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Philly = Art + Architecture + Design

5 Feb

philadelphia best design blog

If you look back into the archives of this blog, you’ll find it all started as a way for me to learn about Design in Philadelphia. I explored and attended events. I took pictures and made friends, connections, colleagues… I volunteered. And I got one, two, three, four jobs in art, design, and marketing. (Sometimes all three at once.) I wrote about art, architecture, design, events, people: Urban Outfitter’s Terrain at Styers, Inga Saffron, Paine’s Park Project, The American Commerce Center, Field Operations‘ Race Street Pier, The Office of Arts Culture and the Creative Economy, ICFF, and more. And sometimes, for long periods of time, I didn’t write anything at all. But I never stopped exploring and learning. And you should too.

Philly’s got contemporary art and design for days, plus the standard of living to actually survive as a creative person. Close enough to NYC to drop in and explore but far enough away not to become world-weary and exploited. Outdoorsy with the largest urban park in the world right there. A forward-thinking administration that’s really changing things and putting the city back on track. New projects and buildings and parks and museums and restaurants too. And I’m not even going to start on your food. (But seriously, eat your weight in sandwiches- not one place the world over makes them as good).

Get out there, see things, do things. It’s a great big wonderful world and damnit if Philly’s one of the best places to be. (But you don’t need me to tell you that, do you?) After over a year away I still miss everything the gritty burg has to offer. I’ll be back time and again, likely one day for good too- how could I not? Philly will always be my home town.

_______________________

Update 02.05.13 I’m starting a new venture at www.kevinderrick.com and wanted to check in here one last time. Ater many months away I’m happy to see there’s still some decent traffic and people are exploring Philly to its fullest. Good stuff.

DesignPhiladelphia–Day Seven

19 Oct

Today we’re covering the bases with something for everyone: architecture for inside and out, fashion, film, furniture design, and outdoor happenings.

Not A Vacant Lot

313 S. Broad Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

Daily, October 19 – 23

In the middle of vibrant Center City Philadelphia, just four blocks from City Hall and surrounded by cultural venues, sits a large vacant lot. DesignPhiladelphia – in tandem with The University of the Arts, Independent curator Marianne Bernstein and Penn Design students – will produce Not a Vacant Lot, a 5-day exhibition at 313 South Broad Street incorporating Bernstein’s Play House. In re-imagining its purpose, the space will become a showcase of cutting-edge, temporary programming, cultural offerings and landscape design, studded with live performances changing daily, as well as video showings at night.

Used as little more than a parking lot, the space’s underuse is typical of Philadelphia’s pervasive vacancy problem, adding up to more than 40,000 such empty lots. But due to its prime location, access to transit and neighboring institutions such as the Kimmel Center and Wilma Theater, this lot has unique potential to be reinvented as a major asset to the Avenue of the Arts and Philadelphia as a whole.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

*due to weather predictions, Not A Vacant Lot will open on Thursday, October 20

www.designphiladelphia.org

 
lenfesthall 

Lenfest Hall: Designed For Excellence

Curtis Institute of Music,

Lenfest Hall, 1616 Locust Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

8:30am-10:30am

Designing a state-of-the-art 21st century building that’s comfortable with its 19th Century neighbors. Presentation by Daniel McCoubrey and Seth Cohen, architects/project managers inside Lenfest Hall, the Curtis Institute of Music’s new building near Rittenhouse Square. In partnership with Venturi Scott Brown and Associates.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

RSVP 215-717-3141 or charles.finch@curtis.edu

www.curtis.edu

eames

Good Looking is Not Always Good Quality – How Do You Tell?

Marketplace Design Center

2400 Market Street, Grand Hall, 4th Floor

Wednesday October 19, 2011

11am

Consumers and designers alike will be enthralled and educated by Valerie Moran. One Louis Philippe sleigh bed, George Smith style sofa or all weather chaise may look much like the other, yet the prices and quality can vary tremendously. What’s underneath? What do you look for when making your purchase and how do you indentify quality construction and value? Take this guided tour of high-end goods and be enlightened and delighted! Light fare following the event in Suite 106. In partnership with Grange Furniture.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

www.marketplacedc.com

dust to dawn hats

Hat Making Workshop

Dust to Dawn Fashions Inc.

1505 Reed Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011
Session One: 1pm-4pm, Session Two: 5pm-9pm

Session One: 1pm-4pm, for kindergarteners ages 5-6, teaches how to make art in 3D and create a sculpture hat. Session Two: 5pm-9pm, for teenagers and adults ages 14 and up, teaches how to design and make a fascinator hat.

