The New York Times Building
Photo: Vincent LaForet
21 November 2007
19 November 2007
New York City
via NYTimes:
Five developers are competing to buy the development rights over the Metropolitan Transportation Authority railyards that straddle 11th Avenue, between 30th and 33rd Streets. They have submitted billion-dollar offers and elaborate development plans for what would be the largest project in Manhattan, on 26 acres stretching across the equivalent of six city blocks overlooking the Hudson River.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/realestate/19yardsintro.html?hp
Mexico
Jairo Miguel, 14, changed outside Merida's bullfighting ring. Jairo, an apprentice bullfighter who is following in the footsteps of his father, began his professional career in Mexico two years ago.
NYTimes/Marc Lacey:
They are not allowed to fight professionally in Spain, but baby-faced bullfighters are the rage throughout Mexico. Even though some of the school-age children appearing at the country’s scores of bullrings are not much taller than the bulls they confront, these mini-matadors have begun getting top billing from promoters, who view them as a new way to bring people to the arena.
“We’re just normal people but we have a profession that puts us in dangerous spots,” he said. “Motorcycles and cars have even more deaths. But the car, you can control. A bull thinks for himself.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/19/world/americas/19bullfight.html
Sir Norman Foster
Photo: David Y Lee/NYTimes
Washington, DC
Nicolai Ourousoff
The glass-and-steel roof over the Kogod Courtyard appears to undulate as it connects sections of two Smithsonian museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery. The museums reside in the venerable Patent Office Building, one of this country’s finest examples of 19th-century Greek Revival architecture. When the British architect Norman Foster was hired to renovate the museums’ courtyard and enclose it under a glass roof, he essentially was told: Don’t dare disturb the old building.
Such strictures might have handcuffed a less nimble architect. But Mr. Foster seems to have relished the challenge. Rather than lock horns with preservationists, he embraced his task with fetishistic glee. Capped by an undulating glass-and-steel roof, the courtyard is inserted into the existing building with striking delicacy. The project shows how an architect can respect the past without dressing it up in historicist frippery.
18 November 2007
Walton Ford
In his Great Barrington, Massachusetts studio.
http://www.mensvogue.com/arts/finearts/articles/2006/10/16/walton_ford
16 November 2007
Children's Book Week
Photo: Robert Spencer/NYTimes
A bookcase of vintage children's books at Half-Moon Books, Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts.
[I called them: "Story Telling with Scissors": 1929: cover slightly fox-eared: $40.00]
15 November 2007
Upcycling
NYTimes:
One of the latest ideas on the design front is “upcycling,” taking something unwanted and turning it into something desirable. In one example, Christine Misiak, a British designer, is coating secondhand tea services with enamels in startling shades like kelly green and black. The Tea Set Noir, above, is about $230; other colors are available. Ms. Misiak, a recent graduate of Northumbria University in England, where she is now a designer in residence, also applies antique handles and spouts to new metal vessels to create her Old/New and New /Old tea services. Information: 011-44-7878-911-930 or www.christinemisiak.co.uk.
Jim Oliveira
NYTimes:
Over the past 20 years, Jim Oliveira, a Manhattan artist, has developed a technique for creating paintings he calls “color piles.” He mixes clear acrylic with inks and pigments, and pours it onto plastic-lined worktables, as if it were pancake batter, forming circles of varying sizes and thicknesses. Once they have dried, the disks are stacked into clusters and attached to a Belgian linen canvas. Now he is using the same technique to make ottomans, which are covered in a “fabric” of acrylic disks over a reinforced plywood frame that sits on glides. They come in 12- and 18-inch sizes ($8,500 to $12,500), and in multicolored compositions, left, as well as black, metallic gold and a bright blue inspired by the painters Yves Klein and Lucio Fontana. Information: (212) 343-2524 or jimoliveirastudio.com.
Jean Nouvel
A rendering of the Jean Nouvel-designed tower to be built adjacent to the Museum of Modern Art.
14 November 2007
13 November 2007
Magneto
When a UCSF Children's Hospital surgeon suggested an untested treatment to correct Richard Nave's congenital chest defect, his mother was, naturally, concerned for her son's safety. But as soon as Richard, 15, heard he'd be the first person in the world to try out the procedure, he was sold. "First, I like that," said Richard, obviously gloating during a regular checkup at UCSF last month. Richard has earned his bragging rights. The San Francisco teenager suffers from a chest cartilage deformity called pectus excavatum, also known as sunken chest because as children get older, their sternum and ribs fold in, creating a concave effect in their chest wall. In many cases, the deformity is unattractive but doesn't pose a health risk. It can cause heart and lung problems from the added pressure from the sternum, though, especially when children are breathing hard from play or exercise. For decades, the most common treatments for this condition were major surgery, involving either cracking open the chest and rebuilding the bone structure, or inserting a bar under the sternum to force it into a normal shape. But four months ago, Dr. Michael Harrison attached a hockey-puck-size magnet to Richard's sternum, which is now slowly being pulled outward by a second magnet stuck to a brace Richard wears on his chest. The treatment is supposed to work a bit like braces for teeth, slowly correcting the deformity by pulling the bones into the right shape. The internal magnet was screwed to Richard's sternum during a short operation. He said he feels a little sore sometimes from the near-constant pull of the magnets, and it's not fun wearing a chest brace most of the day. But all things considered, it's a lot easier than the usual treatment for pectus. "All my friends, when they see me, they throw their keys at me" to see if they'll stick, Richard said. He rolls his eyes a little, but he admits it's kind of cool. "My nickname on the wrestling team is Magneto."
via SFGate:
08 November 2007
Wall Street
Photo: Gary He/Associated Press
NYTimes:
It isn't over yet. Hopes for a market rebound dimmed today as shares stayed in the red, extending yesterday’s 360-point swoon. Today, however, it was the technology giants and retail chains that disappointed investors as well as a grim fourth-quarter forecast from the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke.
The Dow Jones industrials dipped almost 200 points, or 1.5 percent, led by steep declines from Cisco Systems, I.B.M. and clothing retailers. The benchmark index is now off more than 4 percent from Tuesday’s close. The broader market also fell 1.5 percent, as measured by Standard & Poor’s.
Sinking technology stocks battered the Nasdaq composite index, which fell 3.3 percent to its lowest level since September. Cisco, the networking company, reported a 37 percent increase in earnings but did not surpass analysts’ expectations. The market’s punishment was swift: shares of Cisco dropped 8 percent, with similar losses hitting I.B.M. and Oracle.
Investors are clearly skittish about economic troubles, from a lack of confidence in the credit market to the global ramifications of a weakening dollar and rising oil prices. The concerns have sent stock markets plummeting, with large banks feeling the brunt of the damage.
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