Design: The High Line - New York's Coolest New Park

By Noah Mallin

Awesome architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro unveiled more views today of what promises to be New York City's coolest new park when it opens sometime around January. The High Line is an abandoned elevated freight train track that runs along the West Side of the city. Field Operations is the group responsible for the cutting edge (heh heh) landscaping. I can't wait to see this opened!

Design: Tweak Yo' Sneakers

By Noah Mallin

My father always told me you can judge a man by his shoes, which at least gives you something to do on the subway to work. Yeah, that's right, that was me judging your Keds on the E Train. Anyhoo the freakazoids at Sneakart have designed clever stickers for your kicks, and you can even upload your own custom designs. I know a certain friend named KBall who will be very excited by the possibilities! The best part is it's only 4.95 pounds, which is foreign Brit money that is roughly 12 million dollars at current exchange rates.

Design: Cats and The Design Snobs Who Live With Them

By Noah Mallin

City dwellers like myself are more likely to have cats in our tiny apartments, but we are more likely to also be design snobs. So it makes us sad to see our nice furniture ripped to shreds by our clawed companions, and those carpet covered cat condos for them to sharpen on are pretty lame looking.

Modern Cat Designs has a line of sharp looking cat condos that are meant to be displayed as well as to have all four kitten paws splayed upon. They claim their padded scratching areas are just as much fun for cats as the standard carpeted ones you find in pet stores, and they certainly look a damn sight better.

Design: Succesful Sucker Dyson Deigns to Award Aspiring Designers

Dyson, who knows a thing or two about sucking

Report by Noah Mallin

James Dyson, the world's most successful and fey vacuum cleaner salesman/designer and all-around design bon vivant flounced off of the television screen and into New York last night to recognize new innovators with his humbly named Dyson Awards. The task laid out to the contestants was simple: build a better mousetrap. Or as Dyson did, a better vacuum cleaner. As Dyson put it, the winner should demonstrate "...the ability to think differently, persist in the face of set-backs and create functional, innovative products that improve the way we live."


This year's winner came up with something pretty cool that is functional and would be a hit at the local Danceteria. The Reactiv jacket designed by Michael Chen is designed for the urban bicyclist who would prefer not to end up as tartare on the front bumper of a yellow cab.

"The jacket uses an accelerometer that senses movement to change the colour of the LEDs in the back from green (accelerating) to red (braking). It has amber LEDs in the arms which are activated by a tilt switch behind the elbow. These light up when the arm is lifted, indicating the cyclist is about to turn."



Check out other finalists, last years winners, and some info on sucking and/or blowing on Dyson's website.

Design: Ye Olde Mac Peripherals - Steampunk Style

Check out this cool retrofitted steampunk style monitor and keyboard by Dave Veloz (via Steampunk Workshop.) It's a glorious paean to retro-futurism incorporating wood, granite, brass and leather materials.

Design: Claus Luthe, Star-crossed BMW Designer, Dies

By Noah Mallin

Former Head BMW designer and VW/Audi designer Claus Luthe has died at age 75. His single most classic design is the NSU Ro80 from 1967, a radical rotary-engined aerodynamic sedan that became a touchstone for many automotive designs of the 1980s and 90s including much of the Ford lineup and Audi's 100/5000.

The Ro80

Sadly the pioneering rotary engine was one of many quality sore spots that led to the Ro80's failure in the market, and NSU's takeover by Volkswagen. Volkswagen quickly made use of Luthe's talents on a variety of models across both their VW and Audi range including the first generation Volkswagen Polo and Audi 50.

Perhaps his best car of the period was the Audi 100, a lithe second generation version of their top of the range sedan. Sold in the U.S, as the 5000 it would eventually be supplanted by a car that ironically advanced most of the initial design innovations of his Ro80.

The Audi 100

In 1976 he jumped ship to BMW where he oversaw a crisply tailored evolutionary approach that coincided with the remarkable rise in world stature for the Bavarian firm which had long struggled in the shadow of Mercedes and Volkswagen.