Admission: $50

RSVP hatsbydawn@gmail.com
www.dusttodawnfash.com

   

dialogo365 

Diálogo 365: A Case Study in Contemporary Exhibition Design

Casa de Vuenezuela and The curARTorial Lab

Trust, 249-15 Arch Street

Tuesday October 18, 2011

11am-12pm

This interactive presentation will focus the design of contemporary art exhibition in historical  spaces like Crane Arts and the new Crane Arts Old School. Anabelle Rodríguez-Lawton, Chief Curator of the 2011 Diálogo 365 exhibition for Casa de Venezuela, and Founding Director of ~The curARTorial LAB, will discuss some of her design strategies including: designing exhibitions for historical venues, and the relationship between exhibition design and complementary catalog publications. Attendees will also get to tour the Diálogo 365 exhibition – the largest annual showcase of Latino Art in Philadelphia – in both venues.

Free and open to the public.

*previously scheduled for 10/18
linedivider

Spaces Tailored to the Clients: Juan Montoya

Marketplace Design Center

2400 Market St, Grand Hall, 4th Floor

Wednesday October 19, 2011
2pm

One of the most acclaimed and prolific interior designers in the world today, Juan Montoya was born in Colombia. Following two years of work and study in Paris and Milan, he founded his design business in 1978. Mr. Montoya presents slides of four never before published projects. Set in varied locals around the world, he speaks about the importance of having the culture and beauty of the region influence the design and materials used. Book signing and meet and greet following event in Suite 105. In partnership with Century Furniture.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.
www.marketplacedc.com

grayarea

*Gray Area: Provocations on the Future of Preservation

Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

5:30pm reception, 6:15-8pm panel discussion

Gray Area: Provocations on the Future of Preservation is comprised of a moderated panel discussion, plus a limited-edition catalog of case studies and commissioned works intended to provoke fresh thinking about historic preservation. Using the Philadelphia region as a point of departure – but encouraging regional, national and global perspectives – Gray Area considers preservation in light of new economic realities, demographic shifts, technological changes, environmental pressures and myriad fast-changing factors.

Join us for an evening of smart talk with thinkers including Tod Williams (Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects), Lloyd Alter (TREEHUGGER.com), Mark Alan Hughes (founding director, Greenworks) and Carol Franklin (Andropogon).Attendees will take home a free copy of the Gray Area catalog, a compilation of projects and emerging ideas. Gray Area is made possible by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program.

*THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT

FGI

Exploring the Interplay Between Fashion and Interior Design

Marketplace Design Center, 2400 Market Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

5:30pm-8pm

Kathleen Nicholson Webber, lifestyle writer and author of Spectacular Homes of Greater Philadelphia, will lead a discussion on “Exploring the Interplay Between Fashion and Interior Design” with four design professionals, each with their own lively point-of-view. 5:30pm-6:15pm wine and cheese. 6:30pm-7:30pm program. Supported by Fashion Group Philadelphia.

Wheelchair accessible.

Admission: $20 for members, $30 for non-members, free for students with ID

www.philadelphia.fgi.org

linedivider

Collab Presents Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion

Philadelphia Art Museum, Perelman Building

Fairmount and Pennsylvania Avenues

Wednesday October 19, 2011

6pm: lecture with curator Kathryn Hiesinger in the Skylit Atrium

Gallery open 5pm-7pm

This fall, Collab and The Philadelphia Museum of Art proudly present Zaha Hadid, Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, with the 2011 Collab Design Excellence Award in conjunction with her exhibition in the museum’s Perelman Building. The exhibition will highlight this world renowned architect and designer’s unique creative history including architectural models and drawings, furniture, decorative arts and videos. Wrapping up the entire gallery with a two-dimensional tone-on-tone graphic, Hadid transforms the exhibition space into a fluid, dynamic composition, turning the traditional museum viewing experience on its head. Exhibition runs September 17- March 25.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

www.philamuseum.org/collab

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Andropogon Open Studio

Andropogon

10 Shurs Lane, Manayunk PA

Wednesday October 19, 2011

6pm-8pm

Join us for an open studio tour at Andropogon Associates, a pioneering ecological planning and design firm located in a readapted textile mill where we will exhibit innovative landscape design.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

www.andropogon.com

ligneroset

Ligne Roset Presents: An Evening with Antoine Roset

Ligne Roset

4131 Main Street, Manayunk PA

Wednesday October 19, 2011

6pm

Guest speaker Antoine Roset of the Roset family and Vice President of Ligne Roset USA, will be discussing Ligne Roset’s 150 years of innovative design and the future of contemporary furniture. Join us for wine, cheese and raffle!

