#Interior Design Firm NY

[marcwilliamsfurniture]

Designing for Small NYC Apartments: Maximizing Space and Style

Most homes in the require the owners or the occupants to make the most of limited space. For both seasoned New Yorkers and recent transplants, designing their small apartment in a functional as well as stylish way can be a challenge. Here are some tips shared by an accomplished interior design firm NY to help you make the most of limited space and create a home you love.

Choose Multifunctional Furniture

One of the best ways to save space in a small NYC apartment is to choose multifunctional furniture. Search a bit both online and offline to find  pieces that serve multiple purposes, such as a sofa bed, a coffee table with built-in storage, or a dining table that folds up. These pieces can help you maximize your space without impacting the style.

Utilize Vertical Space

Most homeowners and occupants tend to overlook vertical space in small apartments. One of the ingenious ways to free up the floor space is to install shelves, floating cabinets, or a wall-mounted TV. It is always possible to access the items stored high up using a ladder. Or a step stool.

Opt for Mirrors

Mirrors reflect light and can thus make a small space feel much larger by virtue of creating the illusion of more depth. Hanging a large mirror on a wall can help visually expand the room. You can also use smaller mirrors as decorative accents to achieve the twin purpose.

Keep it Minimalist

A minimalist approach to managing your belongings and accumulations can help in de-cluttering your space and make it feel less cramped. Remember to keep only the essentials and avoid clutter. By using storage bins or baskets is a smart idea to keep items organized and out of sight.

Let in Natural Light

Natural light can make a small space feel more open and airy. Keep your windows clean and free of any obstructions. Add sheer curtains or blinds to let natural light to filter in while still ensuring privacy.

Incorporate Built-In Storage

Built-in storage is a great way to maximize space in a small apartment. Check if you want to add shelves, cabinets, or drawers to your walls or under your bed. This can help you keep your belongings organized and out of sight.

  Take Away

Designing for small apartments in New York is all about using your creativity and being efficient. By following these tips given by an accomplished interior design firm NY, you can create a functional and stylish space that feels like home, no matter how small it may be.

[marieburgosdesignusa]

What Makes The Help Of Interior Design Firms In NY Crucial?

Interior design firms in NY play a vital role in transforming spaces into functional, aesthetically pleasing, and safe environments. In New York, the demand for interior design services is high, making the help of interior design firms crucial. With their expertise, attention to detail, access to resources, problem-solving skills, and budget administration capabilities, New York interior design firms can help clients bring their vision to life and create spaces that meet their expectations. Read More : https://www.blogbangboom.com/blog/what-makes-the-help-of-interior-design-firms-in-ny-crucial

[evan-collins90]

Triplex condo of Richard and Barbara Rubens, of the firm Tomorrow Designs, Ltd. - Riverdale, NY (1975)

Interesting mix of the very luxurious and carpeted (even the TV?!) Geo-Glam style, and Supergraphic Ultramodern in the kitchen

Scanned from the October 1975 issue of Interior Design Magazine

[marieburgoscollection]

Shop Designer Furniture and Decorative Accessories Near Brooklyn NY

Marie Burgos Design is a full-service interior design firm specializing in residential and commercial interiors to create refined, elegant, and functional spaces. Read More: https://www.marieburgosdesign.com/

[mgluckdesigns]

Planning Home Additions In New York? 10 Ways To Make It Eco-Friendly!

Purchasing a new home is not always possible. As your lifestyle changes and your family grow, small home additions in New York are an excellent way to improve the existing property and tailor it to your current needs.

A thoughtfully-planned home renovation can deliver you the practical as well as aesthetic changes you are looking for.

Moreover, if you care about the environment and utility bills, you can always go for sustainable home additions.

How to incorporate sustainability in your home addition project? Dive into the below section to find out!

Why Should You Consider Sustainable Home Additions In New York?

Before learning how to incorporate sustainability in your low-cost home additions in New York, let’s establish why you should even consider it.

Economic benefits: One of the best benefits of going green with your construction projects is lowering energy costs. Plus, you can avail of benefits like the incentive provided by NY for switching to solar power. Similarly, you can gain financial aid from the Megawatt Block Initiative, the Net Metering policy, and the New York solar tax credit.

Health benefits: Another tempting reason for investing in eco-friendly home additions is health benefits. Incorporating green appliances and materials in your home renovation project can significantly reduce air pollutants, protecting your immune system from fatal diseases.

Environmental benefits: Using sustainable building materials can reduce your carbon footprint and help you preserve the earth’s ecosystem. Additionally, you will set an example for your family and friends to follow. 

Steps To An Eco-Friendly Home Addition In New York

Find A Sustainable Interior Designer: Search for sustainable remodeling firms with the correct credentials. Ensure the firm holds experience in designing energy-efficient, green homes.

