GRAPHĒ

Before & After: They Turned a "Spooky" L.A. Midcentury Into a Sunny Family Home

Where dark interiors and an overgrown yard might have turned others away from the 1947 Monrovia address, one couple saw an opportunity to renovate and expand for their growing brood of kids and pets.

In 2023, the couple worked with Valery Augustin of DNA Architecture + Design on a remodel and expansion, adding a total of 460 square feet to the existing footprint of 858 square feet. "One of the things I wanted to do was create more of an entry sequence,

Kat and Nick Howell’s first dates in 2012 were to open houses. A longtime animal lover, Kat came up with the idea. "Finding a rental when you have a lot of pets is hard," she says. "I needed to own so I could get more pets." Nick was game, despite the side-eye from real estate agents on their sojourns. "We got kicked out of open houses because they didn’t think we were serious," says Nick. "They were right."

The couple—she works in the medical industry and he’s in specialty coffee—were living in Pasadena, in northeast Los Angeles, and married in 2014, after which they got more serious in their search. But they became somewhat discouraged as the years passed, from being outbid or turned down several times. "The goal was to find anything," says Nick. Then in 2016, they found a house just 14 lots down from Kat’s parents, an 858-square-foot midcentury in Monrovia, east of Pasadena. They wrote a letter to the seller introducing themselves and were ecstatic when it worked.

Before: Front Exterior

Before: Kat and Nick Howell bought this 1947 home in Monrovia, California, in 2016. It was a probate sale, so it was being sold "as-is." "We got the worst house on a great street," says Nick.
Courtesy of DNA Architecture + Design

After: Front Exterior

The new entry sequence includes sightlines to the back of the house and yard from the front door. — The new entry sequence includes sight lines to the back of the house and yard.
Photo: Undine Pröhl

See the full story on Dwell.com: Before & After: They Turned a "Spooky" L.A. Midcentury Into a Sunny Family Home

Rubble From 9/11 Was Sent to Just One Landfill. This Photographer Has Spent 9 Years Documenting It

Jade Doskow’s work from Freshkills Park is proof that even a former dump can become a poignant place of mourning.

After the 9/11 attacks in New York City, nearly 1.5 million tons of rubble were removed from the site and sent to Staten Island’s Fresh Kills landfill. Once the largest dump in the world, the 2,200-acre site had already been decommissioned, and a competition for park designers launched, when it was selected as the place where Ground Zero materials would be redirected. Finally, in 2003, the decades-long revitalization project that would turn the stinking landfill into a massive wildlife park—subtly renamed "Freshkills"—officially began. Led by landscape architect firm Field Operations, the project has been partially open to the public since 2021 and will be completed by 2037.

But photographer Jade Doskow has been well-acquainted with the goings-on in Staten Island. For the past nine years she has been photographing the park, now as the Photographer in Residence, documenting the curious landscape forms—four mounds: north, south, east, and west—with images that speak to a toxic archaeology-turned-rewilded paradise. The West Mound, where the waste from Ground Zero was sent, holds special significance for New Yorkers as it has become what she calls a "humble memorial" to that day. Doskow’s photographs are being exhibited at All Street Gallery this month as one of the many tributes to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11. She spoke with Dwell about her work, and how her documentation speaks to the complexities of creating a natural parkland out of the past’s discards, and the ruins of tragedy.

*Summer Storm, Observation Point*, 2024
Photo by Jane Doskow, courtesy All Street

Tell me about yourself and your photography practice—what informs your work?

Jade Doskow: The core of my inspiration, I would say, is the transformations within the urban built environment, and also the unexpected relationships and juxtapositions within that environment. In my previous project, Lost Utopias, I was looking at outdated World’s Fair architecture and landscaping globally, and now I’ve been working for eight years at Freshkills, which was New York City’s largest garbage dump, but is now being rewilded into this really amazing, fairly indescribable engineered wilderness.

What draws you to these subjects?

I grew up in a 1700s farmhouse in Pennsylvania, but I would often visit my grandmother in the Bronx, and she lived at the end of the train line overlooking these graffiti-covered subways, which was so fantastic. Part of living in this old house was that often these elements from the past would come up in the dirt, literally; pieces of ceramic or old tools would become unearthed. So I’ve always had this awareness that the past is always present, and certainly photography is the medium for that. It’s the one medium where we can really explore the past, present, and future almost as a time machine.

How did your residency come about?

