“For Gohar, Home is a personal exploration of nature. But there is politics here too: nature always finds a way, even in the most adverse of settings, and a new post-war world has sprouted amongst the ruins of what’s passed and been destroyed. People, and our fraught lives filled with things, however, are more ephemeral.”
Community
April 17th, 2018
Podcast: Halo Talks Presents Amro Qaddura, Co-Founder Of Blender Workspace
Amro Qaddura sat down with Peter Moore of Halo Talks for an intimate discussion on Blender’s origin and his journey from the management consulting world to pioneering the premium workspace market segment.
April 12th, 2018
Nature: Famous Japanese Snow Monkeys Take Baths to Lower Stress
“Of all the primates in the world, Japanese macaques live the farthest north. For decades, they’ve been observed taking baths in Jigokudani Monkey Park in Japan. Their behavior has become so endearing to people that thousands of tourists often trek north to take a peak at the snow monkeys’ bath time.”
April 10th, 2018
Profile: John DeLucie / Chef & Proprietor Empire Diner, Bedford & Co and The Waverly Inn
Meet John DeLucie- a chef and proprietor at Empire Diner, The Lion, The Waverly Inn and Bedford & Co. Find out this resilient Chef’s ‘madeleine’ moment was!
April 5th, 2018
Food: The Joy Of Food By National Geographic
“Consider the cultures that leave delicacies graveside to let the departed know they are not forgotten. And even when times are tough, the urge to celebrate endures”
April 3rd, 2018
Press: Cowork Navigator- Best Coworking Spaces In America
“As Blender describes their vision on their own site: ‘ A designer’s dream come true, Blender is an impressive and sophisticated space that stands above the rest, the perfect community to take your business to the next level’. It can’t be said any better.”
March 29th, 2018
Design: When Buildings Wear Glass Slippers…
“Glass blocks, or glass bricks as they are also widely referred to, date back to the late 1880s when they were produced in squares and hexagonal shapes by Swiss Architect & Engineer Gustave Falconnier. In the 1930’s, further development of machine production created more advanced types of glass bricks which became easier to work with. Designed to be laid in the traditional style of masonry, glass blocks quickly became known for their ground-breaking qualities. This adaptable, modular and thermally stable material allowed for the flow of light without sacrificing privacy.”
March 27th, 2018
Art: Basel Week In Hong Kong!
“The sixth edition of Art Basel in Hong Kong opened on Tuesday with 248 galleries setting up shop for the week in the massive Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which overlooks Victoria Harbour. With each passing year, as the market in Asia and the sophistication of the audiences are both on the rise, the quality of work dealers bring to this fair increases, as does the number of curated, single-artist presentations outside of the fair’s designated sections for solo booths.”
March 22nd, 2018
Profile: Erin Silber / Erin Silber Photography
A cheetah in spirit, Erin Silber never misses a moment to document her surroundings. Find out more about this entrepreneur!
March 20th, 2018
Food: Get To Know Amman Through Your Stomach
The best food in Amman isn’t what tourists are typically recommended but the secret, local places where the migrant population goes for the flavors and scents they miss the most. Here’s our guide to eating your way through them.
March 15th, 2018
Press: 24 Meeting Spaces By Venue Report
From urban wineries to beside-the-racetrack venues, here are two dozen of our favorite meeting spaces that’ll actually get you excited to hang with your co-workers. Join us in saying bye, bye to stale, dimly lit meeting rooms of yesteryear and aloha to bright spaces that’ll fill your team with inspiration.
March 13th, 2018
Art: Finger Painting With Bacteria
What if you could paint with the vivid, iridescent hues of a peacock’s feather or a butterfly’s wing? New research, conducted by chemists at the University of Cambridge and biotechnology company Hoekmine BV, suggests that could soon be a reality.
