Bronze Age

Copper is the new stainless. What a cool hue! I saw it on a new Weber gas grill (called the Summit E-420) the other day at a lunch sponsored by the Chicago-based company. (Poor people...it was snowing, and they had planned an outdoor cooking demo. Special guest and cookbook author/chef Jamie Purviance valiantly carried on.) I'd love to see their adorable little Char Q tailgater in some fun colors.

—JAN PARR

Photo courtesy of Weber

Organic Goodies in Roscoe Village

Let the Green Times Roll

A new Roscoe Village addition A Cooler Planet (2211 W. Roscoe St.; 773-248-1110, itsacoolerplanet.com) makes it easy to live green. Sisters Heidi Bailey and Krista White, self-taught green experts who went organic in their own life, opened the store to help others do the same. “People can get overwhelmed and we wanted to open a place to make it easier to take the first step,” Bailey says. “Anything you buy in here we have already researched,” White says. The lifestyle shop, the duo says, is designed to take care of everything from morning to night, from the U.S.D.A. certified organic skincare line Terressentials down to organic mattresses. For the home, the store stocks...

Many Happy Returns

By Shane Tritsch

Whether helping a wage earner plot a savvy investment strategy or a wealthy entrepreneur preserve his riches, these local financial pros earn high marks by giving smart advice and putting their clients first Read more

The Accidental Bride is Full. Speed. Ahead.

We've set a date for the wedding: a Sunday next September. Yes, we're on what you'd call the marriage fast track. And no, I'm not pregnant, although a number of people—including my own brother—asked if I was when we told them our date was less than six months away.

That's one good thing about a Sunday-night wedding: If we had wanted to say our I dos on a Saturday, we would have had to wait at least a year. Most of the places we've looked into are booked for Saturdays well into 2009...

Landscaping Lowdown

I recently moderated a panel discussion at the Merchandise Mart about “exterior design.” The audience was filled with interior designers and the panel consisted of: Judi Cunningham, an interior designer whose business is called Chez Jolie (see photo of terrace decked out in white); John West, an exterior designer with an expertise in urban landscaping and the owner of JW Landscapes (see photo of rooftop deck in Old Town); and Stephen Prassas, a landscape architect and owner of Prassas Landscape Studio (see photo of Japanese-inspired Roscoe Village yard). It was all very informative for a condo-dwelling city girl whose last contact with soil was a tomato plant proudly harvested in the fifth grade. Here’s what people said:

Cunningham reminded us of the importance of maintaining continuity between the interior and the exterior design of a home so that you don’t look out the window and see something completely incongruous.

West warned us about the kind of havoc Mother Nature can wreak on your rooftop deck if your furniture isn’t well secured or heavy enough. During last year’s storms, one of his clients had a brand new set of tables and chairs fly straight off his roof onto more than one neighbors’ car. Motto of the story: If you can, seek advice from a professional before plopping a bunch of stuff on your rooftop. (But remember—even the pros can’t make guarantees; did you know that landscape architects lay awake on stormy nights worrying about their clients’ yards? This I learned today. Poor things!) West also reminded us that when decorating outdoor spaces, we shouldn’t limit ourselves to sets—with so much furniture to choose from, we should mix it up, just like we do in our living rooms.

Prassas reminded us of how the elements of an outdoor space compare with those of an indoor space. Outside, he said, our walls are buildings, shrubs, trees, fences, and views; our floors are stone, gravel, lawn, and plants; our ceilings are sky, tree canopies, and pergola tops; and our lighting is the sun, moon, stars, and reflections, along with landscape lighting. Kind of makes you think about your outside space in a whole different way, huh?

OK, I’m ready to move beyond that tomato plant now.

—GINA BAZER

Photos: Roscoe Village, courtesy Prassas; Old Town, courtesy West; Terrace, courtesy Cunningham

Rooms With Memories

By Christine Newman

The grand Blackstone hotel was a favorite of U.S. presidents, movie stars, smart-set Chicagoans, and jazz musicians. Now, after decades of decline, it's beautifully buffed up and back in business Read more

Sale of the Week—Priced to Sell in Lincoln Park

By Dennis Rodkin

List Price: $2,599,500
Sale Price: $2,375,000
The Property: Almost two years old but never occupied, this ten-room house would seem to have everything going for it, starting with location. It is only half a block from lovely Oz Park, and unlike most of the traffic-clogged Lincoln Park neighborhood, the one-way, block-long street it sits on offers some degree of privacy. As for the house itself, it is... Read more

Flight Test

The only thing worse than a baby on a plane is a sick baby on a plane, and that's what we had. Hannah wailed and flailed and hacked like a septuagenarian on the first flight, basically all the way from Chicago to San Francisco. We thought maybe she had the croup, which involves a cough that sounds like a dog barking. Not a yippy dog, a Weimaraner or something; a big dog. A German shepherd. The thought of a 7,600-mile fight to Australia with a grumpy German shepherd seemed really stupid.

I tried to convince Sarah we should get a room in San Francisco for the night and start fresh in the morning. Was already thinking room service, maybe mozzarella sticks or Caesar salad, but then I got overruled...

Down and Dirty

By Rebecca Little

Talking Trash

April is Earth month, which means the onslaught of green talk has just begun. But don’t turn a deaf ear yet; amid the lip service and Al Gore sightings comes a truly inventive show examining society’s wastefulness. Dance troupe The Seldoms performs Monument, inspired by Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill—a site taller than the Statue of Liberty and visible from space. This inauspicious human “monument” served as...

Studio 41 in Naperville

Studio 41 just opened a 5,000-square-foot kitchen and bath showroom at Design Pointe in Naperville. This is great news for area suburbanites who won’t have to burn all that gas traveling into the city for their cabinets and faucets. But the little nugget that had the rest of us raising our eyebrows is that the store offers a price-match guarantee. So be sure to know the best prices on the market before visiting. In addition to carrying brands like Toto, Hansgrohe, Omega Cabinetry, and Jeld-wen, the company offers design services. We could definitely see ourselves soaking in this Naos spa tub from BainUltra.

—JACKIE HUNZINGER

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