Homes of the Future

As a practicing industrial designer, I was astounded that “leading Southern California designers” are predicting that the chair of the 21st century will see little or no change (Special Millennium Issue/Home & Design, May 16). Of the seven designers mentioned, only Susan and David Frisch pushed the envelope with their attention to user comfort through technology.

For a more accurate prediction, assign this same task to students at any of our leading local industrial-design schools. These are the designers who will shape our future.

William Ungar

Lake Forest

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WHAAAAT?

That’s how I reacted after reading in the article on the evolution of kitchens (Special Millennium Issue/Home&Design;): “And for the sanitarian-minded Victorians,” says Ellen Plante, “no urban kitchen would have been complete without a live-in hedgehog, who slept by day and devoured cockroaches by night.”

Were there thousands of trappers working to supply the urban demand for hedgehogs? Were hedgehog markets found in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, London--every city large enough to be considered urban? Or was this patently absurd statement just a test of reader alertness?

James E. Dunlevey

Sun City