2017 DINING BY DESIGN ON THE PIERS IN NEW YORK CITY

THE PATH TO ZERO

For twenty years the design industry has come together sponsoring an event raising awareness and financial support in the fight against AIDS. After twenty years the event and its purpose are still relevant. Research has enabled AIDS to no longer be a death sentence but many infected do not have access to these life-saving drugs. New drugs continue to be in development to entirely eradicate the epidemic and the design industry continues through events like Dining by Design to support the elimination of this horrible scourge.

Here are some of the participants in New York's 2017 entry into the Dining by Design franchise held in conjunction with the Architectural Digest Show at Piers 92 and 94.

Crate&Barrel set their table as if it was a counter at a highly sophisticated restaurant and you had a prime seat at the bar

Ralph Lauren took us seaside with a fresh west coast look

They set a table any yacht would be famous for with red, white, blue and gold you were definitely sitting at the captain's table.

Blue Ocean Design and Charleston Limewash created this suspended table in an olive green box with contrasting flashes of lavender. This table combined both rustic elements with contemporary flair.

You have to love those simple metal stools with the white duck seat covers held in place with those huge grommets strung with naval rope.

AJ Madison is an online company offering a huge line of appliances at competitive pricing and shipping nationwide. The wall behind their table depicted the logos of many of the brands they represent.

In contrast the actual table resembled a medieval banquet. I have to assume you tore at the feast like heathens and dueled with your competing quests as you walked around the table fighting for food with your bare hands since there weren't any chairs for you to sit at or utensils for polite eating.

2033The collective of Perkins + Will, Steelcase, Coalesse, Designtex, Empire Office and Arktura produced a sleek black table with chairs strung up like some sort of S&M bondage event. The orange chairs counter-weighted with black weights were anything but Halloween.

Interior Design magazine has been a major sponsor of the New York event for the past several years. Their table anchored the far end of the pier. Their very graphic table has deconstructed their theme, "Love".

The table by M Moser Associates was a favorite.  It was not only visually stunning but it was an education in the history and future of AIDS on the "Race to Zero".

While the written wall at M Mason's table told the history of the struggle the mirror on the side was like a look into the future

I've been on a search for art for one of our clients, first here in New York and then online where I found a company named Twyla. We were on our way to South by Southwest on another assignment when I discovered that this company, Twyla, that we had been communicating with was an Austin based company. While in Austin we tried to meet up with them but it didn't work out.

So when I got back to New York and got to Dining by Design I wasn't expecting an Austin art house to have come all the way to New York to set up a table and that this would be the place we'd finally connect; at their very beautiful table.

The New York Design Center took on a different tack by pairing with Fair, a new showroom at 200 Lex started by designer Brad Ford, selling product from Fair's collection of ceramic vases and cups to benefit the event.

Gensler + Knoll gave us magenta and a lot of it in there space emphasizing the reality that the fight is far from over

I don't like to be disappointed and especially by my idol, Ellen, but I've got to say her collaboration with Thomasville was a bit of a letdown. The furniture seemed a bit more appropriate for a homogeneous corporate office than a residential dining room.

Even the faux painted walls had the look of a concept that wasn't fully thought out or fully executed

Constructed by students from Parsons from debris collected throughout all five boroughs in New York City this table was one of the most original. It was also built and conceived with the purpose of giving back. Since all the materials used to build their table were found objects the students donated their allotted budget back to HIV/AIDS activism

Each year the richness of talent displayed at the Dining by Design event is only matched by the generosity of an industry stricken so heavily by an epidemic that saw so many loses. Each year the advances in care inch closer to a full cure so that seeing zero infections is no longer a dream and a prayer but a possibility.
THE GALLERY

Ranch House Cafe, Route 285, Vaughn, New Mexico, 1997
Jeff Brouws, photographer
Represented by Robert Klein Gallery, Boston