DWR: Tools for Living SoHo Artist Window Series, No. 6.

Our latest DWR: Tools for Living SoHo window comes from graphic designer Grant Gold. His inspiration for this window series was “winter time in the city.” 

It is a time when he feels more introverted and introspective of his life and habits, a time of reflection and response to those reflections. “Winter, particularly in the city, is a period of seclusion for people and it wraps them into themselves,” he says, “around all of their thoughts and into a messy rumpus of trying to comfort their own ideas about who they are and who they want to be.” Grant enjoys the idea that the seasons change the way people act and feel. He wanted to convey winter as a time of “disheveled adaptation.” 

Driving me crazy.

Wright’s upcoming “Important Design” auction will include a Tatra 87: A sedan with an “air-cooled, aluminum-alloy, 8-cylinder, overhead cam, rear-located engine producing 73 horse power that propels the car to speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour.” I don’t know what all of that means, but I’m so smitten with this car that I don’t care. It speaks in a foreign tongue (a.k.a. gear talk) and I’m hanging on every word. And in this case, I better hang on tight since the Tatra 87 has got gusto thanks to its streamlined body and stabilizing fin. Designed by Hans Ledwinka in 1936, the Tatra 87 being auctioned is from 1940 and has fewer than 700 miles on the original engine. Read more about the car, including its “one-shot pedal operated lubricating system” here, and for additional photos and bidding info, click here. (And if you are the successful bidder, promise you’ll take me for a ride.)

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future.

It’s been three years since the traveling exhibit Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future kicked off in Helsinki, and the tour has finally made it to New York. This retrospective takes an in-depth look at Eero Saarinen, the architect and designer whose work brought international attention to mid-twentieth-century America. While you may know that Saarinen designed the TWA Terminal at JFK (shown above), the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and the Tulip™ and Womb™ chairs, you might be surprised to know the full scale of Saarinen’s career. The “potent expressions of national power” that Saarinen designed introduced modern architecture to mainstream America. The impact of which continues to shape architectural practices today. For Nicolai Ouroussoff’s review in The New York Times, click here. The exhibit is at the Museum of the City of New York through January 31, 2010.

Image: TWA Terminal, New York International (now John F. Kennedy International) Airport, New York, circa 1962. Photographer Balthazar Korab. 

DWR People: Hanging Around SoHo.

In the “hot” seat this month is Dan, who’s the proprietor of our DWR: Tools for Living store in SoHo.

“One of my favorite items in our store is the Eames Hang-It-All. It was my first employee purchase at DWR and I’m a huge fan of Ray and Charles Eames. Simplicity and functionality – what more can you ask for? Even my young nieces are taken with the Hang-It-All. They love all the bright colors and always make an effort to hang their coats and sweaters on it when they come to visit me. Seeing this, their mom said, ‘you never hang up anything at home. Why here?’ So, as a gift to my sister to help her control the chaos in my nieces’ bedrooms, I purchased one for each of them. Something so simple and functional can keep my nieces’ rooms tidy and my sister sane.”

– Dan M. Studio Proprietor, DWR: Tools for Living in SoHo

They came to Can It!

 

Above, Can It! hostess Veronica Webb autographs her portrait. 

Last night, Design Within Reach's flagship SoHo Studio was transformed into a festive event space for Can It!, the gala benefit hosted by DWR and VIPP to raise money for DIFFA: Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS. Five of the one-of-a-kind customized VIPP trash bins were auctioned live at the event. Flashbulbs popped as, under the supervision of Sotheby's auctioneer Benjamin Doller, Nigel Barker and Can It! hostess Veronica Webb auctioned off David Rockwell’s LED-covered bin for $6,500. Yoko Ono’s bin went for $3,400, and Ralph Lauren’s leather-clad bin closed at $3,000. Lady Bunny’s eyeful of a trashcan was auctioned off for $1,100 with the help of Evette Rios, and Veronica Webb’s Africa-inspired waste bin, complete with her portrait and the Robert Lee Morris tribal jewelry she wore in the photo, brought in a whopping $7,500.

 
Above, VIPP USA president (and grandson of VIPP founder Holger Nielsen) Kasper Egelund poses with Lady Pink's bin, which raised over $4,000. Below, some of the bins waiting to be won in the silent auction. You have to wonder what signature touches George Nelson, Edward Wormley, Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and Charles Eames would have applied to their custom VIPP bin.

 
Between the live auction, silent auction and eBay auction, DWR and VIPP successfully raised over $50,000 for DIFFA.