle and Johnson Custom Homes.

Kim Woodul of Ebby Halliday Realtors has listed 1712 Canal St. for $1.569 million. Contact Kim Woodul at214-392-7303or[emailprotected]for more information.

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Live Large In This Lux Lakeside Resort at Heath Golf and Yacht Club - CandysDirt.com - Candy's-Dirt

"It was the most beautiful house Id ever seen," says Paula Ayala, a photographer, film editor, and midcentury-design fanatic, of the first time she walked through the front door of Greg Ledesmas half-renovated Eichler in 2018.

Greg, an interior designer with more than two decades of experience, felt the same way. He had spent years ogling the midcentury homes in the Fairhills neighborhood of Orange, California, before a model by renowned architects and Eichler designers A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons dropped into his price range in 2012. He pounced, his design antenna on high alert with a plan to modernize, knock down walls, and liberally apply his own perspective.

Built in 1964, the home is one of 80 developed by Eichler and designed by Jones & Emmons for Oranges Fairhills neighborhood. Like most Eichlers, it features a fairly closed facade with windows that are either clerestory or clouded glass.

With four bedrooms and two baths, the Eichler Plan 16-05 boasts a striking double-gable roof and a central atrium.

Whereas the facade is closed to the street, the interior opens to the central atrium, which is one of Paula and Gregs favorite places in the home. All the glass makes the design feel larger than its 1,986 square feet.

With a limited budget, Gregs renovation plans stalled. "It was lucky," he says, explaining that after living with the homes original layout, he came to appreciate the original vision and the harmony of the spaces. That visionto package high end architecture and indoor/outdoor living for middle-class consumptionmeant the homes distinctive dual-gable roof and central atrium were perfectly balanced with modestly proportioned bedrooms, a kitchen, and bath.

The original Jones & Emmons floor plan from 1964.

Gregs neighbors, many of whom were original owners, invited him into their unaltered Eichlers. "The homes felt completely timeless," says Greg. "You could see the deep green of the mature gardens from every room, and the mahogany walls just shone with richness, so warm and inviting." From that point, he was committed to restoring his home to its original glory.

With his background in interior design, Greg had the skills to complete most of the work himself, and hired contractors only where necessary.

Six years into renovating, Greg had completed structural fixes and repaired the leaky roof and defunct air conditioner. He was in the process of stripping away the white paint from the walls and ceiling when he and Paula met at the Long Beach Antique Market. When she moved in, the renovation "took off like a freight train," he says.

When the couple started dating, Greg and Paula would take his classic Buick for rides through nearby Santiago Canyon. "For us, theres just something about being in that car, nothing replicates it," says Greg. "The interior is cherry red and platinumtotally exquisite," says Paula. "It feels like a spaceship."

Paula: We love collaborating. Within two months of meeting, he suggested we start our shop, Paula y Gregorio. I said yes immediately!

Greg: We have both been collecting since the early 2000s. I had a vintage shop in Palm Springs, just before the real estate market skyrocketed there. Unsurprisingly, it was an incredible place to collect midcentury items.

Paula: We really got the shop going during the pandemic when I started photographing the pieces in our home.

Greg: It makes so much sense to use our house as a showroom. Its invaluable to display a midcentury piece in a midcentury home. It really captures the strength of the style and shows scale.

Greg sits in a vintage Sheriff chair with matching ottoman by Brazilian designer Sergio Rodriguez.

Paula: I work with a 35mm camera that I love. Its very, very special to me, and I know when to use it and what works. This house has so much beautiful life and warmth, and the light it gives us is just amazing. It tells me when to take photographs at the very warmest moments, which make you truly feel something. Often, its in the evening at golden hour. I like to keep things very natural, and even if the lighting isnt perfect, or shots come out a little dark, I feel its the best way to capture the moment.

The vintage hanging wall cabinet was designed by Florence Knoll for Knoll International, while the vintage sofa is by Mario Bellini Camaleond for B&B Italia.

