Envy Apartment

We stayed here for 5 nights and had a fantastic time. The apartments are spotlessly clean and beautifully laid out with modern, yet relaxing, decoration. They are located right in the centre of the quiet old town which is mostly pedestrian and no cars allowed. The bed was really comfortable and it was so nice to sit on the big balcony for breakfast. The kitchen was well equipped with a fantastic induction hob , coffee percolator, kettle, toaster and pots, pans and cutlery. There is a separate entrance and a modern lift to all floors. The bathroom was spacious and we'll appointed with a full bath which was wonderful after a day at Pompeii. The staff are all very friendly and the general manager extremely helpful (and charming). There is a bar/restaurant downstairs which serves breakfast or there are numerous other cafes and trattoria close by. We bought Nutella or cream filled croissants for breakfast but never cooked as the food choices were too good to miss. It is a 5 minute wa...

This article originally appeared in the February 2007 issue of Architectural Digest. The highly articulate Lee F. Mindel has this to say about the way he and Peter L. Shelton, his longtime collaborator, approach the challenge of an apartment renovation: "The main thing is to identify the problem of a space and to reduce it to its purest essence. People get distracted when they buy an apartment. They go from falling in love to having buyer's remorse so quickly that they can't calm down and ask the most primal questions. What makes a place tick? What about its context is special? Is there some quality of the building that should be celebrated? How does the light work? What is it about the owner that brings specificity to his home? And, finally, what can we, as architects and designers, do to present the clients as the best they can be, given who they are?" He pauses. "We ask and try to answer all these questions, then we throw them out the window and let intuitio...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...