Latest news with #Saarinen
Reuters
33 minutes ago
- Business
- Reuters
Atlassian competitor Linear raises funding at $1.25-billion valuation
SAN FRANCISCO, June 10 (Reuters) - Enterprise software maker Linear has raised an $82 million Series C funding round valuing the startup at $1.25 billion, the company said on Tuesday. Venture capital fund Accel led the round, with participation from existing investors 01A and Sequoia, and new investors Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund. Linear, a maker of software development and project planning tools, competes with Atlassian's (TEAM.O), opens new tab project management tool Jira. Linear said its profits grew 280% last year, and it now has over 15,000 customers, including buzzy AI companies OpenAI, Scale AI and Perplexity. The 80-person, remote-first company will use its funding to build more products and attract larger enterprises to its customer base, said CEO Karri Saarinen. Linear focuses on specific product development use cases, a contrast to other tools that offer extensive customization but often overwhelm users, Saarinen said. For example, the company has specific functionalities around common software development workflows, such as a built-in "triage inbox" for software bugs and feature requests, and management for software development cycles, called sprints. It also has functionality for managing an AI like a team member, enabling humans and AIs to build software together effectively, something that is becoming common, Saarinen said. The company's commitment to customer-first product development over a technology-first approach is a focus that has been overlooked in the AI era, Linear investor Miles Clements, a partner at Accel, said. "There are a lot of vendors that are pushing a lot of unwanted AI slop into the market, and the Linear team instead is clued into what users are looking for and then providing them something they want," he said.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Atlassian competitor Linear raises funding at $1.25-billion valuation
By Anna Tong SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Enterprise software maker Linear has raised an $82 million Series C funding round valuing the startup at $1.25 billion, the company said on Tuesday. Venture capital fund Accel led the round, with participation from existing investors 01A and Sequoia, and new investors Seven Seven Six and Designer Fund. Linear, a maker of software development and project planning tools, competes with Atlassian's project management tool Jira. Linear said its profits grew 280% last year, and it now has over 15,000 customers, including buzzy AI companies OpenAI, Scale AI and Perplexity. The 80-person, remote-first company will use its funding to build more products and attract larger enterprises to its customer base, said CEO Karri Saarinen. Linear focuses on specific product development use cases, a contrast to other tools that offer extensive customization but often overwhelm users, Saarinen said. For example, the company has specific functionalities around common software development workflows, such as a built-in "triage inbox" for software bugs and feature requests, and management for software development cycles, called sprints. It also has functionality for managing an AI like a team member, enabling humans and AIs to build software together effectively, something that is becoming common, Saarinen said. The company's commitment to customer-first product development over a technology-first approach is a focus that has been overlooked in the AI era, Linear investor Miles Clements, a partner at Accel, said. "There are a lot of vendors that are pushing a lot of unwanted AI slop into the market, and the Linear team instead is clued into what users are looking for and then providing them something they want," he said. Sign in to access your portfolio
NDTV
20 hours ago
- Business
- NDTV
London's Newest Luxury Hotel Was Once The US Embassy. A Night In Its Penthouse Costs Rs 28 Lakh
Quick Read Summary is AI generated, newsroom reviewed. London's newest luxury hotel is The Chancery Rosewood. The building served as the US Embassy from 1960 until 2017 before the Embassy moved to Nine Elms. Qatari Diar converted the building into the Chancery Rosewood, a luxury hotel opening this September. When Finnish-American modernist architect Eero Saarinen won a design competition to create a new Chancery for London, little did he know that it would one day be turned into a lavish luxury hotel in the heart of the city. When Saarinen won the competition, the brief was simple: "a building to house all the major sections of the Embassy under one roof in a style to blend with existing architecture of Grosvenor Square". So, the architect got to work. The result was a building that could provide working space for 750 people, with 600 rooms on nine floors, out of which three were under the ground. A Fortified Embassy From 1960 to 2017, the Chancery at Grosvenor Square served as the US Embassy in London. In 2018, it moved to a new building in Nine Elms. The Chancery, one of the most fortified and secure buildings in London, is now gearing up to welcome guests from all over the world. The coldness of the former Embassy building is now being warmed with cascading chandeliers, suites that scream luxury, and penthouses that would set you back by about 20,000 pounds a night. The former US Embassy will be the Rosewood's newest hotel in the world, come September. A Qatar Company At The Helm The Chancery Rosewood is expected to host guests from September 1 this year. Converting a former embassy, that too one as secure as America's, was a gargantuan challenge for a Qatari real-estate company. It was an engineering test as