I was winding down the Lost Utopias work after 12 years, and I suppose I was open to something new coming my way. I was teaching a School of Visual Arts class on liminal green spaces in the cities; we were going to community gardens and rooftop farms, and the typical parklands. Through my research, I came across Freshkills, and I arranged a visit. As soon as me and my students set foot onto the Freshkills hilltop, I was just blown away. I’ve just never experienced anything like it. It’s these kind of infinite meadowlands punctuated by methane pipes, and then surrounded by the New York City skyline to the north and to the west, the New Jersey industrial cityscape. I was immediately drawn in and asked how I could become the main photographer here. I ended up submitting a multipage proposal to Sanitation and Parks, and a few months later they approved my initial proposal, which was to photograph for 10 years all around the site. It’s such a complex place. I just keep learning more and more, and being more and more inspired.

*White Snakeroot, Mugwort, Honey Locust, and some others..... (Overgrowth, Freshkills)*, 2021
Photo by Jane Doskow, courtesy All Street

Walk us through the landscape—what are some of the natural and unnatural layers that you were uncovering?

Fresh Kills stopped taking materials in 1996, and the only time the site was reopened was in 2001, following the Twin Towers tragedy. Because of that, the West Mound, which is where those materials were brought, has taken the longest time to rewild, engineer, and transform into its future self as a park or wilderness. Each of the mounds is a pyramid: Underneath are household waste and trash from the last 53 years, and then there’s multiple layers of engineering and barriers to essentially separate the new meadows and trees and so on from what’s beneath. It’s kind of like a mummification process. There’s leachate, which is what we would commonly call garbage juice—the liquid that you might find at the bottom of your compost or something like that. That has to be treated; there’s several laboratories on site at the leachate treatment plant that use a lengthy process of organic and inorganic steps to clean that water and return it safely to the waterways. Methane is also produced by garbage and Fresh Kills was actually one of the first sustainable sites in this country in that, starting in the 1980s, they were piping that methane into the usable gas grid of Staten Island. So within these pyramids, there’s methane wells and flare stations to burn the gas off. But above all that is the thick, impermeable plastic layer, on top of which soil is brought in from around the country. Then finally, that’s where the plantings happen, where they plant native plant grassland species to create the park of the future.

*Sundown, Autumn, View 4*, 2025
Photo by Jane Doskow, courtesy All Street

See the full story on Dwell.com: Rubble From 9/11 Was Sent to Just One Landfill. This Photographer Has Spent 9 Years Documenting It

How Food Influencer Dan Pelosi Built an Upstate New York Garden Where Everyone’s Invited

The bestselling cookbook author is moving the party outside, where he’s mastering the arts of growing and grilling.

For Dan Pelosi, aka GrossyPelosi—the recipe developer, food content creator, and bestselling author—throwing big food parties and entertaining large groups is as central to his identity as whipping something up for two. (He is Italian, after all.) His second cookbook, Let’s Party: Recipes and Menus for Celebrating Every Day, released in 2025, is not only an ode to crowd-pleasing dishes, but also a dedication to farmers’ markets, tabletop presentation, and vibes—all of the elements for creating an inviting, sensorial atmosphere.

So when it came time to build his dream kitchen garden, Pelosi had a few ideas for what it could look like. Moving between the kitchen and garden would have to be easy. The garden would have to be large enough for raised beds, and a dining area for hosting within earshot of those beds would be necessary, too. He’d have a grill station set up within the garden fence. From inside the kitchen, Pelosi wanted his window view to be of his garden so that "when I wash dishes," he says, "I can see my tomatoes growing."

The garden is just outside of the kitchen at Dan Pelosi’s Hudson Valley area home, making barbecue prep as simple as possible.

In 2023, when Pelosi and his boyfriend, Gus Heagerty, moved into a 1850s Greek Revival colonial farmhouse in the Hudson Valley area, Pelosi’s main project was to rebuild the kitchen from scratch. The previous kitchen was part of an addition built in the 1950s inside the garage that had been "really poorly done." They tore the whole thing down and built a new kitchen in its place along with a mud room, pantry, and powder room.

Before the renovation—which was featured by Dwell’s sister site, Domino—began, Pelosi had already been thinking about the future. "My architect and I designed the kitchen knowing that I would eventually want to have a garden off of it, so we thought about access points and how it could potentially lay out," he says. Both Pelosi and Heagerty grew up with parents who gardened, so building a raised bed garden was top of mind. The kitchen took nine months to complete and the garden was built about a year and a half later.

The garden is visible just outside the kitchen windows.

