By Staff 2/12/07 5:08pm

The Afternoon Wrap: Monday

  • The bones of Brooklyn’s Ikea have been erected, representing a long stride toward the borough’s horrifying self-destruction. Doomsday is near, via inexpensive Swedish furniture. [Gowanus Lounge]
  • Vanity Fair lovingly dubs The Bowery Hotel “funky.” Why? Because the building “was literally built out of Styrofoam, with hideous aluminum windows.” [VF, via Curbed]
  • Apparently, Read More

    • By Staff 3:39pm

    The Afternoon Wrap: Monday

  • Oh, Ikea! The Swedish furniture kings are rolling out ready-built “timber-framed homes” in London. They’re called BoKloks (prounced booklook), which means “live smart” in Swedish. In English, it means “homogenous Scandinavian design is slowly taking over the world, leading inevitably to a deathly, red-and-white colored dystopia.” [Interior Design]
  • 11 Spring Street is officially Read More

    • By Staff 11/21/06 11:42am

    Red Hook Ikea Faces Suit Over Civil War Site

    A remnant of the Civil War may trip up the Ikea store planned for Red Hook, Brooklyn. The Municipal Art Society announced on Tuesday a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which plans to allow a parking lot for the Ikea store on what was once a graving dock.

    The society is Read More

    By Staff 11/14/06 1:43pm

    Global Media Report: [em]Oggi[/em] Magazine Turns Five

    BEIJING — Oggi, a Japanese fashion magazine with a Chinese edition, held a fifth anniversary celebration the night of Nov. 10, at the Rui Fu nightclub. At first glance, it appeared that Rui Fu had closed and been replaced by another nightclub–a routine thing to happen in Beijing, with or without bulldozers involved–and that the Read More

    By Staff 6/02/06 1:59pm

    Time Takes a Cigarette


    The New York Shipyard today.


    The New York Shipyard a month ago.

    Here’s a little before and after of the Ikea site in Red Hook. (be in awe of our Photoshop skillz!) Demolition seems to be going quickly. We’ll try and see what’s happened to the graving dock this weekend.

    -Matthew Grace

    By Staff 5/25/06 4:55pm

    Witness an Episode of Clean Sweep

    AIMEE: Toodle-oo Ikea pots and pans! Hello All-Clad! Goodbye mismatched tumblers, hello sassy martini glasses!

    We’ve spent hours unpacking our wedding gifts and our apartment is a disaster area, COVERED with open boxes, mountains of china, stemware, kitchen appliances and millions of little pieces of styrofoam and sheets of bubble wrap.


    Disaster Read More

    By Staff 5/18/06 2:04pm

    In the Shadow of Ikea

    Taking a break from our coverage of the Fairway opening yesterday, we walked over to the Ikea site that sits on the Erie Basin. While officially inaccessible, smart adventurers know how to gain access to the site–which is where we found this creepy tableau that’s suggestive of horrors too eh, horrible to mention. These Read More

    By Staff 5/01/06 11:34am

    Ikea’s Animated Short

    Yeah, it’s clever of Ikea to use a Dire Straits song for its animated walk-through of their planned Red Hook store (the Erie Basin and the long struggle to get this store approved are but two referents we can think of immediately), but “Walk of Life”? Song blows, yo. Nonetheless, this video (click Read More

    By Staff 4/07/06 1:39pm

    M.A.S. Responds (to Ikea’s Response)

    The Municipal Art Society’s president for communications passes on this communique from Kent Barwick, president of the M.A.S. (with spellin’ lessons–our bad).

    “The Municipal Art Society did indeed develop two alternative site plans for the Ikea project that would meet their publicized program needs while preserving the rich history of the site. And, it is Read More

    By Staff 4/06/06 4:29pm

    Sugar Factory Death Knell


    The Revere sugar facory–R.I.P.?

    We just got word that the Revere sugar factory, which sits in between the Ikea site and the just-open-already! Fairway grocery store in Red Hook, barely dodged the Industrial Business Zone bullet today. Thor Equities, which bought the site last year for $40 million, wants to develop the property into Read More