Research: Learn as much as possible about sustainable materials and systems. Research eco-conscious building practices and Energy Star appliances, and communicate your ideas with the designer.

Stay Open: Being sustainable is a lifestyle. While you will have a lot of choices when planning eco-friendly home additions in New York, it’s essential to know how green you want it to be. Going from 0 to 100 at once can be overwhelming. Instead, take small steps towards sustainability with energy-efficient appliances, recyclable features, and sustainably harvested materials.

Chemical-Free Walls: VOC or volatile organic compounds can release harmful molecules into the environment. Therefore, choose paints with minimum amounts of VOC or greener options, such as milk paint, recycled paint, or mineral-based paint.

Long-Lasting Flooring: Selecting highly durable materials means reduced consumption and waste. You can pick natural stone tiles, imitation tiles, or slate for the flooring of your small home additions in New York.

Recycled Furniture: Look for furniture pieces made with recycled or reclaimed materials. You can check local vintage stores for beautiful reclaimed pieces.

Energy-Efficient Appliances: These appliances usually have a higher price. However, they are incredible at lowering energy consumption and utility bills. 

Low-Flow Plumbing: Low-flow plumbing can significantly help reduce your water consumption. So, if you have the budget, be sure to check out low-flow toilets.

Completing The Kitchen: Kitchen additions or remodels tend to be the most costly. One way to keep your expenses in check and make it sustainable is refacing instead of replacing the features that are still usable.

Pre-Owned Fittings: Explore your nearest flea markets, second-hand stores, and charity shops to find the best-repurposed fittings for your home.

Wrapping Up

Building sustainable home additions in New York requires careful planning. You will need to be wise about the materials you pick, their durability, and their sources. If it’s your first time dealing with eco-friendly remodels, it’s best to hire an experienced sustainable interior designer to assist you.

[bac-connex]

Day 1: Workplace Connection

NBBJ is a global architecture planning and design firm with offices in Boston MA, Columbus OH, Hong Kong, London UK, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, Portland OR, Pune India, San Francisco CA, Seattle WA, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. Most of the projects the firm focuses on is architecture and interior design. But they also do urban planning, urban design, environmental graphics, and some involve landscape architecture. The firm has studio works along with a wood-shop with printers and laser cutters, and also room for meetings with clients with presentations on the screen projected by a computer. The main positive aspect is that I like studio work and working as part of a team while communicating with clients. It's interesting because, shown above is the model for the interior project that the designers are working on, where the articles of fabric are used for furniture and the wood and porcelain are used for floors and walls. If the clients see something they do not like or want changes, the models will need to be adjusted in order to meet their needs. Once the client is satisfied, the designers and consultants explain to them the results as well as the costs and estimates for the design service the firm provides.

[severepeanutperfection]

Bringing Life to Spaces: The Alluring and Growing Decorative Laminates Market

The Decorative Laminates Market has been rapidly growing over the past few years, driven by the increasing demand for cost-effective and aesthetically appealing surfacing materials. Decorative laminates are widely used in interior design applications, such as furniture, flooring, cabinets, wall paneling, and countertops, due to their durability, versatility, and design flexibility. They are available in various textures, colors, patterns, and finishes, allowing designers and architects to create customized and trendy interiors.

The market has witnessed a significant shift towards eco-friendly and sustainable laminates in recent years, owing to the growing awareness of environmental concerns and the adoption of green building practices. Many manufacturers are now offering laminates made from recycled materials or using eco-friendly production methods. Additionally, the introduction of innovative and advanced laminates, such as fire-retardant, scratch-resistant, and anti-bacterial laminates, has also boosted market growth.

Request For The Sample Copy of The Report @ https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/3502

The Asia-Pacific region dominates the global decorative laminates market, with China, India, and Japan being the major contributors to the market growth. The region’s increasing population, rapid urbanization, and rising disposable income have resulted in a surge in demand for interior design products, such as laminates. Moreover, the growing construction industry, particularly in the commercial and residential sectors, is also driving the market growth. With the increasing popularity of decorative laminates, the market is expected to witness significant growth in the coming years, with manufacturers focusing on product innovation and sustainability to stay competitive.

About us: –

Persistence Market Research is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated research, custom research, and consulting services. Persistence Market Research boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductors and Electronics, Consumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients’ business needs.

Contact Us:

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[marieburgosdesign]

Are You Looking For The Best Interior Design Firms In NY?

Finding interior design firms in NY? We at Marie Burgos Design offer full-service interior design that turns homes from concept to completion all over the US and Commercial and Hospitality Interiors. We will help you develop and refine the ideas into clear goals, then work with you and the project architect to add more plushness to the interior. For any further information visit: https://www.marieburgosdesign.com/full-design-service 

[interiorsdesignes-blog]

Decorate your home with professional interior designer services

Interior designers can help you to enhance your home. It could be a terrifying believed to you because that individual could do some very different changes that you could end up not preference. You really wish that you could do it yourself. You are a wonderful person, have a wonderful style, have category and it really seems that you should be able to get this achieved, and done well with interior design. Meanwhile, you are spending decent cash away on stuff that are not great.

