mr-able home design

Showing posts with label Manhattan. Show all posts

Teresa Stoppani

Dr. Teresa Stoppani (University of Greenwich) will be leading a seminar for MA A+U at 10,30 am on Thursday 9 December.

Her new book Paradigm Islands: Manhattan and Venice, Discourses on the City has just been published by Routledge.

Concerning architecture and the city, built, imagined and narrated, this book focuses on Manhattan and Venice, but considers architecture as an intellectual and spatial process rather than a product. A critical look at the making of Manhattan and Venice provides a background to addressing the dynamic redefinition and making of space today. The gradual processes of adjustment, the making of a constantly changing dense space, the emphasis on forming rather than on figure, the incorporation of new forms and languages through their adaptation and transformation, make both Manhattan and Venice, in different ways, the ideal places to contextualize and address the issue of an architecture of the dynamic.

On the previous day Wednesday 8 December Dr. Stoppani will be speaking at a seminar at the University of Manchester on Piranesi's Erasures in G19 Mansfield Cooper Building at 4.00 pm

The Journey Continues (Pt. 5) - The Roaring 80s

With the introduction of Reaganomics in the early 1980s the economy took off like a rocket. New York and Miami in particular went into overdrive, with all sorts of opportunities for doing custom furniture and cabinet work.

A chance meeting in Manhattan resulted in an opportunity to build custom wall units and other furniture - mostly for audio/video applications. For a few years our biggest customer was a showroom called Richard Mark, which was located in the New York Design Center at 200 Lexington Avenue.

Richard Mark was actually 2 companies in one location. The first company was called Audio/Video Concepts and it focussed on high end audio/video. In those days the thing to have was a Kloss Novabeam front projection T.V. and an integrated sound system that was either rack mounted or fitted into a template as individual components.

The other company provided custom furniture to accomodate the various electronics - mostly in the form of wall units and built-in cabinetry. The most popular coffee tables of the day were designed to enclose floor mounted projector units.

The photo above shows a built in wall unit that is ready to receive a Kloss projection screen. In the case of this installation the projector is ceiling mounted. There are grills in the top corners to receive tweeter speakers, while the midrange and subwoofers are located in the bottom. The electronics are fitted into a custom template.

As an indication of how old this photo is please note the large reel-to-reel tape deck at the top of the stack. The finish is high gloss Tay Wood, while the interior finish around the television was typically satin black - to reduce glare.

The built-in above was made a few years later and shows a subsequent generation of electronics. The front projection screens were eventually phased out in favour of rear projection televisions, although templated fittings for stereo components remained in vogue. The finish is cream colored lacquer.

This built-in was made for a private residence in Trump Tower. The louvered panels on either side were actually vented doors to conceal HVAC ductwork. The finish is high gloss birds eye maple.

This bar was custom made for a private residence in Philadelphia. The columns are white lacquer fitted with neon tube lights. The main body, top and trim is high gloss red Tay Wood.

This is a custom built-in for a private residence in Toronto. The wood is white washed quartered oak, with speaker grills fitted into the lower doors. Each unit has remote controlled motorized center doors to conceal the television (on the right) and stereo components (on the left).

This black lacquer wall unit was designed by Ariel Muller Designs, and was built-in to a private residence in Toronto. The design is actually quite clever because while it accomodates the large rear projection television that was the norm in the late 1980s, it was also possible to modify the unit later to receive the flat screens popular today.

This custom wall unit is actually a wardrobe unit for a master bedroom. The upper center doors are motorized, and slide side to side via remote control to reveal a television behind. The finish is high gloss Wimbledon White lacquer.

These are the bed and night stands the complement the wardrobe wall unit. The bed platform and headboard are upholstered.

In the photo above we made the desk and built-in cabinetry, which was finished in white washed quartered oak. Designed by Po Ku of Quess.

By the late 1980s we were working with some of the most recognized names in the New York design scene, including Dakota Jackson and Ron Seff. Although we did produce a number of free standing furniture pieces for Dakota, we were typically called upon to create some of his more complex pieces - especially wall units.

The wall unit above is Dakota Jackson. It was made primarily of quarter figured anigre in a high gloss finish. The plinth and accents are Cordovan Mahogany, with the tower being finished in teal lacquer. The rear projection television is custom fitted behind a template, while the pullout trays for audio components can be seen as ghosted images behind the sandblasted glass door.

This is another custom creation for Dakota Jackson; installed in a private residence in Tennessee. The main cabinetry is quartered figured anigre high gloss, while accents are antiqued silver leaf.

This is a detail photo of the vitrine area. The back is concaved with an alternating diamond pattern of quarter figured anigre and charcoal dyed birds eye maple. The glass shelves are cantilevered into the opening through slots that extend to the back of the cabinet. Custom lighting was fitted through special tubes, and I have to credit Mark Logan (Dakota Jackson's right hand man at the time) for constantly staying ahead of the curve by engineering new technologies in advance of fabrication.

In the afternoon of October 19, 1987 I received a telephone call from Joan Meltzer at the Richard Mark showroom.

"Did you hear the news?" she asked.

"What news?"

"The stock market - it crashed. It's down over 500 points."

At the time the news didn't phase me all that much. I wasn't playing the market, so a 22% drop in its value didn't affect me one way or another - or so I thought.

While the feverish momentum of business continued for another couple of years, this was a turning point that would lead to an epic decline. Where we were now working overtime with a staff size of over 20 people, by late 1992 we'd be hanging on with fewer than 5.

I don't even want to talk about it.

We attended our first game in the new Yankee stadium last night.

Here is what the sky looked like one hour before we were supposed to leave.

