December 2010
9 posts
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On Criticism in Architectural Record
Architectural Record asked me to opine on What’s Next for criticism, as part of a year-opening package. I’m not sure my interview as edited answers the question (or that I did answer the question) but it offers a sampling of my thoughts and hobbyhorses, including fear and loathing of digital renderings, using your platform for good, and wistfulness that people might actually want to...
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Year-End Awards: Architecture
I was already on the road (now snowed in in Vermont, with grandma, hot chocolate and plenty of cookies), but on Friday Mark Lamster and I handed out a few year-end awards.
A sampling:
Best Use of a Pritzker Prize: I.M. Pei scotches the fourth, 400-foot-tall Silver Tower proposed by NYU, suggesting only beloved elder statesmen of architecture have the power to slow the university’s spread....
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Shopping D/R at Etsy
About the third question everyone asks about my book on the pioneering design store Design Research was the one everyone really wants to ask: where, today, can you shop like D/R? The short answer is, you can’t. I’ve complained about how design appreciation these days seems entirely focused on shopping, and described a few places where shopping is still sociable, but the mix of...
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LWTC: Northwest Corner Building at Columbia
For our latest Lunch With The Critics, Mark Lamster and I toured Rafael Moneo (and company)’s Northwest Corner Building at Columbia University, a pink-granite and stainless-steel structure that is the last piece of the original McKim, Mead and White campus.
Alexandra Lange: I have to admit that I’ve been prejudiced against this building for a while. Its Broadway facade — pink ...
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On Boring, On Throw Pillows
This week in the Observers Room, a satire of decor (see, even the coats are getting into the act) and an inquiry into the current state of boring.
Throw Pillows As Character: Most contemporary novels feint at design particularity with brand names, but Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand offers a series of lived-in living rooms, golf clubs, seaside promenades and estates.
On Boring: Editors...
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My First Podcast
Jane Thompson and I appear on this week’s Design Matters with Debbie Millman, a half-hour(ish) podcast distributed via Design Observer. We taped the show last Friday, and it was a lot of fun. So nice to be asked for your opinion.
The main topic of conversation is our book, Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes, but we also covered Marimekko, Jane’s...
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Giving Like Scrooge
All those Gift Guides must have gotten to me (The Atlantic’s was particularly ridiculous and useless: Vespa, tech, tech, tech, book, book, book, nailpolish), since I was spurred to make a gift recommendation of my own over in the Observers Room. But then, two days later, I reverted to my natural Scrooge.
Little Boxes: AMAC Plastic Boxes just happen to be one of MoMA’s Humble...
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Christmas with the Modernists
At Observers Room this week, my take on the “modern” holiday card, and a completely non-digital network chart from the Noguchi Museum.
Sans Serif Seasons Greetings: ‘Tis the season when the minds of parents of small children turn to holiday cards. What are the mass market choices for the design-minded?
A propos of this, Burning Settlers Cabin considers the pastel tree.
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