Since we posted the December 2010 issue last month, our cover story on New York City’s landmarked interiors hit the charts (Most Shared Stories in web language) consistently. And no wonder. These memorable spaces add the kind of rich experience to being in New York that the iconic buildings crowding our skyline can only promise. These rooms deliver an aesthetic trip back in time, a trip that makes a visit here a truly memorable time. Though these theatres, lobbies, restaurants, and stores are public spaces where you can marvel at the detailing—its richness, its restraint, its exquisite sense of proportion, its materials—photographers have a hard time setting up their tripods in them. Access is grudgingly granted or often denied.  Obstacles can be daunting. This is the story of one such adventure.

Documenting this crop of landmarked interiors (including the Cunard Building, Film Center, Brooklyn Historical Society, Time & Life Building, Charles Scribner’s Sons Building) fell to photographer Sean Hemmerle. The tight deadline added to the degree of difficulty. As he tells it, it takes a village (in our case our editorial and art staff) to pull off such an assignment. So I asked Sean to find a comfy chair in his downtown studio, and talk into my Flip camera about photographing the Beacon Theatre, which ended up on our cover. He’s currently updating his website http://seanhemmerle.com/  where you’ll find full documentation of the shoot as well as his other shoots from the world over.  But for now, take a look at the image he took inside the Beacon, lit by only one light bulb, then compare this to what his camera captured when the lights were—seemingly miraculously—turned on.

 
The Beacon Theatre, lit by one lone bulb.

The Lumenhaus in Chicago.

VirginiaTech’s Lumenhaus – the solar-powered house that won the International Solar Decathlon in June 2010 – is now biding its time in a cornfield. Before you think that’s a step down from the South Promenade of Chicago’s Millenium Park – where it was proudly displayed in conjunction with the GreenBuild Convention in November – you should know that the cornfield is on the grounds of Mies van der Rohe’s iconic Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois.

The Lumenhaus is the cutting edge of sustainable home design, using several advanced systems to generate and conserve energy. But as its name suggests, the basis of its design concept is the optimal use of light. The Farnsworth House was in fact its architectural inspiration, providing the template of the glass pavilion – facades that are open to the landscape, with the utilities collected at the core. Read more…

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) continues to sprawl. This week America’s most eclectic and oddest collection of art museum buildings opened a rather elegant new pavilion. The Italian architect Renzo Piano designed it and it holds about an acre of art. LACMA asked Piano to give its campus a more unified sense of place, but when his first work opened on the grounds, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum opened in 2008, many people were less than thrilled.  This new, large, one-story, $54 million dollar Lynda and Stewart Resnick Pavilion, complements BCAM; its angled white fins on the roof diffuse sunlight and direct it through skylights into the spacious pavilion, to wash over a grey concrete floor. Renzo Piano spoke (on several occasions) with Edward Lifson; the following is edited from those conversations.

Edward Lifson: Michael Govan, the Director and CEO of LACMA, says there’s something “emotionally charged” about one-room buildings: when we walk into them, we feel oriented and we feel the great breadth of their space. He mentions the Pantheon, the Hagia Sophia, and Ronchamp—and says that’s what he wanted here. Do you see it like that? Why are you laughing, Renzo?

Renzo Piano: Oh, Michael! I like him because he is a visionary person. Yes, he wanted the purity of no stairs, no escalator, just space and light for art. I think that this building in reality is, well, it’s what he wanted: a tool, a tool to show art. Mainly visual art, but it’s a flexible space with a capacity to transform. You can play music in here, you can have dance or theater, or film. It’s what he needed in LACMA—this flexibility. To be able to show the treasures of the collection, but at the same time to explore other worlds. For example, before this officially opened, they placed a Walter De Maria in here, by itself (“The 2000 Sculpture,” 1992). It is so large, it’s rarely shown, because it’s difficult to find a place for it. I must say, it looked beautiful. Read more…

Jan Gehl, the Danish architect, author of the influential book Cities for People, and consultant to the NYC Department of City Planning, spoke recently at New York’s Center for Architecture. He focused, as he does in his public appearances, on the human experience of streets, with an emphasis on what we see at eye level. His is fond of exploring daily life in a lively, engaging, fun city, not just beautiful architectural plans. At the end of his talk, he asked, “What makes a great architect?” and answered his own question: “love for people”.

