Fashion, Art and Culture Meet

With jewelry designer extraordinaire and cultural philanthropist Ann Ziff. 
I was very happy recently to go with my nephew Aaron to Ann Ziff's jewelry store on Madison Avenue for a party celebrating a new book – Diller, Scofidio + Renfro: Lincoln Center Inside Out. You may remember Ann Ziff on the blog - she is a wonderful jewelry designer and was in the news when she donated $30 million to the Metropolitan Opera.

Ann's jewelry collection is called Tamsen Z, and her Tamsen Z store on Madison is a polished jewel box where Ann offers her beautiful, artistic designs which combine unusual colors and textures and gems. "I make every piece myself by hand," she told me. "It's my own little sweat shop." At the party, she was wearing glittery platform shoes, a hot pink silk blouse, and layers of her own golden necklaces inspired by faraway places. On her wrist twinkled a stack of thin jeweled bracelets. "If one is good, twenty one is better," she cracked.

As a major supporter of the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center, Ann was celebrating the new book by the design firm Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, who rose to renown when they created the wonderful High Line park. Now they have breathed new life into Lincoln Center with a ten year renovation which has greatly improved the campus which many saw as an unsuccessful example of brutalist 60's architecture. Coincidentally, TD and I had just seen a very interesting documentary on PBS about how Diller, Scofidio + Renfro merge art and architecture.  "They have changed the mood of Lincoln Center," Ann Ziff said to me. "They have made it very inviting and turned it into something beautiful. It's just genius what they did. I don't know anyone else who could have done it."

In the back of the store, Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and Charles Renfro where greeting friends and signing their book about Lincoln Center. I had the chance to meet and talk with Elizabeth. "At Lincoln Center, we wanted to bring the vitality of the concert halls out into the public, and turn it inside out," she told me. They certainly successfully did that by designing a new plaza, refurbishing Alice Tully Hall,  transforming the West 65th Street block, and more (don't miss the new restaurant with the green grass lawn on top of it).

Elizabeth told me that one of the most sensitive and controversial aspects of the project was renovating the iconic fountain at the center of the plaza. But her firm did a beautiful job, installing new nozzles and lighting, and replacing the circular perimeter with a polished granite surface that seems to float in the air. I took this picture of the fountain when we went to the Metropolitan Opera in January.

On the way out of Tamsen Z, I looked up and noticed the store's light fixtures. They are miniature versions of the huge crystal chandeliers at the Metropolitan Opera house which famously ascend before a performance begins. I love a New York City party that rolls up style, art, and culture in one event.

Spring Comes Slowly to NYC

Take a seat in Union Square (click on photos to enlarge)
Spring is tiptoeing in late to New York City this year. Unusually cool weather lingers and has kept the joys of April at bay, but slowly the trees and flowers of the city are coming to life. Because it is late and we are anticipating it, spring in New York seems more beautiful than I remember it being in the past. Its absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Up on the High Line, white flowering shrubs crowd an urban walkway. 

At the Saturday morning Farmer's Market in Union Square, trays of plants are coming out for city gardeners.

A metal bucket of tulips was suspended in the air 

and there is a profusion of bouquets to select from.

At Abingdon Square in Greenwich Village, a magnolia tree framed a renowned Bing & Bing apartment building

and pale petals fell to the ground around bright red tulips.

At Bryant Park in midtown, the tall trees are budding

and the tulip beds are bursting 

but no sitting on the green lawn yet because it has just been re-seeded.

On Saturday I went to the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene which has recently moved back to its outdoor spot at the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School. A visitor leaving the Flea rode his bicycle down Lafayette Avenue -

Sunday was a warm and clear day in Central Park. My favorite place to be is around the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir where pink trees are now blooming in profusion. I believe these are Kwanzan cherry trees from Japan.

Families had picnics under the branches. Very Sunday in the Park with George.

The majestic towers of the San Remo apartment building on the west side rose above the soft green and pink colors of springtime Central Park.

I love that combination of urban architecture plus spring blooms – art plus nature, it is the city at its best.

