OUR INBOX IS FLOODED. OUR PHONES ARE RINGING CONSTANTLY. PEOPLE WANT TO KNOW HOW THEY CAN BRING A BIT OF THE ICRAVE VIBE HOME.
A successful restaurant delivers not only great food, but a great experience.
ICRAVE designs experiences
HERE ARE A FEW TRICKS OF OUR TRADE. STARTING WITH ICRAVE-DESIGNED
THE ARLINGTON CLUB.
The Arlington Club on New York’s Upper East Side is influenced by the grandeur of old Penn Station. As with most ICRAVE projects, this space was custom all the way, including the Art Nouveau inspired oak bar and custom chandeliers made of plumbing pipes and cast resin. A decorative nod to Beaux-Arts architecture and the contrasting use of steel, wood and brick imbues the restaurant with a comfortable, worn-in and weathered look and feel. It feels like it’s been there forever. This is a place that is rooted in New York with a gesture to the architectural influences of Europe.
THE BUSTLING BAR SCENE IS AN ICRAVE SIGNATURE. CAPTURE THAT SPIRIT.
ICRAVE custom designed the resin and pipe chandeliers for this space. Rejuvenations offers a similar look.
The who’s who in New York photo wall is a focal point of the space. Combine simple frames with your favorite shots of New York, or shop for your own wall of fame at Conde Nast online.
Don’t be afraid to have some fun. We love the wallpaper from Flavor Paper, and it’s oh so New York. A selection of fabrics from Pollack have just the right texture and color palette.
CRAVING MORE?
Check out the Henri Labrouste: Structure Brought to Light exhibit on at MOMA March 10–June 24, 2013.
Recently this path has led me to the doors of ICRAVE. It has been a road of interesting hurdles, pockets of unforgettable adventure, and best of all, numerous creative lessons to throw into my bag of tricks. Playing on repeat as I find my way through this path has been the motto, “Find life experiences and swallow them whole. Travel. Meet many people. Try everything. Exhaust yourself in the glorious pursuit of life.”
Exhaust is exactly what I have done. With a life of enthusiasm and consistent change there has been one constant in life that continues to fuel me. It is the act of giving: an act so small yet so much larger than myself that its magnitude is almost inconceivable.
Now sure, a well-designed space sends my heart palpitating to high measures. The camaraderie, dedication, and pristine work ethic of sports makes my world go round. But what is it that defines my life, my purpose, my overall journey? Well… Giving. Simply put. Giving on any plane. Giving what I can to those who don’t. Giving energy and love when needed. Giving encouragement. Giving: the opposite of taking. We all have a certain threshold until we can give no more. Time usually is the determining factor of that. Time is our most precious gift. When you give someone your time, you are giving them a portion of your life that you’ll never get back. You can always make more money but time is limited. That’s why when we give our time the impacts felt are unimaginable. Giving is an act, a movement, an epidemic, and a culture. Most recently it’s been my mission. It has literally become my life.
After living and working in Africa, I had an epiphany which propelled me on the fast track to dedicating the rest of my life to giving. From coaching soccer and teaching English to orphans in the depths of Ghana, to hosting pop-up medical clinics in the forest of West Africa, to starting health and nutrition clubs encouraging a healthy lifestyle, re-building schools and orphanages, working with the short supply of concrete and bamboo. This giving fever of mine caused me to collect 40,000 pairs of shoes for Kenyan Runners, deliver them, and come home with a new adopted teenage son (who I entrusted to my parents while I moved out to NYC).
Living in dangerous areas of the world, months without power, without connection to the outside world, and no real means of dependable salary doesn’t scare me, but I do admit that fear follows me with every project I undertake. Fear that I won’t be able to leap over the inconceivable task I have set out for myself, fear that I just went a little too far this time, and fear in questioning if my goal is actually possible. Turning the tables around and realizing giving soothes the fear. Which was exactly the case in my last undertaking. We came to give to the community and in turn they gave to us.
My dream was to bring clean water to over 100 villages in Cambodia. This thirst for change was certainly an uphill feat, one much larger then five of my girlfriends and I could conquer alone. We wanted to free the country from drought. Modestly put, but incredibly challenging. Realizing our back was against the wall, the villages came together and gave to us. Without enough supplies, people, and means to conquer this overzealous goal we needed help. By the end of our time there, numerous villages had all congregated together, giving their time, effort, and skills as we dug, built, and established 25 wells providing water to over 300 families within walking distance to their home. This solidified what I had always known to be true; a team is so much stronger than one sole individual.
The trip was one full of humidity, frustration, laughter, curry, and unconditional love. As the leader of the group, a seasoned traveler, who has gone months without electricity, weeks without showers, and days without food, you can imagine the humor I found while accompanying five of my girlfriends (emphasis on the girl) who had never traveled this intensely before, to the pits of a third world country. One asked if there would be electricity to plug her curling iron in. Facial expressions of horror as the first stench of urine and waste mixed with unbearable humidity hit them. Or, gasping at the dozen of chickens hanging upside down from a tuk-tuk motorcycle as it whizzed by…to later find out that was our only choice for dinner that night. Weeks watching them embrace the sickness, the bed bugs and the gamble that none of the 17 mosquito bites they accumulated within the hour carried malaria, mixed with all the joys that come from feeding the desire to give. But then…that’s when you get slapped in the face with an experience that will change you forever. When you realize why the hell you got yourself involved in this to begin with…When you see a life lived a little bit easier, because of you. This is the greatest feeling we can experience as humans; to see the smile on one’s face after they have received. As far as I am concerned nothing else compares to that.
STUFF YOU NEED TO MAKE STENCIL GRAFFITI:
1. Clear Acetate. Blick sells this.
2. Stencil cutter. This is basically a lower temp wood burner with a narrower and angled tip (this tool is the secret to make kick ass stencils because using an xacto knife is slow and painful).
