Reflecting Absence

Project for One World Trade Center

Lower Manhattan how it will soon be with the almost completed One World Trade Center which will have 104 floors and will be 1776 feet high (the year of American Independence). The tall antenna will be an ambassador for peace.

Reflecting Absence

Michael Arad and Peter Walker created the Memorial  “Reflecting absence” that will be inaugurated today, September 11, 2011, in New York:  it consists of two massive pools set within the footprints of the Twin Towers with waterfalls  cascading for 20 meters down their sides.  On the perimeter bronze plaques will have inscribed the names of the thousands of victims of that day of terror.
"The design strives to make visible what is absent. The primary responsibility we have is to those we lost that day." Michael Arad.

Project for 2 World Trade Center by Norman Foster + Partners.

I am sure you have heard the question many times: “Where were you that day?”

My answer: I was in Milan and just after lunch I went for coffee to a friend whose daughter was working in Manhattan as a lawyer.  We heard the news from her…thankfully she was safe and  she was miraculously able to call and say she was OK…then the phone line dropped and the second tower was hit.

Ten years have passed, life went on but we didn’t forget.

Images © Silverstein Properties, Inc.;  © 2011 PWP Landscape Architecture; © Foster + Partners

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".

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Eataly, alti cibi

Lidia Bastianich

Eat – Italy = Eataly

Alti cibi = High quality food

New York, 200 5th Avenue, a prestigious address for 50,000 square feet dedicated to food lovers.
If you are so lucky to live in New York or just on a short trip there, don’t forget this address, being there is like going to Italy without the need to fly over the ocean. On display there are the freshest ingredients,  the finest Italian housewares, cooking lessons are offered, and you can dine in a choice of several restaurants.
Eataly is really about Italy as the celebrity chef Mario Batali points out. “We're sharing it with New York,” he says. “This is our interpretation of what Italian culture is. We're not pretending to invent anything. It's all in support of helping people eat better.”
“We” refers to his partners, Joe Bastianich, Lidia Bastianich of the famous Lidia’s Italy TV series and books, not to mention her several fantastic restaurants, and Oscar Farinetti,  who founded the first Eataly in Turin in 2007. They have worked together for two years to create a New York flagship store, assembling a fabulous dried pasta collection, a 10,000-bottle Italian wine shop and seven café/restaurants. Manzo is a sublime steak experience while other more casual counters are devoted to fresh fish, pasta, vegetarian options, panini, pizza or coffee. Surrounding it all are shelves of canned, bottled and packaged goods, fresh and cured meats, fish, cheese, fruit, vegetables, desserts and housewares.

Mario Batali at the inauguration of the flagship store Eataly

Interesting is to read the Manifesto, where they proclaim their love for quality food. As a reminder:  the great movement Slow Food was born in Italy in 1986 as an alternative to Fast Food and rapidly expanded globally.

A big round of Parmigiano Reggiano, cut in chunks with a special short rounded blade.

 

The best prosciutto is cut by hand in Italy with a special very long and sharp blade.

 

Pizzaaaaa!

Finally a caffè,  standing at the counter as Italians do, to pause from shopping or to complete a delicious meal, if requested it can be served with a drop of Grappa or Sambuca in it (caffè corretto).

Eat

Learn

Shop

Hoping that from Italy and Japan, where there are several Eataly,  and now most recently New York, they will venture to the West Coast…

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Made in Italy in New York

Year 1900

The first 100 cases of Martini vermouth arrive at New York port. The Italian vermouth encounters great success. In the 60's a young artist creates new posters to publicize the product...his name is Andy Warhol...

Year 1948

Salvatore Ferragamo opens a store on Park Avenue (25 years after his first American store in Los Angeles!). Today Ferragamo is on Fifth Avenue and it is his biggest store in the world. A shoe from the 40's designed for Judy Garland

Year 1950

Vespa by Piaggio zig zags in Manhattan happily until 1985, when it withdraws from the US market due to antipollution regulations. Vespa comes back in 2000 and now has about 20% of USA scooter's market.