Under his leadership, the BMW design team codified the "same sausage, different length" philosophy in which standard cues were applied to different platform sizes. His first major BMW was the 1981 E28 platform 5-series. The conservatively bluff design seems to be the antithesis of the groundbreaking Ro80 but it's distinctive elegance and menacing aspect when tricked out as the top of the range M5 made it a hit.

The BMW 5 Series

His third generation 5-series added some modern aerodynamic cues that would be fully developed into the stunning 1991 3-series re-do. By the time that model hit the market though Luthe had resigned from BMW after having been convicted in the killing of his son during an argument over the son's drug use. He continued as a consultant throughout the next decade with BMW however.

The 1991 BMW 3 Series

Architecture: Eclecticist Jean Nouvel Plucks Prestigious Pritzker Prize

Nouvel's proposal for a tower in New York on 53rd Street has been approved by the Museum of Modern Art, which jointly controls the use of the property.

By Noah Mallin

French Architect Jean Nouvel has bagged this year's Pritzker Prize, given out annually by a special jury to a living architect. Though he is best known for work throughout Europe, his Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis is amongst his finest. Nouvel first made his mark in Paris however with his work to help rejuvenate the ancient market district known as Les Halles and the fantastical Institut du Monde Arabe building (see below) , completed in 1987 and fitted with intricate and fascinating window designs.



His recent plan for the port of Vigo in Spain includes a stylized granite monolith the size of a small office building at the end of the main pier (see below):



His design for the Guthrie Theater (2006) (below) shows his disdain for a "signature style", instead choosing to shape each project for its use and its surroundings. This is not to say that he attempts to blend them in like a chameleon. In fact he often seems to employ contrast both within his designs and with their nearby buildings and physical locale.

Design: Former Chrysler Designer John Herlitz Dead at 65

An Appreciation by Noah Mallin

Chrysler designer John Herlitz started with the company in 1964, just in time to experience the end of the Elwood Engel era and retired in 2000, just as the Tom Gale era was coming to a close. Though he didn't extend a reach as deeply and publicly known as the aforementioned design heads, he was a quietly influential and respected designer who moved through the ranks to become a top design executive.

During Chrysler's design revival in the late 80s and early 90s Herlitz championed a series of well-received concept vehicles under Tom Gale's direction that signaled the company's move away from the boxy boredom of the K-Car years. He insisted they be runners and many of them were harbingers of production vehicles like the Dodge Viper.

He first made his mark with the vehicle shown above, the Plymouth Barracuda SX Concept. Herlitz was on the team responsible for the second-generation Barracuda and the concept was meant to envision what the car would look like if it were given it's own platform rather than being built off of the Valiant. That would not occur until the third generation, one in which he had a direct hand in.

His own favorite and the one for which he's likely to be best remembered is the 1971 Plymouth Road Runner/ GTX (below). This was one of the last great designs of the muscle car era and reflected the best example of what Chrysler called "fuselage" styling -- a wide, low, long tapered smooth-sided look inspired by contemporary jumbo jets.
Check out the way the front bumper frames the face, and the draping sideline that extends halfway down the squared-off wheel arches. Then there is the fantastic roofline and pillarless side glass. Herlitz's death comes as the company he spent his career at is once again in the design weeds and facing the kind of product crises he helped lead it through in the late 70s and again in the late 80s.

Design: Longtime Mercedes Design Kaiser to Retire

Report by Noah Mallin

Mercedes-Benz Head of Design Peter Pfeiffer will retire this year, after having been head of design since 1978. During that time he has overseen a huge expansion in Mercedes model line-up, from the tiny A-Class on the small end to the sport utilities, crossovers, and minivans on the larger scale. Through it all he has done an admirable job of overseeing the Mercedes design heritage while still staying in step with design trends.

Here are some of the best designs that were launched on his watch:


The lovely pillarless W126 S-Class Coupe from 1981



The 1983 190, which successfully took the brand downmarket for the first time



The 1989 SL which replaced the now classic previous model which had been in production for nearly two decades



In 1997 the A-Class took Mercedes down into an even-lower market rung. The executive class small car opened the door to the new Mini in the following decade and incorporated novel approaches to interior and mechanical packaging for space and safety.

