by Witold | Oct 18, 2012 | Architects, Architecture, Design
During a recent lecture, Princeton architecture grad Richard Wilson Cameron talked about how he designed Ravenwood, an estate in Chester County, Pennsylvania belonging to the film director, M. Night Shyamalan. What turned into a five-year project involved...
by Witold | Jul 9, 2012 | Architecture, Design
In 1971 I entered a competition for an addition to the British Houses of Parliament. My design blended Aalto with Le Corbusier—my two heroes. In hindsight, the large complicated project was far beyond my pay grade, but I was ambitious. Still, whatever in the world...
by Witold | Jun 7, 2012 | Architecture, Design
I’m starting to sympathize with Guy de Maupassant, who hated the Eiffel Tower so much that he is said to have regularly had dinner in its restaurant to avoid looking at it. I’m not talking about the Eiffel Tower, of course, but the Orbit Tower, erected on the...
by Witold | Feb 19, 2012 | Design, Modern life
Last fall we renovated our kitchen. It was a piecemeal project that started with long-needed repairs to a cracked wall and improvements to lighting, and finished with a total gutting of the space. The work was done by Jay Haon and his assistant Sarah Finestone. The...
by Witold | Nov 20, 2011 | Architecture, Design
In a filmed interview, Denise Scott Brown observed that learning to design was similar to learning how to ride a bicycle—you got on, fell off, got back on, and by the end of the day you were riding. The implication is that design—like bicycle riding—can be learned,...
by Witold | Oct 9, 2011 | Design
The expected but still untimely passing of Steve Jobs has led to many observations about his national influence on design. But Apple was not the first American high-tech corporation to emphasize design. That distinction properly belongs to IBM. In 1956, Thomas J....