3. Canvas Board to spray your stencil onto (they come in various sizes).
4. REPOSITIONAL spray mount (3M rocks!).
5. Spraypaint. Whatever colors you want your stencil to be (I like Montana Gold becausethey have so many shades and colors).
6. A picture you want to make a stencil from (print the picture out).
7. Beer (for drinking afterwards).
STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS:
1.Tape your picture down to a flat surface and tape the acetate down over your picture so they don’t move. For beginners I suggest trying a 1-Layer stencil first to get used to the process. Graphical pictures that looks like this are easiest because it is easy to see what should be cut out into the acetate (the black shapes that make up the owl).
2. Use stencil cutter to cut out the color you want to spray first. Luckily, you bought that sweet stencil cutter I told you about and cutting through the acetate is so easy and fast. Smart buy!
EX. Cut out the black shapes into the acetate. Once you’re finished cutting (tracing) out the shapes into the acetate, remove the tape. You can see I just cut out the black shapes into the acetate. You are nearly 80% done!
3. Spray some spray mount on the back of acetate. I like to let it dry for roughly 30 seconds so it’s not too wet, and so it sticks better to the canvas board.
4. Place acetate on the canvas board. Make sure to press firmly on all the edges so the acetate is firm on the board. You don’t want over spray, which happens when the paint seeps into areas that you didn’t cut out (it’s not the end of the world, but it will look messy).
5. You’re ready to spray your paint now. I paint quickly and lightly to avoid runny paint. Spray directly onto the acetate that is mounted to your canvas board.
6. Wait for about 5 minutes to make sure it’s dry.
7. Lift up acetate (you bought repositionable spray mount right!?!).
8. Congratulations, you have made a 1-layer stencil! The black spray paint is now painted onto the canvas board in the shape of the cute owl!
9. Drink Beer.
EXTENDED NOTES!
The 1-layer stencil is a good starting point; it is simple and easy. The real fun starts when you use multiple layers and colors to achieve a more refined picture. The process is basically the same; you cut out the colors you want onto their own individual sheets of acetate. Spray the colors one at a time and layer up the painting with the different colors. There is no real limit to the amount of layers you can make your stencil. You can make a one layer stencil in as little as five minutes. I have also done stencils that were close to 50 layers and took a few days. But in the end, it’s just about finding pictures you like and having fun making sweet art.
For two, three and four layer stencils, just build up layers of colors. Each color gets its own acetate sheet.
I discovered motorcycles when I was 20 years old and I was instantly hooked. I rode every day – the weather where I grew up in California was perfect for it. For me riding was all about discovering a cool destination, finding a quality back road, and enjoying the journey.
Sadly, I only owned my first bike for a year until my career goals changed and I made the decision to sell nearly everything I had. Selling my bike was the hardest thing I had to do because I knew I would miss it the most. It would take me nearly 10 years to be reunited with my love of two wheels.
Last May, I purchased a Honda Ascot, an older bike that I found for a good deal. It needed a few changes but after they were tended to, my bike and I rode all over. Living in NYC, riding a motorcycle can be quite treacherous. I didn’t mind riding to work but it wasn’t as fulfilling; I wanted to hit the open road again. So I took off and hopped on the Saw Mill Parkway and just got the hell out of dodge. I didn’t care where I was going, I didn’t even have a destination. It was just me and the bike, discovering the beauty that surrounds NYC.
I put nearly 3000 miles on that bike last year, venturing into three states. Bear Mountain, a local favorite, is a 100 mile round trip ride north along the Hudson river that leads to a tall look-out point with an amazing vantage point of the valley. Another memorable moment last year was camping three days by bike. We rode in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York and it was an amazing trip. Meeting new people and discovering new places – perfection if you ask me.
My family still lives in California so during my last visit I decided to rent a motorcycle and take a day to ride through Yosemite. What a trip! It was fairly hot that day and I rented a sport bike to really have some fun. I saw some amazing sights and the most incredible part was that I got to see it by bike. I rode about 293 miles that day through the mountains and then back through the central valley.
At the tail end of the year, I sold the Honda Ascot and purchased a Harley Sportster. This began an entire new chapter in my motorcycle diary because I knew this bike was going to be something special. I’ve spent a lot of time working on this bike and it’s well on its way.
It’s a life goal of mine to see this planet and hopefully I can see a lot by motorcycle. In the next few years, my short term goal is to ride from New York to California, go up through Canada and back to NYC. For me, it’s a peaceful, mind clearing way to find inspiration in my surroundings and I hope to ride as long as my body will let me.
Keep the shiny side up!
It is easy to forget that color represents so much more than an intricate spectrum of lights. Color represents freedom of speech, freedom to act, freedom to believe, freedom to express oneself. During the political regime, the Iron Curtain, the freedom of expression did not exist. Color did not exist, and instead, a bleak shade of gray darkness embraced the cities, the streets and faces of people.
I was born and raised in Romania, hands down one of the most beautiful countries in Europe. With the exception of the natural green countryside, I do not remember color. I do not remember lights on the Christmas tree (which was forcefully called a “Holiday tree” to reflect the government’s impeding punishment of religious beliefs). I do not remember color on the streets, the buildings, the parks and everything else that Bucharest, the city capital, is known for. Growing up I craved color, but subconsciously, I craved the ability to create color by being able to express myself.
As unfortunate as it may sound, the lack of color in my upbringing opened up the gates to my imagination as a child, as a teen, and later, as an architectural student and designer. I found that I didn’t need to see color but I was able to find it between the many shades of gray. During my first years of architectural school, when I had completed countless drawings in charcoal and pencil, it had become obvious that my eyes were treating the immense range of grays as a tool to bring out volume, texture and depth. Occasionally, I look at those drawings and I am surprised that I do not see shades of grays at all, but vibrant, rich color transpiring from the stark contrast of white and black.
