Design Public

I just read about this project in Good Magazine. It’s called Re:Construction, and it’s a public art project spearheaded by the Alliance for Downtown NY in collaboration with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Here is the idea:

“Re:Construction channels the energy of Downtown’s rebuilding process by recasting construction sites as ‘canvases’ for innovative public art and architecture. This initiative comes at a time when Lower Manhattan is experiencing one of the largest public and private construction undertakings in the nation’s history. In response, Re:Construction bridges the efforts of multiple public partners and the creative community to both highlight and enliven the process of rebuilding while improving the quality of life in Lower Manhattan through the creation of places of attraction, curiosity and anticipation.”

Some of the pilot projects include Best Pedestrian Route by GRO Architects:

photo by Adam Kleinman

Tattfoo Tan’s Concrete Jungle, where the orange construction safety paint on jersey barriers has gone Dior:

(before)

(after)

photo by Tattfoo Tan

It’s interesting, obviously lots of graffiti and guerrilla artists have been taking advantage of these types of sites for a long time, and doing a great job. It will be interesting to see if the organized version can compete. Any time there is a chance to create art, I say go for it, whether through a bunch of red tape or illegally.

http://www.downtownny.com/news?nid=98

http://www.reconstructionnyc.org/

The Dwell NextHouse photos are up on Flickr for your perusal. Check out DP products in action!

Curious to see what a Fatboy pile might look like? Or, perhaps you have been thinking about STAACH Cain Collection chairs and stools but you want more insight into how they look in a room. We captured it!

Also photographed: Flensted Mobiles, The Wisest Owl; upper playground Cat with Sun Pillow; Unison Tatami in Ecru bedding; OFFI Martini table; Area Thin Graphite Bedding; zid zid kids Mini Poof, Branch; Blu Dot Small Animal Sofa in Guacamole, Real Good Chair in ivory/white, and D2 Utility Shelving; Gus Design Group Bishop Table; k studio Trees Pillow; InModern Intown End Table; and of course…DP’s Matt and Drew!

View the full Dwell NextHouse photo set on Flickr.

 Who doesn’t love a firehouse? It seems they are truly en fuego right now as a trend.  Perhaps it started with this house, where the Ghostbusters had their headquarters:

Then there was The Real World: Boston, where a charming firehouse was renovated to house seven self-important, immature  strangers.  This was one cool renovation:

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A DP weekend tip for Bay Area folks: tour the 2008 Dwell Home in Mountain View! This is a great opportunity to check out an amazing prefab home and see numerous DP products firsthand.

If you are a member of the Trade (urban planners, landscape architects, interior designers, builders, developers, real estate professionals, etc), Thursday the 27th is reserved for you. To register, check out the Dwell NextHouse information.

Saturday, March 29th, and Sunday, March 30th, the home is open to the public (kids included!). Registration is required to attend the event. Tickets are $8 if you purchase tickets online or $10 the day of. (more…)

I was thinking about how famous Ken Smith has become in the years since I heard him speak at my school. I think I missed his visiting professorship with the fashion and landscape studio by about a year or two, which will always haunt me. However, my class was lucky enough to visit his office and take a stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge with him in 1999. I remember the walls of his office were covered in bubble wrap and there was this strange gong music playing. We were drinking beers while Ken presented some of his work to us when my hilarious friend Lucia leaned over and whispered “this is my favorite song” to me and I about died trying not to bust out laughing. Anyway, I pulled out my Ken Smith book yesterday and his P.S. 19 dumpster planters brought a smile to my face. He is always coming up with creative ways to think about gardens, whether they are vertical, blooming from the pubic area (no, I am not kidding), involve chandeliers hanging over famous avenues, made out of light cones, providing specific aural and other sensory experiences, or are blooming from unexpected receptacles.

P.S. If anyone can find Ken Smith’s website, let me know so that I can provide a link. I can’t seem to find one anywhere, not even over on ASLA’s website. Thanks.

Photoshop by the offices of Ken Smith, Landscape Architect.

Photographs by Albert Vecerka. Both are from the book Ken Smith Landscape Architect Urban Projects.

So I finally got around to watching Gone Baby Gone last night. Great flick - I was especially amazed to see sweet little Beedie from The Wire playing a drug mule neglectful mother - I almost did not recognize Amy Ryan in that part - she was amazing. Obviously, there is perhaps one other fan of The Wire out there besides me, as Omar Little was cast as a police drug detective. Oh wait, duh, that connection would be Dennis Lehane, author of the book and writer for The Wire. Anyway, I am currently mourning the end of The Wire, but the last episode was perhaps one of the most excellent ever, so that is going to tide me over for awhile. Anyway, directing this movie is the best thing Ben Affleck has done since the SNL skit where he wants to ask Anna Nicole Smith to be his mom. The best thing since was with Jimmy Kimmel.

Back to the point:  This cinematic view of Boston in Gone Baby Gone was so familiar. It’s been done to death lately - the parts around Boston where everything is gray, from the shingles on the houses to the sky to the skin color of the tired and jaded characters. Whether it be Southie, Chelsea, Charlestown or Dorchester, movies like Mystic River (to be fair, this is also a Dennis Lehane adaptation), The Departed, Good Will Hunting and now Gone Baby Gone all seem to spotlight the same exact view of the city. Were they all filmed on this street we see to the left?  I call it “Code of Silence Avenue.”  We never see nor hear about the yuppie takeover of Southie or the mega-expensive Shipyard of Charlestown. Even Dorchester has experienced gentrification in the past decade. Instead we see the same old Irish  dive bars full of depressing characters (some get the accent right, some completely butcher it into some pseudo-JFK accent mixed with a New York accent), asbestos-shingled three family houses and Code of Silence Avenue  in all of these films. The only other views we ever see of the near-Boston area are across the river in Cambridge, when painfully lame movies like Soul Man or With Honors pretend to film at Harvard. Last I heard, the Harvard campus does not allow filming, so the only authentic view we ever see is of it the usual aerial one before they zoom in on Elle Woods sitting under a tree next to a fake dorm that is not in Harvard Yard.

