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A Massachusetts architect is drawing crowds with impressive Halloween installations in his driveway

2023-10-31T17:57:00-04:00

The haunting Halloween decorations created by Tom Saltsman, a CalArts and Harvard GSD graduate and the Principal of Boston-based firm SaltsmanBrenzel, are taking the spotlight once again in the architect's own driveway.

Saltsman says the inspiration for his crowd-pleasing designs stems from a desire to create perspective illusions of the home he and his fellow architect wife own in Marblehead, Massachusetts. He has been harkening his background in fine arts to create designs for trolls, a shipwreck, and other sculptural decor. He also told WBUR it takes the family and their fleet of volunteer builders months to plan and complete. Some have been realized at costs under $200.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Saltsman Brenzel (@saltsmanbrenzel)

Visitors from as far away as China have been flocking to see the annual display, which the Saltsman family started 15 years ago. His high school-aged daughter and their neighbor both plan on studying architecture a...

The Holland Tunnel holiday decorations have people very annoyed

2018-12-12T13:05:00-05:00

The Port Authority's holiday decorations for the Holland Tunnel toll lanes have commuters outraged. For one local motorist, the failed attempt at festivity is so annoying that he even started a Change.org petition to have the display altered. As of Wednesday morning, over 1,200 supporters have signed on.

The issue is less to do with the decorations themselves, and more about their obviously incorrect placement. Workers adorned the Jersey-side tolls' signage with wreaths and a tree. But, instead of placing the tree ornament over the appropriately shaped letter 'A,' it was positioned over the letter 'N,' much to everyone's chagrin.

The clearly off-kilter display has Cody Windelspecht, who created the petition calling for its alteration, describing the arrangement as an "OCD Nightmare."

"I look at it and it makes me itch. It gives me anxiety and anger—why wouldn’t they just put [the tree] in front of the A?" he told the New York Post, adding that one guy he talked to "avoids the Ho...

FunderMax Individualdecor – If you can think it, we can print it

2016-10-13T12:37:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by FunderMax.

Make your imagination into individual, large-sized decor concepts. With various formats and motifs spanning over multiple formats, your fantasy becomes reality.

As a small inspirational source, we present to you a few application examples. FunderMax Individualdecor has made all of them possible.

Unique applications

Individual facades
Wall claddings
Creative solutions for balcony and floors
Exclusive furniture and attractive shop fitting
Gates and doors
Bathrooms

Create fantastic projects – Interior and Exterior! Find all information about FunderMax Individualdecor on www.individualdecor.com

MAX EXTERIOR INDIVIDUALDECOR

Ideas with Form

With individual designs from FunderMax, you have the freedom to provide facades, balconies and outdoor-applications with creative and completely unique designs.

Your design can be printed on single panels, or as in the image below, across several panels. Ideal for large designs and special visual effects.

Possible exterior a...

This app will make decorating a whole lot simpler

2016-02-03T16:54:00-05:00

Shanna Tellerman wants to help you redecorate your home. She’s not a designer, furniture aficionado, or personal shopper. She’s the founder and CEO of a company called Modsy that rolls all of the aforementioned jobs into one mobile app to make redesigning a room easier (and more fun) [...] What makes Modsy different from the handful of other home design tools out there is that it actually lets users see designs in the context of their own homes—and its renderings are utterly realistic.

The architecture of the app seems effective, if a bit out of touch with the on-demand expectations of today's digital consumer. After signing up, a user is asked to complete a quiz to figure out their aesthetic and then upload some photos of the space in question, along with its dimensions.

About 48 hours later, the Modsy team responds with a catalogue of renders of your own space, filled with new furniture. Like a piece? Click it and you'll be redistributed to the manufacturer's site. Modsy takes a percentage from every sale.

Apparently, the renders are super HD, and the long-term goal of the developers is to make the app more instantaneous.

February is furniture month here on Archinect! Send us your furniture musings, interviews, reviews, designs, projects and investigations for review to be featured on our site. The open call for submissions is effective immediately.

More details here.

And for some related coverage, check out these articles:

"Charles and Ray Eames, meet Freddy Krueger"...

Leading street artists weigh in on the gentrification debate

2015-11-16T18:32:00-05:00

Earlier this week, the online street art community was abuzz about an article by Rafael Schacter for The Conversation, From dissident to decorative: why street art sold out and gentrified our cities. [...] Basically, Schacter argues that street art isn’t rebellious anymore. Rather, that it’s most notable form is as a tool used by corporations to spur gentrification. Agree or disagree, the article is a must-read.

Vandalog author RJ Rushmore reached out to some of the influential figures in street art and muralism to get their reactions to Schacter's claim that street art has sold out and become complicit in the corporate gentrification of our cities. He received responses from Buff Monster, Living Walls, 1xRun, Jeffrey Deitch, Libray Street Collective, Tristan Eaton, John Fekner, Gaia, Ganzeer, Carlo McCormick, The Painted Desert Project, Jessie Unterhalter, Vexta, Wall Therapy and shared their views here.

Related news and one exclusive interview with Buff Monster on Archinect:

Competition launched to decorate Moscow churches

2011-12-15T11:55:25-05:00

“These churches must become not only a decoration of our city, but truly a phenomenon of civic and church art of our 21st century,” said Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov, the executive secretary of the Patriarchal Council for Culture, at a news conference. “They must become a kind of pearl of ancient tradition, uniting historic Moscow with its new districts and buildings.” He said the terms of the competition would be announced by the end of the year.