Stay in the know with BOH’s weekly news digest, including business headlines, launches and events, recommended reading and more.
BUSINESS NEWS
Amazon’s stock surged, hitting the $1 trillion market cap after it launched one-day shipping, reported Furniture Today. Net income for the fourth quarter increased to $6.47 per share. Its shipping costs have also increased from $9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 to $12.9 billion in the 2019 fourth quarter, in order to accommodate same-day or one-day shipping. It expects revenue this first quarter to be between $60 billion and $73 billion.
Walmart has laid off employees at Allswell, Hayneedle and other e-commerce divisions, reported HFN. The cuts included more than half the employees at the New York office where Allswell, its mattress brand, and other online branches are based. Twenty-nine of the 56 employees will be let go by April 24. There were 200 layoffs at digital brand Hayneedle’s Omaha, Nebraska, headquarters. This restructuring comes after former Walmart senior VP Andy Dunn left the company in mid-December.
As three domestic airlines have suspended all flights to China due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, and the U.S. State Department has issued a “Do not travel” advisory, a handful of U.S. furniture retailers are delaying trips and preparing for manufacturing disruption, reported Furniture Today. Industry trade shows that were to be held in March have been postponed.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s School of Architecture at Taliesin is shutting its doors forever, reported The Architect's Newspaper, after its governing board was unable to develop alternative educational programs for the next year and a half in alignment with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The school opened in 1932; the spring 2020 semester will be its last, and the remaining 30 students will be transferred to the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University.
LAUNCHES, PARTNERSHIPS AND COLLABORATIONS
Vancouver-based designer Karin Bohn of House of Bohn will co-star in Restaurants on the Edge, a new Netflix show that will drop on February 28. In the docuseries, Bohn, along with chef Dennis Prescott and restaurateur Nick Liberato, will help restaurants fine-tune their business models to become more successful.
Fast Company has partnered with AC Hotels by Marriott for a branded video series titled “Re/Design,” reported Media Post. In the series, Queer Eye resident fashion expert Tan France and designer Jonathan Adler discuss creative process and co-design a set of coasters and a phone charger; both will be at AC Hotels.
RECOMMENDED READING
Elle Decor ran a story on how Tami Ramsay and Krista Nye Nicholas, co-founders of Cloth & Kind, met on Pinterest and now run a design firm together—732 miles apart. “The same love of textiles and creating spaces with history and heart that initially connected the two designers can be seen today in the more than 20 major projects they have designed, their e-commerce shop, and a to-the-trade showroom that launched in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Nicholas lives today,” writes Bebe Howorth.
New Yorker columnist Jia Tolentino wrote about the pitfalls and potential of new minimalist philosophy for the magazine recently. Tolentino spent months taking in minimalist advice, making daily pilgrimages to Goodwill and ransacking her parents’ apartment in Texas for donatable excess.
CUE THE APPLAUSE
PHX Architecture received a handful of awards at the 2019 Best in American Living Awards, including two grand prizes for its Azure Paradise Valley residences, and a silver for Enclave at Seven Canyons Sedona, both in Arizona.
Presented by the Dallas Market Center and ART, the 31st annual ARTs Awards announced Laura Umansky of Laura U Interior Design as the winner of the Interior Designer category. Other nominees in the category included Joni Vanderslice of J. Banks Design Group; Maegan Swabb of M. Swabb Interior Design; Libby Langdon of Libby Langdon Interiors; and Shayla Copas of Shayla Copas Interiors.
At the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show held in Las Vegas at the end of January, the National Kitchen & Bath Association announced the 2020 Design + Industry Award recipients; Best Overall Kitchen went to Sarah Robertson of Studio Dearborn in Mamaroneck, New York; Best Overall Bath went to Michelle Miazga-Hall of Port + Quarter Interiors in Vancouver.
The NKBA’s Thirty Under 30 announced the group’s 10 favorite products at the 30s Choice Awards. Caesarstone Outdoor Collection won for innovative material; Compac Stone USA’s Unique Quartz won for Sustainability; Kohler’s DTV Plus Konnect won for State of the Art Decorative Plumbing, and its Aquifer Filtration System won for Wellness/Health; Hestan’s Outdoor Living Suites won for Outdoor Living; Samsung’s Smart Things App won for Smart Home integration/WiFi Enabled Product; Axor’s MyEdition won for Customization Capabilities; Toto’s Neorest NX2 won for Universal Design/Living in Place; Kraus’s Urbix Bridge Faucet won for Creative Use of Color; and Emtek Select won for State of the Art Decorative Hardware.
Homepage image: Winner of Best Overall Bathroom at KBIS, designed by Michelle Miazga-Hall | Courtesy of Port + Quarter Interiors