 While hiring them you need to look for many points what should be done. Interior decorator know you are having trouble with your interior and it is not the best it can look, that is why you known as them in the first choice. They may not be the best ones, but what they do is provide your new Top Interior Design Firm decorator a route and an idea of what you are for the results your style. This is very useful information for your interior decorator who is looking to enable you to incredibly happy so that you will suggest her of him to your friends and especially that you will enjoy your new style.

If you've always imagined of successfully preparing the design of decorations of different structures, then leading profession interior decorator is for you to visit. Moreover, if you have an eye for details and a feeling of shade and mixtures, then you'll definitely get all the services of your choice and design. They will be the one who will serve you the way you wish according to your choice and interest and even at affordable rat, interior designers ny will not ask you to lose your pocket just for having your choice of decoration. They will suggest you different of trendy styles and designs which you can easily select from. To contact them you can visit to their online portal and come across with their offers.

[tynatunis]

Je commence mon tour d'horizon dominicale en vous présentant le travail d'un architecte d'intérieur installé à Paris depuis bien longtemps mais que j'ai découvert seulement début juillet sur Instagram : Elliot Barnes @elliottbarnesarchitect Cet Américain à Paris depuis 1987 doublement diplômé Cornell NY et Ensad Paris a été repéré par la Grande André Putman. Son agence Elliott Barnes Interiors date de 2004. In 1987, he joined the office of the renowned designer Andrée Putman, who in 1997 handed over the management of her firm to him; a position he occupied until 2003. In 2004 Elliott Barnes created his own design firm in Paris. Fauteuil Glynell : Hêtre teinté, nubuck ou cuir. Fauteuil historique. Collection Elliott Barnes pour Ecart International. Crédit photo @francisamiand #art #design #collectbledesign #LiveArtfully#ArtAndDesign #InteriorDesignInspiration #HousesOfLA #ArtInTheHome #ColourTheory #InsideCollectorHomes #CollectorCrib #FrenchApartment #DreamLivingRoom #ArtInFocus #LuxuryLiving #LuxuryInterior #bytyna #BlueChipArt ​#T+MStudio #JavierCalleja #MarioBellini #CiniBoeri #EttoreSottsass #chairdesign #chairdesigner #designerchair (at París, France) https://www.instagram.com/p/Chy6PvUsgJp/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[harrietjulia]

 Three Women designers and their influence on contemporary typographic design

Paula Scher is one of the most influential graphic designers of recent and has worked for the design firm Pentagram since 1991. Her designs can notably be seen in the Public Theatre logo and its promotional material. Her poster for “Bring in ‘da Noise, Bring in da Funk” was groundbreaking, it helped to shift the perception of the Public Theatre and its shows. She used typographic design to express the feeling of the show by displacing text that fills the entirety of the poster. It strikes the feeling of rhythm within a tap dance and is filled with life, just like New York. This design really put Paula Scher on the map and was such an influential design that Paula herself admits (to her dismay) that everyone began to imitate the design.

When speaking about her work for MoMA, she touches on the difficulty they faced in creating consistent designs for their promotional material. Scher managed to align this to the lack of communication between departments at the company and suggested a structural overhaul for creating more consistency within the brand. The outcome was an adaptable design template that could be used across a variety of marketing materials along with a new Art director at the helm. An innovative and game changing direction for MoMA that really speaks of Scher’s brilliance.

“sometimes it’s not the design, it’s the people” (99U, 2012)

Scher has also worked on larger scales creating environmental graphics for interior and exterior buildings. The aim of these was not only to be a purposeful design for navigation but also to create a sense of a place. This idea reminds me of Otl Aicher’s stick figure designs for the Olympics’72 where the iconic bathroom figures originated in order to create an inclusive signage system for multitudes of languages.

Scher played an integral part in bringing about The New York High Line Logo and its fruition as an attraction. The logo itself was a simple letter ‘H’ derived from a font used in British railroads and was altered to resemble the look of  track lines. Scher says the design was easy and she was originally surprised the project became a reality due to its huge fundraising goals.

I recently watched Scher’s episode on Netflix’s Abstract. It was incredibly insightful to listen to her speak about her design process and the importance of the use of language in conveying your message about a design.

"Designing the logo isn't the hard job, it's persuading a million people to use it"  (Netflix 2020)

Scher says her most brilliant ideas come to her in the back of NY taxicabs, the process is “allowing my subconscious to take over so I can free associate. You have to be in a state of play to design, if you aren’t in a state of play you can’t make anything.” (Netflix, 2020)

Gail Anderson is a New York based Graphic Designer who was mentored by none other than the iconic Paula Scher. Anderson’s work spans from its beginnings in the late 80’s working at the Boston Globe, to working for Rolling Stone Magazine where she helped define its definitive style during its peak years. A job that offered less money but she felt was an opportunity of a lifetime has reminded her throughout the years to keep on challenging herself even if a job sounds a bit scary or unknown.

