Category Archives: NYC

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Chelsea Art Walk 2011

Chelsea, NYC, Event, Art July 2011Next Thursday, here in NYC, will be Chelsea Art Walk, an evening of artist talks, performances, cocktails, pop-up shops and activities; what could be nicer on a summer evening in July?

Some highlights: a Q&A and exhibit walk-through with Scott Ogden, artist, documentary filmmaker, and skate shop owner at the Ricco/Maresca Gallery; A one-time special acoustic performance by a 4-man band well known for their experimental electronic pop music at RARE Gallery; Visit Porter Contemporary to have your own Polaroid portrait taken; Coolhaus Ice Cream Truck unveils their new Buckminster Fuller ice cream sandwich at Meulensteen Gallery‘s Buckminster Fuller exhibit; a pop-up skate shop offering a custom line of artist-designed skateboards and ephemera; as well as several artist book-signings and David Zwirner’s pop-up book store.

Check out the rest of the events here.

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Aesop’s Grand Central Terminal Kiosk

Architecture, installation, Tacklebox, Grand Central, NYCTacklebox, Jeremy Barbour, Installation, Kiosk, ArchitectureClick to enlarge.

I have to admit that the Australian skincare company Aesop is completely new to me. Not until the plywood went up across the street from our place here in NYC with the “Coming Soon” signs was I aware of its existence. But I’m not here to discuss the company or their products, instead about the very interesting and cool kiosk that they have unveiled in Grand Central Station.

The architect behind the stand – built out of 1,800 back issues of the New York Times – is Jeremy Barbour of Tacklebox. In solidarity with the newspaper-reading commuters, Barbour stacked and pressed the papers into chunky blocks and combined the blocks with complementing powder-coated steel blocks and countertops. Apparently, there will be a similar design in the upcoming Nolita store. It will be interesting to see what they come up with for the third NYC shop that will be going up in our Greenwich Village neighborhood.

You can see more of Tacklebox’s work here and the fabrication process on their blog.

via Racked. Thanks, Scottie!

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Rock Rock Rockaway Beach

New York City Rockaway BeachNew York City, Rockaway Beach, BoardwalkNew York City beaches, boardwalk, foodClick on images to enlarge

I’m a big fan of Rockaway. I’ve been going to the beaches there, off and on, for the past 20 years plus. I always felt that it was one of those New York City secrets that you only share with the closest of friends for fear that its greatness would be discovered by everyone and that would be the end of it. That said, it’s not the Hamptons or Montauk, and a few friends couldn’t get past the unpleasantness of the subway station or the environs on the 3- or 4-block walk to the beach. Oh, but the beach! White sand, clean water, nice waves and a boardwalk to boot, all within a 1-hour subway ride from Manhattan. I always knew that it was just a matter of time before the masses would see its value and appeal, and sure enough, first the surfers started coming several years back to the beach at 96th Street, and now the hipsters (I mean this in the best possible way) and their Brooklyn eateries have infiltrated the boardwalk and beyond. It seems that all it took was this video about Andrew Field and his Rockaway Taco venture that floated around the internet last winter, and one or two New York Times articles. So, just to be clear, I am happy to join in the Rockaway celebration, but I will also be honest and say (shown above) that it’s a funny place. Beautiful beach, but new and old architecture that leaves a lot to be desired, as well as a much needed (and currently underway) facelift for the subway stops. And, though all amenities from head to toe are at your fingertips – from the Keyfood to the Neurologist/Podiatrist office – it was definitely a nice surprise to show up last weekend at the 105th Street boardwalk burger stand and discover that it has been taken over by Caracas and Blue Bottle Coffee.

Top photo: Frameworks Group; Tacos photo below: PacificStandard.
Click on images to enlarge.

What was most suprising was to see the incredibly long line, wrapping around the corner at Rockaway Taco on 96th Street. The tacos are tasty but, personally, I’d rather spend that extra hour or two on the beach rather than on line. For relatively decent fare and definitely equally excellent drinks I suggest going to the less hip waterside restaurants on 92nd Street right on the bay side. If you can get past the exterior decor or the McDonald’s next door, both the new Thai Rock restaurant (previously the Lobster House) and the Bungalow Bar next door, have decks with seating right on the water and boats anchoring up the side. Definitely not a wait (for now, anyway) and there you get to eat waterside a hop, skip and a jump from the 90th Street subway stop. Shhh…let’s keep it between us.

