Because you can't move forward without looking back, here now is The Year That Was, wherein Curbed briefly and by no means exhaustively recaps important things that happened in the realms of real estate, interior design and decor, architecture, and shelter media. Month by month, here it goes: sayonara, 2011!
· Architect Barbie finally gets her dream house.
· A fake, yet identical, Ikea store is found in China.
· Shamed Airbnb issues an apology and a $50,000 insurance policy.
· House Beautiful rolls out rounder, softer banner logo.
· New York magazine drops an epic, enormous feature on Martha Stewart.
· In Upper Saranac Lake, N.Y., a full-on Adirondack-style Girl Scout camp hits the market.
· Hearst announces Designer Visions showhouse in an East Harlem conversion building.
· Sam Grawe, editor in chief of Dwell, steps down.
· In Vancouver, someone offers to act as a fake dinosaur in exchange for housing.
· "Neighbor from hell" erects middle-finger sculpture to flick off people next door.
· House from A League of Their Own hits the market.
· Online design pub High Gloss shutters.
· Guy recreates the house from Arrested Development out of Legos.
· Fashion designer Vera Wang buys a spectacular new estate in Beverly Hills.
· Real estate agent tries to sell off a house with a skeleton inside.
· Failed Clint Eastwood development project heads to auction.
· News breaks that Mitt Romney is planning a massive expansion on his California property.
· Kate and Andy Spade's Hamptons place hits the market.
· Some archi-critics declare cubicles the "single worst evil in the world."
· Billionaire Paul Allen lists one of his private islands.
· Jennifer Aniston and boyfriend Justin Theroux decamp to a new Beverly Hills love shack.