March 8th, 2018
Design: Extraterrestrial-Influenced Buildings
The country was later invaded by the Warsaw Pact forces in 1968, bringing it under full Soviet rule. It was during this time that the influence of Soviet design began to appear most strongly in the architecture of Slovakia. The postwar industrial influence led to the incorporation of prefabricated structures, specifically in the housing and community buildings. In Bratislava, more than 90% of the city’s 430,000 residents lived in postwar industrialized housing by the late 1980s.
March 6th, 2018
Art: When Art And Science Collide
Other artists affirm an intuitive approach to knowledge or resist the scientific drive to make sense of the world. Bradley’s exhibition at Gasworks includes a bespoke herbal tonic produced by the artist’s sister, medical herbalist Lucie Bradley, and embedded – like blooming lichen – in resin across the gallery floor. In addition – bafflingly – is a photograph of a bro-skater taken on 9/11 exhibited inside what looks like an industrial washing machine. Science would have no time for such willful weirdness.
March 1st, 2018
Recap: Entrepreneur Salon Featuring Nick Graham
Blender Workspace, a premium shared office community, welcomed fashion iconoclast and Joe Boxer founder, Nick Graham, to their New York flagship on February 20th. The two-hour presentation and roundtable discussion signified the launch of Blender’s new Entrepreneur Salon Series: the latest addition to a robust programming initiative available to all Blender members.
February 28th, 2018
Wellness: Adding Greenery
Indoor air pollution is generally a consequence of toxic emissions from synthetic building materials, airborne mold, viruses, and pollutants, along with energy efficient construction, like making spaces as airtight as possible, which reduces the air circulation. These contributors release toxin emissions such as benzene, formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, xylene and toluene.
February 22nd, 2018
Food: Branded Meat
The restaurant is part of the Quality Branded restaurants from restaurateur Michael Stillman, which also owns Quality Italian and Quality Meats. The Stillman family has been in the meat business in New York for years; Michael’s father Alan opened the first TGI Friday’s in 1965 and once manned steakhouse chain Smith & Wollensky.
February 20th, 2018
Profile: Robert Johnson and Kat Sarkissian / Jonsar Studios
Get to know the power couple behind JonSar Studios- they went from street shooting for NY Daily News to shooting top models and fashion designers in all the best shows!
February 15th, 2018
Art: Staged Reality
Having first picked up the camera at the age of 21, the Emmy-winning photographer and filmmaker’s career sprung from humble beginnings — Alex Prager used to hang pictures in her apartment building’s laundry room before exhibiting her works in actual galleries.
February 13th, 2018
Profile: Jasmin Rahim / Moving Nutrition
Meet Jasmin Rahim, a multifaceted individual hailing from various backgrounds. She is the founder of Moving Nutrition which focuses on health and wellness in both personal and professional lives.
February 6th, 2018
Press: The Points Guy
It can be a challenge to stay connected and productive while you’re on the road. Sure, it’s easier than ever to work remotely thanks to laptops, smartphones and reliable Wi-Fi, but if you actually want to be productive, you still need to find somewhere you can actually work — preferably someplace with the right resources and an environment.
February 1st, 2018
Design: Classic HB2 Yellow
An oft-repeated bit of pencil lore tells of an experiment conducted by Faber in the middle of the 20th century. The company distributed 1,000 pencils—half yellow, half green—to a test group. While both sets of pencils were identical apart from their color, the green pencils were returned en masse with complaints about their shoddy quality.
January 30th, 2018
Design: Water Elimination
What if each product was distilled down to its non-water ingredients and sold as a solid? That’s the idea behind the designer Mirjam de Bruijn‘s project Twenty, a concept for packaging where these products are sold in solid form. Once you’ve bought your shampoo pellets, you simply put them in a reusable bottle, and add water.
January 23rd, 2018
Design: Architectural Diversity In Queens
In 2012, Rafael Herrin-Ferri began systematically photographing the houses of Queens, the New York City borough he calls home. The Spanish-born artist and architect lives in Sunnyside, one of the many neighborhoods which make up one of the world’s most ethnically diverse urban areas. Herrin-Ferri noticed that the architecture of Queens reflected this diversity, whether the Victorian mansions that mingle with multi-family apartment buildings in Flushing, or the security grille designs and boldly colored siding that individualize even the most minimal homes in Long Island City.