“-had I not done that (taken the Rolling Stones job) - I would have been kicking myself because it was this golden moment at the magazine that I got to be part of.”  (AEF, 2019)

After 14 years Gail moved on to work with SpotCo. creating iconic promotional posters for very well known Broadway and Theatre productions where the focus was on creating designs that help give an overall sense of a show.

“we are trying to provide an emotional promise - you’re not framing a scene or a moment”  (American Theatre Wing, 2013)

Her most current endeavours are with her own design studio, Anderson Newton Design (AND) and as a faculty member at her old stomping ground of the School of Visual Arts. Throughout her years in the design industry she has created a variety of design based books with co-author Steven Heller all about illustration, design and typography and was the first woman of colour to achieve the American National Design Award of Lifetime Achievement from the Smithsonian Design Museum in 2018.With over 30 years of design work under her belt, there is no doubt in saying that Anderson has had a great influence on contemporary typographic design. A self confessed design book hoarder, Gail has been scrapbooking her own magazines from a young age and found her calling through her curiosity of illustration and type design within these publications. Gail preaches the importance to a designer of being aware of the world around them and not just what is in front of them whilst scrolling on a screen. A sentiment we can all certainly learn from.

Jessica Hische is a letterer and occasional type designer based in San Francisco. Her hand lettering has become well recognised and can be seen in a variety of her high profile client work throughout the years from Starbucks, Penguin, Mailchimp and The Washington Post.One of Jessica’s most well known projects was her drop cap series for Penguin Random House. Here her hand lettering mixed with an illustrative look allows her distinctive style to shine. The designs are minimal and yet each letter standing alone subtlety tells a story about the theme of the book. 

She has become so well known for her lettering work that Hollywood eventually came calling. Director Wes Anderson commissioned a custom font for his 2012 movie titles of ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ a film focused on 2 kids adventures in a small New England town. Hische created a custom font titled ‘Tilda’ just for this purpose. Derived from the Edwardian Script typeface but a little less formal and with influence from the titles of La Femme Infidele. Hische created an elegant, cursive and almost fairytale looking typeface that had a hand written feel to it. The type itself became a huge part of the identity and branding of the film.

“- if you think about New England in the ’60s… it’s not like most places would be staying on top of the most current trends in type - So, using something from the ’40s made sense to me. If you think about a small, conservative New England town, lord knows all the printers and designers in town are probably still using type from years ago.” (Landekic, 2014)

References below

Paula Scher Section

99U (2012). Paula Scher: Do What You’ve Never Done Before. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwekunL3dFA [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019]

Netflix (2020). Abstract: The Art of Design | Paula Scher: Graphic Design | FULL EPISODE | Netflix. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCfBYE97rFk [Accessed 31 Mar. 2021]

Williams, M. (2019). Paula Scher exhibition looks at graphic design in the public sphere. [online] Creative Review. Available at: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/paula-scher-public-theater-design-mcr/

pentagramdesign (2019). Paula Scher — Pentagram. [online] Pentagram Available at: https://www.pentagram.com/about/paula-scher.

Cowan, K. (2019). Paula Scher on falling in love with typography, timeless identities and what it takes to become a great designer. [online] Creative Boom. Available at: https://www.creativeboom.com/features/paula-scher/

Gail Anderson Section

Narang, P. (2020). Women in Design: Gail Anderson. [online] Smith Design. Available at: https://smithdesign.com/blog/women-in-design-gail-anderson/ [Accessed 31 Mar. 2021]

American Theatre Wing (2013). Art Director. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE0KOFJuNNc [Accessed 31 Mar. 2021]

AEF (2019). Episode 11: AEF Industry Conversation with Gail Anderson. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmLb9EMKO1k [Accessed 31 Mar. 2021]

Esposito, E. (2019). Designers who inspire: Meet Gail Anderson | Inside Design Blog. [online] www.invisionapp.com. Available at: https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/meet-gail-anderson/

archives.sva.edu. (2014). SVA Archives. [online] Available at: https://archives.sva.edu/blog/post/first-look-gail-anderson [Accessed 31 Mar. 2021]

Jessica Hische Section

Wood, A. (n.d.). Jessica Hische, Letterer & Illustrator. [online] wayswework.io. Available at: http://wayswework.io/interviews/jessica-hische-letterer-and-illustrator

Butler, A. (2014). interview with letterer jessica hische. [online] designboom | architecture & design magazine. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/interview-jessica-hische-03-31-2014/

Landekic, L. (2012). Moonrise Kingdom. [online] Artofthetitle.com. Available at: https://www.artofthetitle.com/title/moonrise-kingdom/

[marieburgosdesignusa]

Guide To interior design firms NY?