Greg: Paulas ability to capture the house on film really blew my mind. Its just the right fit for the era and the perfect expression of my original vision. The warmth she captures is different than digitalit feels more real, not as photoshopped and ultra clear. With an iPhone you can take a trillion photos, but she is mindful and considerate with every shot and never takes more than one or two.

"The more grit and grain in the photo, the more real it feels," says Paula, who prefers to shoot with a 35mm camera.

What are some key elements of your renovation?

Greg: The mahogany walls and redwood ceilings really help anchor the living spaces. As is true with so many Eichlers, ours had been painted over during the 70s or 80s. To restore them, I have been removing each entire wood panel one by one and bringing them outside, and then using a chemical paint stripper before sanding them.

Paula: The atrium at the core of our home and its maturing plants really balance out the colors of our interior design.Every day we appreciate the planting we did early on.The essence of an Eichler is the indoor/outdoor balance and without that greenery, it would feel hollow.

This vintage carved wooden panel is by ERA Industries.

In the atrium, a weeping blue atlas cedar grows gracefully over the juniper ground cover.

"I still have a ways to go," Greg says of his plan to strip every wall of its aftermarket paint job.

The stripped ceilings reveal the original dark-stained redwood beams.

Greg: Since the original floors had serious water damage, I ripped them out and replaced them with VCT (vinyl composition tile), which is great for high traffic areas and offers a wide selection of tones. Plus, its budget-friendly and similar to original Eichler materials. The wood-look tile has a nice, warm tone, but since VCT can be a little bland, we added a midcentury Persian carpet for character and color.

Greg and Paula have a terrific collection of vintage planters and decorative vessels. "Ive always had a passion for ceramics," says Greg, "especially pieces with unique glazes."

The collection reflects the couples style, background, and culture: Gregs parents immigrated from Mexico while Paulas family moved to California from Argentina.

The wood and brass head sculpture with earrings, designed by Taller Tinta, references Pre-Columbian culture.

"We also really enjoy California craft design for its great mixture of earthy and organic components," says Paula.

Greg is particularly proud of the hand and foot sculptures, made of gold leaf and wood, by the celebrated German-Mexican surrealist Pedro Friedeberg.

The office features a vintage black and walnut Chieftain chair by Finn Juhl. "All of these pieces have a great patina," notes Greg. "Vintage is often not pristine, and we think a few dings make it better. They show that a piece has been loved and used."

Paula: Most people want something big and fancy, but we love our little kitchen. I cook all the time and make complicated dishes, and Ive got plenty of space. I appreciate that everything is so accessible, simple, and easy to clean. Its a beautiful kitchen.

Greg: The smaller scale means weve really learned to pare back and declutter, to live more simply, and enjoy the house with a longer-term view rather than date stamp our renovation. And, the original sliding cabinets, for example, are really elegant. They just glide on their tracks. We also have all the original appliances, including the original electric oven.

"I love to laugh, and I love silly things," says Paula. "I was delighted when I found this 6-foot-long old-school pencil."

"Each of these rugs is unique," Greg points out. "This one has become a key component of the space and the colors work great with the original brick fireplace."

Just inside the glass, the stone floor serves as a natural and seamless transition from the atrium to the interior living area.

Greg: Access to materials. Many of the original components of Eichler construction are no longer available. Some glass elementssuch as the frosted glass by the front doorjust arent made anymore. Weve found comparable equivalents, but its not the same. Some of us Eichler nerds patrol the neighborhood, watching out for new owners renovating original homes. Then we either ask kindly to salvage pieces or just dumpster dive!

Paula: Some of my happiest moments are spent with our kids out in the atrium. I put a little blanket out for baby Lucia while six-year-old Nina plays with the fairy garden. Weve got a hummingbird feeder and there are always birdsweve even named some of them. We also love the backyard. We live in a cul-de-sac on a larger lot and the backyard space is huge. Theres a lawn and a play area and a pool. We have friends over all the time.

Greg: We thrived during the pandemic. Paula would fill up the pool with water balloons, and wed have yard games and Argentinian barbecue, and basically turn the backyard into a resort. Were total kids.

"Its an extension of our living room," says Greg of the atrium.

Greg and Paula splurged on some full-grown plants for the atrium, planting them alongside younger plants that have grown in over time.