Many years have passed since the memorable winter of 1989 and Eastern Europe is now an entirely different place. Generations are born in capitalism, with no memory of restriction. Generations now live with color. Eastern Europeans are now able to express themselves, and we see this everywhere from the city’s night lights to advertising billboards to home décor. As one who had a bit of both worlds, every holiday season I look at my Christmas tree, its colorful ornaments, delicious candy and beaming lights and I can’t help but think of the time when my tree was dark. I become nostalgic instantly but only for a few moments – after all, I have since gained my ability to create as much color as I need to.
First stop: Madrid
Madrid has a rich cultural heritage with historical buildings transformed into pieces of modern architecture. Here are my three favorite examples:
The Reina Sofía Museum was remodeled by Ian Ritchie Architects. The architects kept the original buildings intact and attached glass boxes for staircases and elevators in front of the buildings for circulation. Another example is Caixa Forum, which was designed by Herzog & de Meuron. They literally cut out the first floor and added a top floor on the existing building. The empty space wrapped with triangular metal surfaces draws people inside the building. The third one is Singladura City Hall’s courtyard. The undulating glass roof connects two historical buildings and changed an exterior courtyard to interior space for the public. It was a good chance to see the architects’ varied approaches to reforming historical buildings.
Second stop: Cordova
You can see Spain’s rough history at the Mezquita. The building was originally a mosque, but a Cathedral has since been built at the center of the mosque when Christians recovered this area. Even though, the juxtaposition of the Renaissance Cathedral at the center of mosque makes for a beautiful and admirable space.
Third stop: Granada
Granada was by far my favorite stop on my trip. Alhambra is a Muslim palace and fortress complex in Granada. Muslims did not allow idolatry, so they used abstract and floral patterns to express their devotion. The patterns are carved with depth and used colorful tiles. The water element is important for Muslim culture and becomes a part of the architecture and landscaping.
Fourth stop: Valencia
Valencia is a Modern city in Spain because of Santiago Calatrava’s efforts. The City of Art and Science complex was designed entirely by him, even down to the door handles and huge wall paintings. The white glazed broken tiles and other architectural finishes represent Spanish materials. The tiles sparkle from the lighting and the reflection of water.
It’s hard to communicate the incredible air, color of lights, sounds and smell of the orange trees in Seville with only a few words and photos. I learned and saw so many things in Spain, but the most memorable experience was getting to know Spanish culture and seeing how they enjoy life, especially taking a siesta and drinking Spanish wine!!!
I was fortunate enough to live for almost a year on the Southern coast near Galle as the only guest of a run-down but stunning hotel I was working to renovate. I traveled often up the coast to Colombo and after moving away I returned and got married in southern Sri Lanka not far from the hotel where I worked.
Sri Lanka is mostly known for its tea, its temples, its decades of civil war and for the devastation of the 2004 tsunami.
Not many people know, however, that it is also a country with a prolific architectural culture. One of the most prominent influences is Geoffrey Bawa. Hundreds of his projects are scattered throughout the country from small gardens to Sri Lanka’s Parliament building in the capital.
He is both famous for incredible vernacular architecture throughout South Asia as well as the 30 years he spent continuously improving his personal estate, Lunuganga.
He also managed to reinvent himself later in his career closing his large office to open a small one with few young architects. During this period he designed the Kandelama Hotel the first “green hotel” in Sri Lanka, literally green.
Since his death in 2003 and the end of the civil war in 2010 there has been a construction boom and both young and foreign architects continue to design buildings where his influence can be seen.
Any designer looking for inspiration should put a trip to Sri Lanka on his list.
My answer is simple: Architecture and Ironman racing are not that different from each other as far as disciplines go. Much like architecture school, training for such a physically exhaustive race requires a huge time commitment. From the early morning runs to the all-nighters you pull to meet a deadline, what you quickly learn is that there is no such thing as a sure thing.
Much like you discovered during school crits, the rug can always be pulled out from under you — and you could always have pushed yourself just a little further. This uncertainty forces you to continuously reevaluate your goals, your assumptions, your approach and your philosophy on both training and design. To be successful at either you need to be able to take a step back, adjust and redirect yourself, all the while taking the time required to absorb it all. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Neither is formulaic, albeit both have general guidelines to set you on your path. You can’t expect to complete the Ironman unless you’ve put in the miles and you can’t ignore the importance of, let’s say, negative space. Both disciplines are based on the premise that exposure to a spectrum of experiences, hurdles, injuries and challenges will continuously refine and sharpen your aesthetic eye and the efficiency with which your body metabolizes your food intake. Essentially, practice makes perfect, but blind regurgitation of old ideas can lead to less-than-stellar design concepts much like pounding the pavements with complete disregard for small warning signs can lead to debilitating physical injuries, the kind that could very quickly end your Ironman aspirations.
In both racing and architecture, you’re really only competing against yourself. My coach once said to me “Manage the moment Chris. Forget about the miles left ahead of you and concentrate on having a positive impact on your immediate surroundings.” Too often in our careers, we lose sight of what really matters and get caught up in a myriad of distractions. Focus is critical in both architecture and an Ironman. You must be able to separate yourself from the events happening around you in order to stay true to your goals, whatever they are. It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with a difficult client, or hammering away at a never ending hill: if you haven’t figured out how to manage the situation you will inevitably end up doing more harm to yourself (and your project) than good.
Ultimately for me, it’s about balance. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a way to engage my passion for architecture while at the same time satiating my need for some good old fashioned exercise. And I’ve found a way to make them mutually beneficial. There is nothing like the feeling of cold water slipping into your wet suit on the morning of a race you’ve trained for months for, much like there is no greater joy than seeing your design realized in the real world.
Typically a 3D rendering is an image that can be understood without any knowledge of architectural drawing conventions. The rendering derives power from its accessibility to a wide audience – hence its crucial role in design competitions, client presentations, press releases, and other such public forums.