Last spring, the garden build out began, with the team excavating the leftover stone and dirt from the kitchen renovation to level out the backyard for a flat garden. A fence was installed. Custom beds were built. Herbs and vegetables were planted. A picnic table was added. "Every move we made sort of informed the next move," Pelosi says. By mid-August last year, the beds were popping off with more plump tomatoes and zucchinis than Pelosi knew what to do with. His first go as an upstate gardener was, in many ways, successful, but he also learned a lot about how he could improve his growing and entertaining plans for the following summer.

Just after the one-year anniversary of Let’s Party, Pelosi shares how his kitchen garden was originally designed and how it has since evolved into a more inviting communal space. "We’re slowly making updates so we don’t want to go indoors," he says.

The vegetable garden, picnic table dining area, and barbecue zone are all contained by a fence.

See the full story on Dwell.com: How Food Influencer Dan Pelosi Built an Upstate New York Garden Where Everyone’s Invited

For $1.5M, This Beautifully Restored Los Angeles Midcentury Is a Post-and-Beam Dream

Located in Glendale, the 1955 residence by architect Ragnvaldur Johnsen has original oak floors and fixtures and a sauna deck with a view.

Location: 1335 Columbia Drive, Glendale, California

Price: $1,595,000

Year Built: 1955

Architect: Ragnvaldur Johnsen

Footprint: 1,621 square feet (2 bed + studio, 2.5 bath)

Lot Size: 0.5 acres

From the Listing: "This 1955 post-and-beam home by architect Ragnvaldur Johnsen sits on a quiet hillside surrounded by native flora and palm trees, with walls of glass, panoramic vistas, and a natural setting of coastal oaks on the neighboring parcel, which is also included in the sale. A striking example of midcentury architecture, the residence has been rigorously restored. The kitchen has been completely updated with a butcher block top, stainless steel appliances, and capacious storage. A lower-level studio has a bathroom and laundry, and flexible space for guests, entertainment, or work. Decks extend the living space outside, and an elevated patio and sauna take in lush foliage and mountains beyond."

See the full story on Dwell.com: For $1.5M, This Beautifully Restored Los Angeles Midcentury Is a Post-and-Beam Dream

In Montana, a Historic 1910 Colonial Revival Hits the Market for $2.5M

Beyond its preserved period details, the home offers a surprising amenity: a retro soda fountain in the basement.

528 Woodland Avenue in Kalispell, Montana, is currently listed at $2,500,000 by Tracy Rossi and Scott Darkenwald at Glacier Sotheby’s International Realty.

Historic character meets thoughtful modern living at the Logan Residence, a landmark Colonial Revival home in Kalispell’s East Side Historic District.

Built in 1909 for former Kalispell mayor and attorney Sidney Logan, this 7,278-square-foot residence offers five bedrooms, five full baths, two half baths, and updated spaces across four finished levels.

Set on 0.68 acres with views of the Swan Range, the home blends timeless architecture with extensive renovations. Original details including Palladian windows, dentil molding, oak woodwork, bay windows, grand staircases, and elegant proportions reflect the home’s historic significance, while modern improvements enhance everyday comfort.

The remodeled kitchen is marked by marble flooring and a soapstone island. The finished basement includes a theater with Klipsch 7.1 surround sound, a retro soda fountain, recreation areas, and custom wood and steel stairs crafted by a local artisan. The third floor has been fully renovated with a bedroom, full bath, custom built ins, and restored flooring.

Recent updates include a new roof, exterior paint, air conditioning, electrical upgrades, renovated bathrooms, refinished hardwood floors, bonus room improvements, porch refinishing, and historically inspired hardware throughout.

The property is a contributing residence within the East Side Historic District and offers a rare opportunity to own one of Kalispell’s most recognized historic homes while enjoying the convenience of extensive modern updates. Located minutes from downtown Kalispell, parks, dining, shopping, and year round recreation, the property provides convenient access to Glacier National Park, Whitefish Mountain Resort, Flathead Lake, and Glacier Park International Airport.

Listing Details

Bedrooms: 5

Baths: 5 full, 2 partial

Year Built: 1910

Square feet: 7,278

Plot Size: 0.68 acres

Courtesy of Glacier Sotheby's International Realty

See the full story on Dwell.com: In Montana, a Historic 1910 Colonial Revival Hits the Market for $2.5M
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How They Pulled It Off: A Backyard Spa in London That Feels Worlds Away From the City

Architecture firm Mosley Thorold designed a natural pool, sauna, and changing room that create the effect of country living.

