A bit late

Marimekko, Atlantic Yards, Critics: Common Ground?

“Color Mesh” by Mauricio Lopez. Photograph by Jesse Ross © 2010.

Since I am still picking up followers over here, let me tell you what I have been up to over in Observers Room at Design Observer, my new blog. I’m doing major posting there, but some matters seem best maintained intra-Tumblr. And I miss Tumblr… Who knew I would feel warm and fuzzy about a blogging platform?

Apologies if you have seen/read/ignored all this already.

Criticism Kerfuffle 2010: I am torn about entering Criticism Kerfuffle 2010, entertained in Blueprint, BLDGBLOG, Words in Space and Urban Omnibus. There’s fair, if not universal, agreement that more thoughful architectural criticism would indeed be a good thing. But it isn’t just the writing that’s the problem.

Sidewalk Sale: How the Vanderbilt railyard became Atlantic Yards became downtown Brooklyn became the Barclays Center, lost and gained an architect and a developer, won an NBA franchise, and disappeared from Brooklyn in the process.

My Marimekko Uniform: When Marimekko came to America in 1959, the dresses freed women from girdles and garter belts and hose. Today wearing Marimekko is like being a walking work of art.

You Have to Pay for the Public Design: On the uncertain future of Harry Bertoia’s bronze screen on Fifth Avenue, Ada Louise Huxtable said it best. But I am still thinking about Bertoia, public modernism, and how we like our design.  My conclusion: we like our chairs better than our museums, or hospitals, or public sculpture.