9.13.06 | New York Times | I [Allison Arieff] was saddened to learn of the passing of industrial designer Bill Stumpf over the weekend. He’s best known for the ergonomic Aeron chair (which he designed with Don Chadwick) . . . . Equally significant was Stumpf’s thoughtfully articulated philosophy on the purpose and importance of design in our culture, exemplified by his collection of essays on how design shapes our lives in his book, “The Ice Palace That Melted Away.”

When lecturing or writing about design, I’ve often referred back to a particular quote from Stumpf: “If your shoes are comfortable you’re not aware they’re on. If the water is pure you can’t taste it. Similarly when a chair is a perfect fit for your body, it becomes ‘invisible’ and you’re not aware of it at all.”  . . .

Stumpf opted to demystify design. In both his words and the objects he made, he highlighted design’s potential — to do good, to be socially responsible, to be comfortable, to have a sense of play, to be useful — while avoiding its perils. . . . Take, for example, Stumpf’s notion of sustainable furniture: not something crafted from sunflower seeds or wood reclaimed from a high-school gym floor, but simply something beautifully designed and well-constructed that you’d enjoy for years before passing it down to your children and they to theirs. . . .

4.4.06 | Washington Post | The reason I can't blog this morning is that I have just moved to a new cubicle and am totally out of sorts . . . . I don't want to be seen as a Work Station Complainer. Every office has people whose work stations are, at least in their imagination, killing them.. . . Changing workstations can be every bit as emotionally devastating as going through a divorce. There is a pervasive strangeness to everything. There are unfamiliar sounds, light hitting the eyes at an odd angle, peculiar vapors from a photocopier, plus the reorientation of the body with regard to magnetic North.

1.17.06 | New York Times | Now that many of the new residential buildings come with a big-name designer or architect attached to them, I am even more curious: What do these famous, sophisticated and cutting-edge people bring to a building that was once defined only by location and square footage? Are Richard Meier's or Philippe Starck's contributions on things like room layouts and bathroom faucets worth the premium prices? So, when I read that Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel, who are partners in one of America's greatest architectural firms, had designed a building at Astor Place on an unusual triangular site on the western edge of the East Village, I was intrigued.

By SUZANNE SLESIN