Lastly, though I’m not sure how long a walk it would be over the Marine Pkwy Bridge, another nice option, is the Bay House in Rosedale. That might be best by bike or car.

One of the things I like most about NYC is that it is always changing and evolving, so I’m excited to see what the Rockaway of 5 years from now will be like, even if it means sharing the sand with more bodies.

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Come a Little Bit Closer: Droog Bench

Droog Come a Little Bit Closer Bench FurnitureDroog Come a Little Bit Closer Bench DIYClick to enlarge

The three of us, over the past 6 years, have individually come across (and loved) the Come a Little Bit Closer bench by Droog. Little did we know that eventually we would have one of our very own! Well, actually it’s Em’s, but being that it will be placed in our living room, it feels very all-in-the-family. And we have the wonderful Rence (aka Richard) to thank for this: future architect; expert craftsman; and amazing friend.

Rence made the bench (top photo) based on Droog’s design (second photo) using leftover steel from his architecture classes. Hard to tell them apart, no? Are you as impressed as we are? This heavy and long (8ft!) finished bench was transported down from Ithaca, then carried across town a few days later (with a quick refueling stop midway), where the 60lbs of marbles were finally added and the gliding began. If you’re not familiar with the original design, the three discs act as seats that roll smoothly over the marbles. It’s surprisingly comfortable and definitely lots of fun! Thanks again, Rence, for the generous and beautiful gift. I mean for Em, of course…

Now, if we could only find someone to take the piano off our hands to make room for the bench.

Here’s a quick video of the bench in action.

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MoMA Design Studio

MoMA Design Studio Typography Super GraphicsMoMA Design Studio Typography GraphicsMoMA Design TypographyLiving in NYC and loving art and design makes the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) a natural frequent destination for us. I have always appreciated the graphics in the museum but noticed in the past few years that they have become more prominent with a boldness and emphasis on typography that is hard to ignore in a good way. I have to admit to having been lured into the occasional exhibit based on the beautiful supergraphic on the wall outside, much in the way that I would pick up a book based on its beautiful cover.

The team behind the graphics is the MoMA Design Studio with Julia Hoffmann (who previously worked at Pentagram with Paula Scher) as the creative director, and whose work I’ve admired for years. Her presence along with the rest of the designers is definitely felt, from the museum’s walls to its printed materials. You should check out the studio’s site to see more of their fabulous work.

via swissmiss

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Rainbow City and High Line Too (Two)

Rainbow City Friends With You High Line NYCFriends With You Rainbow City High Line AOLClick to enlarge

The pop-up plaza, deemed The Lot, at 30th Street and 10th Avenue is just as promised. Rainbow City, the interactive balloon installation by Friends With You is cute, fun, kid-friendly and adult-silly. It feels a little like being on a real-life Candy Land game board with a hipster twist. The food section (The Lot On Tap) with its tables nicely angled to be parallel with the High Line above it, and stylish hanging lights, food trucks, large bar and container ticket booth, is all very appealing and I can imagine will be hugely popular in the evenings and weekends.

For me, the true star, once again, is the High Line. It’s hard to believe that they could top the original section, but in some ways I think they might have. Much more seating is available and incorporated very creatively and elegantly. There’s a coziness due to the proximity to the adjacent buildings (which might get a little claustrophobic on a crowded weekend) and there are many romantic little branches, or cul-de-sacs, throughout which work very nicely. Oh, and a lawn! A decent size lawn for NYC standards.

Definitely worth a visit, or three, this summer. Rainbow City is up through July 5, 2011, and Colicchio & Sons’ The Lot On Tap will continue through the summer. Open Sundays through Wednesdays from 11am to 10pm, and till 11pm Thursdays through Saturdays.

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Van Alen Books

Van Alen BookstoreClick to enlarge

Walking over to Chelsea the other day, I happened upon this very eye-catching and unique storefront on West 22nd Street. Turns out it’s the recently opened Van Alen Books, a bookstore and public reading room devoted to architecture and design publications. Designed by the architectural firm LOT-EK (the same architects behind the design of many impressive container structures, among other projects), the small space is predominantly occupied by the dramatic steps/seats made of recycled doors (if you enlarge the photos you can see where the hinges and strike plates were) stacked and bolted together to form a triangular hanging platform which felt surprisingly sturdy when I climbed up. The delightfully welcoming and enthusiastic young woman at the store told me that there will be a lecture series starting this Wednesday and the steps will be used as seating for the audience, stadium style.