"I'll never get tired of all the glass," says Paula. "We love our indoor/outdoor lifestyle, and feeling so in tune with nature and our garden."

"There are little touches throughout the home that are unique and special to us, like the little stones and shells in the atrium," says Paula. "We've picked them up over the years on camping vacations or on trips to the beach."

"Greg is a master at balancing rocks," says Paula.

The home opens onto a generous back garden, where the couple likes to host parties and barbecues. "The back is the next step of our renovation," says Greg.

The garden is easily accessible through the sliding glass doors in the living area and bedrooms.

Greg: The first owner built it in the late 60s to use as a workshop, and then his son moved into it for a while. By the time I bought the house, it was just a shack, a total eyesore, and I figured I would tear it down. But once I started using it as a workshop I realized it was totally perfect.

"Its a fantastic space," says Paula of the studio Greg created out of a shed a previous owner had built. "He installed sliding barn doors, and when he works he leaves them open so we can see him from the house."

"I also installed a mini fridge," says Greg. "I leave the doors open when were entertaining, and we turn on the lights and turn up the music."

Paula: I was first amazed by all of the glass and how the space is so in tune with nature and sunlight. We really live an indoor/outdoor life, with trees visible from every room. Its so peaceful.

Greg: And really conducive to family life.

Paula: We like the feeling of being together, even when were each busy with our own activities. Here, everything is transparent, and we can all see each other and feel like were together.

The vintage leather Cab dining chairs by Mario Bellini for B&B Italia surround the vintage mosaic dining table embedded with Italian glass tiles.

Greg: One painting that is really special to me is of a woman and child that I bought 17 years ago and then put it into storage for years. In the back of my mind, I always hoped that I would gift it to the mother of my child if ever I was fortunate enough to have a family. I gave it to Paula last year on Mother's Day not knowing we would soon find out she was expecting a second child. It now hangs in our bedroom over Lucias bassinet.

Paula: It truly means a lot to both of us.

This painting was done in the early '60s by Jesus Leuus, a Mexican modernist.

Greg: Joseph Eichlers vision was amazing. Paula and I feel particularly proud to live in a neighborhood that was one of first to incorporate fair housing practices. We are committed to using our shop and our Instagram to promote the original Eichler aesthetic. There is a real demand for this type of midcentury home, and I think the relative abundance of available Eichlers make their original features seem more fungible and more open to renovation than, say, a Schindler. I hope that Paulas beautiful photos of our family having fun and thriving in this house inspire people to try living in these terrific spaces and enjoying this lifestyle.

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My House: A Designing Couple Treat Their Eichler to a Refresh With Funky, Vintage Style - Dwell

Looking for design inspiration? This 1930s home in Highland Park was originally designed by Charles Dilbeck and recently renovated. Located at 4545 Belfort Ave., the home has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in its 2,558 square feet.

Jessica Koltun, the interior designer and listing agent for the property, worked alongside R + D Residential to update the home. The Charles Dilbeck home was built in 1937, according to property records. This home bears a notable design element consistent with Dilbecks style: the turret visible from the front. According to information from Preservation Dallas, the home is considered a French Eclectic design.

Knowing that the home has architectural significance, Koltun said she worked to honor the original elements and preserve them in the update such as the curved stair rail. Many of the updates were meant to cater to modern needs: spaces were opened up and storage was added. The kitchen is more of a shared space for modern homeowners than it was many decades ago.

The kitchen is always the heart of the home, Koltun said. Everyone gathers around there and you do want it to be open, which is why we did add additional openings.

1/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

2/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

3/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

4/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

5/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

6/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

7/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

8/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

9/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

10/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

11/11Take a look at the home at 4545 Belfort Ave. in Highland Park.(Costa Christ Media)

The first floor of the home includes light-filled living spaces like the study, living room and the open-concept kitchen and dining space. The kitchen has white cabinets, an island with space for seating, a dry bar with storage and easy access to the adjacent dining space. In order to create division between the otherwise open spaces, Koltun said she used the direction of the wood flooring to indicate a change. In the kitchen, a wine display wall is located in an arched nook and adds both a storage element and an artful, eye-catching detail. A butlers pantry and a utility room are located near the kitchen.