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

www.lignerosetphilly.com

linedivider

pompadour

Pompadour

Moko Beauty Salon

55 N. 3rd Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

6:30pm-9pm

Join us for a night of celebrating the popular hair trend inspired by Madame de Pompadour. Sip cocktails while eye-gazing at models pompadoured in various stylings – everything from the Gibson girls to rockabilly to modern-day street culture. Wear your best pomp to our party and receive a complimentary giftbag.

Free and open to the public.

www.mokobeauty.com

AmericanSwedish

photo courtesy of the American Swedish Historical Museum

Scandinavian Design Retrospective

American Swedish Historical Museum

1900 Pattison Avenue

Wednesday October 19, 2011

*6:30pm

As part of our exhibition program series Design Dialogues, Associate Professor of Interior Design at Drexel University Karin Kuenstler will speak on the history of design in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. As the daughter of Swedish parents and life-long student of design, both are subjects close to her heart. Each year, Professor Kuenstler takes a group of students to Scandinavia for a closer look at the region’s design concepts and styles.

Free with general museum admission. Wheelchair accessible.

*previously scheduled for 7:30pm

designatedsketcher

The Art of Process

The Designated Sketcher

Poggenpohl Showroom, 230 N. 2nd Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

7pm-9pm

Presented by The Designated Sketcher, in collaboration with Poggenpohl, this event will focus on a lecture and discussion regarding the design process that creative students and professionals go through when attacking a problem. We will touch upon the players involved and how outside influences can make or break a great project.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

www.thedesignatedsketcher.com

linedivider

Foyer of Philadelphia

Designing for Homeless L.G.B.T. Youth

Triumph Brewing, 117 Chestnut Street

Wednesday October 19, 2011

7pm-10pm

Foyer of Philadelphia presents international and regional concepts in housing LGBT youth, local artistic representations of those most in need, and the chance to become aware of and influence a growing need in the Philadelphia community.

$10 open to the public.

Tomorrow, get out and see a floating plastic bag installation, Benjamin Pardo’s Dialogues on Design lecture, Colonial Wallcovering’s new wallpaper designs and more. Check out www.designphiladelphia.org for the full events calendar.

DesignPhiladelphia–Day Six

18 Oct

Marching on to day six. Today learn, see, and experience design as an agent for change.


Today’s Highlights

October 18, 2011

RUST

Renewed Urban Studio Tent (RUST)

Andy Walker & Andy Heisey

Connelly Auditorium, 211 S. Broad Street, 8th Floor

Tuesday October 18, 2011

8:30am-9:30am

If nature were allowed to reclaim the land in the city it would grow out of the refuse of man. Our waste would be incorporated into its new life. What Andy and Andy are illustrating in “Renewed Urban Studio Tent” is an example of recycling the materials found in the city into a new structure building on the contaminated urban soil. Andy and Andy will be giving a presentation on the history of environmental art, their reasons for building “RUST” and display of a detailed model of their project. Light breakfast will be served.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

http://www.andyandyrust.com

 playphilly
Playphilly Big Chalkers

Cafe Cret, 16th & The Parkway
Tuesday October 18, 2011
5pm
Express yourself with four-foot, adult sized ‘sidewalk chalk’ crayons. Big Chalkers allow you to leave your temporary tag on Philadelphia’s urban canvas while invigorating your inner child. Coloring outside the lines is highly recommended! Come out and play!
Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.
http://www.playphilly.com  

linedivider

DuPont™Corian® Dialogues on Design

Organic Insight of Healing Environments

Presentation by Barbara J. Huelat, FASID, AAHID, EDAC, IIDA

Marketplace Design Center, 2400 Market Street

Tuesday October 18, 2011

5:30pm reception, 6:15pm presentation

Healing environments center on healing the body, mind and spirit. Healthcare design must focus on our human qualities. We are part of nature and as such we respond positively to elements of nature. Organic design is not just a trend or style, it is design based on programmatic needs of healing modalities.

This presentation explores healing environments that embrace nature as the teacher to solve complex issues in challenging spaces such as emergency medicine, cancer treatment, and behavioral care. Huelat will further discuss today’s design tools of color kinetic lighting, special materials, interactive video, music set to water, fractals, and human relationships.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

http://www.designphiladelphia.org

muralarts

The Whole Site: Muralism and Public Art in Context

Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch Street

Tuesday October 18, 2011

5:30pm-8:30pm

In recent efforts to push our creative boundaries and redefine muralism in the 21st century, Mural Arts increasingly partners with design professionals in thinking about the WHOLE space – physical and social – that a mural or community-based public art project seeks to transform. Join us in a muralLAB conversation with design partners from nationally renowned design studios, including Interface Studio and the International Design Clinic, both from Philadelphia, PrePost from Brooklyn, New York, and Thoughtbarn from Austin, Texas.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

