News

Nature With an Edge

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:00:00 GMT

9.19.06 | New York Times | It sounds too selfish to say that the struggle to preserve the natural world is also a struggle to preserve the wholeness of our being, but it is a fact nonetheless. There are few better examples of this than the works now on display at the International Center of Photography, in a new exhibition called “Ecotopia.” That word implies something paradisal, but what the exhibition really suggests is the fragile ecology of the place we live — the glory of what it is and the sorrow of what we have done to it.

And They All Look Just the Same

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 04:00:00 GMT

9.17.06. New York Times | [H]aving traveled to neighborhoods all over the country, from Milwaukee to Louisville, Fayetteville to Portland, Ore., what I’ve come to realize is that what makes a neighborhood a neighborhood is evidence of continual evolution and reinvention. Old houses, brand new ones and all those in between merge in a balance of past, present and future that makes a place feel vital. (This mix also helps guarantee a diversity of ages, ethnicities, income levels and backgrounds.) One architectural era isn’t necessarily better or worse than another — it’s the mixture of ingredients that makes a delectable dish.

From Aeron to Airstream, Things That Work

Wed, 13 Sep 2006 04:00:00 GMT

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. . . .

Mysterious Cubicle Crud

Tue, 04 Apr 2006 04:00:00 GMT

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.

All That Curvy Glass: Is It Worth It?

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 04:00:00 GMT

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

Hi, Gorgeous. Haven't I Seen You Somewhere?

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 04:00:00 GMT

8.28.05 | NY Times | WHEN a federal judge ruled this month that a lawsuit brought by Thomas Shine, formerly a student at the Yale School of Architecture, against David M. Childs, a partner at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, could proceed, the architecture world was caught off guard. It wasn't the accusation - that Mr. Childs appropriated one of Mr. Shine's student projects in a 2003 design for the Freedom Tower at ground zero - that seemed puzzling. The surprise was that Skidmore's motion for dismissal had been unsuccessful. For once, an accusation of architectural plagiarism had taken on a life beyond cocktail party chatter and snippy blogs.

Ground Zero developer Silverstein's "passion in life"

Tue, 30 Aug 2005 04:00:00 GMT

8.27.05 | NY NewsDay | Even as 7 World Trade Center nears completion, it has only one committed tenant to date -- Silverstein Properties. And critics have viewed the new Freedom Tower design more as a bunker than an accessible office building. ut when it comes to actually building the new office towers on the 16-acre site, private developer Larry Silverstein, 74, is perhaps the single most prominent force moving the construction forward. In an interview with NY Newsday, Silverstein said many of the problems that once mired progress are over now that Pataki named his chief of staff, John Cahill, to serve as the governor's point person for downtown redevelopment.