A guest bedroom is located on the first floor, but it could also be used as a sunroom. A nearby bathroom serves the guest room (or sunroom) and acts as a pool bath.

Upstairs, three bedrooms have en suite bathrooms. The primary suite offers two walk-in closets, dual vanities in the bathroom, and a separate shower and bathtub.

One of the challenges of updating an older home for modern life is the lack of closet spaces. Most older homes werent built with the walk-in closets many people have come to expect. With this in mind, all of the bedrooms in the home were given larger closets during the renovation.

The home was completed in May 2022. It was listed for $2,295,000 and sold for $2,565,000 in May.

This is part of our Posh Properties series, providing a glimpse inside nice homes in North Texas for those who love to look at houses. It is not paid for or presented by area real estate agents or companies.

Looking for more Posh Properties stories? Follow Mary Grace Granados on Instagram, go to our luxury real estate page or subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.

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Take a look at this updated 1930s Charles Dilbeck home in Highland Park - The Dallas Morning News

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) The most expensive home in Arizona is selling for $28 million.

Point2Homes.com looked at the priciest options in each state.

This real estate website found a seven bedroom, eight bathroom, 13,617 square feet house standing on a 1.87 acre lot.

Called "the Aerie," Erik Peterson of PHX Architecture designed the home, collaborating with Paragon Custom Homes building it.

"From the open great room which leads to the designer kitchen and hidden catering kitchen to the thoughtfully designed entertainment zone, and the palatial master wing this home has it all," Point2Homes.com described. "Embodying a true indoor outdoor lifestyle, entertaining spaces flow to the beautiful outdoors all with amazing views of the valley below."

The home sits in the McDowell Mountains in Scottdale's most exclusive community of Silverleaf.

This community has a renowned club offering a "par 72 Tom Weiskopf designed golf course, dramatic clubhouse, spa and countless other options for experiencing the desert resort lifestyle."

However, if the new owner doesn't feel like traveling, the home also includes a virtual golf course.

Point2Homes.com also found the most expensive home belonging to California at $225 million, while a $3 million house in Nebraska was the Midwest state's priciest option.

-Caleb Fernndez is a digital content producer for KGUN 9. After earning his bachelor's degree from Penn State in Advertising/Public Relations, Caleb went to New York where he learned production assistance, photography and art direction. Share your story ideas and important issues with Caleb by emailing caleb.fernandez@kgun9.com or by connecting on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

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Arizona's most expensive home is on the market for $28 million - KGUN 9 Tucson News

Seeing inside someone's home is a glimpse into so much more than just their visual preferences and sense of style. Perhaps that's one of the reasons people love peeking into celebrity homes so much (guilty!). So when we interviewed Jerry Wanek, the production designer of Supernatural, for season one of Dark House, our podcast about beautiful homes with dark histories, our ears perked up extra high when he divulged some bonus content about the state of Elvis Presley's 1975 Los Angeles apartment. You've likely heard all about Gracelandand maybe even virtually toured his Bel Air mansion or Palm Springs escape but we're guessing you haven't heard about his Hollywood pid--terre yet. Here's the scoop:

Back in the 1980s, Wanek was dating an old friend of Linda Thompson, the 22-year-old Miss Tenessee pageant queen who dated 37-year-old Elvis from 1972 until 1976, the year before he passed away (she's also mother to Brody Jenner). While the couple spent most of their time together at Graceland in Tennessee, according to Goerge Klein's book Elvis: My Best Man, he introduced the pair, and eventually Thompson "began to spend more time developing her acting career in Los Angeles, where Elvis leased an apartment for her." Though she spent more time in the pid--terre, he helped decorate it and also lived there on occasion.

