Last night we attended Metropolis magazine's event. Horace Havemeyer III, the magazine's distinguished publisher welcomed us warmly and invited audience members looking for affordable office space to speak to his landlord (ah, publishers!). A 20-minute film "Brilliant Simplicity" was screened, featuring winners and the runners up of the Metropolis Magazine Next Generation Design Competition. Afterwards, the provocative thoughts were engaged in a Q-and-A with Susan Szenasy, the magazine's wonderfully sweet-tempered editor. "In another life," Susan said after the screening, "I want to be their agent."
Szenasy is a wonderful communicator of complex ideas whose time has come. On the subjects of design, public policy and environmentally friendly architecture she can be profound. "The only politician who really got the intersection of design and public policy was (the late Senator) Daniel Patrick Moynihan," she told me afterwards. But she is enthusiastic about the new administration and that some of the infrastructure investments will be towards green design. We spoke of many things, including the possibility that the President's stimulus package might put Moynihan's pet project of magnetic levitation trains back on track.
We also spoke on one of my favorite topics: whether art-oriented people (creatives) can work with business-types can put aside their ancient grievances and get along for the sake of this economy. The general consensus was that the economic crisis, the decline of the West and the rise of Asia makes such a collaboration of the utmost importance.
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