Often converted industrial spaces are softened up with chic details for the sake of contrast. Longman & Eagle's latest addition, the 120 sq foot Off Site Bar revels in its cinderblock and industrial garage door construction. Land and Sea Dept., which headed up the renovation of the two bay garage into a bar, commercial kitchen, event space and tasting room writes, "We referenced its original use, and incorporated a variety of ‘garage’ elements into the overall aesthetic, the most prominent of which is a working seventies drag racing motorcycle. Other elements include a considered beverage program, tightly curated music and vintage audio equipment." That's to say it still looks like a garage space, one outfitted with McIntosh amplifiers, monster speakers and a gnarly yellow motorcycle, as well as art objects from the multi-talented Ryan Duggan.
OSB at Longman & Eagle is now open Thu-Sat.
Photos courtesy of Clayton Hauck
It seems as if everyone we know has been jetting to warmer zones this month. If the option was available, we'd put Mojave Sands Motel on our winter roadtrip itinerary.
The five-room desert motel in Joshua Tree, CA is an alternative on the Gram Parsons fan's pilgrim trail to the Joshua Tree Inn & Motel, but more importantly, it's been updated in a really unique way. The bones of the space, an abandoned 1950s motel, were kept, but owner Blake Simpson (former furniture designer for Marc Jacobs) spent nine years renovating the place. The doors, windows, gates, and furniture were designed and built on site giving it a real personalized feel. The walls feature cedar plank, the concrete floors were refinished, and the new beds are made of black walnut. All five rooms are completed with a mix of vintage, mid-century furniture. Each room has unusual amenities such as a typewriter, record player with vinyl, and various objet d'art that encourage us creatives to find inspiration.
The hotel is already a hit with L.A. creative industry types looking for a getaway. Nearby, a music and film production studio beckons and Simpson says solar power and a diner are in the works for his compound.
This oasis isn't suited for the pampered. It's dusty, windy, laidback, and on the main road, evidently, but offers plenty of space for hanging out and making your own good times. That's what it's all about, anyhow.
Rooms begin at $200/night at mojavesands.com.
The decadent UP coffee table, recently released by design studio Duffy London, is a glass panel supported by a group of small metal balloons. If you can get past that there's something slightly Entertainment 720 about it, the goofy elegance and implied weightlessness would make any living room a little more buoyant. Christopher Duffy (who also designed the swing chair) is limiting this run to twenty. Details on how many he has left are up in the air.
There's a spot in Brooklyn where cyclists can make pitstops for some quick repairs and a can of beer or two. With a bar in the front, the bike shop will send you on your way tuned-up and relaxed, though hopefully not off your game.
A new laundromat in Ghent, Belgium just took this idea of social multitasking a step further. Wasbar Ghent puts two time-consuming, regular, and often solitary tasks, doing laundry and getting a haircut, in the context of a bright cafe. Put simply, the goal is for patrons to actually enjoy their time doing errands.
Design studio Pinkeye had the huge and very busy student population of Ghent in mind. In addition to laundry machines and a unisex hair salon, the location has a full-service bar, Wi-Fi, and a generous number of tables to allow customers to get the basics done in the midst of mingling.
Not keen on folding your underwear in a busy cafe? Not to worry, there are private folding rooms to keep everyone comfortable.
Chicago photographer Lee Bey shot the former offices of Johnson Publishing, publishers of Ebony and Jet, with original interiors by William Raiser/Arthur Elrod and wrote up the history and his tour of the space for Chicago public radio station WBEZ. The iconic Ebony/Jet Building on Michigan Avenue can be seen from Grant Park, but its dramatic, early '70s mod funk interiors are little known. They have hardly changed over the years. Not pictured, howerver, are John H. Johnson's private offices. Last year, the space was sold to Columbia College and while it says it will preserve the first floor sculpture, "Expansive Construction," we'd guess the offices won't survive the building rehab.