January 18th, 2018
Food: Best Group Dinner Option
In New York, hot-pot restaurants dot New York’s Chinatowns from Flushing to Sunset Park — but they tend to be all-you-can-eat or budget-minded. This is good for the wallet, but it can also mean underwhelming broths and less-than-ideal restaurant experiences. In China, on the other hand, hot pot is big business. It’s the country’s most popular way to eat out, according to one report, and there are options for a range of budgets.
January 16th, 2018
Design: Britain’s Postmodern Architecture
Postmodernist architecture will always be a divisive genre, which is precisely what makes those who love it, love it more. Beginning in the late 1970s as a reaction to modernist principles of form follows function, postmodernism in buildings manifested as a riot of tropical colours and the fusing of contemporary and classical decoration. Geraint Franklin and Elain Harwood, authors of new book Post-modern Buildings in Britain, call the eclectic results, at their best “individual and adventurous”.
January 11th, 2018
Press: Travelmag
In Manhattan, you can barely walk more than a few hundred metres before encountering a co-working space. With such a huge choice available, finding the right one for you can be a tricky task. To help you out, we’ve dug deep and looked into all of the options, picking out 7 of the best, based on location, price, flexibility and previous client reviews.
January 9th, 2018
Art: When Two Worlds Collide
At first glance, it’s easy to mistake Alexey Kondakov’s images for snapshots of contemporary life. His subjects daydream on subways, make out on buses, and suntan in the buff. But a closer look reveals the Kiev-based artist’s delightful stunt: These figures aren’t 21st-century commuters—they’re characters pulled from classical paintings and seamlessly Photoshopped into present-day scenes.
January 4th, 2018
Profile: Helen Homan Wu
Helen Homan Wu is the founder of Cura/genda, a firm that specializes in high-end travel experiences by designing tailor-made art and culture trips. She also curates the art in our space!
January 2nd, 2018
Food: Italian Dimsum
The restaurant’s owner, Paolo Meregalli, has expanded on the theme with a casual spinoff called Raviolo, where he translates classic Italian primi and secondi into a menu of dumplings (filled pastas) and buns (steamed-bread sandwiches), served dim-sum style with bamboo steamers and chopsticks.
December 28th, 2017
Design: Algorithm Spying
For many years, the main goal of the Netflix personalized recommendation system has been to get the right titles in front each of our members at the right time. With a catalog spanning thousands of titles and a diverse member base spanning over a hundred million accounts, recommending the titles that are just right for each member is crucial. But the job of recommendation does not end there.
December 26th, 2017
Art: Soo….how much for that?
If the past is any indication, Wednesday’s anonymous buyer didn’t make a smart financial investment. After the family trust of the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev purchased Leonardo da Vinci’s portrait of Christ, Salvator Mundi (c.1500), from the Swiss dealer Yves Bouvier for USD$127.5 million in 2014, Rybolovlev alleged that he’d been vastly overcharged and filed a lawsuit in Monaco. Before that, at an estate auction in 2005, the painting was presumed to be a copy and was bought for under $10,000.
December 21st, 2017
Food: Ducking Delectable
DaDong goes through a lot of ducks. Specifically: DaDong serves 1,387,000 Peking ducks per year at the restaurant chain’s ten locations in Beijing, four in Shanghai, and two in Chengdu, including the original location in Beijing, a restaurant that Dong Zhenxiang ran for ten years before buying it and reopening it as DaDong in 1995. Peking duck is, of course, one of the most delicious recipes known to man, and in China, DaDong is its most famous ambassador. Its public face is its chef and founder, Dong, who once cooked at Quanjude, the place that invented modern Peking duck.
December 19th, 2017
Science: Can We Even Explain The Human Mind?
