Gardens for a Beautiful America tracks the evolution of landscape aesthetics in this country during the formative period 1895-1935. Enlivened with over 400 breathtakingly restored original photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston, this elegant, oversized tome allows a special glimpse into the grand aesthetics of a bygone era’s planted environments.

American Splendor: The Residential Architecture of Horace Trumbauer takes a long and well-worth-it look at the homes built by Horace Trumbauer, the architect of many grand mansions across the country, from Newport to Colorado Springs. The finest of his designs are knowledgeably presented here in this sumptuous coffee table book, on sale now.

Visit Acanthus Press for more information on either title.

For more on landscape and architectural history, consider:

10 Ways to Bring Historic Style Home
Bob Vila’s Guide to Historic House Styles
Touring the Victorian Opulence of Olana (VIDEO)

Nuts & Bolts: Designing America Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

Since June is National Safety Month, here are a few important reminders to review from John Deere before you jump on the lawnmower and beautify your backyard:

• Search before you mow. Tools, yard debris, and toys can easily be hidden among summer foliage. Removing unwanted items not only saves your mower from damage, but it can save you from hazardous flying objects.

• Blades move fast, be extra careful! Blades move around 200 mph, a speed no one should play with. Remember to NEVER put your hand inside a mower to clear a clog. Shut off the mower and investigate jams using a stick or tool.

• Wear the proper clothing and shoes. Long pants and long-sleeved shirts protect you from the elements – flying yard debris, grass clippings, and the sun. Whenever you’re working in the yard, throw on the sturdy work shoes and save the flip flops for the pool.

• Educate the family on the dangers of mowing. Working in the yard is great bonding time, but it’s important that children understand the dangers of lawn cutting tools. Children are always on the move, and they rarely think about consequences. Teach them that mowers are dangerous, and keep them out of the mowing area. Remember to never allow your child to ride on the mower—that only sends the wrong message.

• Store fuel properly. When storing fuel, always use approved storage containers and correctly label the container to avoid confusion. Use containers of different colors—green for gasoline and red for diesel.

The salient point being, whether you love or hate mowing the lawn, pay attention when you’re doing it. Accidents happen, so mind yourself and those around, as well as your equipment.

For more on lawn care and home safety, consider:

Preventing Home Accidents
Bob Vila Radio: Lawn Tractors
Top 5 Tips for a Greener Lawn 

Mower Safety Tips from John Deere Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

The Spencertown Residence by Thomas Phifer and Partners

But it’s there and I found it. Accidentally. I knew that starchitect Thomas Phifer had designed a home in Taghkanic, NY (some 25 miles south), but I wasn’t aware of Phifer’s 2006 project in Spencertown—that is, until I spotted it from the dirt road leading right past the property.

A typical dirt road in Columbia County, NY

As quickly as the flash image of the wing-like roof disappeared from the rear view mirror, I doubted whether I’d actually seen the low-slung, unabashedly modern profile that so strongly defines the design.

The Spencertown Residence by Thomas Phifer and Partners

There’s much to admire about it (this weekend home that I later discovered to be The Spencertown Residence); there are details I see now that, going by in a car, I never would have recognized or appreciated. But as an architecture lover, I can’t help commenting that it’s a special experience to encounter—even, or especially, fleetingly—a beautiful building in a beautiful place just when and where you’d never expect it to be.

The Spencertown Residence by Thomas Phifer and Partners

For more contemporary homes and house tours, consider:
Home Sweet Container
House Tour: Hudson Passive Project 
Aviation Aesthetics: Second Flights for Salvaged Aircraft

Blink and You Miss It: The Spencertown Residence Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

Danish powerhouse Fritz Hansen ultimately took the top honor. The miniscule™ Chair joins practicality and stylishness in a compact, lightweight, and cozy creation. As the designer Cecilie Manz attests, “The chair has no secrets. You have the shell and you have the leg frame, and that’s about it. It is what you see.”

miniscule™ Chair by Cecilie Manz for Fritz Hansen

My personal favorites were among the Autoban installation for De La Espada. Though Autoban produces all kinds of home furnishings, the Throne Daybed and Sleepy Rocking Chair especially impressed me as being exquisite modern takes on traditional pieces.

