Design Intervention - Modern/Contemporary Design and Architecture

I subscribe to a lot of design and architecture related news feeds. I also get a lot of electronic newsletter and weekly sales pitches in my email every week. Lately I’ve started playing a game when I get the email from Design Within Reach. Their email shows a featured product, talks a bit about it and its designer, and offers a link to go “shop for it.”

The game I play is this: Try to guess the retail price before the web page loads.

For example, this week the featured product is the Cross Credenza. Here is some descriptive text from the web site: Solid natural oak frame and body; birch plywood drawer inserts; oak veneer top and fronts over particleboard; Blum soft-closing hardware.

So take a guess, based on the materials described above. My guess was $1500.

Retail price was $3600. Surprisingly, it’s in stock and ready to ship.

This piece would have been so much more wonderful if it were teak, or maple, or some other SOLID wood… The look is decidedly mid-century, but I don’t think oak was the right choice, certainly not as veneer.

This always makes me laugh. I’ve come to understand a thing or two about Design Within Reach - they aren’t meaning to be “financially” within reach, but they do mean that great original designs (not knock-offs) are within reach, all in one place. And THAT’S something they are VERY good at. There are lots of great original designs there to ogle.

(Design Within Reach)

Louis Kahn’s Esherick house located just outside of Philadelphia will be auctioned off to the highest bidder on May 18th. The house stands as one of the most important houses realized by Kahn throughout his career, and is the first residence to illustrate his mature architectural ideals. The house will be offered in Wright’s Important Design sale with an estimate of $2-3 million.

(from Design Addict, where there are more pictures.)