According to the participants, the dividing line separating what science can and cannot explain seems to be the perception that some mental phenomena, for example, religious devotion and complex decision-making, “involved an internal experience accessible through introspection” that distinguishes us from other animals that share with us sensorial experiences, such as seeing and hearing.
December 14th, 2017
Member Profile: Ryan Knowles
Meet Ryan Knowles, an avid photographer and a surfer, is the Creative Director/Director of Communications at Immunocologie.
December 12th, 2017
Press: All Work
To really understand what brings a new member to your workspace — or what sends them packing — it pays to understand their perspectives and needs. Often, that’s the difference between a short-term client and one that stays far beyond their initial license agreement.
December 7th, 2017
Profile: Permele Doyle & Ed East / Billion Dollar Boy
Ed East (founder & CEO) and Permele Doyle (partner) of Billion Dollar Boy, a global influencer marketing agency. Their clientele includes Estee Lauder, Mulberry, The White Company, Garnier among others.
December 5th, 2017
Work: Color Outside The Lines
We are entering a brand new era – a ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ – which promises to fundamentally change everything about our lives, including our work. It is a technological revolution that will outpace and dwarf anything in our previous experience (i). These new technological advances offer organizations opportunities as well as significant competition and plenty of disruption. To be successful in this complex world, businesses won’t be able to cut costs as a path to growth, rather they will need to innovate in order to grow. This increasing drive for growth and innovation is causing a macro shift in the need for more creative work.
November 30th, 2017
Press: Interior Design Best Of Year Finalist
We are so fortunate to be named a finalist for Interior Design Magazine’s Best Of Year Award. Huge shout out thanks to our amazing designers at Parts And Labor Design.
November 28th, 2017
Design: The Best Hot Seat In Town
Hardly anyone expects the amount of testing or the work that goes into testing furniture, says Larry Larder, manager of Test Services and Quality Systems at Herman Miller. Larder is a mechanical engineer who has been at Herman Miller for 17 years, and in the test lab for close to ten. “What we’re trying to do, what we’re trying to figure out, is how long a product is going to last under different testing conditions,” Larder says. Herman Miller has an admirable 12-year warranty, so the company works to ensure its products will last that long—at least.
November 16th, 2017
Design: Spider Senses
Inside a dark exhibition hall at the Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, South Korea, a gigantic spider is crawling along the web she has built with her own silk threads inside a cubed frame. The spinning process and the sound of her creation are amplified by a microphone and the image is projected on the wall behind. The eerie installation could well be the perfect prop for Halloween, but according to its creator, Argentine artist Tomás Saraceno, we have a lot to learn from spiders—including, possibly, how to live with climate change.
November 14th, 2017
Press: Surface The List
We are so thrilled to be part of Surface Magazine’s The List
November 9th, 2017
Design: Underwater Munchies
The beautiful semi-submerged structure will also host a marine biology center dedicated to training fish with sounds.
November 7th, 2017
Event Guest Profile: Taku Hirano
World renowned percussionist and producer Taku Hirano presents The 8ctopus Project, combining his mixes with live percussion performed by [special guests] and Hirano himself in a “Live Remix” format. Having toured with the likes of Fleetwood Mac and Whitney Houston, recorded with Dr. Dre (on the seminal 2001 album), remixed for Kanye West, and performed with everyone from Stevie Wonder and Annie Lennox to Beyoncé, Hirano has curated a set from the soundtrack of his storied career.
November 2nd, 2017
Design: Stock Photos
While some people bizarrely debate whether women belong in science, tech, engineering, and math careers, Getty Images is busy replacing outdated stereotypes with stock images of women in STEM as they actually are: driven, talented, curious, and skilled.To mark Ada Lovelace Day, an international celebration to honor the achievements of women in STEM, Getty shared with Mashable contemporary and archival photos that demonstrate just how much progress has been made in creating more accurate depictions of women in these fields.