well. But trust the Qataris to do it all and do it well. So, Qatari Diar, the real-estate company backed by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, turned it around. Qatari Diar got Rosewood Hotels in in to do the deed. The Hong Kong-conglomerate owned luxury hotel chain retained the Chancery's American elements while giving the building a modern makeover fit for millionaires from the Middle East. The Eagle Of 'Little America' What stays intact is a gilded aluminium eagle atop the building. The eagle, with its 35-foot wingspan, was created by Polish-American sculptor and painter Theodore Roszak. Statues of former US Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan that once graced the square, have been reinstalled. The square itself is popularly known as 'Little America'. While the architectural restoration was done by British architect Sir David Chipperfield, the Chancery Rosewood's suites and communal spaces were designed by French interiors architect Joseph Dirand. The hotel will have eight restaurants and bars once open, including New York's famous Carbone and an Asian concept restaurant. A subterranean wellness facility with a 25-metre-long swimming pool, on one of its three underground floors, is also part of the hotel's highlights. All Suites And Penthouses The Rosewood will be an all-suite property. Its suites come in four categories: Junior Suites, Suites, Signature Suites, and Houses. Charles House and Elizabeth House, named after the English monarchs, are the biggest penthouses at the Rosewood. A night at one of the penthouses at The Chancery Rosewood start at 17,000 pounds or Rs 20 lakh, and go up to 24,000 pounds or Rs 28 lakh, subject to change. The lowest rate at the hotel is a junior suite. You'll need to shell out 1,520 pounds or Rs 1.76 lakh a night.
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Margot Robbie Kept This Item from 'Barbie': ‘They Were Quite Expensive, Actually'
Margot Robbie shows off her new LuckyChap Entertainment office space to Architectural Digest on May 27 and it turns out she kept furniture from the Barbie movie The actress and her interior designer Scarlett Hessian walked through the freshly designed office as they talked about the inspiration behind each room In the 'central hub' Robbie said the now-assistants' desk chairs was used by Will Ferrell and his Mattel execsTake a sneak peak inside Margot Robbie's office! The Barbie actress, 34, gave Architectural Digest a behind-the-scenes tour of her production company LuckyChap Entertainment's office space in Los Angeles on May 27. In the center hallway space that's used as a 'central hub' for production employees, Robbie gave a stealthy nod to her role in the billion-dollar blockbuster film. 'The chairs are actually in the Barbie movie when you're in the Mattel CEO office, and all the Mattel guys are sitting around on the pink chairs,' the three-time Oscar nominee said during the office tour. The chairs from Mattel's headquarters were bright pink in the film that were used by Will Ferrell and his fellow 'Mattel execs' for their boardroom meetings. Following the film, Robbie worked with London-based interior designer Scarlett Hessian from Studio Hessian to transform the $3,195 Saarinen armchairs into something a little more conducive to the space. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 'We just had them reupholstered, because at the end of the movie — I mean, they were quite expensive, actually — I was like, 'Wait, what's going to happen to these chairs?' ' With the chair's new rusty orange offset checkered fabric, they fit rather nicely with the mid-century modern-inspired workspace. Related: Lindsay Lohan Says Freaky Friday Sequel Is a 'Love Letter' to Iconic Movie House that Burned Down In Robbie's own office, she admitted that no one wanted the room as their office because of its abnormal shape, but Hessian took on the challenge. 'Scarlett obviously was a genius about utilizing a very strange shape and I love it now,' Robbie said about working with the designer. The back wall behind the built-in desk is draped with dusty pink curtains concealing whiteboards — perhaps an additional nod to her Mattel character. Other fun elements of Robbie's personal office include a standing lamp with tassels, a golden-base lamp that she purchased in Paris and a large plush white couch. Related: Margot Robbie Soaks Up the Sun as She Hits the Beach in Australia Months After Welcoming Her First Baby During the tour, Robbie mentioned that while she shares the office with husband Tom Ackerley and their fellow business partner Josey McNamara, they agreed upon not showcasing their achievements as the focal point. 'Also we were too embarrassed to put any awards anywhere else around the office,' Robbie said, letting out a laugh. 'So we kind of styled them in,' Hessian added finishing Robbie's sentence. 'We kind of like hide them amongst the books and it's a humble brag that way, I guess,' Robbie said. Robbie's next movie, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, opens on Sept. 19. Read the original article on People
Chicago Tribune
20-04-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Edward Keegan: Eero Saarinen's particularly strange house in Columbus, Indiana