Like other design disciplines, Registered Interior Design firms NY do not offer off-the-shelf solutions. When hired to lead your project, they offer tailored services related to the creative and technical requirements of your design project. Read More: https://medium.com/@marieburgosdesignusa/guide-to-interior-design-firms-ny-fbaa313223b4

[bookacreweusa]

Yes, BookACrewe makes your dreams come true

We all have dreams, and when our dreams come true, the feelings are out of this world. Yes, some of us have a dream when we launch a project, however big or small it may be, and when we see an opportunity that promises to fulfill these dreams, our elation knows no bounds and we give it a try. BookACrewe is a company where dreams are made and where you get all that you need for your room, home and office maintenance, installations, repairs, and also if you have requirements of handyman services Westchester County. Since its inception, the motto of this company has been to fulfill the expectations of its customers, and over the years it has been working tirelessly towards fulfilling its objectives. 

As a step towards offering its best services, BookACrewe's contractors are insured, screened, licensed and their backgrounds are thoroughly checked, and any customer using a contractor from this firm's network gets a one-year warranty for all the works that this contractor does.  Making financial transactions with this construction and repairs service provider is easy and secure as there is a Square Installments Payment Gateway, where making payments through installments and all major credit cards is possible. Further, for the customers’ convenience, BookACrewe has subdivided its services into categories, like under Plumbing one gets Faucet Repair, Bathtub Repair, Drain Installation, Drain Replacement,  Drain Removal, Pipe Installation,  Gas Line Installation, and Main Sewer Cleaning, etc. Along with these services, many customers have availed of its noteworthy handyman services in Westchester County.

Along with contractors, this construction service provider also has Plumbers, Electricians, Handymen, Janitors, Roofers, Installers, Interior Designers, Architects, and Lawyers at its service. There are also Exterminators, Deliverymen, Expeditors, Landscapers, Junk Removers, Public Adjusters, and General Contractors for the help of the customers. All along the years of its functioning, BookACrewe has strived hard to offer its best services to its customers, and this, in turn, has made it possible to have the requisite expertise to be the leader among its competitors and to truly be of help to its customers.

The customers need to know that BookACrewe has two customer-friendly services, Service Agreement Packages, and Workable Scheduling. In-Service Agreement Packages, you get a service agreement for house cleaning and seasonal jobs like snow removal and lawn care, and in it, payments can be made once or in three easy installments. In Workable Scheduling, the customer decides the date and time when he/she will take the service, which is convenient to many.

When in future you need help in launching a project or need maintenance, installations, repair services, or handyman services in Westchester County, search no further and zero in on BookACrewe, whose contact details are 11 W Prospect Ave-51, Mount Vernon, NY 10550 and their phone is 888-507-9852. You can also mail to their support, pro@bookacrewe.com. They would be happy to hear you and offer their services to you.

[marieburgoscollection]

Marie Burgos Interior Design | New York City, NY | Los Angeles, CA

Marie Burgos Design is a full-service interior design firm specializing in residential and commercial interiors to create refined, elegant, and functional spaces. Read More: https://www.marieburgosdesign.com/interior-designer-marie-burgos-design

[correspondencearchive]

2. Natalia Nakazawa & Nazanin Noroozi

Natalia Nakazawa and Nazanin Noroozi discuss their use of archives and photographs, creating hybrid narratives, cultural transmission, and the formation of personal and cultural memories.

Natalia Nakazawa, Obtrait I, Jacquard woven textile, 71 x 53 inches, 2015, Photo credit: Jeanette May

Natalia Nakazawa: First off, Naz, how are you doing? There has been so much going on - it is far too easy to forget we have bodies. We have families, we have things we need to do, and we need to take care of ourselves. As they say, put the oxygen mask on first, and then help others. Can you maybe start by just telling us what your day looks like? What are you doing to take care of yourself?

Nazanin Noroozi: I’m doing ok. I have to balance my day job and my studio time. My day job is working in high-end interior design firms in which our clients spend millions and millions of $$$ on luxury goods. It is very interesting to look at the wage gap especially considering the pandemic. When someone can spend 40k on a coffee table for their vacation house, and you hear all the issues with the stimulus checks etc, it makes you wonder about our value system and how our society functions.