While these architectural and interior design visualizations are certainly nothing new, advances in 3D software with GI (Global Illumination) solutions such as V-Ray and hardware have enabled renderings to be made faster and more realistic.
Design concepts can now be tested and conveyed with an unprecedented degree of visual accuracy. Furthermore, both clients and the public are beginning to expect photorealistic imagery even at the earliest stages of a project, and the result is renderings that match – to a t – the final construction even lighting effects.
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See what I mean?
The piece is entitled “Reflection Engine 2011” by Andy Diaz Hope and Laurel Roth.
It’s a wooden wardrobe that is fully mirrored on the interior – creating an infinity effect – so when you are sitting in it, your image is infinitely replicated. The piece was quietly positioned in one of the back spaces of the gallery and if it weren’t for the small “No Food or Drink” sign hanging from the wardrobe’s lock, I would have never known that I was actually supposed to enter the wardrobe and experience it internally. The moment that you close the wardrobe door behind you, you are transported to a mirrored world where you become the focal subject. Where am I? How many of me are there? Are they all really me? How big is this place? How long have I been in here? Have I entered another dimension? The feelings and effects seem endless.
The act of entering the wardrobe and experiencing its spatial constraints illustrates the successful crossroads of Art and Architecture. It’s not often that Art becomes Architecture, and god knows Architecture is rarely Art, but this piece joins the worlds in a very simple way, and is worth sharing with others: you should definitely check it out.
531 West 26th Street
New York NY 10001
212.630.0722
Gallery hours:
Tuesday–Friday, 10 AM–6 PM
Saturday, 11 AM–6 PM
info@srandsgallery.com
There is a place where people just like you meet (in-person) to learn, share, and semi-unplug once a month. Real people in real time – no more Second Life 8-bit tits! Come out and be a part of the real word – for a few hours at least.
Since 1995, NYC area 3d artists have been meeting to network and share ideas in an effort to maintain the highest level of quality within the 3d profession. Current members include a wide variety of 3d artists, animators, and designers involved a multiplicity of great 3d projects. Members are active in feature films, broadcast animation, architecture/design, and academia. The group also welcomes area novices who want to advance their skills and network with some of the industry’s working professionals.
As someone who has been attending the meetings for ten years; I will be the first to say that they have had their ups and downs. But now, I am excited to say that under new direction, the meetings have surpassed their glory days. The new and improved meetings are sure to be exciting as hell based on our first meeting of 2012 which took place on February 23rd at the new location just north of Bryant Park. The user group has also given a facelift to its website, which hosts a ton of information, a member gallery, and past/present/future meeting notes.
While the meetings change every month they typically involve hands-on demonstrations by industry leaders, discussions on new advances in technology and continuing education sessions. No matter what the topic of discussion, it will always revolve around 3ds Max® and its many uses and attributes. The next meeting date is scheduled for March 23rd and the full event information can be found here. If you are curious about the meetings; you can watch a video of last month’s meeting here.
Each meeting is also a great place to network and show-off your current work. The meetings are a great resource for those looking to place 3d artists in the workforce. Why go through a software reseller, or generic headhunter to find your 3d artists when the industry’s best can be found here? If you are interested in locating an artist for you specific needs, or becoming a sponsor, please feel free to contact the user group administrator via the contact page.
I still buy sketchbooks, and although they all have different covers and have different types of paper inside, most of them look essentially the same inside: one inspired drawing, two or three pages of scribbles, a couple of scores from old scrabble games (pre-iPhone), and then – nothing. Pages of nothing. Sad as an un-stamped passport. I’ll take them on trips, or to museums and galleries, but I still come home with fuzzy jpegs taken on my blackberry, and no drawings.
So: to extract some of that inspiration from my less-than-perfect photos, and to preserve a little of the spark that made me stop and shoot these apparently prosaic details, I decided to bring a few of them to life, and to do a series of mixed-media abstract-ish collages conceived as (belated) valentines to some of the places I wanted to take home with me.
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Still the best thing to happen to NYC since I’ve lived in this town, and an amazing four-season beauty. When we move our office in a month or so this will be the thing I miss most about the Meatpacking District. It would be fun to do a few more of these at several spots up and down the tracks there. But that’s for another (blank) sketchbook.
The original Marcel Breuer building is still one of my favorite Manhattan places, and a rare modern classic in a city that has precious few to boast. I’m not too shy to say we’ve done our own homage to this beauty at ICRAVE.
I always take too many shots in London — of things like Victorian glazed tiles in indigos and ochres, shots of beautiful oak bars, and of gorgeous signs like this: one of the best examples of municipal signage anywhere. I get city envy when I see a detail like this one, and here it is in the perfect neighborhood for such well-cut lettering. If I were to design a city, it would be decreed that all streets be marked as elegantly and appropriately as this.
I am pretty certain it’s one of the only buildings Matisse ever created, and he designed every part from the shell to the windows, even the priest’s vestments, and he made them all look as spontaneous and as fresh as if he had just cut them all out of paper. If you can’t get there to see it, it’s all in this documentary which I wish I’d seen before I went, about the model-turned-nun who inspired the project. I love that the scale, program and setting were perfect for this artist, and if we’re going to talk about collages, we must include Henri, no?
It was a fun challenge to strip away the layers of the shops and the stalls, and the sellers and their wares, and the hanging fluorescent lights, and the signage and the people – and still be able to express this place as the organically grown labyrinth that it is.
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That’s it for now. I’ll keep collecting snapshots on the go, and planning to turn them into something else. And hopefully one day I’ll be back in Rome, taking a fresh look at the ancient city. And, yes, I will bring a sketchbook.
+ 5/1/12 – DJ Tony Tone @Dusk AC
+ 4/22/12 – Paul Van Dyk @Playhouse LA
+ 4/7/12 - Avicii @Marquee Sydney
+ 3/17/12 – Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano @Pacha NYC
Every time I hailed a cab, I’d have to first ask the driver if he’d be “willing” to drive over the Williamsburg Bridge. Then the day came when a driver told me ‘of course I’ll go to Williamsburg – it’s like, part of Manhattan now.’