Throne Daybed and Sleepy Rocking Chair by Autoban for De La Espada

Misewell made a splash at ICFF 2009, when it debuted a line of modern furniture unique for its combination of materials. The industrial-chic Lockwood chair is a simple and honest construction of powder-coated metal and solid wood, and boasts a rare combination of merits—it’s strong and sturdy yet easily portable.

Lockwood from Misewell

The Italian company SKITSCH introduced the American market to a unique “hybrid chair”. Somewhere between the bean bag and the armchair is the luxuriously comfortable Frolla.

Frolla from SKITSCH

This year’s winner in the Outdoor category was Eric Pfeiffer’s Plank Collection for San Francisco-based Council Design. The furniture line’s highlight is the lounge chair, a contemporary riff on the classic Adirondack. Arguably, Pfeiffer’s version offers better  support than New England’s beloved mainstay.

Plank Lounge Chair by Eric Pfeiffer for Council Design

Honorable mentions: John Ford’s WB chair, featured in yesterday’s ICFF roundup Walking Through “Wood-Land”. Also, it was good to see graypants again; we praised the group’s recycled-cardboard lighting fixtures last year in Shedding New Light on Recycling. Thanks to ICFF and all the exhibitors for a great time!

5 Seating Picks from ICFF Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

Flickr

Each year on Earth Day we pause to acknowledge and appreciate the majesty of nature and the gravity of the problems threatening it. As individuals, we ask ourselves if we’re doing all that we can to mitigate the global environmental crisis.

In that same spirit of inquiry, we at BobVila.com look back on the very best blog posts, features, slideshows, and videos from the last year about all subjects green—energy conservation, recycling and reuse, and sustainable architecture.

Energy Conservation
Monica Michael Willis addresses the water crisis in 5 Ways to Save H20 at Home, detailing several simple ways that everyday homeowners and renters can help protect the world’s fragile water supply.

So many ecologically kind choices are kind on your wallet too, and that’s a win-win we celebrate in 20 Ways to Go Green Today.

Mesh unit provides a small-space solution for storing and organizing recyclables.

Recycling and Reuse
Chris Gardner highlights the everyday practical necessity of organizing and storing recyclables in 7 DIY Recycling Centers for Small Spaces.

LuAnn Brandsen writes on the green virtues of architectural salvage. A companion piece, Great Places to Buy Architectural Salvage has proved to be a great fan favorite.

In the slideshow Aviation Aesthetics Jane Dagmi explores the phenomenon of reusing disused aircraft in residential applications, while more recently, Dagmi helped us better understand cradle-to-cradle philosophy through reporting on the Loop Jacket, clothing made from the house wrap material Tyvek.

The Hudson Passive Project is New York State's first Certified Passive House.

Sustainable Architecture
The search for ever-more-efficient modes of building has brought us to a tremendously exciting era of experimentation and creativity in architecture. The New American Home, a collaboration between the National Association of Home Builders and Builder magazine, reflects the priorities of homeowners today and the latest trends in home design.

We’ve given in-depth coverage to at least two other eco-friendly, design-forward homes. The Hudson Passive Project is New York State’s first Certified Passive House, and 2020 Alton Road is on track to become the first LEED Platinum-certified home in Miami Beach, FL.

For more, watch the Building Green web series, with Bob Vila investigating the principles and technologies at the forefront of contemporary construction. Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Related:
User’s Guide to Green Certification Seals

Earth Day 2012: Our Year in Green Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

Nest Learning Thermostat

The Nest Learning Thermostat is, I’m betting, the first HVAC device to excite so much chatter in the blogosphere. An improbable mingling of tech, design, and shelter sites have voiced praised for the new digital thermostat’s sleek design and user-friendly interface—not to mention the environmental contribution it stands to make, which almost seems like a tacked-on bonus given how much fun it is to play with, reviewers say.

Of course, saving energy is the Nest thermostat’s raison d’etre. Studies indicate that heating and cooling make up for roughly half of residential energy consumption, while turning the heat or air conditioning down a single degree results in a five percent energy saving. The wasted energy and cumulative expense at stake is the whole point of programmable thermostats in the first place.

