Hasta La Ideas

We asked Lindsey Adelman to create a custom speaker for a unique audio experience during NYC Design Week

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Best known for her hand-blown glass and sculptural brass lighting fixtures, Lindsey Adelman is no stranger to exploring the limits of industrial design. Driven by this pionering spirit, Adelman’s studio, in collaboration with Kiel Mead of the AmDC, teamed up with Sonos to create the “Soundalier”, a centerpiece for the Sonos Listening Library being held at The Standard East Village at Noho Design District during NYC Design Week 2012. This gorgeously inventive speaker fixture embodies Adelman’s bold design while showcasing the supreme quality and adaptability of the wireless Play: 3 speaker from Sonos.

Inspired by Mead’s initial idea and starting from a photoshopped collage, Adelman repurposed an existing BB.05.01 lighting fixture by replacing the globes with speakers, customizing it to create a piece that demands attention. “It’s new. I love that the form has integrity but is also quirky. The way the speakers are so massive next to the skinny brass arms, you wouldn’t think the frame couldn’t hold their weight. It’s really unexpected and fun,” says Adelman.

The raw brass frame has been given a dark bronze patina to play off the clean aesthetic of the Sonos Play: 3 speakers, making for a beautiful juxtaposition that nicely compliments the other designers showcased in the Listening Library. The Soundalier will be suspended above the custom-designed room holding a collection of design pieces by the likes of Pete Oyler, Evan Dublin and The Future Perfect to create a truly unique listening experience.

The exclusively designed Soundalier and its accompanying collection of designs curated by Kiel Mead will be shown in the Sonos Listening Library at The Standard East Village as part of the Noho Design District. Exhibit hours are Friday 18 – Monday 21 May 2012 from 12 Noon to 7:00 p.m.

Remember those commercials featuring Zack the Legomaniac? His real-world, adult equivalents are known as LEGO Certified Professionals, a designation that only a dozen people worldwide have achieved. One of them is Adam Reed Tucker, a Chicago architect-turned-“architectural artist” that now builds exclusively with tiny plastic bricks. “Working with my hands, creating art and sculpture, the freedom to create and explore my own vision of design without computer reliance, and to share architecture with the world all made this a natural move for me,” he says. “I wanted to work on ways to inspire and motivate those familiar with architectural elements and those with no design knowledge at all.”

Tucker is to thank for the LEGO Architecture product line, launched in 2008 with kits devoted to the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. He’s also the tireless brickbuilder behind “LEGO Architecture: Towering Ambition,” on view through September 3 at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. Tucker’s 15 globe-spanning LEGO landmarks (including the Empire State Building, Frank Lloyd Wright‘s Fallingwater, and the Burj Khalifa) recently got some new neighbors, as the museum welcomed LEGO versions of 15 Central Park West (downsized by its original designers, Robert A.M. Stern Architects) and a couple of hometown favorites: a Metro station (ZGF Architects) and a traditional center hall colonial home (Gulick Group). Total brick count on the three models? 77,000. This weekend, Tucker returns to the museum to put the finishing touches on his LEGO White House. Stop by between noon and 4 p.m. on Saturday or Sunday to join in the architectural fun. Can’t make it to Our Nation’s Capital? Build your own LEGO White House (considerably smaller than the museum version) with this 560-piece kit. No word as to whether the gift shop also sells a LEGObama figure to place inside.

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At the Herman Miller pop-up shop, a family of Alexander Girard figures implore visitors to peruse Todd Oldham and Kiera Coffee’s mega-monograph on the designer. At right, an Eames lounge and ottoman with pedestal tables and an asterisk clock designed by George Nelson. (Photos: UnBeige)

The International Contemporary Furniture Fair doesn’t kick off until next Saturday, but Herman Miller is getting a jump on New York design week with a pop-up shop in Soho. The 6,000-square-foot showroom, open to the public through July 1, is arranged as a series of vignettes sprinkled with whimsical objects and designer-friendly books as well as art from Portland’s PDX gallery. It’s also the first place to see the Herman Miller Collection, a mix of classic pieces (Eames chairs, Noguchi tables, George Nelson‘s enduringly endearing Marshmallow sofa) and the work of contemporary designers such as Konstantin Grcic, Jasper Morrison, and Naoto Fukasawa. The portfolio of freestanding furniture for home and office is a revival of sorts. Ben Watson, executive creative director of Herman Miller, looked to heed Nelson’s 1948 call for “the continuing creation of a permanent collection designed to meet the requirements for modern living.” And so Ward Bennett credenzas mix with Stefano Giovannoni‘s swooping Paso Doble chairs, and BassamFellows’ elegant Tuxedo sofas cozy up to Nelson’s own mod tables. Watson has lined up future Collection pieces from the likes of Leon Ransmeier and Ayse Birsel and Bibi Seck.

Wooden bears by David Weeks prowl a table of books and accessories. At right, Grcic’s new Medici chair, produced by Mattiazzi, has a mod Adirondack vibe.

A rainbow of Eames molded plastic chairs around a Nelson X-Leg table.
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The conference on idea execution continues

Based on the Thomas Edison quote that “genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”, we founded the 99% Conference with Behance four years ago to help inspire idea execution. As day two of this year’s conference is underway, we just heard a bit of entrepreneurial insight from Jonathan Adler and Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal and are now anxiously awaiting the words of design mastermind James Victore and Radiolab’s host and creator Jad Abumrad later on today. As well as the premier of more Cool Hunting Videos.

While we’ll continue to be on site at The Times Center through the end of today, those out there unable to make it can follow the inspiration as it unfolds via the CH twitter feed, the 99% Conference feed or by searching #99conf on Twitter and Instagram.

A couple of centuries ago, when the Revolutionary War was in full swing, the British commandeered a patch of farmland in the East River and used it to launch amphibious attacks on Manhattan. Today we know it as Randall’s Island, and a new crop of Brits have seized it for friendly, aboveground purposes: an international contemporary art fair. The first edition of Frieze New York opens Friday in Randall’s Island Park. Nearly 200 galleries will showcase works inside a light-infused temporary structure designed by New York-based Solid Objectives–Indeburg Liu (SO–IL).

“We build a very big fair and to try and find a spot for it isn’t easy,” Frieze New York co-director Amanda Sharp tells us. “It has to be a space that is accessible, that has a little bit of romance and panache about it, that feels in tune with the idea that perhaps Frieze is more of an innovation.” Determined to avoid setting up shop in a hangar on the Hudson, Sharp and co-director Matthew Slotover scouted fresh locales, including one they had never heard of: Randall’s Island. “I go out there, I get out there very easily, and I’m basically standing on the river, in this beautiful open green space, looking back at this fantastic view,” says Sharp, who also discovered “a bit of grittiness” reminiscent of ’70s New York and films such as The French Connection, which was shot on the island. “So it is unknown, but oddly enough, it’s very familiar. It has a little bit of magic about it, and that’s what we were looking for,” she adds. “If you build a fair with really good galleries, I assume that really good collectors will come because they like to see good art, but if you make it an event, perhaps you open art up to more people, and that really excites me.”

Above: A rendering of the fair’s temporary structure. (Courtesy SO–IL and Frieze New York)

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