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

The De Beauvoir neighborhood in east London is something of an open secret. Its elegant Victorian townhouses and semidetached villas retain a sense of grandeur, yet it remains distinctly village-like. Industrial pockets, yards and outbuildings dating back to the 19th century dot the area. One such example can be seen at a property newly redesigned by Mosley Thorold, which benefits from an additional plot of land that was added to the lot in the ’70s. Once used for manufacturing, it gave the home a substantial amount of exterior space in addition to its already sizable garden.

The founders of the London architecture firm, Henry Thorold and Nathaniel Mosley, were tasked with reviving the tired three-story Victorian-era interiors of the home and creating an urban sanctuary for the client, who—some way through the build—decided that they did want to add a natural swimming pool, sauna, and outdoor changing room to their renovation after all.

It’s not exactly a neighborhood you’d expect to take a dip in, but they made it happen.

Ground-floor extension at the De Beauvoir Townhouse — The materials of the ground-floor extension at the townhome are aligned with those of the new changing room and sauna.
Ollie Tomlinson

How they pulled it off: Building a natural pool, sauna and changing room in a London backyard

Plan as far ahead as possible: The natural pool and sauna were always on the client's "nice to have" list, but due to budget constraints, they put it off until some way through the project. "We were strongly advising to do as much of the pool construction work as possible as soon as possible because it's so messy," says Nathaniel Mosley. When the pool project was finally given the green light, their instincts were proven correct. To accommodate the change of plan, the architects had to carefully project-manage the dig so as not to disturb the work that had already been done to the home. There was no way to access the land from the back of the property, so the soil had to be trucked through the garden and the ground floor.

The natural pool offers a feeling of swimming in a clear lake or spring. Vintage garden furniture was sourced at the Sunbury Antiques Market.
Ollie Tomlinson

Go natural: Instead of introducing a chlorinated pool that would have required a lot of chemicals, the client opted for a natural 10-meter-long pool, which is dressed in Yorkshire stone. The shingle in the pool and the aquatic plants act as a natural filtration system and make for a hospitable environment for frogs and tadpoles. "It’s so nice because it really feels like part of the garden," says Mosley. The architects worked with north London-based company Gartenart to create the pool, which feels like "swimming in a clear lake or natural spring rather than in a conventional pool." The winding paths and lush greenery of the garden, which was created by landscaper Sophie Gordon, add to the feeling of being immersed in a tranquil and slightly wild space.

The sauna and the adjoining changing room look out onto the natural pool, creating a slice of urban wellness in an east London garden — The sauna and the adjoining changing room look out onto the natural pool.
Ollie Tomlinson

See the full story on Dwell.com: How They Pulled It Off: A Backyard Spa in London That Feels Worlds Away From the City
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A Glass Elevator Rises Through This $2M Loft Inside a Former Toronto Factory

The luxe three-level unit belongs to an early-1900s warehouse since converted into more than 100 residences.

Location: 1100 Lansdowne Ave, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Price: $2,798,000 CAD (approximately $2,005,172 USD)

Year Built: 1903

Renovation Architect: PHAEDRUS Studio

Renovation Year: 2025

Footprint: 2,757 square feet (2 bed, 3.5 bath)

From the Architect: "This true hard loft is housed inside the Canada Foundry Company Factory, a warehouse structure built in 1903 to manufacture railway tracks, bridges, locomotives and even fire hydrants before Canadian General Electric took possession to produce transformers. Ultimately, the building closed in 1981, following an era of transition during which most of the neighborhood’s sprawling rail yard factories were demolished. A century after its construction, the surviving structure was repurposed into residential hard lofts—a conversion primarily focused on functional reuse, with the insertion of over 100 new residential units. This renovation, by contrast, seeks to celebrate the historic structure with a more deliberate and dramatic insertion of new architectural forms. While combining what were originally two units across three levels with the addition of a fourth, a set of sculptural elements is carefully crafted and placed within the industrial shell to emphasize the heritage architecture and provide anchor features connecting the two distinct volumes of the upper and lower units. The lower unit remains defined by two brick-arched windows spanning a double-height space. A new spiral stair wrapping a glass elevator extends across all three original levels. Offset to one side of the living area, a new fourth-floor mezzanine sits perched within the space, overlooking the fireplace and open structure."

The kitchen and dining room are lit by two-story windows. — The kitchen and dining room are lit by double-height windows.
Photo by Birdhouse Media

See the full story on Dwell.com: A Glass Elevator Rises Through This $2M Loft Inside a Former Toronto Factory
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