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A fascinating piece in New York Magazine on the evolving architecture of New York city focusing in on the changes over the past fifteen years. If anyone was looking for a great example of being able to thrive and survive in an era of constant flux, New York is a great one.

"Our city is molting.

Bricks flake away. So do brittle fire escapes, terra-cotta encrustations, old paint, cracked stoops, faded awnings, sash windows, and stone laurels fashioned a century ago by Sicilian carvers. New York is shucking off its aging walk-ups, its small and mildewed structures, its drafty warehouses, cramped stores, and idle factories. In their place, the city is sprouting a hard, glistening new shell of glass and steel. Bright, seamless towers with fast elevators and provisional views spring up over a street-level layer of banks and drugstores. In some cities, a building retains the right to exist until it’s proved irredeemable. Here, colossal towers are merely placeholders, temporary arrangements of future debris. New York lives by a philosophy of creative destruction. The only thing permanent about real estate is a measured patch of earth and the column of air above it. The rest is disposable.

And the metamorphosis has sped up. In the past fifteen fat years, more than 76,000 new buildings have gone up, more than 44,000 were razed, another 83,000 were radically renovated—a rate of change that evokes those time-lapse nature films in which flowers spring up and wither in a matter of seconds. For more than a decade, we have awakened to jackhammers and threaded our way around orange plastic netting, calculating that, since our last haircut, workers have added six more stories to that high-rise down the block. Now that metamorphosis is slowing as the economy drags. Buildings are still going up, but the boom is winding down. Before the next one begins is a good time to ask, has this ferment improved New York or eaten away at the city’s soul?"

Posted by Ed Cotton A couple of weeks back, I took a trip to the New Museum in New York.

It’s the latest and greatest designer museum complete with amazingly radical architecture and a gift shop.

The museum was full of hip “global” twentysomethings looking to grab their latest art fix.

I began to feel like the whole museum thing was turning into a giant clich� of itself. A cultural formula that we feel obliged to consume like any other brand, but hopefully one that comes with some rich, intellectual stimulation.

My problem with the main exhibition, Unmonumental, was that I didn’t get it or understand any of the meaning of the works, to me it just looked like a random collection of art from the fringes of the scene.

I became somewhat cynical about the idea of how quickly art gets discovered and placed in museums. To me, the works seemed embryonic and not fully realized, but clearly I am no expert and I was missing the point.

A few days ago, I was looking at a pile of old papers and found a leaflet describing the exhibit. One of its paragraphs immediately stuck a chord, seemed massively insightful, made perfect sense and, of course, helped me see the work in a completely new light.

“The opening of the new century seems defined by the disappearance of monuments and erasure of symbols, marked by the indelible images of destruction and ruin, from the fall of the Twin Towers to the obliteration of the Bamayan Budddhas, and the toppling of the statute of Saddam Hussein. It comes as no surprise that this first decade of the 21st century has produced an artistic language of fragments and of debased, precarious trembling forms, sounds and pictures. This millennium appears more concerned with iconoclasm than with creating new, empty and shiny icons. Like the time we live in “Unmonumental” marks the passage from clarity to complexity. It presents artworks that are violent and delinquent, but also expresses the urgent need to start picking up the pieces and rebuilding this world from scratch.”

What I am taking out of this experience is two-fold; it’s always good to read the instructions and there’s always time to take a second look and to revise your first impressions.

Here are some shots of the exhibits and museum.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Posted by Ed Cotton 450,000 pounds of coins schoolchildren collected for various charities, were brought to New York last week, where they were put on display at the Rockefeller Center.

It was incredible to see.




Posted by Ed Cotton living in the statusphere (40.80133575979201 , -73.9599609375) For the global elite, $3.6 million buys you a New York home at 40 Bond complete with access to pet management services.

Apparently, most buyers own their own planes and will only use the apartment a few days a year.

See what $3.6 million gets you.

Posted by Ed Cotton AvroKO are fast becoming the "environmental/spatial" designers of the moment. They launched their own restaurant, Public in 2004. Last year, they were hired by Smith and Wolensky to create a new concept; Quality Meats.

The space and design is a different take on the steakhouse, with its inspiration coming more from a butcher's shop, than a London gentleman's club. Meathooks as light fixtures is a nice touch.

Entrance




Own Brand Water


Graphic Identity



Photos: AvroKO
america's ready for muji's simplcity (40.76357623650674 , -73.98382186889648) Last month, Japanese retailer Muji, announced that it’s setting-up shop in the US, opening a New York store in the Fall of 2007.

One store is hardly going threaten the domestic players, but it will provide them with an interesting glimpse into one possible future.

It’s likely that Target, will put Muji under the microscope; they share a love of design and designer contributors, but that’s where the similarities end.

While Target, celebrates and shows off their designers, Muji prides itself in its no brand status, most of the products have no logos or branding. In addition, Muji’s interpretation and use of design, is single-mindedly focused around a traditional Japanese minimalist aesthetic.

Here’s how Muji describes its vision.

"Lower priced for a reason."

This phrase encapsulates how we can provide our Muji products at lower prices. We launched our Muji brand by designing and developing products that might almost be regarded as substandard if based on traditional criteria, although they are, of course, actually of good quality. Through the careful selection of materials, streamlining manufacturing processes, and simplifying our packaging, we have continually introduced high quality Muji brand products onto the market, at lower than usual prices. Presently there are more than 7,000 items sold as Muji products. Muji's natural and simple design proposes rational lifestyles for today's world. Muji products - there is a reason why we can provide such good quality products at lower prices."

While the brand has been toiling away for 20 years in Japan and making the occasional excursion to Europe and Asia, the move to the States, is a signal that the temperature is right here for Muji.

While many of Muji’s products are made from recycled paper and fabrics, it doesn’t market itself environmental leader, instead its focus is on simplicity. A concept the brand has extended to over 7,000 products including bicycles, cars and most recently, homes.



Muji's US target will be an active group of Americans who seek alternatives to showy brand consumerism; those who are looking to pursue higher goals in their consumption habits, but importantly, want to show and share those goals to others. Carrying around and being seen with a Muji notebook conveys a certain status.

Note: Toyota's Prius is outselling other hybrids, because its owners want the benefit of other people noticing that they own a "hybrid", sales of competitor models, lack this benefit, because they look exactly the same as their non-hybrid siblings.

Muji has done some great marketing in Japan, including this 2003 campaign developed by Kenya Hara that nicely articulated the brand's vision of "simplicity". Hopefully, Muji won't compriomise its brand vision for the US market and adopt the same strategy and similar executions in the US, even if local advertising agencies suggest otherwise.