What was once a largely industrial landscape spotted with modest housing for the immigrants who worked in its factories, has now become an eclectic mix of renovated luxury loft buildings, art galleries, shops and eateries all geared toward the artistic, music-loving, vintage-clothes-wearing hipsters that now populate the local streets.
So for the next time you visit this great neighborhood, I’d like to share some truly fun, inspiring and delicious places that are worth seeing.
Founder Toby Smith opened his first coffee bar in Sydney fifteen years ago and the Brooklyn shop marks his first U.S. location. The spacious 3,000-square-foot roastery and cafe is also home to “a training lab and cupping room, allowing wholesale clients to train and cup the coffees they purchase in store.” And there’s a “Brew School” for Williamsburg wannabe coffee snobs.
This non-profit gallery is a unique industrial indoor/outdoor ground floor space on Driggs and N 10th St. Black & White Gallery/Project Space cultivates promising artists in both the initial and more advanced phases of their careers, pushing them to explore contemporary themes and concepts through multiple mediums.
At the intersection of fast-gentrifying Greenpoint and the Williamsburg bar strip, is a charming American bistro. This is my all-around favorite restaurant, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s my special self-indulgence and I’m always satisfied after a meal here – no matter what I order. The place its always very busy, but it’s worth the wait for a table. Trust me: you won’t be disappointed.
If you feel like having a dessert, Mast Brothers Chocolate is a small boutique factory in Williamsburg that churns out exquisite artisan chocolate.
The chocolate is made in small numbered batches from beans specially selected by the brothers who own the company, Rick and Michael Mast. I also love their beautifully detailed packaging.
If you’re looking to liven up your weekly routine with an evening out of the ordinary, button up your favorite flannel shirt and head out to Brooklyn Bowl on 61 Wythe Ave for local brews, food by Blue Ribbon, live bands and games of tenpin at the only LEED certified bowling alley in the world!
Brooklyn Bowl uses 100% wind power – and that’s not all. From recycled bowling-alley tables to energy-saving LED stage lights, style, function, and eco-friendliness are all rolled into one at the spacious venue.
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As a local, I’d have to say that the short trip on the L train into Williamsburg is worth a try. With great shops and lots of food, Billyburg is hip and modern, but also conscientious, old school, funky, independent and free spirited. It’s the best!
At those museums, galleries and art shows, you’ve seen a lot of prints – likely without even knowing what they were, and even more likely without knowing how they were made. But if you look closely at a print, you can’t help but get a little curious about the process behind the finished work – at least I couldn’t. So as an art-fan turned printmaker turned designer, I’ve done some extensive research on, and practice in the arena of printmaking over the years, and I’ve boiled down the cold, hard, and sometimes dangerous printmaking basics for you here:
Nowadays, lithographs are pulled from aluminum plates as opposed to limestones. This method works due to the repulsion of water and grease. An image can be drawn on the plate or photo-transferred with high grease content pencils, crayons and washes. The plate is then chemically treated to stabilize the image for printing.
Each color printed requires an individual plate.
The plate needs to remain wet while inking, and big pieces usually requires two people. Little known fact: printmaking interns are also known as “sponge bitches” and have the unique pleasure of assisting the master printer in keeping these plates wet.
This is one of my favorite techniques. With chisels, you carve out areas of the plank. These negative space areas will not receive ink so once you roll the ink on the block, the grooves remain clean like a stamp.
Soft woods are most commonly used for woodblocks: obviously, the softer the wood, the easier it is to carve. I like carving on more textured woods because the details of the grains appear in the print.
The tools are different for wood and linoleum but the technique is the same. Linoleum allows for more precise and clean lines.
This is the process of blocking/stopping areas of the fabric with a non-permeable material so the ink will not go through. Photo transfers are also commonly applied to these screens.
The screen is placed on top of the surface that will receive the image. The ink is applied with a squeegee onto the screen and will be transferred to your surface.
Zinc or copper plates are coated with etching ground through which you can draw your image with a sharp tool. When placed in acid, the exposed lines will be eaten away. After you roll the ink on the plate, you then clean the surface and the ink remains in the grooves. For this one, the paper needs to be damp when going through the press so that it can make contact with the ink in the grooves.
With this technique, you can create any type of “collage” on sturdy board. From cardboard, to random plastic items, to ribbon, sand, even dried up lines of Elmers glue… you can create a surface to be inked and printed. Some of these can also be used without ink to create an embossing.
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So, as you can see, there are many specific steps that go into pulling a print, but these are some of the very fundamentals:
Socrates describes a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows.
According to Plato’s Socrates, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. Socrates suggests the prisoners would take the shadows to be real things and the echoes to be real sounds, not just reflections of reality, since they are all they had ever seen or heard.
Socrates then supposes that a prisoner is freed and permitted to stand up. If someone were to show him the things that had cast the shadows, he would not recognize them for what they were and could not name them; he would believe the shadows on the wall to be more real than what he sees.
First to identify all ten venues correctly (from top to bottom) via email wins a round of drinks at the ICRAVE venue of their choice!
Let’s take The Limelight, for instance. From a church, to a club and now high-end retail.
Originally built in 1845 as an Episcopal church called the Church of the Holy Communion, this gothic revival church was designed by architect Richard Upjohn (he also built Trinity Church). For many this was a place of worship, a place of peace until it was deconsecrated in the early 1970s. For a brief period afterwards, the church was used for a drug rehab program until the “King of Nightlife”, Peter Gatien, bought the property in 1982, changing its use from a church to a club. From heaven to hell, some people might say.
