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The Case for Optimism

Dwell

Contributors

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Plywood Kitchens • The so-simple-it’s-chic material shows up on the walls of many contemporary kitchens. We asked our readers if they think it’s a mark of good taste or just a dated mess.

The American Gas Station: An Architectural Joyride

MADE IN AMERICA

San Diego

Miami

North Carolina’s Triangles

Baltimore

San Juan

Helena

Lauren Halsey • The renowned artist is building a public sculpture park for the Los Angeles community that raised her.

Pops of Color • For a Brooklyn brownstone renovation, an architect crafts a palette drawn from hues in the original stained-glass windows.

Extra Credit • An 11-year-old Angeleno is a passionate student of botany, designing his family’s graywater garden with native California plants.

From A to Sea • Manhattan Beach, California, has many modern mansions by the shore, but a couple saw bigger payoffs in a 1,675-square-foot A-frame.

You Can’t Go Home Again • Writer Julianne Escobedo Shepherd contemplates the complicated impact of gentrification in her hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Dwellings

Brown Is the New Green • A house in a Washington, D.C., alley embraces earth tones and “farm-to-shelter” materials.

Occult Classic • A local builder writes a new chapter for Santa Cruz’s weird and wonderful Court of Mysteries.

Local Legend

A Big Tent • Neighbors call it the circus house, but this polychrome New Orleans home does more than just put on a show—it expands what it means to be a family.

Is Every Building Worth Preserving? • The United States is dotted with abandoned boarding schools that tried to erase Native American culture. Instead of destroying the one on its land, the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe of Michigan is turning it into a resource.

Living Proof • Architects demonstrate that well-designed low-income housing is possible—even as a tax credit that makes it easier to build faces legislative resistance.

Modern Market

Sourcing • The products, furniture, architects, designers, and builders featured in this issue.

One Last Thing • A peculiar device discovered in a Texas antique shop helps Seattle-based designer couple Sallyann Corn and Joe Kent find inspiration in utility.