As for self-care, I guess just like any other artist, I buy tons of art supplies that I may or may not need! I just bought a heavy-duty industrial paper cutter that can cut a really thick stack of paper! I needed it! I really don't have room for it, but I bought it! So that is my method of self-care! Treat myself to things that I like but may be problematic in the future. ;)

Natalia: I recently re-watched Stephanie Syjuco’s Art21 feature online where she talks about having to actively decide to become a citizen of the US, despite having come to this country at the age of 3. One of the poignant points she brings up is how we are all reckoning right now with what it means to be “American”. She also brings up the iconic photo taken by Dorothea Lange  of a large sign reading “I am an American” put up by a Japanese American in Oakland right after the declaration of internment - thinking about how citizenship can be given or taken away. This all feels very relevant right now. What do you think about these questions? How do you use archives and photos of our past to engage in these issues of belonging, citizenship, and the precarity of it all?

Nazanin: What I try to do with archives is to question them as modes of cultural transmission and historical memory. I think many artists deal with archives in a more clinical and objective manner, whereas I like to add my own agency to these found photographs. When one looks at a family album or found footage, one is already looking at fragmented narratives. You never know a whole story when you look at your friend’s old family albums. I truly embrace this fragmented, broken narrative and try to make it my own. I also constantly move back and forth between still and moving images, printmaking and painting, experimental films and artist books. So there is this hybridity in the nature of found footage itself that I try to activate in my work. In these works handmade cinema is used as a medium to re-create an already broken narrative told by others, sometimes complete strangers to tell stories about trauma and displacement. That is what fascinates me about archives. The fact that you can recreate your story and make a new fictional alt-reality.

Nazanin Noroozi, Self Portrait

Natalia: But who is to say these if fictional alt-realities are less important or less serious than purely “art historical” narratives? One of the things that I am exploring in my work is giving space for slippages in memory, rearranging of timelines to accommodate a lived experience. What happens when we look at collections - even museum collections - with the same warmth, tenderness, and care that we would an old friend? What possibilities are dislodged there? What benefit is there to towing the status quo - which is built on white supremacy, stolen artifacts, and other types of lying, exclusion and dubious authoritative storytelling? Also, there are so many family histories that often become reified - being told and retold with certainty over and over again. How do we claim agency from that oppressive knowledge? The things we tell ourselves about our families may not be “true” so what do we risk by revisiting our archives and re-telling those histories through our current eyes? When we re-examine the history - we may discover new ways of seeing and being with ourselves.

Nazanin: I like to think of photographs as sites of refuge. When you look at a photograph of a kid’s birthday from many years ago, you know for fact that this joyous moment is long gone. These mundane moments that bring you “happiness” and security won't last. It’s like “all that is solid melts into air”. In a larger picture, isn't everything in life fragile and fleeting and there is absolutely no certainty in life?  For example, look at how Covid has changed our “normal everyday” life. A simple birthday party for your kid was unimaginable for months. In “Purl” and “Elite 1984”  I mix these mundane moments with images of flood, natural disasters and other forces of nature to talk about fragile states of being and ideas of home. I digitally and manually manipulate footages of a stormy Caspain Sea, Mount Damavand or a glacier melt to ask my questions about failure or resistance, you know? I let the images tell me the new narrative, both visually and thematically.  

Something I find really interesting in your work is how you re-create these alt-realities by actively and physically engaging your audience into participating in your work, like your textile maps - called Our Stories of Migration? Do you have any fear that they may tell a story you don't like? Or take your work to a place that you didn't anticipate? How do you deal with an open-ended artwork that is finished but it needs an audience to be complete?

Natalia Nakazawa, Our Stories of Migration, Jaquard woven textiles, hand embroidery, shisha mirrors, beetle wings, beads, yarn, 36 x 16 feet, 2020, Photo credit: Vanessa Albury

Natalia: I am always stunned by the generosity of the people I meet - those who dive in and share their own histories - and I think it points to a universal need of ours to share and connect. There is always potential to create intimacy - even within the walls of large institutions, such as schools or museums - when our own lives are placed at the center with care and concern. I’ve never heard a story that didn’t make me pause and grant me more space for contemplating the complexity of being a human on this planet. We have all kinds of mechanisms for memory - archives, written diaries, photos, paintings, objects - but at the end of the day they are nothing without our active participation. Quite literally they are meaningless unless they are being interacted with. That has been the entry point for me, as an artist and educator. How do we take all of these things that exist in the material world and make sense out of them? What does the process of “making sense” do to the way we live TODAY? Or, perhaps, how we envision the future? It is almost like a yoga practice, a stretching of the mind, a flexibility to think backwards and forwards - that lends us more space to consider the present.

Nazanin: Yeah! I think you really are on point here! I think we really can't understand our existence without retelling the history and recreating new realities.

Nazanin Noroozi, The Rip Tide

Natalia: Thank you, Nazanin! Anything coming up for you that you want to mention?

Nazanin: Yes, I am actually doing a really amazing residency at Westbeth for a year. This is an incredible opportunity as I get to live in the Village for one year and have a live-work space in such an amazing place. Westbeth is home to many wonderful artists!