Houses often serve as design laboratories for architects — a chance to try out ideas at a small size before using them at a larger, more public scale. It's a lot easier to convince a single person or couple to try an idea than to sell a corporate board or public agency on the same concept. Unfortunately, these experiments tend to be private and stay inaccessible to the public. The Eero Saarinen-designed Miller House in Columbus, Indiana, is an exception. It was donated by its owners, J. Irwin and Xenia Miller, to the Indianapolis Museum of Art upon their deaths. The Miller House is easy to miss on a visit to Columbus — it's not immediately downtown, and it requires a reservation for a tour. But don't miss it. It's a challenging piece of architecture that can delight, surprise and befuddle. Finnish American Saarinen's fanciful forms defined the midcentury modern moment. The Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based architect was one of the 20th century's most talented designers. He tragically died of a brain tumor in 1961 when he was just hitting his stride at the age of 51. Midwesterners probably know his St. Louis' Gateway Arch best; he's also celebrated for memorable designs that include New York's TWA Terminal, now repurposed as a midcentury-themed hotel, and the Bell Labs in New Jersey that are featured in Apple TV's 'Severance.' Saarinen's sole remaining design in Chicago is the Law School at the University of Chicago (the university tore down a much unloved dormitory by Saarinen to clear land for the business school in 2001). The house was designed for Miller and his family. Miller was singularly responsible for remaking his hometown as an architectural mecca. As head of the Cummins Corp. and the Irwin Union Bank, Miller used his unique position to guide and cajole his fellow citizens to support good design by a stellar roster of leading architects. The Miller House was completed in 1957 and is a remarkable collaboration between Saarinen, landscape architect Dan Kiley and interior designer Alexander Girard. Saarinen's design associate was Kevin Roche, who would become the boss' successor following his untimely death. Roche eventually won the Pritzker Prize in 1982 and created a large body of work that includes Chicago's Leo Burnett Building at Dearborn Street and Wacker Drive. This design dream team lived up to the challenge: I argue that the house's architecture is the least interesting part of the project, with landscape and interiors taking precedence. The single-story structure's organization is simple: 16 X-shaped steel columns support a flat roof with wide overhangs extending from the exterior wall to provide solar shading for the interiors. The structural grid is marked by continuous 30-inch-wide skylights that provide indirect natural light throughout the house — a design move that foreshadows Roche's similar detail in the Cummins Corporate Office Building decades later. The ceiling light sources divide the house into nine rectangles. Whereas modern houses typically emphasize lightness, the Miller House is quite heavy. This is disorienting, even bizarre, as the actual structure is quite light (the X-columns are just 8 inches wide), but the roof is so heavy, measuring 33 inches deep at the exterior face of the house. Overall, it feels heavy and overly protected. It's reminiscent of H.H. Richardson's Glessner House, whose heavy stone walls were designed to shield its inhabitants from potential striking workers in 1880s Chicago. But while Richardson rendered stone as heavy and protective while transforming it into marvelous architecture on the South Side, the civic-minded Millers hardly needed such protections in midcentury suburban Columbus. You enter from a car court on the west side of the house, adjacent to a covered carport. The small entry leads to the central living room, which acts as a central square with private spaces at each corner of the structure. The dining area and a TV sitting room lie just off the living room and offer views to the north and south. The children's suite is to the southwest, the primary suite to the northwest, the kitchen to the northeast, and guest and maid's quarters to the southeast. The expansive living room is punctuated by a conversation pit, a Girard idea pioneered in this house, that looks out to the west across a large field. The interior designer also conceived a 50-foot-long display wall that holds the family's books and varied objects along the west side of the living room. Girard's contributions add color and whimsy, two features that can be in short supply in a town that often seems driven by a particular flavor of Hoosier Protestantism. Girard's designs are filled with personalized notes that reflect the Millers and their interests; the colorful rug in the TV area features dozens of symbols associated with each member of the family. Outside, Kiley developed the landscape across the 13.5-acre site as a series of exterior rooms that extend the house. A large lawn drops down toward the west where it culminates in a wooded area on the banks of the Flatrock River. The success of the interiors and landscape allows one to overlook Saarinen's odd details against the thoughtful and lively contributions of his collaborators. One additional collaborator was Miller's wife, Xenia, who occupied the house until her death in 2008, by which time the home had been named a National Historic Landmark. Today, the Miller House is owned and operated by Indianapolis-based Newfields (as the Indianapolis Museum of Art was rebranded in 2017). It is located about a mile and a half north of Columbus' downtown in a quiet residential area. Guided tours leave from the Columbus Visitors Center via shuttle bus, as there's no parking at the site. The tours are $30 per person and last about 90 minutes. Other Saarinen sites in the city include the North Christian Church and the Irwin Union Bank and Trust (now a conference center). He also collaborated with his father, Eliel Saarinen, on the First Christian Church, probably the finest work of architecture in a city full of significant buildings. Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan's biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
