How did we get here? NYC Design: 1985-Today

C.C. Sullivan -- Interior Design, 10/3/2012 1:06:12 PM

1985 – 2000: Modern Reinventions
Modernism comes back hard with lots of new ideas, thanks to the launch of the International Contemporary Furniture Fair launch (1988) and shows like the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibition “Mutant Materials” (1995). In 2001, terrorist attacks bring a sobering and retrenching: Green design, preservation and a gentle minimalism pervade the city’s rebuilding. Friends of the High Line is formed (1999).

ICFF launches in 1988. Photo by Max Estenger.
Friends of the Highline is formed in 1999.

2000 – Today: Color, Funk and Diversity
A varied and colorful era emerges, thanks to cultural diversity, starchitect invaders, and computer-toting blobbies like Asymptote and Karim Rashid. Our midcentury fling helps: Gensler revises Eero Saarinen’s TWA Building for JetBlue, for example (2008). Still vying for a large chunk of commissions are holdout traditionalists, epitomized by Robert A.M. Stern’s 15 Central Park West (2008), and the high modernists – among them Richard Meier’s West Village condos and Renzo Piano’s New York Times Building (2007).

Renzo Piano’s New York Times Building (2007).
Robert A.M. Stern’s 15 Central Park West (2008).
Gensler revises Eero Saarinen’s TWA Building for JetBlue (2008)




<< Back to main article