October 31st, 2017
Work: Conditioning Your Psyche
Activity-based working (ABW) is often mentioned in conjunction with cost savings. Executed well, this workplace design typology—wherein employees forego dedicated seats in favor of moving between different areas suited to particular tasks—can indeed save organizations money on real estate and office furnishings. However, ABW’s biggest benefits don’t show up on the bottom line as quickly or succinctly as those line items. They are subtler, broader, and longer-term. They’re the human-side results of properly executed ABW: its ability to foster employee wellness—mentally, physically, and socially.
October 26th, 2017
Design: Logo Trends
Logos have to walk the tricky walk of being simple, yet comprehensive at the same time—i.e., instantly recognizable and communicating the brand’s essence. Some logos do this very well, but many don’t. After poring through thousands and thousands of logos, we asked Gardner and the LogoLounge judges what graphic devices were trending this year and if they felt they were effective for their intended audiences.
October 24th, 2017
Science: Delaware Icebergs
In July, one of the largest icebergs ever recorded — measuring in at about the size of Delaware and containing a volume of ice twice the size of Lake Erie — broke off the Larsen C Ice Shelf in northwest Antarctica.
October 19th, 2017
Art: Courtroom Artists
Since the Salem witch trials of 1692, over a century before the first photograph was snapped, artists have swiftly rendered sensitive and high-profile proceedings for an eagerly awaiting public. But why, over 300 years later—and in an age where everyone carries a camera in their pocket—do old-fashioned drawings remain the main way we document memorable moments in court?
October 17th, 2017
Profile: Greg Mondshein / SourceCode Communications
Meet our newest member- Greg Mondshein, a Miamian at heart and a LARABAR fanatic, is a managing partner at SourceCode Communications. He completed an Ironman Triathlon and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro!
October 12th, 2017
Press: Office Space
With the gig economy growing, startups continuing to reign, and freelancers and consultants finding success in being their own bosses, office life—and the way people work—has evolved.
October 10th, 2017
Design: Making of 3D Effects
Ever wonder how television and film achieved the three-dimensional look back when CGI was not as developed as it is now?
October 5th, 2017
Art: Female Gender During The Dada Movement
But while Dada had no problem questioning authority, meaning, reality, and everything else related to what they saw as a bourgeois Western world, its practitioners rarely, if ever, cast doubt on conventional gender roles and behaviors. Even if the social conservatism that yielded such inequality was disdained, women were the second sex.
October 3rd, 2017
Design: Future of Interior Design
Ok, it’s no surprise that technology is literally changing everything around us, but one industry that hasn’t had as much advancement over the years comes in the form of interior design. It’s traditionally costly, timely, and requires a designer to come out and basically take care of everything unless you’re one of those handy types. While that may always be a popular method, regardless of the tech being introduced, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t movers and shakers that are disrupting our typical outlook of the field to make it quicker and easier, while still keeping most of the power in the homeowner’s hands.
September 28th, 2017
Profile: Samantha Citro / Immunocologie
Samantha Citro, Jersey native, wears many hats as the Vice President of Immunocologie. You can bet that her San Junipero would definitely be Hawaii’s Big Island
September 26th, 2017
Food: Roman Coffee Experience
In Italy, iced coffee can mean something very different: espresso that’s semi-frozen, so it’s firm and scoopable, made into a granita that’s sometimes topped with a liberal dose of whipped cream. Granitas come from Sicily, where they’re a respite from ragingly hot summers, but they’re found all over Italy now, including Rome, the inspiration for Danny Meyer’s wood-fired Marta and its new casual neighbor Caffe Marchio.
September 21st, 2017
Design: Branding Predictions
At a time of tremendous political and cultural upheaval, one thing remains certain: Companies will keep trying to sell you stuff, and they’ll keep coming up with new ways to do it. Design is, of course, a major part of that pitch. We spoke with designers and design leaders at nearly a dozen agencies to identify the major branding trends of 2017.
