From the CEO: To list or not to list?

After our announcement last week that we would be delisting from NASDAQ, I have fielded a lot of questions from DWR folks, investors, manufacturers and just plain curious people. Generally I believe that for every one who asks a question there are 10 or 20 people who have the same question but won’t raise their hands. Kind of like high school but with older people – you get the idea, and I am sure many of you have experienced the same human phenomenon. So, for all who have asked (and for all who want to ask but are too shy), I thought it might be good to provide a very simple and hopefully concise review of our reasoning and intentions relating to this step. So here it goes: 

The people behind (and in) the chairs.

Over the next few weeks we'll introduce you to some of the folks at Design Within Reach. In the "hot" seat this week is Ben, who’s in charge of choosing Outdoor products.

"When I came on board, I realized we had no classics in outdoor, which was weird. The Adirondack is the classic outdoor chair. This one by Loll is an awesome, all-weather, totally post-consumer material chair. It is so classic and so modern. You can leave it outside year after year and all you have to do is hose it off after the winter. I'm partial to the green one, and the guys at Loll are totally about being 'green' – they use recycled materials, their facility is all about the environment and, as I discovered recently, they also like green beer. I had a few Green Flash IPAs with these guys on a recent trip. They’re totally magnetic, very human guys. I wouldn’t be comfortable doing business with a designer or manufacturer who I don’t trust. These guys, and their Adirondack Chair, are the real deal."

- Ben G. DWR Outdoor Dept.

In case the Fawcett House isn’t for you: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House.

Another Frank Lloyd Wright house now for sale: The Ennis House – built in 1924 in Los Angeles – has been featured in movies and TV shows for years. Fifteen million will get you this legendary building, which has been under the care of a private foundation and was put on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s most endangered list in 2005. Unable to keep up the necessary maintenance to preserve the mostly concrete structure (perhaps it suffering from “concrete creep?” See previous blog post.), they’ve put it up for sale. Learn more about it here.

Smart people thinking about longevity.

Via Mediabistro we heard about an interesting advance in green design: long-lasting concrete. Engineers at MIT have identified the cause of “concrete creep,” which is essentially the degradation of the most frequently used building material on earth. Getting down to the nano level (some serious science speak going on there), they’re figuring out how to create concrete that can last hundreds of years instead of tens. That’s smart design.

DWR: Tools for Living SoHo Artist Window Series, No.1

Last weekend's inaugural installation of the Tools for Living SoHo Artist Window Series had tourists and tried-and-true New Yorkers alike stopping to gawk on Wooster Street. Running with a “Summer in the City” theme, artist Damon Johnson decked out the Wooster Street windows with huge cartoon pigeons and thorny, technicolor roses. His signature “Urban Surrealism” packs the perfect punch to set off the summer season in SoHo.