Here’s the requisite depressing as hell brown and yuck Boston movie apartment.  Have you really ever seen two such heroic, young and good-looking people living with cabinets and wallpaper like that?  I don’t think so:

I’m rambling. My question is, when was the last time we saw picturesque Boston Proper in cinema?  I can’t think of the last time I saw The South End, The North End, the Financial District, Back Bay, Rowe’s Wharf, Comm. Ave., et. al. in a movie. Can anyone remember a film that highlights the rest of Boston and not the surrounding depressing areas? Cambridge doesn’t count, that’s its own city. Please leave your answers in the comments and let me know!

I have so much to share with you about my 48 hour jaunt to Savannah I can’t even stand it. One question: Why are store owners so hinky about letting you take photos in their store? Creative theft? One gave some long excuse about the owner being a stylist for some magazine, which maybe made sense and she was very gracious about it and she recommended the best and cutest bakery to us, so whatever, but the one I really could not figure out was The Book Lady. This is the coziest most amazing little bookshop I’ve ever visited. It was right out of a movie - half first floor/half basement of a lovely Savannah house, filled with comfy chairs, floor-to-ceiling books, a fireplace, etc. When I asked to take a photo, the grumpy girl behind the counter who had just sold me $94 worth of used books made a face and mumbled something about “revealing specifics.” Apparently, in the cut-throat world of used book stores the titles they carry are top secret or something, I guess, I really don’t know what the big whoop was. In spite of the rudeness and the lack of photo, you must check out this shop, it really is amazing, especially when the man who farted out loud nonstop the entire 20 minutes I was in there is NOT present.

Now onto friendlier places, we are in love with Moss, located at 137 Bull Street. You can also check them out online.

The proprietors of Moss were much more gracious. I tell you what, someone must be a master merchandiser to make me think that a taxidermied (or was it freeze dried???) squirrel looks good on a wall, but they did.  In fact, this store fits in perfectly with the nature study aesthetic we’ve been featuring here recently.  They have  has everything from upholstered chairs to quilts, birds’ nests to journals, lovely jewelry to letterpress cards. It is an absolute no-brainer to find a beautiful and unique gift in there for just about anyone on your list, no lie. Thanks for letting me snap away, Moss guys!

Now this is how to merchandise:

I’ll be back tomorrow with more about Savannah. Right now the other half of my curry chicken salad sandwich on home made bread from Back in the Day Bakery is calling my name. Later!

Yes, that header is correct: the SF Sunset House Sample Sale is now 70% off.

We only have a smattering of items available, but the stuff that is there is a steal, no doubt. How often do you come across a $1300 Matteo Cashmere Wrap for under $400? Or, an Emeco Kong Chair for under $700? I am not going to even get into the Blu Dot Modulicious Bed.

If you are not in the SF area, I might suggest booking a flight around the date of January 30th (the one and only pick up date). I have heard a few airlines have some pretty smoking deals at the moment. Just kidding (kind of).

Check out what Sample Sale deals you can’t let pass by.

Also, a friendly reminder that this is the LAST weekend to tour the home.

The Sunset Idea House is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The final day to view the home is Sunday, January 27. General admission is $20; $15 for seniors on Fridays. No children younger than 10. The house is located at 3029 25th St, San Francisco, CA 94110. Parking is extremely limited. Free shuttles will be offered from the San Francisco General Hospital parking lot. For information, call (800) 786-7375 or visit the Sunset Web site: www.sunset.com. Please be courteous to Sunset House neighbors when viewing the home (i.e. do not block driveways, leave a mess, cause a raucous, etc.).

Well folks, we are nearing the end of the Sunset Hose tour. This weekend and next are your last chances to visit the space. Aye carumba! As if seeing the home isn’t enough, we are selling all the sample pieces from the show online. While you look at the house and view all the incredible ways they have made an urban space as green as possible, why not do a little shopping? The challenge this week: try and get to the Blu Dot Modulicious queen bed or Strut Table in dark olive before I do. Ha! I just can’t decide which one I need more.

Check out all the remaining Sample Sale items before they’re gone.

The Sunset Idea House is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. General admission is $20; $15 for seniors on Fridays. No children younger than 10. The house is located at 3029 25th St, San Francisco, CA 94110. Parking is extremely limited. Free shuttles will be offered from the San Francisco General Hospital parking lot. For information, call (800) 786-7375 or visit the Sunset Web site: www.sunset.com. Please be courteous to Sunset House neighbors when viewing the home (i.e. do not block driveways, leave a mess, cause a raucous, etc.).

If you have had an opportunity to go to the Sunset House and view some of our DP items in action, now is your chance to purchase the goods at scandalously low prices. 50% off retail on all Sunset House sample items! Yes, I had heart palpitations too when I first heard of the sale.

A friendly piece of advice: Act fast…pieces are going quickly!

The full scoop:

1. View all the available items at our online outlet.
2. The products for purchase are considered “like-new” and were used in the home for staging only. All items are sold “as-is”.
3. All sales are final: No cancellations, returns, or exchanges on Outlet purchases.
4. ***All Outlet purchases must be picked up on January 30, 2008 between 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm at 3029 25th St, San Francisco, CA 94110. This is the only day/time/location open for pickup. If you are buying something rather large, please make sure you bring an appropriate vehicle and some extra hands to help you collect the piece.

One additional DP request: Please be courteous to Sunset House neighbors when picking up items (i.e. do not block driveways, leave a mess, cause a raucous, etc.).