Brian Libby

Imagine you find a house for sale with a master-bedroom view of the surrounding garden. But what you really wanted was a view of the pond on the other side of the property where the birds and other wildlife flock. If you own the Rotating House in Wilton, Conn., that can be changed in about 50 minutes.

This entire house, a mid-century-modern classic designed by noted architect Richard T. Foster and built in 1968, sits like a flying saucer on a small pedestal, from which it rotates 360 degrees. "It's been written up all over the place," says the house's listing agent, JoAnne Fisher of William Pitt/Sotheby's International Realty. "It was featured in House and Garden magazine when [the magazine] was 65 cents."

The Rotating House is currently on the market for $1,750,000.

The focus of a recent USA Today article is mostly on Seattle, where the city has seen an increase in the number of backyard cottages in single-family neighborhoods since the city changed zoning rules in 2006. It quotes one property-owner, who built a single-bedroom, 437-square-foot cottage on the site of his former garage, as saying. "I want to preserve rural areas around Seattle, and I don't want the suburbs continuing to march on without any limits.

"One way to do that," says the homeowner, 47-year-old architect John Stoeck, "is to add more density to these inner-city neighborhoods."

When the Academy Awards take place on March 7, English actor Colin Firth will be one of the chosen few at Hollywood's Kodak Theater nominated for a major award: Best Actor, for his role in "A Single Man."

While Firth is unquestionably the heart of the movie, and Julianne Moore is his most visible co-star, a supporting-role nod must go to the mid-century modern house in which Firth's character, a college professor grieving for his deceased love in early-1960s Los Angeles, spends much of "A Single Man."

The movie is the directorial debut by legendary fashion designer Tom Ford, who clearly has an eye for visual detail. From the immaculately tailored Kennedy-era suits George (Firth) wears to the vintage Mercedes he drives, "A Single Man" is a visual delight, which provides a fanciful ballast against the movie's morose subject matter.

George's home is supposed to be in Santa Monica near the ocean, but the real house, designed by architect John Lautner, is nestled in the Whiting Woods area of Glendale northeast of the city.

As it happens, the house is for sale, listed at $1,495,000. The listing reads:

In Vancouver, as in other Pacific Northwest cities like Seattle and Portland, sustainability is an overriding principal for architecture and urban planning. So it was with pride that the city's Olympic organizing officials crafted a public-private partnership in which an inner-city, former industrial zone became not only the site for the Olympic Village -- housing for more than 2,700 Olympic athletes during the during the games in sustainably constructed buildings -- but a laudable mix of market-rate condos and subsidized affordable housing afterward. Given how such recovery of inner city land reduces the need for sprawl at the edges of the Vancouver metro area, the development actually embodies all three components of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra.

The Olympic Village, once the games are completed, will give way to what's being called the Millennium Water development, featuring about 1,100 units, 250 of which will be set aside available for low-income households, and 120 for rentals. The buildings are targeted to save up to 50 percent on energy (versus code), while up to 70% of electricity needs are provided by an innovative system that recovers heat from sewage.

The waterfront condos are winning high praise from Olympic athletes, who are not used to having such cushy housing; most units have high-end finishes such as marble countertops, as well as expansive views of the downtown skyline and distant snowcapped mountains. "It's blown us away, to be honest," American speedskater Chad Hedrick told Time magazine. "They really went big on this. It's a million-dollar view, for sure."