http://www.muralarts.org

digitashealth

100 Ideas in 100 minutes 

Digitas Health

100 Penn Square East, 11th Floor

Tuesday October 18, 2011

6pm

Philadelphia has always had a thing for visionaries. Really, what other city would celebrate a guy who flew a kite in a thunderstorm? Our town is the birthplace of America’s first type foundry and the home of Mother’s Day shopping sprees. The truly unique ideas haven’t stopped there, and thanks to creative thinkers all over the City of Brotherly Love, they won’t be stopped any time soon. Ideas (Heart) Philly, a gallery-style event about the longstanding flame between our favorite thing (ideas) in our favorite place, will feature ideas from thinkers, designers, educators, writers and architects all over the city.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

http://www.digitashealth.com

linedivider

Suds, Studs and Stories

UJMN Architects + Designers

718 Arch Street, Suite 5N

Tuesday October 18, 2011

5:30pm-7:30pm

Did you know UJMN designs everything from buildings to interiors, exhibitions, graphics, signage and many things in between? Come visit our studio to see our full range of work and what is currently on the boards; meet our creative team and tour the office. Enjoy beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres while catching up with colleagues and enjoying highlights of our projects in and around Philadelphia: including La Salle’s Science and Technology Center, the Quorum, PSEG Energy and Environmental Resource Center, the Stoogeum, Liberty Bell Center exhibits, and more.

Free and open to the public.

http://www.ujmn.com

itsinthebag

It’s In The Bag – Community Building Through Sustainable Design

Center City District, Baker Industries, the Art Institute of Philadelphia and SA VA

Café Crét, 16th and the Parkway

Tuesday October 18, 2011

6pm

The Center City District wanted to repurpose obsolete street flags into tote bags.  When conventional methods did not pan out, they had to get creative. What developed was more than just a reusable bag. Come hear how partnerships with the Philadelphia Prison System, Baker Industries, a nonprofit factory in Kensington, fashion design students from the Art Institute of Philadelphia and SA VA created a wholesale program, job training and sustainable Philly street fashion.

Free and open to the public. Wheelchair accessible.

http://www.centercityphila.org

  phillyworks

Philly Works in Partnership with The Commonwealth Lecture Series

Philly Works & The Philadelphia Art Alliance

Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 South 18th Street

Tuesday October 18, 2011

7pm

The Fall 2011 season for PAA’s flagship lecture series, The Commonwealth, kicks off with the organizers of Philly Works in a panel discussion during Design Philadelphia. Alexandra Schmidt-Ullrich and Will McHale will talk about their experience spearheading Philly Works, and what they have learned about Philadelphia as a city of makers both during its heyday as the “Workshop of the World” at the turn of the 20th century, and today as a magnet for designers and makers in search of space, resources and like-minded creative people.

Panel includes:

Daniel Garofalo, founding member of DVGBC + Environmental Sustainability Coordinator at UPenn

Danielle Denk, Dendritic Design

James Moustafellos, Fox School of Business at Temple University

Moderators: Will McHale + Alexandra Schmidt-Ullrich

Wheelchair accessible.

Admission: $5, free for PAA members and students with valid ID

http://www.phillyworks.net

philamade

Show & Tell

PhilaMade

StupidEasy Gallery, 307 Market Street

Tuesday October 18, 2011

7pm

Show & Tell is a conversation led by Philadelphia area creative teams. Three teams will briefly present three project focused on the creative process (from client services to mood boards to code libraries) followed by an extensive Q&A. Look for more news in August via @PhilaMade as we announce the presenting teams. For more information about previous Show & Tell presenters, check the website.

Free and open to the public.

http://www.philamade.com

beautifulimbalance

Beautiful Imbalance: Screening of Manufactured Landscapes and Talk Back

The Gershman Y

401 S. Broad Street

Tuesday October 18, 2011

7pm

Jennifer Baichwal’s provocative documentary Manufactured Landscapes features Edward Burtynsky’s striking “still life” photographs of China’s industrial landscapes – factories, mines, dams, and more – to illustrate humanity’s destructive impact on land and environment. Screening followed by presentation and Talkback by Barry Vacker, Associate Professor of media, utopian and cultural theory at Temple University.

Wheelchair accessible.

Admission: $6


Tomorrow be sure to check out Not a Vacant Lot, Curtis Institute of Music’s Lenfest Hall, Gray Area, a hat making workshop, and The American Swedish Historical Museum and The Philadelphia Art Museum.

Visit www.designphiladelphia.org for the full events calendar.
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