For me, on the other hand, The Limelight was my home away from home growing up here in NY, and I have had so many fond memories of this place…
From Kenny Kenny letting me in the door to my buddy “Chief” the head bouncer, the DJs, and the various experiences that occurred in the nooks and crannies of this great club. The Limelight’s opening party hosted by Andy Warhol occurred in 1983. In the 1990s, when I was going there, the club was in its heyday – the Club Kids – Michael Alig, Kenny Kenny, Richie Rich (Heatherette), Amanda Lepore to name a few, great concerts, a pure fantasy world.
Unfortunately, this all came to a screeching halt after the killing of Angel Melendez. Peter Gatien lost the club, and The Limelight officially closed its doors never to be the same again – a piece of New York City died forever. In 2003, under different ownership, the club reopened as Avalon, but it did not live up to its predecessor and closed in 2007.
Now this New York City Landmark was up for grabs and was snatched up by Jack Menashe with hopes of changing this infamous club to a high-end retail mall. Needless to say, I nearly fell off my seat, and automatically thought this was a bad idea. Well, I guess it is different strokes for different folks! After a long demolition process (I am curious as to what they found!!), revealing its original limestone walls and gothic architectural details, The Limelight Marketplace opened its doors in Spring 2010. The old DJ Booth is now a showcase for Ralph Lauren Polo Shirts, the old VIP room is now a chocolate store, and the old bar is now a gelato bar.
From black to white, dark to light, uncivilized to civilized, fantasy to reality, “dreads of society”/outcasts to upper class, and last but not least – from the Club Kids to The Real Housewives of NYC, really??? I am sure there are some people out there that feel that was a change for the better. That this Marketplace has finally cleaned up this tainted hellhole. Maybe it is closer to its original use.
This just goes to show you that changing the occupancy of a space can either be a success or not. It can attract different people. People will view the space differently based on their preferences. Adaptive reuse is a wonderful thing being able to show society the full use or flexibility of a building – in this case a church. Now a new idea for the Marketplace is in the works – adding an IHOP! You heard me correctly – they are actually thinking about putting an IHOP in The Limelight! Adaptive Reuse gone too far? I think YES!
As a recent Atlanta-transport who returned to New York after a ten-year educational hiatus, I was NOT AT ALL surprised to find that a lot of things had changed in the world of NYC restaurants. So, after graduating and eager to get keyed in on what was happening in the world of hospitality, I started working for The Johnson Studio, who had designed an impressive number of locally- and nationally-acclaimed restaurants. This exposure to restaurants from the perspective of design and development led to a complete obsession with restaurants in general; from holes-in-the-wall, to monster million-dollar projects, I quickly became infatuated with the how to’s of creating and materializing beautiful spaces and dining/socializing experiences. Fast-forward a few years, and the current trend in hospitality is sustainability!
Long overdue, and excitingly enough this new trend in restaurant design has to do with how we can be considerate of our carbon footprint. Each of us has a carbon imprint i.e. a tangible piece of data that reflects how much of an impression we make on Mother Earth and her natural resources. Those granite countertops that everyone loves? They are a high-in-demand raw material, courtesy of Mama Earth’s finite stock. And unfortunately, it seems that we need to tap into these natural resources to bring to life some pretty descriptive dream lounges, bars, and restaurants.
So, as an eco-conscious designer working in a field where the best materials are always preferred, I have to ask myself the ultimate question: how do we preserve Mother Earth, and continue to build beautiful spaces to dance, dine, and play in?
The answer is the four R’s… Reduce, Recycle, Reclaim and Repurpose. Easy to remember, right? Two of these four – repurpose and recycle – I consider to be a benefit of urban dwelling. A vast majority of major US cities like Chicago, New York, and Atlanta are hyper-conscious of repurposing items like furniture and those rare tidbits we find at consignment and heirloom shops. Recycling systems are also prevalent in most big cities these days. However, Reduce and Reclaim are equally as important and effective in minimizing our current size 17 footprint. As for the other spaces we occupy, like our homes, offices, and schools, a lot (but not nearly enough) of the design considerations are already driven by eco-efficient and effective strategies. Obviously, the next assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to implement eco-conscious strategies in restaurant and hotel design, as a nationwide standard.
In the meantime, to give credit where credit is due, I’ve compiled a list of restaurants in New York City (and yes this includes Brooklyn!) that have successfully married sustainable materiality with new restaurant design:
Blue Marble (also known in some locations as Earth) is a quaint ice cream shop with multiple locations in Brooklyn that opened their first store in 2007. The interior is comprised of only recycled, reclaimed and existing materials, including the kirei board tables, recycled glass countertops, and reclaimed picket fence slats for the walls. Even their supplies and utensils are biodegradable and compostable. During the late spring/summer months, pick up two scoops of Sunny Summer Peach from their Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1 location and walk through the park – it’s a must-do this year!
Not only are their ingredients locally sourced and locally grown (they have a substantial roof top garden!), but most of the interior of the restaurant was build using repurposed and recycled materials, ie. vintage flatware, reclaimed wood and building materials.
The Breslin’s interior consists of mostly existing ornate architecture that has been either painted or restored to compliment the added vintage and repurposed accents throughout. Smartly, the menu also emphasizes independent and local farmers and artisanal ingredients.
I know this is not a restaurant space per se, HOWEVER it is applying for LEED Retail certification. Cool feature: the magnetic community board is re-crafted with metal panels from used coffee machines! AND the countertops, community table, bar, and column cladding are repurposed white oak that was locally manufactured. Well done, Starbucks… well done.
And I’m a big list girl. This year for the holidays I stuck around the city and put my list of favorite places to good use. Here it is: my latest list of fave restaurants, cocktail bars, cool exhibits and other unique New York events.
1) The Standard Grill – who doesn’t love a punch bowl with giant straws and easy access to The Highline?
2) Public Restaurant– love the space and the brunch cocktails.
3) Morandi – the broccoli rabe is sooooooo good!
