Search Results for: subway under bel air

September 15, 2014

INTERVIEW: Karim Rashid on His Move into Architecture and Designing Colorful NYC Condos

You may not recognize Karim Rashid immediately, but odds are you have at least one of his designs in your home. A staunch believer that everyone deserves access to great design no matter what their budget (it's what he calls "designocrasy"), Karim has become one of the world's most celebrated designers having brought thousands of new ideas and innovations to the widest-possible audience. As such, Karim has won hundreds of international awards, including the prestigious Red Dot, and his work can be found in more than 20 permanent collections including those of the MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and SFMOMA. Karim also calls everyone from Umbra to Giorgio Armani, Kenzo, Alessi, Artemide and Veuve Clicquot as his clients, and Time magazine once described him as the "most famous industrial designer in all the Americas". Clearly having conquered the industrial design realm, Karim recently turned his creative eye to architecture. We recently caught up with the designer cum architect to talk about the evolution of his career and the three eye-popping HAP condos he's now got under construction for New York City. Hear what he has to say about his grand new endeavors—color, controversy and all.
Read our interview with Karim Rashid here
August 14, 2014

Morningside Heights: From Revolutionary Battle to Columbia University Campus

Today, it's hard to imagine Morningside Heights without the flurry of students hurrying to class at Columbia University. It may be even harder to imagine it without some of its signature architecture: the gothic Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in the world, Riverside Church, with its former bowling alley, or Grant's Tomb along the Hudson River. But Morningside Heights got an exciting start in the history of New York City (and America, as it turns out)!
The incredible story of Morningside Heights, from past to present, this way
June 7, 2014

Palaces for the People: Where to See the Timeless Tiled Works of Guastavino in NYC

In New York, many of the grand Beaux-Arts masterpieces — Grand Central Terminal, the Queensboro Bridge, the City Hall subway station, Columbia University, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine — have one striking element in common: Guastavino tiles. Spanish architect and builder Rafael Guastavino and his son Rafael Jr. brought with them to New York at the end of the 19th century a Mediterranean design technique from the 14th century for thin-tile structural vaulting. The expertly engineered and architecturally beautiful vaults were lightweight, fireproof, load-bearing, cost-efficient, and able to span large interior areas. Today there are over 250 Guastavino works in New York City alone, not to mention the 1,000 throughout the U.S. The Museum of the City of New York's current exhibition, Palaces for the People: Guastavino and the Art of Structural Tile, explores Guastavinos's spaces in New York and showcases "never-before-seen objects, artifacts, photographs, and documents." We couldn't help doing a little Guastavino exploration ourselves, and have put together some of our favorite tiled sites that you can actually visit.
See our picks right this way