A short video explaining youth participation in shaping Cooper-Hewitt's effort to make its vast collection web-accessible. NYC teens work with museum staff to select objects, tag them in their own words, and suggest features to make the virtual museum system more youth-friendly.
A recent article by Urban Gardens features New York City designer Marco Antonio Castro Cosio. As part of his graduate thesis at New York University the designer presented a project that “aims to reclaim the forgotten space on the tops of city buses, while enhancing the quality of urban life by proliferating green spaces on...
These third graders from P.S. 59 in the Bronx recently tackled some big design challenges when they came to participate in our Target Design K12 program. Here they are demonstrating their fantastic prototype vehicles, made during the popular Green Transportation Workshop. Made possible by a generous grant from Target, the free Tour + Workshop program...
It was an exciting moment for MOUSE Corps Students when a surprise visit from Bill Moggridge left them awestruck and inspired. An innovative youth development program, MOUSE Corps prepares high school students for future educational and professional roles by providing opportunities for in-depth technology projects. One of many programs through MOUSE includes a student-led design...
SIMS Municipal Recycling Facility in Brooklyn. Image courtesy of Selldorf Architects. Selldorf Architects, located at Manhattan’s Union Square, recently opened their studio to Cooper-Hewitt’s Design Watch Members. The firm has acquired an international reputation for work that is sensitive to context and program, thoughtful in execution and timeless. The firm has worked on public and...
Some great snapshops from today's Target Design K12 program. This group from the Saint Ignacius Loyola School had a blast at their workshop, focused on Communications and Social Networking. Made possible by a generous grant from Target, the free Tour + Workshop program invites students to think like designers as they discuss key objects from...
The Sukkah City installation at Union Square last weekend was an ideal example of how to use public space in NYC. As the brochure educated: “Biblical in origin, the sukkah is an ephemeral, elemental shelter, erected for one week each fall, in which it is customary to share meals, entertain, sleep and rejoice. Ostensibly,...
Over the next two weeks on the Cooper-Hewitt Design Blog, students from an interdisciplinary graduate-level course on the Triennial taught by the Triennial curatorial team blog their impressions and inspirations of the current exhibition,'Why Design Now?' Janette Sadik-Khan, New York’s Transportation Commissioner, has transformed the city’s streetscape—ostensibly a change that directly impacts every resident and...
Over the next two weeks on the Cooper-Hewitt Design Blog, students from an interdisciplinary graduate-level course on the Triennial taught by the Triennial curatorial team blog their impressions and inspirations of the current exhibition,‘Why Design Now?’. Janette Sadik-Khan, New York’s Transportation Commissioner, has transformed the city’s streetscape—ostensibly a change that directly impacts every resident and...
New York City is widely considered an ecological nightmare—a wasteland of concrete and high-rises, diesel fumes and traffic jams, garbage and pollution. But, in the groundbreaking work of contrarian environmental thinking that is Green Metropolis, David Owen declares New York City as the greenest community in America. In Green Metropolis, David Owen conceives a new...
Subway car interior I lived in New York for a few months in 1965, when people were afraid to stand on a station platform alone, or board a train without protection from friends, and there was a police officer in every car. What a contrast from this week, when I rode the Lexington Avenue Express...
2010 was a year to remember for Cooper-Hewitt Members. Check out the 10 Membership Moments in 2010 slideshow below. Around town, Cooper-Hewitt Members were among the first to access fairs—from historic to contemporary design—New York Auto Show, ICFF, International Fine Art & Antiques Dealers Show, and IFPDA Print Fair. Throughout the year, Members took a...
New York City teens were invited to learn about careers from over thirty professionals working in the fields of fashion, industrial, multi-media and graphic design as well as architecture. Design colleges from around the country were on hand to provide admission and financial aid information. Tim Gunn, members of the cast of Project Runway, and...
If you happen to be in New York this summer (one day it will stop raining, I promise), be sure to check out these design destinations, all featuring previous National Design Award winners. Recently opened at the Museum of F.I.T., the very beautifully installed retrospective of Toledo Studio’s designs includes The Dress (i.e., the lemongrass...
Credit: SHoP Architects I have been looking at this image from SHoP’s submission for quite some time without really understanding what the firm is proposing. Somehow, I managed to largely miss the announcement of the plan of General Growth Properties (GGP) to completely transform the area known as the South Street Seaport – an increasingly...