1) The Tippler (precluded by dinner in the MPD at one of the classics: Morimoto, Buddakan or Spice Market)
3) Little Branch – delish Dark & Stormy’s (my favorite!)
4) The Hurricane Club and Riff Raffs
5) Beauty & Essex – who doesn’t love a glass of champagne while you’re waiting to use the loo?
6) The Royalton
7) PH-D at the Dream Downtown - bonus: views!
Spa Castle, Queens
Back in the day: Marquee, but obviously, its now LAVO
1) Stumptown at the Ace Hotel
2) La Colombe at Carte Blanche café at the Gansevoort Hotel Meatpacking
3) Kava in the Meatpacking
Mazzola’s, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
Maurizio Cattelan exhibit at The Guggenheim
Dekalb Market- it’s closing for the winter, but come spring, check it out: little boutiques in giant shipping containers smack in the middle of Downtown Brooklyn. Wow.
Carsten Höller: Experience at The New Museum – check out the slide that goes from the 5th floor down to the 2nd floor!
1) San Francisco: Fly into the Virgin Airlines Terminal and have dinner at Bar Agricole
2) Miami: Right about now, I’m thinking about a warm weekend getaway, laying by the pool at the W Hotel South Beach or the SoHo Beach House and dinner at The Dutch
A visit to MoMA quickly shows that master architects have always used beautiful models to pitch an idea, and that they remain standing as works of art long after other presentation materials have been discarded. Historically, models have been cost-prohibitive and time intensive, but this is changing. Just as with numerous other media, advances in technology have brought models into a new era of speed, affordability, and above all creativity. With the use of laser cutters, what once represented countless hours of hand work with frustrating imprecision can now be achieved within the day and at a level that nears perfection. Three-dimensional printers can likewise bring into existence the most organic and mind-bending forms, allowing freedom of expression and a new method of exploring design concepts as they evolve.
Campuses such as Columbia and MIT are not only embracing technology in modeling, but teaching students to use it as a major tool in design, bringing emerging ideas into physical form throughout the design process. The use of technology in modeling in academic circles will undoubtedly affect their use in the design market, as new architects create intricate physical models to illustrate their thesis projects. Going forward the use and importance of these new models will only increase as a new generation of architects and designers view them as a requisite component to pitch an idea.
In the case of fashion house Versace, teaming up with affordable clothing retailer H&M exposed the brand to a much broader market. Google, which started off as a search engine, has become a veritable one-stop shop for everything online, including gmail, word processing programs, a blog reader and social networking website. And recently, a new trend has evolved: companies with little connection to the hospitality world, like Pantone, Camper Shoes, Swarovski and Armani, opening boutique hotels.
Pantone, known for their designer-friendly color matching system opened the Pantone Hotel in Brussels last May. The hotel illustrates to guests firsthand how color can transform a space and enhance the visitor experience.
Each of the hotel’s seven floors was designed by Michael Penneman and Olivier Hannaert using a different Pantone color, giving guests the opportunity to choose a room that best reflects their mood. If they are feeling “daring or fiery” they can stay in a room inspired by the red “Pantone 200 C”. Alternatively, if they are feeling “fresh or eager”, a room inspired by the green “Pantone 353 C” would be more fitting. The rooms, however, are not a total explosion of color: they are a crisp white with bold, but restrained, splashes of the highlighted color used in the artwork and accessories.
Color surrounds the guests even more so in the public areas, with drinks named after colors, a boutique shop selling Pantone merchandise, and a color consultant available to discuss color psychology and trends with guests.
Camper Shoes has opened two ‘Casa Campers’ — one in Barcelona and one in Berlin. Because their core product is so unrelated, the Camper brand had to be integrated into the design more subtly than in the Pantone Hotel – with a focus on the style, philosophy and way of thinking that the brand emulates.
In its first hotel, located in Barcelona, the most direct reference to the company is the use of its signature “Camper Red” throughout. The company’s values, and its laid back and down-to-earth culture can be seen in the use of hammocks in the rooms and handwritten typography for its signage. Always dedicated to innovation, the Camper hotel features an unconventional room layout – guests are given two keys, one for the more private bedroom which faces the inner courtyard, the other for the living area, which faces the street and allows for maximum people watching. Finally, Camper’s commitment to the environment is apparent with its use of solar energy, a vertical garden in the courtyard and a water recycling system.
By seamlessly integrating brand and design, without making it feel like blatant product placement, both hotels have become destinations in-and-of themselves. Either one could have easily turned into something gimmicky, but instead, sophisticated and inspired spaces were developed. Guests are not limited to those who are brand loyal and the hotels are receiving generous praise within the industry. In fact, Travel + Leisure magazine named the Pantone Hotel 2011’s “Best Hotel (Fewer Than 100 Rooms).” This full brand integration has enabled both companies to expand their demographic in a unique and innovative way, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more branded hotels popping up around the globe next year.
I first came across Movember back in 2008, when the polite and handsome Australian founders of the movement reached out about hosting a launch party at the event space I was running at the time - Openhouse. Three years in a row, they threw amazing fetes, complete with gift bags of shaving products like trimmers and moisturizers, and a silent auction of art inspired by mustaches.
Movember is (and this comes from the official Movember site directly) responsible for the sprouting of mustaches on thousands of men’s faces, in the US and around the world. Which is hilarious or alarming based on your perspective. But it also benefits charities. With their Mo’s (Movember’s official parlance for staches), the men that participate raise funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.
Men start Movember on November 1st, clean-shaven. For the rest of the month, these facial hair pioneers, known as ‘Mo Bros’, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine mustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, ‘Mo Sistas,’ Mo Bros seek out sponsorship for their growing efforts and effectively become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. Which in turn raises awareness by prompting private and public conversation around the often-ignored issue of men’s health.