Natalia Nakazawa, History has failed us...but no matter, Jacquard textiles, laser cut Arches watercolor paper, vinyl, jewels, concentrated watercolor and acrylic on wood panel, 40 x 90 inches, 2019, Photo credit: Jeanette May

Natalia Nakazawa is a Queens-based interdisciplinary artist working across the mediums of painting, textiles, and social practice. Utilizing strategies drawn from a range of experiences in the fields of education, arts administration, and community activism, Natalia negotiates spaces between institutions and individuals, often inviting participation and collective imagining. Natalia received her MFA in studio practice from California College of the Arts, a MSEd from Queens College, and a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has recently presented work at the Arlington Arts Center (Washington, DC), Transmitter Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), Museum of Arts and Design (New York, NY), and The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY). Natalia was an artist in residence at MASS MoCA, SPACE on Ryder Farm, The Children’s Museum of Manhattan, Wassaic Project, and Triangle Arts.

www.natalianakazawa.com @nakazawastudio

Nazanin Noroozi is a multimedia artist incorporating moving images, printmaking and alternative photography processes to reflect on notions of collective memory, displacement and fragility. Noroozi’s work has been widely exhibited in both Iran and the United States, including the Immigrant Artist Biennial, Noyes Museum of Art, NY Live Arts, Prizm Art Fair, and Columbia University. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Artistic Freedom Initiative, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYFA IAP 2018, Mass MoCA Residency, North Adams, MA and Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Residency, NY. She is an editor at large of Kaarnamaa, a Journal of Art History and Criticism. Noroozi completed her MFA in painting and drawing from Pratt Institute. Her works have been featured in various publications and media including BBC News Persian, Elephant Magazine, Financial Times, and Brooklyn Rail.

www.nazaninnoroozi.net @nazaninnoroozi

[archinform]

Lost Chicago Building 2 - The Masonic Temple

Masonic Temple, State and Randolph Streets, Chicago, photograph c.1895-1915, J.W. Taylor, Chicago. Ryerson and Burnham Archives. Marshall Field & Co. is on the right.

Burnham and Root’s Masonic Temple, 1892, whose life span was only 47 years, was for a time the highest building in the world, and a popular and much-illustrated landmark. It stood at the northwest corner of State and Randolph Streets until its destruction in 1939. The building has been extensively documented and written about elsewhere, so I will limit my own comments, and post some illustrations that I haven’t seen on other blogs or history sites.

Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations are from the Ryerson and Burnham Archives, Art Institute of Chicago, available online at http://www.artic.edu/research/archival-collections.

Interior views, Masonic Temple, from The Inland Architect and News Record.

Some colorful descriptions of the building soon after its construction were included in a Chicago Reader article:

Of his first day in Chicago [poet Edgar Lee Masters] remembers that he especially wanted to visit "the tallest building in the world, from the top of which, according to an old Polonius in Lewistown, one could see Council Bluffs, Iowa. I had to try that out, and Uncle Henry took me to the Masonic Temple."

From the mosaic floor of its marble lobby to gabled roofs and glass-domed gardens, the Masonic Temple at the northeast corner of State and Randolph stood 302 feet tall. It was, according to Henry Justin Smith, a managing editor for the old Chicago Daily News, "a wonder of wonders. Everything about the building made the city burst with pride, and gave country visitors kinks in their necks."[1]

The building, by the architectural firm of Burnham and Root of Chicago (Daniel Hudson Burnham 1846-1912 and John Wellborn Root 1850-1891), was Root’s design, as was the firm’s earlier Rookery building, which still stands.

According to architect Louis Sullivan, the term “skyscraper” was born with the Masonic Temple. 22 stories high, the Temple rose 300 feet to the apex of its steeply-pitched roof. The original cost of the building was $3.5 million. Inside, an immense atrium, designed to be a vertical shopping center, was surmounted by a metal and glass canopy.  The building was unique both in its height and its concentration of business and mercantile uses.

Atrium, Masonic Temple

The Temple’s exterior design was described at the time as Romanesque; Root had admired the architecture of H.H. Richardson, whose Romanesque style had swept the country in the 1880s.

Its exterior walls were of gray granite and yellow pressed brick. It had a distinct tripartite arrangement, that being a clearly defined base, middle section, and celebratory top; with the Temple architect Root took this concept to its ultimate conclusion, perhaps the best example anywhere. In between top and bottom were the clean and unbroken piers that allowed the building to leap into the sky; their upward force was exhilarating. Each of two massive gables, stretching east-to-west, were punctured with a rank of seven smaller gables. Topside decoration was profuse.[2]

Wrote Thomas Talmadge:

I think that he strove here … to achieve a 'commercial style' based on the Romanesque that might be generally accepted as a formula for the expression of the skyscraper, and he might have prevailed had not the World's Fair almost immediately knocked the hopes of the Romantics into a cocked hat.[3]

Root died of pneumonia in 1891 at the age of 41, as the firm was planning the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago and before his Masonic Temple was completed.

