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Our AIA event drew a critical mass of designers and bikers, packing our modest studio for the evening and keeping our San Francisco Bike Coalition bike valet busy. Thanks to everyone who came by, especially to those who rode to the event and the guy who bought the Alta bike we auctioned off for the Bike Coalition. The bikes we had on display were hard to view because of the crowd, so we have listed their pedigrees below with some photos. Most of these bikes are on loan from American Cyclery which has been a leading San Francisco destination for all things bike since 1941. We will use our studio space in South Park for more shows in the future. Please sign up on Public to keep abreast of these events.

Design for a Prince. Shoes for a Princess.

The upside of Royalty has never been clear to me. Kings and Queens seem to function mostly as expensive ways to preserve an outdated system of social inequities and pumped up national self-importance. But I may have gotten a glimpse of what all the fuss is about on a recent trip to Cordoba Spain for a design ceremony. Cordoba is most well known for its historic Mosque (Mesquite), not for contemporary design.

Coalitions of Architects and Bikers at Studio Forbes this Week

Over 25,000 architects are coming to San Francisco this week for their annual AIA convention. That’s a lot of architects, so we decided to welcome them with an event at Studio Forbes this Thursday evening from 5-8. We’ll be serving local wines from Row Eleven and auctioning off this handsome Alta single speed bike designed by a Norwegian design group. Proceeds will benefit the San Francisco Bike Coalition. We’ll also have our Piet Hein Eek work on display along with a selection of classic modern track bikes from around the world. Architects are trained to appreciate elegance and simplicity; materials and utility, so it’s no surprise that there are quite a few bike nuts in their ranks. Bikes are notorious conversation starters among designers and architects, and it seems more than appropriate to celebrate bikes during their gathering.

You Can Take the Heat

I’ve been trying to avoid discussions of the recession in the Studio Forbes newsletter. There is more than enough gloom and doom coming at us from the mainstream media. So I’ve been looking around for optimistic stories to cover. Where do you see people really enjoying themselves even though their disposable income may have completely disappeared? What looks and feels happy out there on the streets and in our communities? At the top of my list are the ‘bike kitchens’ that can now be found in most of our cities.

Pisa and Pedestrians

Tourists flock to Pisa to see the quirky and charming tower that has gone askew. Even more askew, it seems to me, is the groundcover throughout the city. In the piazza adjacent to the Tower as well as elsewhere throughout Pisa, the historic tile and stone walkways have been covered in asphalt, turning much of the city into a dark grey cheerless space. One of the reasons Italy is so darn charming is the pervasiveness of cobblestone streets and public spaces and the abundance of diverse stone and tile surfaces.