If you’re in NYC and interested in architecture or design (which is likely, if you’re reading this blog), this may be a place you’d like to visit. The lecture series schedule isn’t up on the website yet, but you can call the number on their site to find out more. Van Alen Books is located at 30 W. 22nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues.

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Rainbow City at the High Line

U P D A T E : See our post-visit post here for the latest on Rainbow City.

This looks like fun! Em just read about this upcoming event on the Friends With You  site (you may be familiar with their collaborations with KidRobot, among other things.) In celebration of the opening of the second section of the High Line, FriendsWithYou (sponsored by AOL) will be showcasing their forty piece installation Rainbow City.

FriendsWithYou presents a vibrant collection of mutable, air-filled sculptures. Inaugurating in the art district of Chelsea during the month of June, this will be FWY’s first large-scale installation in New York City. This happy city is made up of intensely colored balloon pieces, encouraging visitors to be active and explore the giant 16,000 square foot playground. Built for adults and children alike, the installation allows for interaction with each art object, making the experience unforgettable.

According to the article in the New York Times, the installation is part of a “pop-up plaza” at 30th Street and Tenth Avenue. There will be a 350-seat bar run by Colicchio & Sons, as well as a variety of fashionable food trucks offering a range of edibles from lobster rolls to ice cream.

The installation and festivities open on Wednesday, June 8th, 2011 and run through July 5th. Worth checking out for sure.

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Port Authority Bus Terminal Goes Graphic

Come the end of this month, the Port Authority Bus Terminal here in NYC will be covered with a 6,000 sq.ft. LED-embedded mesh which, from the interior is transparent, but from the exterior provides a fabric for high-resolution graphics wrapping around the corner façade. The MediaMesh appears opaque during the day (see rendering above).

Hopefully the façade will be used as a medium for art though, unfortunately, unlike the renderings, it’s likely that advertising will be displayed instead. It would be great to be wrong.

via notcot, via Architect’s Newspaper

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Leo Villareal

Click on images to enlarge

After seeing some of Leo Villareal’s work online, I went over to the Gering & Lopez gallery the other day to see his current show called Volume. The solo exhibit is mainly comprised of the pieces in the top two images: Cylinder and Cube. Cylinder takes up a whole room and is quite impressive, measuring 12ft tall and 9ft in diameter. Made up of white LEDs and mirror finished stainless steel, it’s like your own, personal (I was the only one in the gallery at the time) fireworks show contained within a cylinder. I realized later that he was also the man behind the sparkler-like windows at BAM two or three years ago that were very intriguing at the time.

As much as I liked the few works in the gallery, I would love to see one of his larger shows such as the one at the San Jose Museum of Art which, (based on the photos), looks like it included beautiful colored light panels that are the sort of pieces I imagine Rothko would have created had he had LEDs to play with. Really lovely work and probably even more so in person with the changes in lighting and movement; the complete experience.

Another big project (possibly one of his largest) is Multiverse (bottom left image) at the National Gallery of Art, in Washington DC, through the Concourse walkway. You can see a video here.

All photos are from Gering & López’s site, as well as Leo Villareal’s and Conner Contemporary Art.

The exhibit Volume is up at Gering & Lopez through June 25, 2011.

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Gabriele Basílico: Contact 1984

Click to enlarge

When I came upon the wall of these large blown-up images at the Armory Show here in NYC a couple of months back, it filled me with a silly happiness. Who hasn’t, as a child, wearing shorts in the summer, been fascinated by the different bumps or ridges left on their thighs after getting up from an extended sitting? I certainly was. So, a sort of nostalgia and instant smile overcame me when I observed these photos by Gabriele Basílico, an Italian photographer who according to his gallery’s web site, first shot these photos in 1979. He had been asked to participate in an exhibit entitled “Freedom limits/the object: faced interpretations” and thought to take an ironic approach that invited free interpretation. From the artist:

The opportunity to participate in such cultural and artistic event helped me to take aside the beauty and formality of the still life photographies and to conceived a project more symbolic, ironic and freedom to interpreted the matter.
Thinking through the images about the relationship between the object-chair and the human body it came to my mind the funny and grotesque image that the hard summer chairs left in the naked bodies of the swimmers. It is a real negative “by contact”. A provisional relief tattoo which is printed on the body aesthetically developing the original surface of the contact.

I had neglected to take down Basílico’s name when I saw this at the Armory and had since been looking for it online, so I was especially happy the other day when I happened upon it via La Lettre de la photographie.

