In 1963, a California cat breeder named Jean Mill created a breed of domestic cat called the Bengal that combined an impeccable leopardlike coat with an indoor-cat size and demeanor. Mill’s daughter, Judy Sugden, carried on her legacy. In the 1980s, Sugden envisioned a domestic cat with a glistening orange and black striped coat, reminiscent of a tiger. It had tiny, round ears, a wide nose and a white belly like a tiger. It weighed just 10 pounds, but it could move across the living room as...

Not so long ago, wildcat companions were associated with glamour, class and creativity. Salvador Dalí brought his ocelot to the St. Regis. Tippi Hedren lounged with her lions in her Los Angeles living room. Josephine Baker’s cheetah, collared in diamonds, strolled the Champs-Élysées. In their time, these wild creatures made chic pets. But by the mid-1970s, a wave of awareness and wildlife protection legislation changed both the optics of owning a big cat, and the ability to legally purchase...

A traditional negotiating seminar aims to teach its participants how to negotiate. Rarely does it tackle the deeper questions, like why men tend to look at negotiating as a sports-like challenge, while women tend to approach it as they would going in for a root canal. That was the obstacle for Quinn Texmo, a past chapter president of CREW who works in business development at Turner Construction Co. and her friend and mentor, Endicott Clay Products Architectural Representative Lisa...

Don’t worry — it’s anonymous. Professionals across commercial real estate — about 700 of them so far — are using crowdsourced data from their peers to see how their salaries stack up against the industry average — and to negotiate raises if they should be earning more. The creators of the database, personalsalary.com, hope to see the number of participants climb. “Salaries in this industry are basically a black box,” said the senior vice president and national practice director of executive...

Elevators make the modern city possible. In New York City alone, commuters take an estimated 4 million elevator rides per day on tens of thousands of elevators. In China, two-thirds of a million of them are put into commission every year. Globally, the industry approaches $125B. But as cities continue to grow — and grow vertically — this crux to innovation may ultimately be the Achilles' heel of the city as we know it. In recent weeks, the elevator has risen to the top of the list of office...