"In the living room of last month’s Atlanta Symphony Associates Decorators’ Show House, did you notice a pair of vintage French-style bookcases with a soft, lustrous finish the color of honeyed cream? Or last time you dined at No. 246, did you admire the rows of zinc-topped tables? Where do style-setters like designer Stan Topol and chef Ford Fry find such gems? Both turn to custom furniture designer Chris Hagen, who now sells his wares through a Westside retail space, I.D. Lab."
— Betsy Riley, I.D. Lab Mixes Artist Commune with Showroom
"From her quaint home office in Dunwoody, Nichols (now cancer-free) sits at her desk, meticulously taking each bead one by one with needle-nose pliers to create necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Her style is bohemian yet elegant, with charms, Swarovski jewels, and rhinestones."
— Cathy Anderson, Style: Saint Vintage Jewelry
"Legendary boosterism aside, Atlanta is still a young city aspiring to become a cosmopolitan center. Ironically, that ambition can be traced in the evolution of two iconic Sears locations. City Hall East, the retailer’s former warehouse, is on its way to becoming Ponce City Market, a multiuse foodie haven akin to Seattle’s Pike Place or Boston’s Faneuil Hall. Eight miles north, the site of Sears’s 1960s megastore, razed more than twenty years ago for Buckhead Plaza offices, is also home to the luxurious St. Regis Hotel and Residences—completed in 2009, amid a recession and an epic housing bust. The result? Half the contracts on forty-seven of the fifty-three condominiums failed to close. In February a Florida-based investment firm, the Tavistock Group, bought the St. Regis for an undisclosed amount. It has launched the residential equivalent of the daring but ill-fated Streets of Buckhead retail project. This time, however, chutzpah comes with deep enough pockets."
— Betsy Riley, West of Peachtree: The St. Regis