Year 1952

Olivetti typewriters Lettera 22 and Lexicon 80 become part of the permanent Design collection of MoMa, followed in 1969 by the iconic Valentine by Ettore Sottsass,

Year 1972

at MoMa opens a new exhibition: "Italy, the new domestic landscape" with the best Italian names like Zanuso, Bellini, Joe Colombo

Year 1981

Flos opens a store in New York presenting new design pieces that changed the way of lighting. The latest Euroluce "Smithfield" already a hit, is designed by Jasper Morrison

Year 1988

B&B Italia opens in Soho

Year 1996

Ettore Sottsass receives the prestigious Design Award by the Brooklyn Museum. In 1956 his first trip To New York that was for him like "Metropolis" by Fritz Lang.

Year 1996

The first Artemide store opens on Greene street (now part of 15 stores in the USA) conquering the public with his lights. Here the classic "Fato" designed in 1969 by the genius of Gio' Ponti.

Year 1998

Snaidero cucine (Italian for kitchens)

Year 2002

On Greene street opens Flou (present already on the market for many years). Here the latest model "Mark" by Carlo Colombo

Year 2006

Gold medal for Italian Architecture and the creator of Paris' Beaubourg, architect Renzo Piano receives praise for the enlargement of Morgan Library. A year later he designs the new building of The New York Times.

Year 2006

In the "Italian mile" on Madison Avenue, Alessi opens his second store, after the one in Soho.

Year 2007

Designed by Patricia Urquiola and Martino Berghinz the showroom Moroso opens on Greene Street, near the temple of Design, Moss Gallery.

Year 2009

Valcucine renews his store in Soho with eco-sustainability in mind.

These are only a few names among many others "taking Manhattan"

and because of the first image of this post... I propose a toast to Made in Italy!

You may also like to read:
After Milan, New York
I Saloni

After Milan, New York

From May 14 to 19, 2009 the design crowd is moving to New York for the

International Contemporary Furniture Fair 2009 (ICFF).

At the center of the events of the week will be MoMa, offering a view into history of design titled "What was good design?" (1944-1956)
"At mid-century MoMA played a leading role in the definition and dissemination of so-called Good Design, a concept that took shape in the 1930s and emerged with new relevance in the decades following World War II. This installation presents selections from MoMA's design collection that illuminate the primary values of Good Design as promoted (and disputed) by museums, design councils, and department stores. Iconic pieces by designers like Charles and Ray Eames and Hans Wegner are shown alongside more unexpected items, such as a hunting bow and a plumb bob, as well as everyday objects including an iron, a hamper, a rake, a cheese slicer, and Tupperware" (Text from MoMa website).
At the Convention Center (the glass building by Jacob Javitz) will be instead presented a selection of contemporary design and decor from around the world. Here is a prototype of the wall "Phenomena" by Sang Hoo Kim.

At Cooper-Hewitt, one of the most important museums worldwide dedicated to design, "Design for a living world" will be hosted, an exhibition centered on eco-sustainability.

Armani concept store, on Fifth Avenue, was just recently redone by a couple of Italian famed architects: Doriana and Massimiliano Fuksas with fluid lines as per Armani style, like the huge ribbons shaped stairs, a very interesting architectural piece at the core of the store, linking the different floors.

Outside the fair the Artemide evening "KarimLuce" (luce means light in Italian) with the most Pop creative mind of contemporary design, Karim Rashid.  Below his last creation "Doride"

The new Droog Design store in hip Greene Street will present "Secret Natures" and among other pieces there will be

"Tool Inlays" by Forma Fantasma designed by Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin.

During this week the new flagship store Molteni&C Dada Unifor will open at 60 Greene Street. Made in Italy is more present than ever.

To celebrate design New York will also have a retrospective on Frank Lloyd Wright at the Guggenheim (one of his creatures, turning 50) and the exhibition 1 2 3 at Moss, an icon in New York design scene and worldwide, where three different scenarios for design will be created departing from three very different studios.

After "I Saloni" in Milan, another week full of Design events...