The 1998 CLK Coupe and Convertible were the best-looking Mercedes' of the 90s

The pert and pretty 1997 SLK had an amazing folding hardtop



The swoopy 2005 CLS kicked off the 4-door Coupe trend

Among the notable concepts are these:


The oddly upright 1981 NAFA microcar



The bulbous f100 from 1991 which accurately predicted the 90s trend towards tw0-box designs such as minivans and crossover/suvs



The amazing f300 concept from 1997 --a three-wheeled vehicles that leaned into turns like a motorcycle



The striking F400 Carving from 2002 applied the leaning concept to 4-wheels



The F600 Hygenious wrapped a fuel cell in a radical glassy body

Design: New York Auto Show -- Focusing in on The Micro in a Macro Show

The fender sweep with integrated air extractor on the Nissan GT-R

It's easy to get overwhelmed by the glitter, the lights, the free booze and food during the press days at an auto show. What's hard is to find those little snatches of detail or pleasing design cues that make it all worthwhile. Here are some of the nice bits that caught my eye at the New York Auto show:

The intersection of two side character indents on the massive BMW CS Concept -- one indent peters out in a slight upward flourish as the other dives just aft to echo the first one. The broad rounded shoulderline provides the metallic canvas.

The shoulder on the new Nissan Maxima joins with the a-pillar to form a plane that travels down the front end. The hood spills over the peak of the line formed by the outer edge of the pillar making an unusual undulating shape.



The wild organic looking confetti at the rear sides of Mazda's Furai concept. Though busy, they contrast nicely with the all business race car smoothness of the rest of the body. Pure decorative whimsy.

I've always been partial to Aston Martin's mirror mounts, from the metal V-shaped brackets of the Vantage (top picture) to the new carbon fiber ones below.

The superbly handled intersecting planes and shapes at the rear of Cadillac's CTS Coupe Concept. Note how well the trademark vertical taillamps are integrated into the play of sharp angles.

The rear of Toyota's new Venza crossover shows that the Japanese giant has been learning some slick design lingo. Look at the playful relationship of the upkicked bumper seam which visually points to the upper curve of the neat taillight. Meanwhile the wraparound edge of the taillight shoots off in the opposite direction to create a surface edge on the back bumper itself.

If Aston Martin is all about cool mirror mounts then Audi is the go-to brand for exciting headlight jewelry on production models such as the A5 (top) and a4(below).

Dear Nissan Forum,

I never thought this would happen to me. I attend a large Northeastern auto show and noticed your Forum Concept sitting there with it's door wiiiiiide open. I noticed the very cool relationship of the side mirrors with the front quarter window shapes when the opened door juxtaposes them. I'm a fan of curves and this effect gives us several from the mirror edge to the mirror surround to the window shape to the window trim.

When viewed from inside the spectacular leather, wood and chrome encrusted interior the mirrors echo the small pillar windows making a single lovely distended oval shape when viewed as a unit.

Design: New York Auto Show -- Scion Hako Coupe

Toyota's youthful Scion division introduced the new Hako Coupe showcar with some dude in a suit yesterday going "Blah blah youth blah blah youth, youth blah blah blah youth youth..oh and young!" So like, oldsters, stop buying Scions because their high rooflines and good visibility make them ideal vehicles for the wheelchair bound and those to tired to stoop.

Anyhoo, the Hako is inspired by the youth of Japan being inspired by youthful American hot rods etc. Scion's exec invited the press to hate on the Viagra inspired windshield angle and Zellweger-esque frontal treatment because the olds never get what the kids dig. Me, I like it.
Where it gets really dopey rather than, er...dope, is the cameras built into the sides of the car (those are the little round lenses in the front fenders). Apparently the "youths" will share video of goofy looking passers-by and questionable driving with each other. They might even download it!
From the back you can see the cool wraparound inset window line.