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New York's seasonal design issues, always favorites around Curbed HQ, take a peek into the past this time around with a then-and-now approach that cleverly incorporates, um, famous people. (Famous people are awesome.) Of the lot, we're most taken with Jared Della Valle and Andrew Bernheimer's overhaul of architect Paul Rudolph's Beekman Place duplex penthouse (above) in midtown east. Click through for a slideshow and other goodness.
And, hey, there's controversy not just in the fact that Rudolph's crumbling but iconic apartment was redone at all, but also in the more standard New York real estate feuds: "When Rudolph submitted his plans for adding his modernist apartment atop this townhouse in 1977, the neighbors objected. Today, its owner is embroiled in a civil suit against his immediate neighbor, who erected a wall high enough to block the southern-facing windows."
At the booth of Pan American Art Gallery in Dallas were some Silver Clouds by William Cannings, clearly based on the ones Andy Warhol made in 1966. Instead of being filled with helium, Cannings’ clouds are made of metal and hang on wires. Gallery director Cris Worley explained that Cannings, an Englishman who now lives in Lubbock, makes the things out of "inflated aluminum" -- welding together sheets of metal, heating the resulting object in a kiln and then inflating it. The clouds are $750 each.
After learning of HUD's request in the early 1970s, Thomas Konen, an alumnus of the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, informed the school and wrote a proposal for the project with Dr. Daniel Savitsky, professor emeritus of ocean engineering.
"[HUD] wanted to limit it to a university rather than contract it out to some company," said Savitsky, who accredits much of the planning and success of the "Big John" project to Konen, who has since passed away.
Over the five-year operation, the 44 fully functional toilets [four on each floor] were flushed in cycles by a computer system in order to determine the effect that the different combinations would have on the centralized drainage system.
"We would sometimes flush them all at once," recalls Savitsky. "We called it the 'Royal Flush.' "
the nyt discovers rat rods
a while back i heard someone compare the younger rockabilly scene to renaissance fair drag. i have to agree that the whole fantasy lifestyle concept thing is pretty silly. they also missed the point that barn paint (the rusty deterioriated paint condition that the host car was found in) is the real deal and that matt black primer is a distant second in paint choices.
hat tip to adman