BEAUTY: Architecture--Metro Stations Around The World

The Toledo Station in Naples, Italy is a design marvel. The effect is dazzling but the execution is so simple, achieved with colored mosaic tiles and strategically placed lighting.

It may only be Barcelona, but the Drassanes Metro Station could be in Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey" or a set from the 1970s classic TV show "Space: 1999."

Moscow's Komsomolskaya Station captures the grandeur of Tsarist Russia.

The Solna Centrum Station in Stockholm, Sweden is carved out of living rock. The red is actually the sky in a mural that spans the entire station.

Stockholm's Stadion Station is also carved out of rock but this one sports a blue color with a little touch of rainbow.

Jules Verne must have inspired the submarine-textured Arts et Metiers Station in Paris.

Sometimes the design elements greet passengers even before they descend underground. Here, the entrance to the Bockenheimer Warte Station in Frankfurt looks like an antique subway car has poked up out of the ground. It is actually the escalator down!

From The Daily Telegraph, here.

R.I.P. Evelyn Ackerman

Last month, Evelyn Ackerman passed away at the age of 88. She, along with her craftsman/artist husband Jerome, helped shape the homes and interiors of the American Mid-Century. Ackerman created a stunning array of designs both figurative and abstract in a stunning array of materials that included mosaics, stained glass, cast metal, ceramics, and textiles, wall hangings, and hooked rugs. Her marvelous child-like aesthetic (which blossomed from the zeitgeist along with the likes of designer Alexander Girard) spoke to a new sense of style at the time. Her color palettes were celebrations of hues that were suddenly possible in the 50s and 60s due to new chemical processes. But all her work was rooted in the idea that with handcrafting a piece of art comes dignity.

To learn more about Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman, and to see more of their marvelous work, visit their website.
http://www.ackermanmodern.com/