Architect Philip Johnson, when designing a building on LaSalle Street across from Burnham and Root’s Rookery building in 1984, had remarked snidely,

"We're very proud that our building will be better than the Rookery," said Johnson. "Root wasn't feeling very well when he did that one. His Masonic Temple was a much better building."[4]

Geoffrey Johnson claims that “Johnson's enthusiasm for the Masonic is apparent in his firm's design for 190 South LaSalle,”[5] the tall building’s roof line echoing the twin gables and pitched roof of the Masonic Temple.[6]

190 S. LaSalle,1987, John Burgee Architects with Phillip Johnson, Shaw Associates. Photo: Chicago Architecture Center

Willis Polk, The Temple, 1901. Drawing, reproduced in Moore, Charles, Daniel H. Burnham Architect Planner of Cities. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1921, Vol. 1, p. 219. View east on Randolph St.

Illustration from The Inland Architect

Main entrance; The Inland Architect

State Street elevation (left half), Burnham and Root

Longitundinal sections of upper stories (left half), Burnham and Root

17th story plan, Burnham and Root

Entrance detail; Snead and Co. Iron Works advertisement

The Masonic Temple from State and Randolph, 1909; from a stereo view, photographer unknown. Image: https://calumet412.com/post/29706348053/the-masonic-temple-from-state-and-randolph-1909

Masonic Temple, souvenir postcard, 1900.

Willis Polk, Composite of buildings, 1902. Depicted are: 1. Union Station and Plaza (Washington, D.C.), 2. Monadnock Building, 3. Merchants Exchange Building (SF, original pre-fire design), 4. Masonic Temple (Chicago, IL), 5. Land Title Trust Building, 6. Frick Building, 7. Flatiron Building (New York, NY), 8. First National Bank Building (Chicago, IL: 1903), 9. Illinois Trust and Savings Bank, 10. Union League Club Building (Chicago, IL: 1902), proposed addition, 11. Chronicle Building, 12. Kenosha Public Library, Simmons Library.

The Masonic Temple is considered one of Root’s three greatest buildings in Chicago, along with the Rookery (1888) and the Woman’s Temple (1892). The Rookery is the only one of the three still standing.

The Rookery Building, 209 S. LaSalle St., 1888, Burnham and Root, architects. Photo: Wikipedia; Library of Congress's National Digital Library Program under the digital ID mhsalad.250063.

Woman’s Temple, Chicago, LaSalle and Monroe Streets, 1892, Burnham and Root, architects (demolished 1926) View from northwest. One Hundred and Twenty-Five Photographic Views of Chicago. Chicago: Rand-McNally, 1902, plate 9.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Burnham-Root-Womans-Christian-Temperance-Union-Womens-Temple-Chicago-1892_fig4_259730525

  After its destruction, the Masonic Temple was replaced by a nondescript two-story building on the same site, which still exists in altered form:

Walgreens, Randolph and State; postcard, 1959; the former site of the Masonic Temple

Ironically, there was a Walgreens occupying the same corner in the Masonic Temple building. The more things change....

The Joffrey Center tower, Booth Hansen Architects, 2008, with 2-story Walgreens on the corner, occupies the site today.

An excellent account of the Masonic Temple’s design and construction process, and the people involved, is here:

Johnson, Geoffrey, “The World's Tallest Building, 1892.” Chicago Reader, September 10, 1987. https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/worlds-tallest-building-1892/Content?oid=871104

Other good online sources of information about the building Include:

“Masonic Temple”

Chicagology

https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage026/

  “Masonic Temple Cornerstone Laid -- November 6, 1890”

Connecting the Windy City

http://www.connectingthewindycity.com/2014/11/masonic-temple-cornerstone-laid.html

 “Masonic Temple by Burnham & Root Built 1892, Demolished 1939”

Preservation Chicago

https://preservationchicago.org/newsletter_posts/masonic-temple-by-burnham-root-built-1892-demolished-1939/

 “Masonic Temple Chicago”

Wikiarquitectura

https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/masonic-temple-chicago/

 NOTES:

[1] Johnson, Geoffrey, “The World's Tallest Building, 1892.” Chicago Reader, September 10, 1987. Online article archive:  https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/worlds-tallest-building-1892/Content?oid=871104

[2] Korom, Joseph J., The American Skyscraper, 1850-1940: A Celebration of Height. Boston: Branden Books, 2008,  p. 176.

[3] Talmadge, Thomas, cited in Johnson, G., op.cit.

[4] Johnson, G., op.cit.

[5] Johnson, G., op.cit.

[6] “190 S. LaSalle,” 1987, John Burgee Architects with Phillip Johnson, Shaw Associates;  Chicago Architecture Center. https://www.architecture.org/learn/resources/buildings-of-chicago/building/190-south-lasalle/