But until now, homeowners have mostly avoided, or been incapable of, learning to actually program their programmable thermostats. Research in 2008 found that homes with programmable models actually used more energy than comparable homes with standard thermostats. Subsequently, Energy Star lifted its certification from the entire category of products. The Nest’s intuitive, easy-as-an-iPod controls may change all that.

Already, the company has sold out its initial production run (quantity unknown), and it’s temporarily closed the shutters on its online store. No surprise there. You can tell from the pictures: Lots of people will purchase the Nest for its aesthetic value. Another contingent may invest (the Nest retails at $250) to lower their bills. Still another group is likely to covet the positive ecological impact promised and will pay up for the good of Ma Nature. Nobody’s talking yet about whether it lives up to the hype, but judging by the early reception, untold scores of homeowners are going to buy the Nest thermostat for at least one, or probably all, of the reasons above.

Nest Learning Thermostat: Digital-Age Home Temperature Control Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

Photo: James Hardie

Home exteriors take a beating—from humidity, dry heat, rain and snow, salty air, freezing temperatures, and other unfriendly elements. But because different areas of the country experience different weather patterns, the seasonal assaults your home goes through will change depending on where your home actually is. Location is a variable that can play into your building or home improvement decision-making. After all, the siding that performs well in the Texas heat may not—in fact, probably won’t—do as good of a job in the snows of Massachusetts.

To address the varying demands of regional climates, James Hardie, a major manufacturer of exterior siding, has introduced a class of fiber cement siding, which is specially designed to withstand geographically-specific challenges. The HardieZone System (the market name for this siding technology) affords the homeowner a novel consumer advantage: the ability to choose an exterior that’s uniquely and ideally suited to the home’s local climate.

Photo: James Hardie

Two distinct product lines are available. The HZ5-rated siding is designed for areas with snow and ice, and extreme seasonal temperature swings. The HZ10 line is for climates with brutal heat and high humidity. It also stands up well to salty sea air and hurricane-force winds. HardieZone siding, in either case, resists cracking, splitting, rotting, and swelling, and comes with a 30-year no-questions-asked, non-prorated warranty-product coverage.

To learn more about the HardiZone System, and to see a video presentation about the technology, visit the James Hardie website.

For more on exterior siding, consider:

Fiber Cement Siding
Engineered Wood Siding
Vinyl Siding (VIDEO)

Climate-Right Exterior Siding Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com

Photo: Gretchen Grant

Is your blood pressure rising on the same schedule as your month-to-month heating and cooling bills? Relax—you can stop that cost-climb by choosing the right replacement windows. Yes, there’s a lot to learn and a lot to decide before you can choose the right energy-smart option for your home, but we’ve pulled together essential information you need in the 5 homeowner-friendly links after the jump.

Building a Smarter, More Efficient Window

There are many different types of windows on the market—what are the specific differences among them? Find out here. Also, learn about future technologies that manufacturers are developing as they pursue the goal of building an affordable, durable, high-efficiency window.

Choosing Custom Windows

Do you really need custom windows? If so, will you have to replace the whole window, or is the frame in good enough condition to stay put? What do custom windows cost, anyway? How long do those orders usually take? For the answers to these questions and more, click here.

Why Impact-Resistant Windows Might Make Sense

Today, virtually all of the major window manufacturers make energy-efficient windows that are impact-resistant as well. In inclement conditions, these specialized panes are capable of withstanding not only hurricane winds, but also the damaging force of wind-borne debris.

Use Windows to Beat the Heat

For maximum energy conservation, carefully plan where each energy-efficient window will go in your home, while bearing in mind the climate of your area, as well as the orientation of your house on its site. This article outlines how to achieve household energy efficiency through the thoughtful placement of the right type of windows over your home’s exterior.

VIDEO: Energy-Efficient Windows

A rep from Pella Windows shows off a high-tech window model with between-the-glass blinds, replica-style hardware, and Energy Star-level efficiency. Click here to watch the video.

For more on windows, consider:

Replacement Windows 101
Know Your Window Styles: 10 Popular Designs
Affordable Window Inserts Promote Energy Efficiency

Shopping for Energy-Efficient Windows Home Improvement, Home Remodeling & Home Repair - BobVila.com