A Day in Chelsea: Flowers and Art

Great style at the farmer's market. (Click on photos to enlarge)
Gee, I've had some ideas for the blog but they didn't work out. (Did you see the Hemingway & Gellhorn movie on HBO? I was really looking forward to that but it wasn't so good.)
New York City came to the rescue: yesterday TD and I had a nice day in the neighborhood. It started at the Union Square Farmers Market which is now in full tilt. The woman pictured above was wearing a cotton coat and carrying bunches of flowers in her arm. Her coat was not new trendy fashion but instead a beautiful, timeless print which looked especially great combined with the flowers. That to me is real style.
Into our canvas shopping bag we crammed lilies, sunflowers and a baguette. What else do you need?

Bunches of peonies with a yellow eyelet dress

and waves of perennials.

Back at home a red sparrow visited the bird feeder

while Bell napped on the couch below.

Then it was off again to some art galleries in Chelsea. First stop, Gagosian Gallery for the murals and portraits of Richard Avedon. Between 1969 and 1971, Avedon created four huge murals which pictured Andy Warhol and the Factory, The Chicago Seven, military and government officials known as the Mission Council, and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his family.

The murals are gigantic, and it was almost like watching a movie as they progressed along the walls.
Then it was on to Matthew Marks to see paintings by Brice Marden.

Most of the paintings here were oil on slabs of marble which Marden completed last year on the Greek island of Hydra. The thin paint on the white marble was serene and quiet.
Then we stopped into 192 Books on 10th Avenue which seems to be just about the last independent bookstore on the isle of Manhattan.

After this exploration, we required some refreshments so happily we found two empty stools at the bar at The Red Cat restaurant where we had a restorative glass of wine and some French fries. On our way home we vowed that our next foray would be up to the High Line which is now extended up to 30th Street.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

The Hudson River from the High Line in Chelsea on Saturday afternoon (click on images to enlarge

On Saturday my good friend from high school, Suzy Ferenczy MacEnroe, came to NYC for a visit. Suzy and I grew up together upstate, in New Hartford, New York. Our families share a history, and we recently got in touch again. She always had an infectious laugh and a good way with a story, and she still does. Suzy now lives in Beacon, New York, with her family, and she took the train in on Saturday to the Big Apple.

Suzy is unfamiliar with New York so I wanted to give her my take on the city, show her my corner of the world, so we went out to a few spots in my Chelsea neighborhood. First we headed over West 15th Street to the Chelsea Market. You know I'm a big fan of the Chelsea Market.

It was the first time that I noticed those oxidized metal strips across the front of the building. I think the developers of the Chelsea Market did a great job melding new modern elements with the industrial character of this building.

First stop in the Market, Anthropologie. I always like to see what they are up to at Anthropologie. This shelf unit was filled with colorful objects.

I love this tall rolling industrial cart. It looks like carts I recently saw at the Brooklyn Flea.

This big wooden painted table had a metal top, and a huge industrial floor lamp stood over it.

The table was labeled:

This low rolling cart was covered with paint, as if it had come out of an artist's studio. I saw similar carts at the Brooklyn Flea.

These pieces at Anthropologie costs like $4,000 each. Bart Boehlert Beautiful Things tip: go over the Brooklyn Flea and find similar items for about $150.

We went out the back door of the Chelsea Market and climbed the stairs to the High Line, the fairly new elevated park designed on formerly deserted train tracks. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The Hudson River shimmered close by under thin iridescent clouds. Heaven.

We walked to the end of the High Line at 20th Street. Through the locked chain gate fence we could see the next extension which will be stretching north but is not open yet. Though it is on an elevated track in busy Manhattan, it somehow looked to me like a charming path through an English village.

Then we headed back down to the southern end of the High Line which ends in the Meatpacking District. TD and I were up on the High Line about a year ago, and the neat thing about it is that the plants and trees are getting bigger and filling in. Every year it gets better and better.


It's almost like you're in the woods. The landscape designers did a great job.

An Asian tourist asked me to take a picture of he and his wife, but his camera battery was dead. Then he took a picture of Suzy and I.

We met up with TD and proceeded to the Irish pub, The Brass Monkey, for a refreshment before we walked home and had dinner. Here are TD and Suzy talking at the bar.

It was fun to visit with Suzy and catch up and reminisce about old times. High school was such a long time ago. To be honest, I didn't actually have the greatest time in high school, but like the current campaign says:
"It Gets Better."
It really does.
And it was great to see a dear old friend.