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 »
Category Archives: Architecture & Design
Episode 175: Justin Davidson
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 »
Episode 154: Maya Lin
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 »
Episode 148: Jonathan Rose
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 »
Episode 136: Jan Gehl
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 »
Episode 118: Leandra Medine
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 »
Episode 116: David Adjaye
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 »
Episode 82: Michael Graves
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 »
Episode 63: Isaac Mizrahi
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 »
Episode 38: Jonathan Adler and Simon Doonan
Simon Doonan is the creative ambassador for Barneys and a columnist for Slate. First known as a potter, Jonathan Adler now has 20 stores worldwide offering beautiful things. His guideline: “If your heirs won’t fight over it, we won’t make it.” They are the first married couple to do the show. PERSON: Liberace PLACE: Hot tub … Continue reading »