But Gehl’s reality is not widely shared by our profession. Underneath our professional sophistication, many of us have lost touch with people’s fundamental needs for health and well-being. We narrowly focus on buildings in the same way lighting designers focus on lighted surfaces; LEED professionals focus on environmental impacts; and energy consultants concern themselves with efficiencies. In the process, we all tend to ignore human factors.

A decade ago, as a practicing architect, I became passionate about lighting and human health. Read more…

On a recent visit to Chicago, I ducked into the light court at The Rookery on the corner of Adams and LaSalle. I do this every time I’m in this city on the lake, because I love the space. As do others, apparently. While office vacancy rates are high around the country, at The Rookery only a small percentage of the space is available; according to the building’s website only 5,367 square feet are looking for tenants in this 12 story late 19th Century building where one floor alone can contain some 20,000 square feet. Read more…

At last month’s NeoCon World’s Trade Fair, in Chicago, Metropolis’s Susan Szenasy and Paul Makovsky captured a handful of key designs—and design conversations—on digital video. Above: Roger Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and the author of The Design of Business, speaks with Makovsky at an event at the Steelcase showroom in the Merchandise Mart supported by the Consulate General of Canada in Chicago.

Read more…

In the June issue of the magazine, David Sokol writes briefly about the lighting manufacturer iGuzzini’s new U.S. showroom. Below is an expanded version of Sokol’s text, with more details on the company’s history and products.

Even if you’re not yet familiar with the iGuzzini name, you know its work. The Italian lighting brand manufactures Piero Castiglioni and Gae Aulenti’s 1993 Cestello design, which company president Adolfo Guzzini says is “the most copied light fixture ever, for sure!” iGuzzini also partners with that other great Italian architect, Renzo Piano, notably on the California Academy of Sciences.

Guzzini partly credits celebrity collaborators like Piano for his own company’s success. “Architects and designers are always on the move, they ‘pollinate’ different continents,” he says. Not only have global nomads taken iGuzzini products along for the ride, but also they have inspired specifiers in those places to emulate the visiting design dignitary, spelling far-flung orders.

When iGuzzini launched in 1958 as Harvey Creazioni, architectural and decorative lighting was but an afterthought. Quickly the company redirected its efforts, from copper objects and lighting parts to luminaires. A willingness to experiment has defined iGuzzini ever since. Much of the company’s stock was originally conceived as one-offs for architects. Work with Piano yielded the products Lingotto and Le Perroquet, for instance. Moreover, iGuzzini places importance on the science of lighting: “Some of our research activities have led to specific products, such as SIVRA, the first biodynamic light system,” Guzzini says. “Another important issue is the effect of artificial light in museum lighting—on color perception or the shape of the exhibits. Read more…

The biggest foreign presence at this year’s ICFF came from Spain, with 20 companies exhibiting a range of colorful and well-crafted furniture, lighting, carpets, and wall-coverings. Here are a few of the highlights:

Actually, one of my favorite Spanish products wasn’t on display at the fair: Nanimarquina’s new Digit rug, by the London-based graphic designer Cristian Zuzunaga, resembles an extremely enlarged color photograph. It comes in a 26-color version (shown) or with a more muted monochromatic palette. Read more…

In 1999, Benjamin and Thomas Cherner began the Cherner Chair Company to manufacture their father’s iconic molded-plywood chairs. Since then, they have reissued many other Norman Cherner designs according to original drawings and specifications. This year they’re introducing Multiflex credenzas—marking the first time they’ve ventured into case goods. The cabinets are made to order in a tremendous range of configurations and come in either “classic” walnut (the exposed beech core is stained to match the walnut veneer) or “natural” walnut (a clear finish emphasizes the contrast between the beech core and the walnut veneer). The brothers are also releasing a 1968 design for a rectangular tube lamp that sat on a table in their childhood home. Made of cast translucent acrylic and chrome-plated steel rods, it casts a uniform glow and is available in table, floor,  and pendant options. All the products from this family-run operation are made in the United States. Read more…

At the Alessi Takes the Cake party, on Greene Street, the French designer Matali Crasset poses with the mixing bowl from her new Essentiel de Pâtisserie collection, designed with the renowned pastry chef Pierre Hermé. Read more…