Not even two months after listing his Desert Hot Springs residence for $1.85 million, architect Leo Marmol is giving the home--widely revered for its prefab innovation--a healthy PriceChop. Yes, perhaps he's learned a thing or two from the Lautner motel saga. Architectural pedigree is nice but it's all about location, location, location. Desert Hot Springs? Not appealing to everyone. The three-bedroom, two-bath house includes "recycled steel framing, highly energy-efficient glass, and solar-assisted power." New listing price: $1.5 million, almost a 20 percent drop from the initial asking price.
· The Desert House [Architectureforsale.com]
· Architect Marmol Lists His Desert Hot Springs Home [Curbed LA]
Our coverage of the three-day design conference that is CA Boom wraps up with the prefab vendor section of the conference floor, and while the usual suspects aka Steve Glenn's LivingHomeswere present, where was prefab stalwart Marmol Radziner? One interesting new entrants was the the itty-bitty Modern Shed and its quaint homemade sale sign in the window: "$15,000 with deck. Free Local Delivery." The web site for the Seattle-based company notes prices range from $7,740 for a 48-square-foot shed to $18,200 for a 10 by 12 studio. Prefab marvel or glorified spider hole? You be the judge.
· Modern Shed [Official site]
· CA Boom: Prefab Zone [CA Boom]
· CA Boom House Tours: Santa Monica's House of Sand[Curbed LA]
Every day, 45,000 people commute to work in Vernon, that five-square mile patch of industrial land near downtown Los Angeles, but only 90 residents live full-time in the city, paying as little as $147 a month in rent. The Economist 's general profile of Vernon indicates the city doesn't seem to be showing many signs of change (we'll point out that there are some changes: places like architect Marmol Radziner's prefab factory have moved in next door to the slaughterhouses). And why should Vernon change, argues the magazine. "Many cities used to have places like Vernon. Think of Manchester's warehouses or Manhattan's meat-packing district, now converted into clubs and trendy lofts. This is a shame. Smelly, noisy businesses sustain a wider range of jobs than the cafés and cultural centres that most cities try so hard to lure. And all the businesses that exist in Vernon have to exist somewhere." [The Economist]
Prefab starchitecture firm Marmol-Radziner have gone public with a shameful secret. They have started a blog. Now they are no better than us. Shameful bloggers. The blog promises to deliver insight into their prefab constructions, including the soon to be installed "Venice House", which is currently being prepped in the MR warehouse. We've found our new outlet for render-porn. Thank you Marmol-Radziner. [MR Blog]
If you cannot afford a prefab Venice home from architect Marmol Radziner, console yourself with this Echo Park rental, a Radziner & Associates-designed four-unit development at 1330 Quintero Street. What you get: A 900 square foot unit with an 150-square foot deck and proximity to Dodger Stadium. Prices range from $1,895-$1,995/a month.
Why does the West Side get all the prefab fun? Following the Office of Mobile Design's Santa Monica home, architecture firm Marmol Radziner is planning a 2,800-square-foot, three-bedroom home (with a 750 square foot deck) in Venice. The marketing team knows better than to give out the address of the planned home--which goes into production in early 2008---so you'll have to bike around Venice till you find it. Also: In the next two weeks, the firm is adding some new features, including images of their latest projects (like their very fancy, pretty large Nevada home) to their web site.
Monday morning housekeeping: A reader finally pointed us to an elusive rendering for the Century. Sorta looks like a Transformer? But we'll reserve judgment till the thing is up. UPDATE: Emails a reader: "Go to Related web site...every 10 seconds or so the photo on screen will shift to a different photo. The Century is the third photo. This rendering looks far better."
· The Century: Too Sexy to Show [Curbed LA]
After the Roosevelt started blogging, we made a throw-away joke about the downtown toilets blogging, too. One of the toilets wrote in, pointing out that a downtown toilet blog has existed since May. We feel silly.
· Downtown Toilet [Official Site]
Since this weekend is CA Boom 4, we have prefab on the brain. Lucky we have Marmol Radziner to show us their steps to prefab living. Don't forget Step 6: ENJOY MODERN LIVING. And that is a command, not a request nor a suggestion, from one of our favorite design-build firms. We always get our knickers in a twist when we get to watch stuff get built, even if its only in a 2 minute youtube video accompanied by decade-old U2Moby song we suspect is a possible copyright violation. So watch it now, before the evil overlords make it disappear forever.
Celeb Watch:Now Magazine, one of those British tabs, reports that Britney Spears has moved into a $7.2 million mansion in Beverly Hills. "The new house is in an exclusive gated community near Mulholland Drive. The luxury property has five bedrooms, six bathrooms, swimming pool, library, media room and a terrace offering amazing views of Los Angeles."
Retail: Rancho Cucamonga succumbs to the Pinkenberry monster! An emailer links us up to the "Coming Soon" announcement on the Victoria Gardens web site. The unstoppable fro-yo beast lays claim to another Southland community.
Prefab: From our press release files comes news of Skyline Modern, a partnership between Marmol Radziner and developer David Dixon. "This winter, Skyline Modern is pre-selling Marmol Radziner prefab modern eco-homes (2 beds and pool, $625K each), as part of a Skyline Modern eco-community, in Joshua Tree, California. The location was once a haven for artists and hippies, and now increasingly favored by people who simply enjoy the outdoors and hiking trails."
Hola! We made it to Palm Springs in a record four hours last night, hitting every traffic tangle imaginable, but we made it just in time to down a glass of wine and hop on the bus for the first event of the weekend - the dinner at the Desert House, built for and by Leo Marmol of Marmol Radziner. There were lots of stylish looking architect type people, and reporters. The big scandal of the night was that some people were taking 4 or 5 veggie skewers when they were only allowed one, forcing some vegans in attendance to gnaw on sagebrush for sustenance.
We talked to the guy behind the KitHaus which we blogged about earlier this year, and learned all about prefab, his thoughts on the LivingHomes project and his other company ModernOutdoor based in Van Nuys, which he described as the poor man's Marmol Radziner.
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Prefab starchitecture firm Marmol-Radziner have gone public with a shameful secret. They have 
