We often don’t highlight events in the Denver area, but with the Denver Home Show happening this weekend, we thought we’d make an exception. This year’s spokesperson is America’s favorite handyman Ty Pennington, from ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.  It’s the perfect place to find inspiration for your own home makeover.

Want to know about the latest products and trends in the home remodeling industry? Well make the drive into Denver this weekend and check it out.

The Denver Home Show begins this Friday, March 16th at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado. Click here for more information or to purchase tickets to the show.

A new exhibition is examining “The Art of Seating: Two Hundred Years of American Design.” The exhibit will be touring smaller cities here in the U.S., bringing great design to the heart of America.

The Art of Seating: Two Hundred Years of American Design…presents a survey of exceptional American chair design from the early 19th century to the present day. The chair is experienced not only as a functional item, but as sculptural in view—the chair as art.

Each of the approximately 40 chairs in the exhibition are chosen for their beauty and historical context with important social, economic, political and cultural influences. Selections from The Jacobsen Collection of American Art are joined by contemporary designs offering a stylistic journey in furniture with show-stoppers by John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, Herter Brothers, Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles & Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi, and Frank Gehry among others.

Take a look at this clip below where Dr. Diane DeMill Jacobsen, who heads up the Jacobsen Collection of American Art, talks about the exhibit.

The race to the top in design just got a little bit crazy. It seems Obayashi Corp, the developer behind Tokyo’s Sky Tree, announced their plans to build an elevator to space. No it is not April 1st, and yes we are serious. Or at least Obayashi Corp is serious.

The space elevator will be an estimated 22,370-mile high with a completion date set for 2050.

Photo via Architizer Blog

Welcome to the space age!

The 2012 Pritzker Architecture Prize was recently awarded to Wang Shu of The People’s Republic of China. Mr. Wang, a 48 year old architect, is the first Chinese citizen to win the prize. I. M. Pei, an American, was the first Chinese-born architect to win, in 1983.  Now Wang Shu will join the likes of follow Pritzker winners such as Phillip Johnson, who won the first prize, Richard Meier, Frank Gehry and Norman Foster to name a few.

Lv Hengzhong A history museum by Wang Shu in Ningbo, China. Photo via The New York Times.

According to the New York Times,”The prize, founded in 1979 by Jay A. Pritzker and his wife, Cindy, to honor a living architect, consists of a $100,000 grant and a bronze medallion, which this year will be awarded at a ceremony in Beijing on May 25.”

Thomas J. Pritzker, chairman of The Hyatt Foundation which sponsors the prized, stated “The fact that an architect from China has been selected by the jury, represents a significant step in acknowledging the role that China will play in the development of architectural ideals. In addition, over the coming decades China’s success at urbanization will be important to China and to the world. This urbanization, like urbanization around the world, needs to be in harmony with local needs and culture. China’s unprecedented opportunities for urban planning and design will want to be in harmony with both its long and unique traditions of the past and with its future needs for sustainable development.”

We love seeing our friends to the north embracing sustainable design and Canada-based SYSTEMATEKS has taken the snack bar to a whole new level. This design is complete with solar panels and has a way of collecting rainwater.

It’s amazing to see how far eco-friendly design has come and we look forward to seeing more from SYSTEMATEKS.

Photo via Inhabitat

What do you think of this solar paneled snack bar? Is this what the future holds for sustainability?

In honor of the Academy Awards, which airs this Sunday on ABC, we wanted to feature some of our favorite set designs from the recent batch of Oscar-nominated movies. With a little help from our friends at Architectural Digest here are some of this year’s best backdrops.

The Artist- The black and white just adds to the drama.

Photo via Architectural Digest

Hugo- The sets were almost as magical as the movie.

Photo via Architectural Digest

Midnight in Paris- We almost felt like we were time-traveling with Gil to Paris in the 1920s.

Photo via Architectural Digest

To see more set designs visit architecturaldigest.com. You can also check out the backdrop of George Clooney’s The Descendants, which we featured last month.

We spoken about the importance of universal design on our blog and wanted to share a special project that partners renowned architect and designer Michael Graves and the US Army. The Wounded Warrior Home Project at Fort Belvoir in Virginia is helping to make coming home easier for wounded soldiers in the military.

