Photos: Seong Kwon/courtesy Public Art Fund

Richard Woods, a British artist known for covering public spaces with whimsical architecturally-inspired graphics, recently opened his latest installation at New York’s City Hall Park. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, wall and door and roof transforms two security booths plus an interior door in the lobby. Recently, I spoke with Woods—whose work was also featured this summer in an exhibition at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery—about the motives behind wall and door and roof, his impressions of City Hall, and viewer reactions to his work.

Tell me a bit about the development of this project. How did you come up with the idea, and how long did it take to execute?

My public projects regularly take one architectural style and impose a contradictory style onto the surface. I liked the idea of juxtaposing a surface pattern synonymous with low-cost private housing onto this great public building. The work took approximately a week to manufacture in the studio and about the same time to install on site. Read more…

Renderings: Lincoln Center West 65th Street Project: Diller Scofidio + Renfro in association with FXFOWLE Architects

The other day I checked out the latest phase of Diller Scofidio + Renfro’s ongoing facelift of Lincoln Center, a new outdoor-seating area called Barclays Capital Grove (catchy name!) located just north of the Metropolitan Opera House. Although its official opening isn’t until August, the grove has been available for use since May—thankfully, since it offers more of what the Lincoln Center campus has always sorely lacked: public places to sit and meet. Read more…

Design blogs are buzzing about Arizona State University’s “the Flo” toilet, which won silver in the “Breaking the Rules” category at the 2009 Northwest Design Invitational. It’s not the sustainable aspects of “the Flo” that are attracting the most attention, however. Instead, people are fascinated—and repelled—by the toilet’s form, which requires users to squat above a bowl placed 10 to 12 inches from the floor. Read more…

Eric Bricker’s documentary, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman, is currently screening at locations across the United States and Canada until June 22. The feature-length film promises to be an illustrative peek at one of the most respected and prominent architectural photographers of all time. “Every part of a person’s life is based upon an architect’s presence,” Shulman says in the documentary’s trailer. The 98-year-old legend was directly involved with the making of the film, giving viewers access to his private photo archive. Read more…