Here is the sky when we were supposed to leave.

We took the A to the D to the B. Got an elbow stuck in the subway door running from the D to the B. By 7:30 p.m., the rain stopped and a little sun came out. Here's the field after the plastic cover came off, and the water was dumped in the grass. The rolling up of the plastic held fan attention better than the game, which started at 8 p.m. Because the drunk guy in front of us kept jumping up after every good play, we saw most of the action from the gigantimous stadium TV screen.

Our young friend shelled and ate half a bag pistachios, followed by a bucket of popcorn bigger than his head. (This is not idle hyperbole. He actually stuck his head in the bucket.) His family ate about $500 worth of food (which, at Yankee stadium, amounts to a tray of nachos and a sandwich). By the 5th inning we were pooped. Got home at midnight.

The Yankees beat the Mariners 8-5.

I jogged to the Borough Hall farmer's market for fresh spinach, and Tom made spinach and swiss omelets for six. Later, we nervously rolled Max and Danny to Battery Park via stroller to avoid having them trampled in Century 21 ('Fashion worth trampling children for'). The boys watched street dancers, chased pigeons, poured gravel on each other's heads, picked up glass and dug in the dirt. There were no tears, injuries or trauma except for a small whimper from Danny when the stroller flipped backwards with him in it.

Sunny spring day

Block after block

To the same cafe everybody ate at last year

Cram jammed in

With creme fraiche, organic beer, crab cakes

Wee wobbly table

Teeny tiny food

Barely blending in

Until the diaper comes off

The teeter tot

Dim the lights on Broadway (or at least the lower Manhattan section). Z Gallerie is gone, replaced with a teeny bopper clothing store - just what the neighborhood needed. Apparently the company has closed a third of its stores citing the bad economy. What a disappointment to cross the Brooklyn Bridge on foot, walk five blocks up Broadway and find Unnecessary Clothing in lue of my favorite home goods spot.

Z Gallerie, I will miss your affordable accessories, wild vases, cool botanicals, weird rubberized versions of things in the natural world, resin faking as metal faking as wood, and clean bathrooms on the lower floor.

At least we still have cb2, one of only six in the galaxy.

Isn't she chilly in that?

Thursday. Fashion Week begins. Hundreds of designers descend on Manhattan. I’m nowhere near Bryant Park, but in a nod to élan, I wear a chic little coat to work, one of those shapely down styles that taper at the waist, along with narrow toed boots and leather gloves. I notice that. It’s. Really. Cold.

Friday. The temperature drops below freezing. Pointy toed footwear doesn’t accommodate socks very well. At lunch, I switch to a pair of clunky but spacious rubber boots, a temporary measure, I’m sure.

Saturday. I dump the cute coat and dig out a marshmallow circa 1994. Monochrome is back, which is consoling since the coat and everything else I’m wearing is brown. It’s also enormous, a down comforter with sleeves. Not a lean silhouette, but I wear it anyway. My arm is too thick to get through the strap of my Prada bag. I ditch the bag.

Sunday. The weekend shows emphasize layering. On my way to the coffee shop, I try draping the hood of my coat loosely over my head like some Russian princess. But it captures wind like a sail. I cinch the hood shut until fur trim encloses my face like tentacles on a star-nosed mole ─ a good look only if you’re Shackleton returning to Elephant Island with a rescue party. I sense I’m losing some kind of battle here.

Monday. At least four designers have featured elbow-length gloves. I am reduced to mittens, which encase all fingers in one fat flipper with a stiffly opposable thumb. They are red. I harbor not even a faint hope that they will read as ironic.

Tuesday. I’ve got crab claws for hands and tree stumps for feet. My arms hang away from my sides, and I tilt my head back just to see where I’m walking. I burrow through four waistbands to scratch an itch.

Wednesday. My clothes weigh more than Kate Moss.

Thursday. I don’t have style anymore. I don’t even have gender. I may not be human. I am Sasquatch. Peer deep into my fuzzy hood and you will find, not the pert nose and rosy lips of a fashionista but darting eyes and pointed teeth and the fetid breath of a carnivore.

Friday. Who cares? I ask myself bitterly. Not me. Not anymore. Because, finally, I’m warm.

Wild and woolly

High winds today. Dust clouds blew from the construction on the waterfront. Buildings swayed. Elevator shafts howled. Contact lens wearers wept.

It went from six degrees on Thursday to 60 degrees today. Everybody, even the locals, were grinning like tourists. The clouds were moving fast, opening up patches for the sun to shine through like a spotlight. If you look very closely, you'll see the Statue of Liberty behind the tree.

New York is great and all but...

Been looking at this.

Been wishing for this.

Found the Trinity Root sculpture during a recent walkabout of lower Manhattan. It's been there more than three years, but this winter was our first time seeing it. It's a bronze cast of the tree that was pulled up at at St. Paul's Chapel by 9/11. New York is great like that - take a wrong turn and it's like 'whoa, when did they build that?'

The bottom pic is Hawaii. No explanation needed.

Day in lower Manhattan

We took our friend Mark on a walking tour of lower Manhattan Saturday. We walked more than 50 blocks on a lovely cold sunny day.

So many fun things to do in the city - like bagel soccer in Rockefeller Park.

Teresa Stoppani

The Journey Continues (Pt. 5) - The Roaring 80s

Partly cloudy

Rain: the story of our lives

Yanks and more rain

Weekend with family

SoHo with kids

Z Gallerie left New York

F-f-f-fashion Week

Wild and woolly

Hint of spring

New York is great and all but...

Never get tired of this view

After days of rain - sun again

Day in lower Manhattan