design-phan

Today was a perfect day for many things: visiting Welcome House at Love Park, taking a narrated boat tour of the Schuylkill River, checking out the sample sale at the Marketplace Design Center …. what do all these things have in common? They’re all part of Design Philadelphia, of course!

And so are the 14 white “Corian Bench Inventions” CH Briggs and Corian installed around Center City this past Monday and Tuesday. Each is designed by a local designer and realized by a local fabricator, and they’re only around through the end of October so make sure to seek them out if you haven’t already stumbled over one:

1. A-bench, designed by Kristine Shilling of EwingCole RDLA and fabricated by Solid Image Inc. [location: Schuykill Banks, beneath the Chestnut St. ramp]

2. Rock’n Chair, designed by Joanne Titcomb of Spillman Farmer Architects and created by John Kramer’s Fabrication, Inc. [location: Schuylkill Banks, opposite the boat launch b/t Walnut and Chestnut]

3. Urban Skate Bench, designed by MIO and created by John Kramer’s Fabrication, Inc. [location: Schuylkill Banks, beneath the Walnut St. Bridge]

4. Permutation, designed by Andrew Simmons of Francis Cauffman and created by Allegheny Solid Surface Technologies [location: Schuylkill Banks, near the Locust St. entrance]

5. Leaf, designed by Rich Killeen, Robert Bray, Courtney Moorhead and Suzanne Wright of Granary Associates and created by Eastern Surfaces, Inc. [location: 3 Parkway Plaza, outside Cafe Cret at 16th and Arch]

6. Leg-Go (in the background), designed by Shannon Cole of EwingCole and created by Henry H. Ross & Son, Inc.

6. Milk, designed by Todd Tully Danner of ArQitecture and created by McGrory Inc. [location: the wee pocket park b/t 17th and 18th and Chestnut and Ranstead]

DuPont’s goal was to show that Corian is a flexible design material that can be contoured, sandblasted, routed, carved, laser-etched, etc. until it no longer resembles your grandmother’s vanity counter. I think they proved it—with the help of some brilliant local designers. Hopefully the benches will stay put—the powers that be are looking for a way to gift them to the city.

Which is your favorite? For me it’s a toss-up between the giant Leg-O outside Cafe Cret for its playfulness and the ice-cube shaped Rock’n Chair on the riverbank. It rocks, but you have to put some muscle into it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 9:20 pm and is filed under Furniture design, Philadelphia designer, Philadelphia events, spotted in Philadelphia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.