There’s been no end to the articles touting workplace amenities as a way to attract workers back to offices. Free beer Fridays, ping-pong and foosball tables, meditation and wellness amenities, rooftop gardens, and in-house escape rooms are a few of the many. But these extras may be ignoring the importance of fostering community among the folks who actually occupy offices. Incorporating programming that spurs consistent employee gathering can generate a number of positive repercussions, among them team building opportunities and forums for impromptu organic networking among staff. Among the entities helping spark such experiences is Sage, one of New York…

There are a lot of ways to look at the impact of new home construction on the environment. But what if a home can be reused and doesn’t have to be built at all? Carl Elefante is principal emeritus with the firm Quinn Evans and is known for coining the phrase “the greenest building is one that is already built.” In his book, Going for Zero: Decarbonizing the Built Environment on the Path to Our Urban Future, he suggests that the culture change we need to take place is to take on the role and responsibility of being stewards of…

The Hamptons is known for interesting pop-ups during the peak summer season, but 2025 brings one most people probably didn’t see coming—combining art and shoes in one chic spot. In May, Dolce Vita and Down The Street launched a unique concept store. While the brand has boutiques in Soho, Georgetown, Austin and Aventura, this is the first expansion to the coveted enclave on the Eastern end of Long Island. Located at 95 Main Street, the generously sized 2185-square-foot store isn’t so much about shoes or art, but rather about storytelling. Dolce Vita X Down The Street While Dolce Vita’s shoes…

Star power is not a Zillow filter. But in Beverly Hills, it often comes with the square footage. Lizzo’s Beverly Hills hideaway brings both. The Grammy-winning artist and shapewear-brand founder has listed her Oak Pass Road estate for $13.99 million. Yes—that home. The one quietly co-starring on her Instagram since 2022. If you’ve been following, you’ve likely had a glimpse of the exquisitely renovated mid-century-style property in a variety of vignettes. Lizzo playing her flute in the garden. Bathroom mirror selfies framed by floor-to-ceiling glass. A sound bath beneath a hundred-year-old oak. The architecture in the background never demands attention.…

In 1816, a motley crew of great writers took a trip to Lac Léman—aka Lake Geneva. Lord Byron, young doctor John Polidori, Percy Bysshe Shelley and his future wife Mary, accompanied by a peacock, a monkey and a dog, all set up base in the lakeside Villa Diodati, just outside Geneva. While the trip was far from relaxing—arguments, alcohol, laudanum, ghost stories and a volcanic ash cloud—it birthed some great work. Shelley wrote Hymn to Intellectual Beauty and Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni. Byron produced the third canto of Childe Harold. And Mary, after an evening…

Whether you’re creating curb appeal or celebrating the year of the backyard by creating a great outdoor entertaining hub, outdoor lighting plays a crucial part. “There are amazing things that can be done with landscape lighting, but it can be costly to put in the infrastructure,” says Annie Obermann, co-founder and principal designer at Forge & Bow. “String lights are a great option to cover a larger area and you can install them with an outlet and a few well-placed trees or landscape posts.” But whether it’s a small or a large outdoor lighting project, some mistakes can ruin the…

Outdoor lighting is an important consideration for homeowners looking to upgrade their curb appeal. It’s also somethi ng homeowners are considering when looking for ways to create the perfect outdoor entertaining hub. In fact, the most recent Houzz Renovation Trends Report reveals that one of the most popular outdoor renovation projects is upgrading lighting systems. Outdoor Lighting: Part 1 covered lighting mistakes. Part 2 focuses on tips and tricka to take your outdoor lighting to another level. Decide How You Want To Use The Space When evaluating your outdoor lighting, consider not just how it looks, but how it feels.…

Preservationists and developers. An age-old feud. One guards provenance, while the other chases possibility. But what happens when a house straddles both worlds—too wounded to survive untouched, too important to raze? Can these two disparate camps salvage the story together? In Lake Oswego, Oregon, that unlikely détente unfolded at 4101 South Shore Boulevard. The low-slung lakefront residence—once known as the John M. and Elizabeth Bates House No. 4—was the penultimate commission of Wade Hampton Pipes, a pivotal voice in Oregon’s Arts and Crafts movement. Pipes designed everything. Structure, landscape, furnishings, finishes. A total work of art completed in 1954. The…

The Singapore government is exchanging a plot of land in one of the city-state’s priciest residential enclaves with a larger site held by the eldest son of Malaysian King Ibrahim Iskandar. Under the deal, Ismael Ibrahim, the Regent of Johor (the southern Malaysian state), will swap 13 hectares of his land across the Botanic Gardens for a nearby 8.5-hectare Singapore state land that’s of “comparable value,” the Urban Redevelopment Authority said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Regent of Johor plans to develop his land,” the URA said in the statement. “The Singapore government and the ROJ have agreed to…

SM Prime Holdings—the real estate arm of the billionaire Sy family’s SM Investments Corp—is spending about 10 billion pesos ($179 million) to expand its hotel footprint across the Philippines over the next five years amid a tourism boom. Under the five-year growth plan, SM Prime said it will build seven new hotels with a total of 1,321 hotel rooms. Once the projects, which will be funded by internally-generated cash, are completed by end-2029, the group will have 17 hotels with a total of 3,923 rooms, it added. Six of the new hotels will be branded the Park Inn by Radisson,…