Jim James - PA ImagesGetty Images

Thompson continued to use it for a while after Elvis passed away up until moving in with Caitlin Jenner, at which point she rented it out to friends. And that's where Wanek comes back into the picture. Thompson was subletting the space to her friend dating Wanek, which meant that he was spending a lot of time there, too. And he disclosed that the apartment was like a time capsule, with most of Elvis's belongings still intact. "Talk about haunting apartments. All of Elvis's furniture was still in the apartment," Wanek confirms. "And it had the most over-the-top, incongruous groupings of furniture. There were big canopied wicker chairs in the dining room and this big urn in the middle of the room by the sectional with all these ostrich plumes sticking out of it, but the kicker was that every window was tin-foiled over," he continues, making it difficult to know what time of day it was and contributing further to the haunting nature.

Michael Ochs ArchivesGetty Images

There are a few theories as to why the windows were covered, but the wildest part is that the tinfoil window treatments were still exactly as Elvis had left them. Another disconcerting remnant of the King's lifestyle in the apartment was "a gunshot hole in the wall from a time when he shot through his T.V." Wanek also remembers a few other tchotchkes and knick-knacks, and, in particular, "the original photo of Richard Nixon and Elvis in the oval office," which was hanging on the hallway leading to the bathroom. The hallway ended up being the backdrop of Wanek's one and only brush with the paranormal, oddly enough, and perhaps influenced his days on the set of Supernatural.

"One night, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As I walked down the hallway, I just felt this really weird sensation," Wanek recalls. "And it was right in front of that picture of Nixon with ElvisI'm not sure if you remember, but at one point Richard Nixon, then president, hired Elvis to spy on John Lennon and other rock and rollers that were doing drugs because it was the big war on drugs, which is ironic, of course. But it was a really creepy little chill that stopped me right there in my tracks. I just shuddered and thought, whoa, what was that? I don't know what it was, but it was definitely something I'll never forget."

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So, did Wanek interact with Elvis's ghost, or was he just groggy? Regardless of which narrative shakes out to be true, we'd definitely like to explore the apartment steeped in so much history, even if it only has a fraction of Elvis the Pelvis's energy lingering in the hallways. Wanek doesn't know who lives in the unit now or if they know that it was a place Elvis used to hang out in, but to protect their privacy, he didn't tell us the exact locationso we'll have to live with the mystery for now...

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Is Elvis Presley's Old Apartment Haunted or Just Creepy? - House Beautiful

Finding double bed ideas for small rooms can be a tricky balance between comfort and a crowded-looking space. Here, we help you to create a stylish, organized and well-thought out design around this essential, but dominant, bedroom furniture.

When planning your bed ideas, thinking cleverly about the area that surrounds your double bed will ensure you make the most out of the space available in a smaller room.

From beautiful tall headboards to innovative storage solutions, you do not have to compromise on style or personality for small bedroom ideas.

Beds for small rooms need to strike the perfect balance between style and practicality.

Carefully considering a double bed's placement in a room and how you can enhance your sleep space to feel spacious, welcoming and cozy is key.

To help you choose the right double bed ideas for small rooms in your space, we have gathered our favorite bedroom ideas for some beautiful inspiration.

Andrew Martin, Rita Custom Headboard in Wessex Charcoal with Chrome Studs

(Image credit: Andrew Martin)

Headboard ideas can establish an eye-catching focal point and design feature in a bedroom.

Playing with scale in interior design can be highly effective in smaller spaces. For double bed ideas for small rooms, choosing a tall headboard can gently draw the eye upwards, creating the illusion of more space.

Choosing colorful, patterned headboard designs is also a great way to inject texture and character into your smaller bedroom space, as Martin Waller, Founder of Andrew Martin (opens in new tab) explains, 'headboards are an inexpensive way of transforming a small bedroom. They are essentially alternative forms of artwork. A statement headboard will introduce personality to a space. Our bedroom interiors should be as individual as the people that inhabit them. Dont be afraid to choose a more outlandish style as this only adds more character'.

Explore our collection of statement headboards for some stand-out inspiration.

(Image credit: KJM Interiors)

A simple way to make a small bedroom feel more spacious and calming, making sure the area around you double bed feels light and bright will only make for a more welcoming space.