We at ICRAVE participated in Movember and with a team of mustaches, raised over a thousand dollars to donate toward prostate cancer research. Did the office look weird to outside guests? Definitely. But again – if you know Movember, you love it. If you don’t, you probably just left wondering who that creepy guy sitting next to you in the meeting was. Well, now you know.
I was first exposed to it during my thesis year at University of Waterloo. It used to live on our website, but architecture is a complicated word… here it is:
Architecture is choreographic
Not because a particular route is necessarily described
But because it has an inherent rhythm and set of rules
To govern one’s motion
Bodily and optical motion are requisite
For the experience of place
Architecture behaves as an accomplice and foil to this motion
It can structure compulsion
It can sustain anticipation
It is an accomplice and foil to human desire
Architecture is erotic
It is the semblance of sexual experience
That embodies fantasies and obsessions
In its choreo-narrative figuration,
It structures social relations
In its material play with the elements
It is, like the erotic,
An intersection of nature and culture
In its performance and abandonment
And in its construction and decay
It is like joy and grief
Joy & grief, fear & desire
These are the sentient ingredients of our erotic self
To which architecture gives form
And while this is not necessarily a new phenomenon (Bob Dylan and the folk music movement come to mind as long-standing examples) today’s argument is that when times are tough, a natural inclination exists to return to the past and what we already know to be good and comforting. We at ICRAVE believe that this trend has never been more apparent than it is today, especially in hospitality design.
The Standard Grill, The Dutch, and Lavo are just a few new restaurant projects that were purposefully designed to look old. With Lavo (which we designed) we were well aware of our honest intention to make the restaurant feel like it had been there for a hundred years. Keith McNally has been doing the same thing for years now: ‘Pastis’ is the name of an aperitif, but also a near homonym with ‘pastiche’.
Looking back on the inception of this ‘old-timey’ trend in design, its important to note the surge of futuristically designed spaces that occurred in the early 2000’s: Highline (now Sea in the meatpacking), Gilt at the New York Palace Hotel, and the apex of this movement - Kurve are all good examples. Kurve ended up being the tipping point between a forward-looking design movement and one that looks back.
At face value, Kurve should have been extremely successful – a famous designer (Karim Rashid), a good chef/restauranteur (Andy Yang of Michelin favorite Rhong Tiam) and a great location, situated in the heart of the East Village. But instead, Kurve ended disastrously – never fully getting off the ground. This was undoubtedly due to a perfect storm of factors like the space, the food and the service, but there’s no doubt that design played a critical role. People were uninterested in dining in an ultramodern, pretentious space marked by unnatural materials and unflattering LED lighting. And despite the economic downfall of 2009, people were still dining out as much as ever — they just weren’t interested in spending their money dining at cold, futuristic restaurants.
But what happens when all the places that we currently hold to be authentic are actually built up of faux-authenticity? Despite best intentions to recreate the old, we are creating watered down interpretations. So the question remains: why are we all looking backwards? Who will be designing our future? Where are our Jetson’s?
It would be stupid to ignore our past and just as Adolf Loos railed against decoration for decoration’s sake, we shouldn’t use faux historical details just to make something look old. Like Bob Dylan going electric, we need to take what we learned in our folk music past and push it to the next level. The successful designs of today don’t wade around in the past, but take that historical inspiration to make something that could never have been designed back in the day.
As the modern movement in architecture was a reaction to ornamentation, we are now on the cusp of the next great architectural movement. The digital age has created a direct everyday (every minute) effect on our lives that has never been seen in history before. Our desire for authenticity is directly related to this but is not directly addressing it; if we are feeling isolated as a result of technology then there must be something inherently wrong with the technology itself, not the skin it is wrapped in.
It will be interesting to see what the next step is, whether we are headed towards a Minority Report/iRobot ultra-modern future or a Blade Runner hodgepodge of old and new. I think we will always romanticize the past, and for good reason, but the future is more compelling.
2 x 4’s installation was an investigation and manipulation of a body of content constructed around the notion of ‘Private Identity.’ The installation was named Generation Praktikum referring to “the younger generation [in Germany] that, by losing their job (prospects), also lost part of their identity.”
2 x 4 designed and curated a pop-up shop to sell 500 t-shirts throughout the course of the show. Each t-shirt had a unique screen-printed design across its front, but all 500 of the shirts were the same color yellow. Upon purchasing a t-shirt, the consumer had their picture taken with the purchased shirt. This picture was then printed on yellow paper and hung in place of the t-shirt that was just bought.
What’s interesting about this concept is that the simple act of buying a t-shirt gives the purchaser an outlet to project their identity. On the surface, it would appear that what the purchaser wants is the form produced by each individual t-shirt. But, in reality, it seems that the installation is really trying to identify how people want to be identified, and that the individual design of each t-shirt is secondary to the fact that all the t-shirts are essentially the same.
In the end, the installation of 500 yellow t-shirts transforms into a collection of 500 portraits. So the question remains: is it the individual t-shirt that the subject desires or rather the spot among the 499 other portraits in the larger whole? What 2 x 4 has created through the serial repetition (i.e. repetition with inherent difference) of the yellow t-shirts is the desire to be desired. 2 x 4’s conclusion is that what we truly desire is to be part of the whole i.e. we seek to become the object of another subject’s desire.
In the act of purchasing sameness, how different does the product have to be for the subject to overlook the sameness? Or how similar does a product have to be for one to see past the difference? It’s likely that the consumers who purchased a yellowGeneration Praktikum t-shirt would not have made their purchase if the shirt were not one of the series of 500 being displayed. 2 x 4’s use of serial repetition, creates a desire among the subject for the content that the form has manipulated. The installation tricks us into thinking we are buying difference, desiring “Personal Identity.” When in reality, what the subject truly desires is to be part of the whole; to be desired by the Other.
I found the Generation Praktikum pop up store/exhibit to be interesting because it shows how a brand can be created or developed through design. The interactive design engages the consumer and the product becomes infinitely more desirable through the design of the store itself.
