1 post tagged “metropolis magazine”
..for me. I can't proclaim that it's the best for everybody. But I have been a Metropolis subscriber for 15-20 years for a reason. Whenever the magazine trade groups run ads proclaiming our love of magazines, I always think about Metrolpolis. The cover tagline states: "Architecture < Culture > Design." At it's heart, it is an architecture magazine. Okay, it's a design magazine. With a little but of urban planning, culture, great furniture ads, the best place to learn about super cool home furnishings, many of them green (they were doing green before green was cool), cool infographics, and oh so much more.
The tabloid-ish format is a pleasure. And even though they have fiddled with the form factor (courtesy of blue-chip designers), they have maintained the bigger-than-thou format.
In the latest issue, John Hockenberry talks about this awesome gym in Chicago called the Gary Comer Youth Center and home to the South Shore Drill team. (I actually like that the paper changes when you get into the major editorial section to a rougher stock). And check out Rand Elliott's Chesapeake Boathouse in Oklahoma City. (Somehow he was able to use Trex for the walkway when my local housing board wouldn't let us use it for a deck).
And did I say that I love the ads? I get to see Angelea Adams textiles, Herman Miller chairs (I got the Mirra for Christmas!), and the Republik of Fritz Hansen (I am going to start my own Republik).
Horace Havemeyer III is the publisher. Susan S. Szesnay is the editor in chief. Criswell Lappin, the Creative Director. Horace started it all 25 years ago. Here's a bit of the official story:
"Metropolis was first conceived in 1980 as a reaction against the theoretical excesses of the era, specifically the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, Peter Wolf and Peter Eisenman’s heady foray into multidisciplinary education for architects and designers that ran from 1967 to 1984. After consulting on one of the institute’s publications, the short-lived Skyline, Horace Havemeyer III—who had previously worked at Doubleday—decided there was a need for a different kind of design publication: less ideological and more pragmatic, but still interdisciplinary.
“I wanted a jargon-free magazine, easily understood by people with a more casual interest in design,” Havemeyer says. “I was tired of the glibness that existed in some of the small journals that were being published—and are still being published—where they dismiss a whole work in one sentence. Criticism should be a process where a work is explained and a case is made, not just subjectively wiped away because it doesn’t jibe with a person’s ideology. There was an awful lot of discussion about ideology in the 1970s.”"
Photo: Publisher Horace Havemeyer III and the editors Claude Lubroth, Susan Szenasy, Gini Sikes, and Victoria Geibel in 1986.
The Web site has evolved. It routinely features sections on events and conferences the mag is involved with as well as competitions like the annual Next Gen Design competition. There is a Talk2Us feature which allows me to submit comments on specific stories. I presume the comments are reviewed and selectively posted. I had to register for that as a print subscriber. Not too painful but I am not sure what I get for that effort. I am too used to open comments and posting in blogs to really care about their closed system.
My one regret is that even though I am a complete fan, decade(s)-long subscriber, word-of-mouth advocate, I get nothing from the magazine except subscription renewals. I find it remarkable that magazines have no way of rewarding their loyal readers. I don't want much. A note. A nod. Christ, if they let me, I owuld sign up for a lifetime subscription instead of renewing every couple of years. Do magazines even get word-of-mouth?
