Evolution brings natural history to Soho

No other city on the planet offers the kind of street life New York does. Despite its cold and wet weather, life in New York happens outside. All of that foot traffic means that it's possible to make a living as a shop owner. As in a real life, honest-to-goodness merchant. New York city is full to over flowing with them and it's a real pleasure to walk into a non-chain retail establishment, see some cool stuff and learn a thing or two about the people whose livelihoods depend on that store.

Well on Friday afternoon I was walking down Spring Street from Broadway to West Broadway and halfway between Mercer and Greene Streets I stumbled upon what has to be the coolest shop I've ever found in my life.

A shop window similar to this display stopped me dead in my tracks.

I'd stumbled upon Evolution, a 17-year-old natural history store.

I make a living from convincing people to do things like upholster their chairs in toile but what I'd really love to encourage people to do is hang a beautifully mounted Calloplophora solli.

Sadly, not everybody shares my opinion that insects are spectacularly beautiful.

Just look at these patterns and colors. Fabric designers take note.

Evolution has an entomology staff whom they describe as artisans. Artists is more like it. Mounting and preserving insect specimens for scientific study is an exacting and difficult discipline. That Evolution has a staff of them speaks volumes about the store and about the city it calls home.

I love design in all of its forms and for me design starts in the natural world. As designers we mimic and recreate the shapes, forms and colors of the natural world and seeing the natural world displayed like this is a real thrill.

Some people get freaked out by the very idea of an insect and that's too bad. Others get worked up over the idea of mounting what were once living creatures. I don't see the point of that either. Preserving biological diversity doesn't stand a chance if nobody understands it and the key to understanding it is high-quality, scientific specimens. That I can buy them too is a bonus. Evolution has a great statement on their website that sums up their commitment to the world's insects:

All our insects are legally obtained and have been cleared by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. We do not sell any species listed in the Endangered Species Act. Most of our insects come from insect farms located in some of the most exotic tropical and subtropical regions on earth. Insect farming provides income for indigenous peoples, eliminates the burden on wild caught species, and promotes the maintenance and care of natural environments rather than its exploitation, as is often the case with other agricultural businesses.

Evolution also sells bones, fossils, minerals, taxidermy specimens and shells. They sell everything with the same sense of awe and respect that they sell their mounted insects.

If you ever find yourself on Spring Street and you're wondering what sort of thing you can buy me, this would be a good start.

Here's a close up because I just can't help myself.

If you can't make it to Spring Street, here's the link to Evolution's website.

A visit with Scavolini Soho

Last Friday I had  a bunch of meetings in New York and I'd arranged them geographically so that I'd start in Soho and work my way north as the day progressed. I set everything up that way because one of my must-see sights was Scavolini's recently opened New York showroom. Scavolini's gallery is at 429 West Broadway, right down the street from the site of my first meeting.

Scavolini calls its Soho flagship a gallery and that's not an exaggeration. The space would be considered large anywhere but in Soho, it qualifies as expansive. It's open from 10am to 7pm Monday through Friday, 11am to 6pm on Saturday and on Sunday it's open from 12 to 5pm.

The Scavolini gallery in Soho is not just a showcase for Scavolini's exquisite kitchens, it's also a valuable trade resource. The Soho staff is there to help you specify Scavolini and there is ample meeting space for outside architects and designers to bring clients in for meetings and consultations.

If you are a professional in Greater New York and you're interested in Scavolini's new space, give them a call and they'll be thrilled to help you in any way they can.

My contact at Scavolini is the the showroom manager, Daniele Busca. Daniele was in Italy when I was in New York so I missed getting the grand tour from the man who supervised its construction. In his place, he left me in the capable hands of Maddalena Nicolosi. Maddalena gave me a tour to end all tours and I came away from the experience even more impressed by Scavolini than I was when I walked in the door. There was no question she couldn't answer or feature she couldn't explain. Thank you Maddalena.

So if you find yourself on West Broadway, drop in the Scavolini gallery. If you're a professional in the area and you're interested in Scavolini's professional support, just give them a call and they'll take great care of you. You can get more information from the Scavolini Soho website.

