Reference Page: December 2004

That’s Rich!
Cartier Design Viewed by Ettore Sottsass is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from October 31, 2004, to March 27, 2005. www.mfah.org. Cartier can be found at www.cartier.com. To read about the illustrious career of Ettore Sottsass, visit his Web site www.sottsass.it/en/ or check out his firm’s monograph The Work of Ettore Sottsass and Associates (Universe Publishing, 1999). You can also read an interview with Sottsass and peruse his playful work for the Memphis design collective at www.designboom.com/eng/funclub/memphisremember.html.

Progress Report
Patricia Moore makes an excellent case for universal design in Disguised: A True Story (Word Publishing Group, 1985). To research this now-classic work, Moore disguised herself as an elderly woman and traveled through 116 cities in the United States and Canada for three years to study how older Americans are treated. The book is currently out of print, but available at many libraries. To learn more about the other universal design experts interviewed for this story, visit their Web sites: Stephen Wilcox, www.dscience.com; James Joseph Pirkl, www.transgenerational.org; Elaine Ostroff, www.universaldesign.net; Jim Mueller, www.jlmueller.com; and Molly Follette Story.

Behind the Curtain Wall
There’s no doubt that the people at Construction Research Laboratories get a certain pleasure out of causing curtain walls to fail. Test your own project with hurricane force winds or watch 8-foot two-by-fours get shot from water cannons at glass facades in their Miami compound. (305)592-9222.

A Place to Dock
Lira Luis is chair of the Associates Committee at the AIA’s Central Arizona chapter. She is working on a daycare center in Phoenix for Deutsch Associates, and a portfolio of her independent projects can be found at www.liraluis.com.

A Backup Plan
After refining the design of the Meta chair for the better part of a decade, Jeff Jenkins is seeking a manufacturer. Interested parties should contact him at Jeff Jenkins Design + Development, 1509B Leslie Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22301; 703-519-9445; jeff@jeffreyjenkins.com.

Improv Theater
At the end of November, the Greek embassy in Paris will be exhibiting models, prints, and images of David Serero and Elena Fernandez’s prize-winning design for the Hellenikon metropolitan park and urban development at the site of the former airport in Athens. You can find out more about their work at www.iterae.com.

Building Blocks
Roberta Wright developed her proposal for recycled bricks while attending Charlie Cannon’s Innovation Studio at RISD. Read about this extraordinary program in the August/September 2003 issue of Metropolis. Wright can be reached by phone (713-483-3089)or by e-mail (rwright1@ems.jsc.nasa.gov). Find out about a recycled plastic vehicular bridge developed at Rutgers: www.greensage.com.

Flower Power
New Bedford, Massachusetts has identified over 40 potential brownfield redevelopment sites, and last summer the city won an EPA grant to create a waterfront park on the site of an old wooden truss manufacturing plant. Boston-based StoSS is currently working on a residential waterfront project in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Reclaiming the River
Further information on Meta Brunzema’s River Pool design can be found at www.riverpool.org. Filmmaker Keith Rodan produced a 25-minute documentary about the project. Email him at keithgreenpoint@aol.com to inquire about purchasing a copy. Good resources on pollution in the Hudson River include the Natural Resources Defense Council. The Beacon Sloop Club Web site is www.beaconsloopclub.org. Pete Seeger first read about nineteenth-century river pools in The Battle with the Slum by Jacob A. Riis (Dover, 1902). For a fascinating biography on Seeger, check out How Can I Keep From Singing by David Dunaway (Da Capo Press, 1990).

Perspective
All of the documents about the Grand Avenue project—from executive summary to “protest policy”—are available if you fill out a slightly intrusive form at www.grandavenuecommittee.org. Click on the site’s “Property Map” to check the portfolio of Grand Avenue’s lead developer, the Related Companies, or take a gander at watercolors of the faux-historical city they’re building in Orange County, NY, at this site: www.tuxedoreserve.com.

Arctic Beauty
View irresistible images of blond Icelandic models in terrycloth robes lounging in a blue azure landscape converted into a large steaming nature bath at www.steam.is. Apparently, a U.S. delegation that included Senators John McCain and Hilary Clinton—with husband in tow—visited the Blue Lagoon last summer to find out about the role of geothermal energy in building a hydrogen-based society.

99% Perspiration
If you attended public school in the U.S. at any time since the early 1970s, you probably sat in countless cheap imitations of David Rowland’s 40/4 (pronounced “forty in four”) chair. To purchase the real thing from the American manufacturer, visit GF Office Furniture. To learn more about the Danish company Howe and their celebration of the chair’s 40th anniversary, go to www.howe.com/docs/doc_818.asp. A good source of vintage 40/4s is Two Jakes in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. If they don’t have what you want in stock, they’ll look for it. And to find out more about the author of the piece, designer Von Robinson, visit his web site, www.vrid.com.

How to be Your Own Developer
The wine bar on the ground floor of Kevin Cavenaugh’s Box & One Lofts in Portland has a pretty slick Web site www.noblerotpdx.com, but Fairly Honest Bill, the second-hand shop across the street, seems to have fallen prey to rent pressures. Nothing compares, however, to the rapid development of New York’s Meatpacking District, which was anticipated by SHoP’s Porter House and spurred locals to fight for the establishment of a historic district in the area. Apartments at Ten Museum Park in Miami are going for a mere $1 million for a water view. Nilus de Matran and Jonathan Segal both have a number of other projects under their belts.

14,500 Points of Light
To prepare for the full experience of the Micro restaurant when the glass-silk curtains roll up on Friday and Saturday nights, preview the sounds of German techno DJ and CocoonClub impresario Sven Väth at www.cocoonclub.net. If that’s not enough of a taste, the 3deluxe website www.3deluxe.de is chock full of cyber-fetishistic marvels.

Design is Universal
To learn more about Jane Langmuir’s Universal Kitchen, check out www.risd.edu/sponsored_research_unikit.htm. The design was also featured on an episode of the PBS show POV entitled “Freedom Machines,” www.pbs.org/pov/pov2004/freedommachines/special_universal_04.html.

Parental Rites
Praq is located about ten minutes outside of Amsterdam. Their address is: Amstelzijde 37 1184 TX, Ouderkerk aan de Amstel. Contact them by phone: (020) 496 15 70; e-mail: info@praq.nl. Or go to their Web site: www.praq.nl. To learn more about Studio Tjepkema, check out www.tjepkema.com.