A professor of architecture, his scholarship is far more sophisticated than his childhood comic-book collecting. Or is it? He says it’s not: he’s changed topics but not his essential way of thinking. Plus horrible stories about George M. Cohan and wonderful music from Paper Anniversary. PERSON: George M. Cohan PLACE: The Strand bookstore THING: … Continue reading »
“I love peonies, but wait a second, they’re fake; I hate them.” An architectural historian considers the contradictions of artificial flowers and the unnatural nature of Central Park. A conversation at the Bard Graduate Center about the “fake” – her word – and the real, with music from Amiri and Rahiem Taylor. Photo by … Continue reading »
The graphics he created for the Jets, BAM, Hillary Clinton et al are not merely decorative but can bring order out of chaos. He cites his mentor Massimo Vignelli’s designs for the MTA: “We can come up with a system of doing signs to pull this whole unruly crazy system together so no one ever … Continue reading »
It is generally disappointing to meet someone whose work you admire. Or is it? Chris Benz, design chief at Bill Blass, tested this precept when fate put him in a voice-over studio with film-maker Wes Anderson. Benz’s conclusion: Project Runway was a force for good. No, wait: he does make this curiously persuasive assertion, … Continue reading »
As a New Yorker, you “spend a very significant amount of time in public,” notes Justin Davidson, architecture and music critic for New York magazine, “encountering other people who behave and dress and think differently from you.” I say that this makes us morally superior to the car-bound denizens of Houston. He demurs: “I don’t … Continue reading »
At 22, she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; she’s since created the stirring Wavefield at Storm King and is currently working on the Smith College library. So, artist or architect? “There are architects that make art, and then I think there are artists who make architecture,” she says, “and I would sort of see myself … Continue reading »
What do we make of a person who acts dubiously for much of his life and then, after a transformative event (or retirement), does unambiguous good? Andrew Carnegie? St. Paul? The green developer Jonathan Rose examines this question in regard to his boyhood hero and fellow developer James Rouse, challenging both my conclusion and my … Continue reading »
For opera lovers, it’s the Wagner conundrum. For movie goers, it’s the Woody Allen problem. Dubious people have done wonderful work. But Jan Gehl, the Danish urban planner, sees architecture differently: “If you don’t love people, you can not make good architecture.” For him, architecture is a moral act. A conversation with a champion of humanistic … Continue reading »
Her website, Man Repeller, offers witty and insightful ideas about fashion, not just as what we wear but as who we are: clothing as a window onto the larger culture. Although who’d want a window made of cotton? The rain would soak through, and you couldn’t see out. Metaphors: they only take you so … Continue reading »
He has designed both elegant private houses (Alexander McQueen’s) and grand public spaces (the Nobel Peace Prize Center in Oslo). While he was working on the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture, he was often asked: will it look African American? But what does that mean? Does Renzo Piano’s Times building look newspapery? … Continue reading »
He’s designed so much, so prominently, it is tough choose only a few examples, but we might cite the Portland Building, an early expression of postmodernism, and the elegant toilet brush he did for Target. That is, he values good design on the grand scale and in ordinary life. In 2003, he contracted what seemed … Continue reading »
When he was a ten-year-old Brooklyn yeshiva boy, his father gave him a sewing machine. It’s like The Sword in the Stone, the perfect destiny-calling start for a man who’s distinguished himself as a fashion designer and more. He’s created sets and costumes, directed opera (including the Magic Flute) and appeared in movies and television … Continue reading »