Night Light

Jean Nouvel has designed the sleekest of stables for the restored horses on Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn.  Simply, he built a glass pavilion (think Paxton) over the attraction to allow for year-round entertainment.  (In summer months, the panes pull back, to allow the occupier of the space to fully access the interior space).
Now for the bomb.  At night, screens are draped across the building's facade and projectors from within the carousel cast shadows of the horses twirling by. Genius.

Pipeline

The stone slide in Central Park has to be the best organic ride New York City has to offer.  Children love heading to this playground for thrills and I love how they swap out cardboard "sleds" with  strangers to improve speeds and heighten luge-like experiences.

The Goods

It's rare treat to return to a completed site when it is in full party mode and jamming with occupiers.  My months of graphite and paper concepts suddenly springboard to life.   Each guest's use of the space is a host of my drafting board soliloquies.  Love it.

Xeriscaping

The Standard Hotel has a cactus lounge that makes me want to park my parched self on their blond wicker tufts and cross Joshua Tree National Park off my bucket list. That outdoor furniture defines the space.

smooch fest

In honor of Prada's iconic pucker, The MET Ball Oz's commissioned their own rendition against a wall of red and white roses. That's some lip shtick.

Looming Landscape

While stitching my way through the Upper East Side, I came across this woven fence.  My Ansel Adams take doesn't do it enough justice.  It was a lovely twist of nature in the asphalt environment.

sky's the limit

By lacing beaded garlands above a street in Montreal, the site is immediately reduced in scale.  A simple ceiling brings life to the urban landscape.

Great Lengths

                                                                      Dip these out.

Woodcut

Princeton Architectural Press has recently published Bryan Nash Gill's prints of sliced trees. Each cross section resembles a fingerprint.   Subtle ridge formations and concentric cowlicks tell the life path of the tree.

Stella (r) Garden

Stella McCartney's English garden is bliss.  I love the entry court with those fabulous stone urns on pedestals mixed with terracotta planters planted with simple box domes. The wisteria whispering across the front facade and the oil and stone ground surface seem so elegant. There's a lot going on with the salvaged bench and side door but it works in an understated sophistication.

In the rear yard, her husband commissioned a garden dedicated to her in honor of their Anniversary.    The urns are filled with french lavender and double petunias and have been nestled in a sea of spring blooming alliums and tulips.



The copper beech hedge, bay trees and box highlight the Engagement Pool perfectly. Notice the trees in the background. Not even the tree pits have been overlooked.

Light Fantastic

Urban Electric has some of the most stunning "wet rated" lights on the market. Each fixture is perfection- my fav is Fenwick Pocket. Visit the company online www.urbanelecticco.com for their complete catalogue.

Stareway to Heaven

Wendy is an architectural boutonniere pinned on the lapel of MOMA PS1.  A perennial installation born from the Young Architects Program, this Summer it sets the stage for the Museum's weekly concert series, Warm Up.  On the coattails of Harvard, I'm headed there next week for a preview.  Something tells me that I will drink in it's punch.

Tickling the Canvas

Every artist has their own iconic handle.  Judith Braun, is a finger painter.  Her binary color palette and ambidextrous technique create a winsome world of figure ground. 

Think Tank

MetaLAB is a fabulous outpost parked under the umbrella of  Harvard's Graduate School of Design.  It was completely foreign to me until I met Rocky, a spunky student at the institution.  Digital art, design and humanities are the teeth in this cutting edge approach to education.  Bridging the world, experimentation is encouraged through an amalgamation of social and digital tools. 
Oh, to go back to school.  Fabulous.

Bad Rap

The business of graffiti is having a bleak week in NYC.  Lewy BTM's fresh tag on the Brooklyn Bridge was buffed and 5Pointz Graffiti Institute is expected to be razed.  While I'm compassionate to the FBI's interest in maintaining the National Monument's pallid maquillage (A child sporting a smoky eye and rouge comes to mind...it's inappropriate), it's sad to see 5Pointz "Spray and Shouted" from the fabric of the urban skyline. 

Estate Planning

My comfortable Libran logic is steeped in symmetry, proportion, scale and balance.  However, I delight in the unruly behavior of Michael Smith's home which completely hoodwinks the Golden Proportion.  Circles and squares form nice rotundas and water features but they have been assembled it seems, with little regard to the other.  The effect is interesting.
Sitting skewed on the property within puzzle piece shaped pools, the residence looks like it is temporarily moored on site.  This approach allows the suggestion of a breezy Rockford File lifestyle within the heavy hills of California...an architectural feat.

Marrakech Marvel

It's name alone intrigued me.  The Fellah Hotel is a nifty mecca in Morocco.  Birthed by a marital team, they conceived a fantastic getaway that also nourishes a nonprofit arts center and literacy jump start to breed and defend the local cultural flare.  www. fellah-hotel.com

Tater Tats

Yes, those are beets, leeks, radishes and corn you see on Chef and farm to table enthusiast, Sean Brock's full sleeve tattoo.  To achieve this cornucopia-themed composition, he brought along a bounty of seed catalogues for his artist to refer to for authentic heirloom accuracy.