As shown in this bedroom by KJM Interiors (opens in new tab), which was 'designed as a mellow retreat from a stressful job' the designer 'combined woven textiles, linen bedding, and textured ceramic lamps.' The darker colors used on the bedding, headboard, furniture and lighting create a cozy environment, with the fresh white walls making the space feel open and inviting.

The overall neutral color palette works well in this small bedroom space, with lighter, calming color choices a great option to make a room feel bigger.

(Image credit: James Merrell)

Embracing symmetry in interior design is a great way to help with small bedroom layout ideas, creating a harmonious environment that feels well-considered and elegantly styled.

In this bedroom, the beautiful red patterned headboard is surrounded by the symmetrical placement of framed drawings and matching bed-side tables and lamps.

Simple design details that can truly make a difference, planning symmetrical designs around a double bed in a small room can create a feeling of enhanced space and achieve a smart, balanced look.

(Image credit: Alicia Taylor)

Bedroom wallpaper ideas not only bring color, character and texture to a room, they can also be used in certain sections of a room to mark distinct zones.

For double bed ideas for small rooms, using wallpaper around the bed can beautifully define the area with color and pattern, creating a room within a room effect in a small space.

Choosing a tonal color palette and picking a wallpaper that coordinates with the other colors used in your bedroom will ensure the overall look does not feel too overwhelming. In this beautiful blue bedroom, the wallpaper perfectly complements the headboard, bedding and blinds, creating a zoned sleep space that still remains cohesive and stylish.

(Image credit: Interior Fox)

A multipurpose design detail, decorating with art in the bedroom can add visual interest to the room as well enhance the feeling of space, so get creative with above the bed decor ideas and decorate with some eye-catching pieces of art.

Jen & Mar, Co-Founders of Interior Fox (opens in new tab) state that, 'the bed is the focal point of any bedroom, and the area above is the perfect spot for artwork. For maximum impact in a smaller room, opt for larger pieces of art over the bed to bring the scheme together. If youre stuck for what color or design to opt for, take this opportunity to pull in an accent color. Whether thats black used in the furniture or a color from the soft furnishings, sticking to this rule will make the room flow and feel cohesive.'

(Image credit: Jon Day Photography)

Nook bed ideas can be as simple as positioning a double bed up against a wall, to as theatrical as incorporating bespoke false walls, curtains and canopies. A true embodiment of comfort, relaxation and warmth, a nook bed can work wonderfully in a small bedroom space.

For double bed ideas for small rooms, a cozy nook bed can make the most out of awkward alcoves and the space available, as well as creating a truly inviting and cozy bedroom environment.

Inspired by the Bloomsbury Set and the Arts & Crafts movement, this stand-out nook bed unites color, pattern and texture to create a stunning design feature and artistic statement in a small bedroom.

(Image credit: Margaret Ash Design)

Decorating with mirrors is renowned to make a room feel more spacious and bright, so why not position mirrors above or around a double bed for an enhanced feeling of space.

Helen Pratt, Designer Ambassador at Arteriors (opens in new tab) states, 'where possible throughout the home, utilizing mirrors to reflect light will make rooms seem larger than they are - particular when occupying a full wall'.

In this sophisticated master bedroom designed by Margaret Ash Design (opens in new tab), she states of the overall home design, 'this classic Victorian home in San Francisco's Pacific Heights was given a fresh update with clean, soft neutrals taking advantage of the abundance of natural light which fills the space'.

The bedroom mirror ideas shown in this room enhance the beautiful light that floods in through the large windows, with the matching mirrors positioned either side of the double bed to create a feeling of openness, symmetry and space.

(Image credit: Jody Stewart)

Small bedroom storage ideas are one of the most important factors to plan in when organizing a design for a small bedroom.

If you are looking for a bed that has hidden storage compartments, Patricia Gibbons on the Design Team at Sofa.com (opens in new tab) states, 'for everyday access, divan styles are best as the drawers are accessible for daily needs, but for a seasonal change-over of clothing, duvets and blankets, then an ottoman bed is the one for you.'

For storage ideas around the bed, this bedroom highlights how a double bed can fit neatly into the space between two alcove shelving units. The alcoves work as both a storage and display space as well as providing a practical surface area either side of the bed - like that of a bed-side table.