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Ryoji Ikeda: The Transfinite (follow-up)

Ryoji Ikeda The Transfinite Park Ave ArmoryThe Transfinite Ryoji Ikeda Park Ave Armory(Click on the images to enlarge and check out our toes close up)

We had been eagerly awaiting this exhibit (see previous post) and headed uptown yesterday to check it out. The Transfinite, an interactive installation by Ryoji Ikeda (Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist),  is not only very cool, but surprisingly, an incredibly soothing experience. One would think that the test pattern visuals along with the loud electronic sounds and strobes might have the opposite effect but, at least for us, and seemingly, those around us, it was almost hypnotically relaxing. People were lying on the floor for long stretches completely entranced by the spectacle and immersed in the moment.

It is important to note that the show is made up of three parts: test pattern; data.tron; and data.scan. We almost missed the two data sections which were on the other side of the test pattern wall. Below are some short videos to get a sense of the show, but it definitely is more one of those you-had-to-be-there situations.




Just to clarify, Em and Dan’s chatter in that last clip is not part of Ikeda’s soundtrack… If you have sound issues with the video clips, try watching full-screen.


The Transfinite is at the Park Avenue Armory in NYC through June 11, 2011. The admission is a bit pricey at $12, but if you stay a while and take it all in, we think (though it would be more palatable at half the price) it’s still worth it.

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NRM Project: New Role Models

When Dan and I entered the ICFF satellite show, Model Citizens, in Chelsea last Saturday, we were greeted by a row of colorfully designed miniature seats. The NRM Project (New Role Models), of which these seats are a part of, is a movement by Mike Seto and David Kim of Click Boom Pow to “empower initiative”. The chairs have been distributed around Manhattan and Brooklyn without permission. The prints on them were donated by a variety of artists and designers including Milton Glaser and DALVA. The idea is to inspire good design as well as giving New Yorkers a place to sit, relax, and enjoy the art.

See more images of the chairs at their site.

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Bike-In Theater

Bike-in Theater Forking Tasty eventHere’s a Saturday night plan for those in NYC tonight, provided it doesn’t rain: Bike-In Theater part of Forking Tasty’s dinema supperclub. It’s a free event and the film, location, and time were all underwraps until this morning. This is the first Bike-In in the series and therefore an experiment which will include popcorn and some water, but not the usual full dinner that they apparently provide in other events. You can bike-in or walk-in but you might want to bring a blanket or some sort of seating since this will be on an asphalt floor.

What: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Where: India St. and West St. at the water in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
When: 8pm

In case of rain, they will try for Sunday. In case of rain on Sunday, then next weekend. Sign up here to get the latest updates.

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BMW Guggenheim Lab

BMW Guggenheim Lab NYCAccording to their site, the BMW Guggenheim Lab, coming to NYC this August, is part urban think tank, part community center, part gathering space. At the border of East Village and Lower East Side, 1st Street between 1st and 2nd Avenues will be the site of the first Lab. They are bringing together a group of very talented people from varied fields to see new ideas, experiments and solutions for the city. To explore the potential between private and public comfort. A platform for positive interaction that welcomes in the public to participate and be a part of the forum.

The project starts in NYC with the first cycle’s theme, Confronting Comfort, and will be traveling to Berlin and then Asia, with an exhibit at the end of the first cycle scheduled for the Guggenheim in 2013. The BMW Guggenheim Lab will open on August 3, 2011 and run through October 16th before moving on to Europe. Free to all. Visit their site for more information.

via Breger via Inhabitat

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Impressive Parsons Seating Prototypes

Parsons Seating Prototypes_Parsons Festival 2011Having a possible future industrial designer in the family makes us especially interested in furniture design, and even more interested and impressed by student furniture design work. Strolling by Parsons yesterday, Dan and I noticed these beautiful chairs through the windows and went in to see, what turned out to be, part of the Parsons Festival 2011. These spectacular chairs are designed by Sophomores. Second year, undergrad design students. Unbelievable! “Parsons product design students present full-scale study models of bent plywood chairs that are the result of a six-week project in which students learned the basics of ergonomics, sound construction principles, and finishes.”

Parsons Festival runs through May 23rd in the lobby of the 2 West 13th St. building. The rest of the show, which includes interaction design, looks equally impressive.

Working prototype design credits, clockwise from top right: Megan Enright; Reading Chair by Siramol (Muan) On-Sri; Credit to come for this chair; Bone Lounge Chair by Soonyong Yoon; Reading Chair 01 by Irina Williams.