75 And Counting

Cindy Allen -- Interior Design, 11/1/2007 12:00:00 AM

Finally on its way to the printer, this concluding tribute to 75 years of Interior Design is truly amazing. And I'm talking not about the content, for once, but about the process. Prose and digital pics wired across a network of stations sometimes, many times, thousands of miles from each other. Layouts that are virtually virtual—unless you hug your Mac. We are, in the year 2007, characters in a new brand of science-fiction publishing, as any of the distinguished people who brought Interior Design to life in 1932 would surely have been shocked to witness. Back then, a cohort of editors would have labored with pen and paper, knives and glue. Today, all I have to do is extend my stylishly bejeweled hand and flick the mouse on a file.

That done, my gaze drifts lazily out the window. The Williamsburg Bridge in the background is still the same one it was back in 1932. Farther in the distance, safely out of sight, the Long Island suburbs have got to be the most exemplary case study on how to ravage perfectly good land, not to mention abandoning our common responsibilities. So from technological marvels to social and political disgrace, this is our reality, today's Here and Now. I could follow with a withering tirade about the problems we face, but I am actually an optimist—and much more so while looking over this celebration issue.

Unquestionably, we are standing in front of enormous opportunities, particularly for our industrious and creative lot. I would never get caught trying to forecast what lies 75 years from now, but I know that designers and architects will undoubtedly be the folks getting us there. To see how, just turn the page.