Hasta La Ideas

The numerous options available in the protein bar aisle of the grocery store can be overwhelming—and oftentimes taste disappointingly stale and synthetic. While in need of a pick-me-up when transferring at LAX, we discovered Tosi SuperBites:…

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Garbage trucks, construction noise, emergency emails from the boss, unbearably sweltering summers and freezing winters, constant traveling for work—even if you don’t suffer from chronic insomnia, getting a good, restful night of sleep these days feels like a rare occurrence. What could be more thoughtful than offering the gift of…

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For everyone from surfers to sailers, ear protection is a major concern. Whether it’s exposure to pollution, high winds or simply spending too much time in the water, ear infections are a common and debilitating ailment. While most earplugs hinder hearing and throw…

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Frank Gehry designs a holistic health and fitness center tucked below NYC’s Plaza Hotel

If one thinks of the body as a temple, the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle and strong physique becomes a matter of good design. With integrative health at the core of its mission, La Palestra wellness centers have pioneered a special hybrid of proper medical care and fitness in upscale gyms built to reflect the indigenous elements of their respective locations. The latest outpost lands in the subterranean base floor of the NYC’s Plaza Hotel, tucked away behind the Todd English Food Hall and pink-splashed shrine to Eloise.

Designed by Frank Gehry, La Palestra at the Plaza serves as a holistic haven of wellness, encompassing a main floor with a set of medical exam rooms and a small area with treadmills and activity mats open to hotel guests, and a members-only gym below, accessed by a signature—and stunning—Gehry staircase of bright white steel. What’s perhaps most striking about the facility is that despite a definite opulent feel to the space, at the core it’s still a functional, classic gym. Ropes hang from the ceiling at the center of the room, while the circle-shaped La Palestra logo on dark activity mats seem vaguely reminiscent of wrestling rings.

This is far from your high school gymnasium, however. La Palestra founder Pat Manocchia created his concept of fitness and health with the safety and security of the human body as his main priority. “Design-wise, we wanted to represent what we believe,” he says. As a result, the same sense of respect is applied to each space they design. Below the Plaza, the medical suites reveal exposed subway tile, while the downstairs members’ gym—once the storage room for the hotel’s coal in the old days—is dotted with weathered tiled columns. “Culturally, from an exercise perspective, people are made to believe that the idea of beauty is that it’s flawless,” says Manocchia in pointing out an interesting parallel, “but it’s the exact opposite. The flaws are what makes something beautiful.”

For the Plaza space, Gehry, Manocchia and the team were faced with certain architectural challenges. Variations in ceiling height were exploited to create alcoves of light that aid in one of Manocchia’s central ideas, which is privacy. The placement of cardio equipment and room-dividing medicine ball and dumbbell racks is carefully considered to create what he believes is the right environment for optimal performance. “If you feel like you’re being observed or judged, or if you feel like you’re on top of someone else, you’re just going to feel self-conscious,” he says. “We keep the focus off aesthetic completely, so you’re focused on what you’re doing and not how you look.” Particularly shy gym-goers would be pleased with the absence of a locker room, the junior-high vibe of which Manocchia feels is “one of the biggest barriers to exercise.” Each individual bathroom (complete with shower) and dressing room has a wardrobe built into the door to serve double-duty as a space-saving solution and augment the same sense of privacy from the outset.

That said, La Palestra skips any dramatic, theatrical faux-flattering lighting and floor-to-ceiling mirrors. Mirrors are intentionally situated away from the wall to prevent the feeling of being boxed in, while lights are designed to shine with very specific variants to reflect times of day and year. “Since we’re underground, it was important you didn’t feel like you’re in a casino in Vegas,” says Manocchia.

Manocchia’s thoughtful balance of practicality—his number one priority in the lighting scheme, he says, was installing bulbs that could be easily changed—and intuition seems well suited for exercise. In stocking the space with the highest-quality equipment, from top-of-the-line Woodway and Cybex treadmills to artisan-made vaulting boxes Manocchia seeks to support the most important design element in fitness—the human body. “When it comes to innovation in the field, it’s not about reinventing the wheel or inventing something new, it’s about how good design is re-engineered to support the human body,” he says. “You have to understand how the body works so you can utilize equipment that fits into movement patterns and provides a broad toolbox. Dumbbells can be used for all sorts of things, and are you going to make something better? No. We’re interested in the best-made version.”