Clark Realty Capital, the company that develops all the housing on Fort Belvoir, wanted to create a home for those who were injured and wanted to stay in the Army. 19 of these homes will be built to help accommodate wounded active-duty personnel.

Graves is a perfect fit for this project. He has been a champion for universal design since becoming paralyzed after he fell ill from an infection. Now together with the Army, Clark Realty Capital, IDEO and a number of other partners, he is on a mission to “improve quality of life for the increasing number of wounded warriors returning to active duty at Fort Belvoir.”

Photo via NPR

Read more about the Wounded Warrior Home Project at Fort Belvoir at woundedwarriorhome.org.

The Dirt has a great interview with one of the co-founders of New York City’s High Line. Living in Colorado we are surrounding by nature’s beauty, but in a city like New York, it is a little more difficult to find some green space, especially outside of Central Park.

Photo via High Line

Robert Hammond is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Friends of the High Line, the public park that was built atop an old, abandoned rail line on the west side of Manhattan. Hammond and Joshua David’s account on transforming the rail line into an award-winning park can be read in “The High Line: The Inside Story of New York City’s Park in the Sky.” In it Hammond talks about how he used to see parts of the abandoned rail line walking around Chelsea. He recalls that he didn’t really think much of the line until news ran that is was going to demolished. In the news coverage he learned that the rail rail line ran all the way from the Meatpacking District to Hell’s Kitchen, over a mile and a half long. Might not see, far for those of us living in Colorado, but it New York City, that is prime real estate.

To read more about Robert Hammond’s and the High Lines story click here.

The New York Times is reporting that there is a new niche for designers in the interior design industry– the recently divorced man. There are basically two scenarios in most cases of divorce, the women keeps the house or both partners decide to sell the house, either way the man is left looking for a new residence.

The Times found one designer in Los Angeles who actually prefers the divorced man above all other clients. Designer Susan Manrao tells the NYT “I realized my role in this project wasn’t simply to design a space, but to help rebuild a home.”

Manrao finds a balance designing the home for the new “bachelor” and the man trying to raise his kids. One of the most common requests says Susan is the big screened television.

Photo via The New York Times

And for the divorced dad with kids, Susan tells the Times they “often want their homes done quickly, to make the transition as smooth as possible for their children, which means they are apt to agree with her design decisions.”

Photo via The New York Times

Click here to read the article in its entirety.

So Men’s Health Magazine has come up with 10 renovations that will “make you rich.” Those are their words, not ours. We must say the title caught our attention, it even made us glance at their top 10 list to see if these were viable options.

With the advice of DIY Network’s Million Dollar Contractor, Stephen Fanuka, these home improvements can help make your home the “envy of your block.”

We wanted to take you step by step through these renovations and help you determine which will get you the biggest bang for your buck. Let’s start first with Fanuka’s first five steps.

1. “Decorate Your Doors” – Fanuka recommends switching out your knobs, hinges and cabinet pulls with finished metal ones. Yes, yes, and yes. This is a very effective cosmetic change you can make to your home without dropping a lot of dough.

2. “Mold Your Environment”- The Million Dollar Contractor says that “Adding molding on doors, ceilings, walls, and windows brings a third dimension to rooms, making them look bigger and more lavish,” says Fanuka. Molding does add a certain charm to your  home, but we would recommend taking that money and buying some paint. If there is money left over, than by all means add molding.

3. “Refresh Your Tiles”- We completely  agree with Stephen. A buyer does not want to see your old, dingy grout. For less than $20 you can re-grout your tile and save yourself the embarrassment.

4. “Single Out a Wall”- Fanuka recommends painting an accent wall to make the room pop. Beware of this advice and the color you choose. It could turn into a disaster if you go for a bold color choice that offends the eyes’ of your buyers. Or if you perhaps choose the wrong wall to accent.

5. “Lighten Up”- This is one change we stand behind 100%. Lighting makes all the difference in the world. It can really transform the appearance of a room.

Stay tuned for later in the week as we explore Fanuka next 5 design changes.

Source: Men’s Health Magazine