Brooks Brothers New York

Brooks Brothers announces the launch of "Brooks Brothers New York Gentleman." I suppose after they started selling pens, watches and such like, this was the inevitable next step.

They describe this new fragrance as "a fresh expression of classic citrus aromatic notes, subtle iris and wet greens with a smooth, woody finish."

I have no idea what it smells like, but the packaging design is hideous. The name is terrible too.

They should stick with Royall Lime, which Brooks has sold for years. It's a classic, and resolutely unflashy.

Remembrance Sunday

Some photographs from the Remembrance Sunday service on Whitehall.

Flughafen Tempelhof

Following on from my earlier post about Cold War design, last week saw the demise of one of the true survivors of the Cold War.

Flughafen Tempelhof, which served as Berlin's airport for many years and sustained West Berlin during the Soviet blockade of the city, closed all operations on October 30, 2008.

Tempelhof was the world's oldest continuously-operated airport. The site was used as an airfield in the early days of aviation, even before the First World War. It was designated as an airport in 1923, and the German national airline Lufthansa was founded there in 1926.

The original terminal building was demolished as part of Albert Speer's plan for the rebuilding of Berlin. Construction began on the new terminal in 1936, a huge curved building clad in limestone. Aircraft can taxi up close to the terminal, under a wide canopy that protects passengers from the elements.



Inside, the building is in keeping with the design orthodoxy of the Nazi period, but its simple lines and restrained classicism have aged remarkably well.



Some of the original ornamentation from the building has been preserved - here, a giant sculpture of an eagle.



During the Battle of Berlin, Tempelhof's German commander refused to obey orders to dynamite the building. The airport was seized by the Red Army, which turned it over to the US military when the city was divided into four occupation zones.

In June 1948, the Russians blockaded the western-controlled area of Berlin. Faced with the alternative of abandoning the city to the Soviet bloc, the western powers achieved an amazing feat. For the next 11 months, US and British forces supplied the 2.5 million inhabitants of West Berlin with all the necessities of life by airlifting everything into Tempelhof.

US Air Force C-47 aircraft unloading supplies at Tempelhof:





Throughout the Cold War, Tempelhof remained an important air link to West Berlin for both commercial and military flights. Even after many commercial flights moved out to Tegel airport in the 1970s, Berliners retained tremendous affection for the airport that saved West Berlin during the Airlift.

More recently, Tempelhof became popular with business travellers on short-haul flights, given its proximity to the city centre. The airport is practically within walking distance of central Berlin - only a few stops on the subway or a 10 minute cab ride away.

In the late 1990s, the city, state and federal authorities decided to consolidate all flights to Berlin at a single airport, Schoenefeld, and to close Tempelhof and Tegel. Many Berliners objected, and there were lengthy political and legal maneuvers to keep Tempelhof open. The last-ditch attempt was a city-wide referendum, which attracted over a 60% vote to keep the airport open. Unfortunately, procedural rules required not only a majority of the ballots cast, but also that these votes had to represent more than 25% of all eligible voters in the city - a level that they failed to attain.

Tempelhof closed on October 30 after a huge farewell party. Just before midnight, two historic planes took off, a Junkers Ju 52 and an Airlift-era Douglas DC-3. At midnight, the runway lights were turned off for the last time.



Auf Wiedersehen Tempelhof.

A fixer-upper to end them all

From the Home and Garden section of the NY Times (all photographs from the NY Times).

This Beaux-Arts pavillion was designed by Stanford White in 1902 for John Jacob Astor IV. This long, low-lying classical building was originally the guest lodge for the Astor estate, but the main house was demolished in the 1940s. It remained an Astor residence into the late 1950s, when the family donated the building to the Catholic church and it became a convent and nursing home.

The fabric of the house decayed until it was bought in 2004, and the new owners began a massive renovation project.

The results are stunning.



The house is decorated in a simple manner with neutral colours, allowing the architecture to shine.





The indoor tennis court, with an iron and glass vaulted ceiling.



NY Times article

Raise a glass!

Painting by Christina Bingle,www.subtlecolours.com

Raise a glass to the gin and tonic, 150 years old today. According to BBC News, it's the world's first cocktail, created in 1858.

Cold War Modern

The Victoria & Albert Museum continues with the next installment in its series of thematic design exhibitions. Previous shows were devoted to Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Modernism. The new exhibition, moving in chronological order, is Cold War Modern 1945-1970.

The show weaves together the history of the period with art, architecture, interior design, film, fashion and technology.

It begins with the rebuilding of Europe after World War II and the hopes and anxieties for the continent as the battlelines between east and west were already being drawn. There's a particularly fine architect's rendering of an (unbuilt) Stalinist gothic skyscraper, seven of which were actually built around Moscow.



The exhibition them covers the thaw after the death of Stalin. This period saw improvements in living standards in the Soviet bloc and an artistic reawakening. The US and Soviet governments held major exhibitions in 1959. The Russians staged an exhibition in New York showing off their high artistic and technological achievements, while the US put on the Trade and Cultural Fair in Moscow with displays of automobiles, kitchen appliances and clothing to demonstrate the benefits of the market economy to ordinary men and women.

The 1960s saw the peak of Cold War tensions, with the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis. The exhibition highlights from this period are a series of the original set design drawings by Ken Adam for Doctor Strangelove and the early Bond movies.



The exhibition covers the space race particularly well, from a model of Sputnik to film clips from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There's also a cleverly-done section on communications towers (like the one in Berlin shown below).





The exhibition loses its way a bit towards the end as it moves into late 1960s utopianism. The presentation, and I think also the subject matter, is less compelling than the earlier subjects.

Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970 is at the V&A until January 11, 2009.
Exhibition website

The perils of translation

A fantastic story from the BBC. Traffic officials in Swansea in Wales were putting up a new road sign, and needed it translated into Welsh. They sent the English text off to the translator by email, and when they received a response by email they copied the Welsh wording onto the sign.

Unfortunately, the email from the translator said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated." And that's what ended up on the sign.

BBC News