Scavolini Soho is an asset to the exploding design scene in lower Manhattan and a real credit to the Scavolini brand. Bravi!

And the winner is...

Eric Miller from lovely and historic Dunedin, FL. Woo hoo! Congratulations Eric!

If you're joining us late, Eric just won a Brizo faucet of his choosing, furnished as a courtesy by the great folks at Brizo. Let's all have a round of applause for Eric!

Up close and personal with the Lod Mosaic

In the summer of '09, the great Sara Baldwin sent me a link to a story about a Roman mosaic that had been discovered and preserved in Lod, Israel. The image above is the whole mosaic. It's a hi-res, so click it if you want a better view.

The mosaic was enormous, nearly 2,000 square feet and it was in a nearly pristine state. It had been discovered in 1996 and then buried again until 2004. By 2004, the Israeli Antiquities Authority had a plan and in that same year, they put that plan into action.

I have a thing for Roman art and mosaics, I've written about that on this blog a lot. So does Sara and that shared love of ancient mosaics is what drew the two of us together in the first place. I wrote about the Lod mosaic in June, 2009.

I added it to a very long list of things I wanted to see but figured I never would some time after I wrote that post.

At some point this past fall, another great woman and lover of all things Roman, JoAnn Locktov told me that the Lod Mosaic was coming to the US on a tour while the Israeli Antiquities Authority built the museum that will house it eventually. The first stop on that tour is the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The exhibit opened at the end of September and it runs through April 3, 2011. So in what has to be one of the coolest coincidences ever, I went to see the Lod Mosaic on Saturday afternoon.

No matter how many photos of it I'd seen nothing prepared me for it fully. It's significantly larger than I thought it would be and the colors are shockingly bright.

Here are some detail shots I took on Saturday.

Amazing stuff.

The Roman love of tile and mosaic are why were have tile bathrooms and kitchens today by the way. That civilization, more than any other ancient civilization, touches our daily lives almost continuously. Whether the custom in question is birthday cake or wedding rings or Christmas presents or tile bathrooms, the Romans played a role in all of that stuff.

More than any of that though, it's the imagery in Roman mosaics that speaks to me most profoundly.

One of the many things I love about Sara Baldwin and her company, New Ravenna, is their way of taking a page from the ancient Romans and interpreting that style for the here and now. I can't buy a Roman mosaic, no one can really. That's a good thing, surviving artifacts are a resource that belong to everybody. I can however, have a bathroom floor made that will remind me of the Roman floors I've seen and walked on. Here are some samples of New Ravenna's classically-inspired mosaic patterns.

Whether it's from Lod or from Exmore, VA; it's all pretty amazing stuff. If you'll be in New York between now and April, please spend a few hours at the Metropolitan Museum.

I'll take Manhattan

I am in New York. Glad about it, mad about it New York.

I have a couple of meetings there today and I'm spending the weekend getting some Christmassy R&R. Somebody near and dear cashed in a king's ransom in frequent flier miles and I'm the lucky beneficiary of what promises to be the most luxe version of Manhattan I've ever experienced. I used to go to New York and slum it for long weekends. There was a boarding house on 14th Street that I viewed as a second home at one time in my life. At $69 for a sleeping room, a shared bath and coffee and a bagel in the morning, the Chelsea Pines Inn is still a deal and a half.

There will be no Chelsea Pines this weekend. Instead, we're booked in the New York Palace.

The Palace is one of those places I still can't believe I'm allowed to enter.

As much as I'm looking forward to my meetings today and my deluxe accommodations this weekend, what will end up as one of the highlights of my life are two tickets.

Two tickets to see a full production of La Boheme at the Met on Saturday night. Grand opera gets no more grand in this hemisphere and arguably, in the world.






Add to it the usual round of visiting with friends in the city and just drinking it all in and I'm in for a weekend to remember.

In an experiment of a sort. I am letting my blog go blank through Monday. Tomorrow will be the first time in two and a half years that I haven't had a new post on this site. Posting every day is a labor of love and it's become so ingrained I can't imagine not posting every day. Starting tomorrow, I'm not going to have to imagine it any longer.

So enjoy your weekends everybody and I'll see you around here again on Tuesday when I resume my regular posting schedule.