Joan Vos MacDonald

Whether he’s designing a life-size elephant structure, retrofitting a school bus, or crafting a greenhouse from salvaged windows, Paul O’Connor likes to think of himself primarily as a problem solver.

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay is a popular 2020 South Korean drama starring Kim Soo-hyun, Seo Yea-ji and Oh Jung-se. It’s also a good example of how Korean dramas continue to evolve. The drama was a critical success, acquiring eight nominations and two wins at the 57th Baeksang Awards.

Since their invention in the mid-`50s, shipping containers have transformed more than shipping. These industrial artifacts are supplying raw material for cutting-edge sustainable architecture like the c-Home, constructed in the Columbia County town of Claverack.

The house that Richard Pedranti designed for his friend Lawrence Mullane was in every sense a collaboration, as Mullane is not only the homeowner, but also the contractor who realized Pedranti’s design. It was a joint effort that employed Pedranti’s penchant for distinctive modern design while fulfilling Mullane’s wish for a traditional form of construction.

Lee Bo Young has been called “the queen of dramas,” which may have something to do with the many Best Actress awards and nominations she earned. In 'Mine,' she plays Seo Hee-soo, a former actress married to the younger son of a wealthy dysfunctional family.

When the owners of a Dutch Colonial fieldstone farmhouse in Catskill were ready to renovate, they first considered a conventional arrangement of additions. They wondered if the best option was to surround their 1761 house with extensions, but architect Alexander Gorlin had a better idea.

Ok Taec-yeon’s character in 'Vincenzo' seems harmless at first, but there’s more to Jang Joon-woo than the opening episodes of this dark comedy/drama suggest. Joon-woo’s overly humble, cloying personality is a ruse to hide his true identity as a ruthless scheming chaebol.

Bordered by an expanse of protected forest and perched above the rocky outcroppings of Lake Oscawana, the Lake View Hideaway house blends seamlessly into its woodland site.

When Young-seok first meets Josée in the film Josée, she has fallen out of her wheelchair. Young-seok, played by Nam Joo-hyuk, stops to help her and it might be the first time that Josée, played by Han Ji-min, is ever the recipient of so much concern from a stranger.

The Hyde Park-based film aficionado dishes on celebrities, women in film, and the wildlife in her Hudson Valley backyard.

A well-chaperoned Grand Tour of Europe offered wealthy Victorian women a way to safely admire civilization’s wonders, but such travel held little interest for Dutch heiress Alexine Tinné. Having studied books on geography, archaeology, and botany at the Royal Library in the Hague, Tinné longed to explore uncharted regions. Her travels would bring her along the White Nile and later, deep within the Sahara Desert.

COVID-19 restrictions have resulted in more time spent at home, sometimes binge-watching fun escapist TV fare, such as the Korean drama Crash Landing On You, which stars actress Son Ye-jin.

As a girl, Alaqai Beki mastered horseback riding and archery, the skills expected of a Mongol woman during the 12th and 13th centuries. By her teens, she was skilled enough to follow her father into battle, but as the ruler of an allied nation, she played an even larger role in his success, providing troops and strategic support for his campaign of military conquests.

Song Ji-hyo’s busy year has offered her more than one opportunity to reflect on the meaning of family. The Korean actress played a mysterious long-lost sister in the film Intruder and now plays a single mom struggling to raise her daughter in the TV drama Was it Love?

Since the 1950s, about 180,000 South Korean children have been sent to orphanages and adopted around the world. While inter-country adoptions provided these children with a new family and home, for many the pain of abandonment lingered, a sense of loss buried deep within, only to resurface years later.