Whether you choose an innovative double bed design with hidden storage, or build custom storage units around the bed, there are many options to choose from that can provide innovative storage solutions in smaller spaces.

(Image credit: Paul Raeside)

We have discussed the effect of a tall headboard, so why not go the other way (literally) and choose an oversized design to create a stylish, elongated effect.

Adding beautiful texture and visual interest to a small bedroom, an oversized headboard can also make your double bed feel bigger than it actual is, creating a unique, stretched effect.

In this colorful yet refined bedroom, the blue headboard has been crafted to fit into the space exactly. The design effortlessly anchors the bed into this cozy corner of the room, as well as establishing an elegant focal point and splash of color in the space.

(Image credit: Jonathan Gooch)

Jen & Mar from Interior Fox state when planning the lighting around the double bed in a small room, 'wall lights make a great alternative to table lamps as they free up the space while creating symmetry.'

A decorative and functional addition to the area around you bed for bedroom wall lighting ideas, using wall lights in this space can create an inviting, boutique hotel effect.

Whether you choose a design that focuses on providing practical, direct light, ideal for reading, or calming designs that provide a warming, relaxing glow - or a light that does both - wall lights can save space as well as add a decorative finishing touch, making your double bed feel stylish and sophisticated.

As we have explored, the bed is the main feature in a bedroom - especially in a small room as it will take up the majority of the space.

Designing the area around your double bed to be fun, practical and inviting will create a design that looks good and can stand the test of time.

From being creative with artwork, to thinking about clever storage solutions, your bed area can work hard to cater to the exact needs of your room.

If the only option for you bed is up against a wall, style this space so it becomes a cozy nook. If your bedroom is lacking in natural light, use mirrors to enhance on the light available.

You can still be adventurous with color, pattern and sizing in a small bedroom, and centering your design around your double bed will only make your small bedroom space feel more welcoming, stylish and functional.

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Double bed ideas for small rooms 10 clever ways with compact spaces - Homes & Gardens

Each week in Screen Icons we take you behind the doors of the homes made famous by some of our favourite TV shows and movies.

When Cindy and Kieran Killian bought their 19th-century mansion they had no idea they were the difference between the historic home being saved from demolition.

The property at 105 Aberdeen Avenue, Hamilton, in Ontario, Canada was scheduled to be knocked down the day after the couple closed the deal.

The family-of-six bought the home in the mid-90s after spending two years searching for a home to buy.

When we walked in my husband said: No negotiating, give them what they are asking. This is the house, Cindy told Our Homes magazine in 2015.

Today, the large seven-bedroom home is known by millions from the hit US television dystopian series, The Handmaids Tale.

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Set in the fictional Republic of Gilead, the property is home to central characters Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy Yvonne Strahovski).

The series, starring Elisabeth Moss as heroine June Osborne/Offred, is an adaptation of the Margaret Atwood novel of the same name.

The creators of The Handmaids Tale reportedly chose the property for its Victorian-style architecture.

Exterior shots of the home were used in the series, as well as the sitting room.

The property has seven bedrooms on the top two floors and 12-foot ceilings.

Its kitchen was renovated in the 1990s and was originally four small rooms. High cupboards were installed after 2014 after the home experienced a burst pipe.

A number of additional buildings, including a greenhouse and a garage with an apartment, were added to the property specifically for the TV series.

Other rooms in the show, including the bedrooms, the kitchen, library and dining room, were filmed on a soundstage in Toronto.

READ MORE: The Hollywood mansion where the front gates must remain closed

Just as you can get a sense of someones personality by the way they decorate their house or by the clothes they wear, set design is supposed to tell the story of the characters that inhabit the sets, Houzz quoted the shows production designer Elisabeth Williams in 2018.

Each element is carefully chosen to give the audience a sense of what that characters life is like beyond the dialogue and immediate action you see on-screen.

The Killians reportedly stay in a hotel when their home is being used for filming.

The mansion was built in 1893 on land carved from what was known as the Inglewood estate.

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How 'The Handmaid's Tale' mansion was saved from the wrecking ball - Nine