The breadth and depth of La Palestra’s medical and training attention—which comes at corresponding prices around $8,800 annually—makes it the logical choice for those with health concerns or injuries, or anyone looking for a superior level of care integrated into their fitness routine. A training session comes accompanied with the message that techniques and routines should be learned, and are designed for members to take away and practice on their own.

La Palestra is located in the Plaza Hotel, with gym access and a la carte training services (extra charge) available to hotel guests, and a full-service health and fitness center available for members only. For La Palestra’s other NYC locations, and to learn more about the company, visit the website.

Images by Amy Barkow courtesy of La Palestra

Yves Behar on the stylishly subtle accessory that just might add a few years to your life

Today at TED Global 2011 Jawbone introduced the UP, an electronic bracelet clearly born of the company’s design DNA. About the size of a Livestrong band, the UP serves users 24/7, using sophisticated sensors to track movement and sleeping patterns. This data will then be relayed to an app, accessible on phones, tablets and computers, in which users can type in the nutritional data of their diet. Serving as a diary of your daily activity, the app becomes a life coach of sorts, providing helpful suggestions tailored to your diet, exercise and sleeping patterns.

Labeled as functional jewelry, the UP’s pioneering achievement is its subtlety. Jawbone’s VP of Product Management, Travis Bogard tells CH, “There are other devices but they are bulky and unattractive and people aren’t comfortable wearing them. So we made one that you don’t really notice. We’ve gotten used to people wearing things that blend in. It’s one of the biggest breakthroughs. It’s much smaller than most of the existing devices and truly the intersection between wearability and design and solves a technical problem.”

As a company, Jawbone first tackled the wireless audio market with a unique design philosophy: how to best reach people on multiple levels with their products. They revolutionized the bluetooth headset market with the original Jawbone product, first using style, simplicity, and comfort to establish the standard of excellence and incorporating innovative features like environmental noise cancellation. The strength of their super successful Jambox portable speaker hinged not only on its ease-of-use and sleek design but on its powerful bass and the charming voice used when setting it. They also made it very easy to change and update those voices whenever the mood hits.

With 68% of Americans either overweight or obese, and the growing rate of lifestyle disease surpassing that of communicable disease, tracking one’s health has become more important than ever. While devices like the Fitbit seek to address this issue, the UP is the first to combine practicality with style. It is this understanding of how best to connect these devices to people that has propelled Jawbone’s success.”It’s about the next frontier of computing, about wearable products and we’re one of the few companies geared up to do that,” Bogard says.

We asked Jawbone’s designer Yves Behar about the role of design at the company.

How does UP fit into Jawbone’s design vocabulary?

“My role for the last few years now has been to envision unique and authentic creative that spans a product, it’s packaging, it’s UI and UX, it’s communication and much more.  I call it “inescapable engagement”, every part of the encounter between a person and the Jawbone brand/product follows a story that fulfils un-met desires: simplicity of form, tactile delight in materials and textures, expressive differentiation.

Solving the macro and the micro, removing the friction that technology often adds to human experiences, communicating genuinely, surprising at every step…all are part of the challenges we tackle at the design level, but also at the management level with the CEO Hosain Rahman.”

What was the a-ha moment when you knew you had the design nailed?

“I am never quite sure we have nailed it! So, we keep working at it, trying more detail variations, playing with 0.1mm subtleties on the design till we are right, and till we are wrong.  It’s only then that we “know” for sure.

When prototypes arrive in the studio, and that’s often a daily occurrence, we can start wearing the products, feeling the subtle tactile changes…and so, when I saw the wave texture reflecting the light just right, and the bracelet felt at home on my wrist, and the metal detail was brushed right, and one of the designers said “when can I get one of those to wear? It’s ok if the battery is not charged I just want to wear it”, then the a-ha moment came!”

The Jawbone UP is due to be released later this year.