September 19th, 2017
Food: Hand Roll Mania by KazuNori
The team behind white-hot Los Angeles omakase export Sugarfish will roll out its second fish concept, KazuNori. The hand-roll bar, with two SoCal outlets, hits Nomad (15 W. 28th St.) on Friday with a 24-seat bar and both a la carte and set-menu options like three to six hand rolls per order, in combinations that include toro, yellowtail, snapper, and crab.
September 14th, 2017
Press: Hospitality’s New Wave- Five American Studios to Watch
Ask Andrew Cohen and Jeremy Levitt of Parts and Labor Design to list the projects they’re working on and there’s a good chance your head will start spinning.
September 12th, 2017
Art: What is in the Palestinian Museum?
The new museum explores the living culture of Jerusalem, which curator Reem Fadda sees as a city that exemplifies the beginning and end of globalism.
September 7th, 2017
Profile: MZ Goodman / BASE
We caught up with MZ Goodman, our newest member in our community, AND got the (fun) load down on her. She is a native New Yorker who was raised in Montreal- the best of both worlds!
August 22nd, 2017
Food: Fly To Vietnam Today, courtesy of BONMi!
Just Opened New York (JO/NYC) by Siobhan Gunner / April 6, 2017
After successfully operating as a food truck and stand alone shop in the Upper West Side, BONMi has opened its doors in downtown New York. BONMi is a fast-casual Vietnamese concept, inspired by Vietnamese street cooking. Does New York really need another Vietnamese restaurant? Maybe not, but BONMi brings something new to the table.
August 8th, 2017
Food: Need a drink afterwork?
The rooftop component to Top Chef competitor Dale Talde’s first Manhattan restaurant opened last month in the Arlo NoMad hotel, offering another angle to peer up at the Empire State Building—and down below at 31st Street. Called “The Heights,” the rooftop bar includes several notable features other than the view, like Talde’s Detroit-style pizzas, cocktails, and some thick glass overhanging the street where you can stand to test your will.
July 25th, 2017
Art: “Park Avenue Armory” Spies by Ai Weiwei
When you buy a ticket to Hansel & Gretel, a new installation by Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, you might not notice the fine print on the back: “Your attendance at this event shall be deemed your consent to have your image or likeness appear in any video display or reproduction in whole or in part.” That’s part of the exhibition’s mystique. You might not even realize you’ve given your consent to be watched or recorded–much like the terms of service agreements we routinely accept every day.
July 21st, 2017
Profile: Jessica Halcomb / Blender Workspace
We caught up with Jessica Halcomb in the Blender Lounge last week.
June 23rd, 2017
Work: Wake up with these routines!
Some of the most successful people in history have relied on morning routines to help them start their day consistently. From Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, who famously starts her day with an hour of tennis, to author Cal Newport, who heads outside for a walk first thing, morning routines help artists, entrepreneurs, politicians, and CEOs control how they start their days.
June 22nd, 2017
Profile: Joanna Greenfield / RubyJ Events
Ambition is the keyword for the British event production agency Ruby J Events. Known for their versatility and exceptional creativity, the company is directed by Joanna Greenfield – who just like her company; is here to get the job done, and done well.
June 18th, 2017
Road Trip: Escape the City heat and head North to Storm King!
If you’re looking for something to do for a summer weekend, Storm King Art Center officially opened two special exhibitions for the 2017 season, Heather Hart’s The Oracle of Lacuna and David Smith’s The White Sculptures.
May 10th, 2017
Profile: Brittney Escovedo / Beyond8
Creative and humble, Brittney Escovedo knows all the secrets to turning dreams into reality. Founder of the company Beyond8, Brittney always knew that event production was the best way to utilize all of her skills and continue to do what she loves the most – cater to people. For the powerful brunette; the ability to […]
May 5th, 2017
Profile: Christian Kotzamanis / MEDIUM
Observing, drawing and creating things with is hands have been an essential part of Christian Kotzamanis’ life for as long as he can remember.
April 18th, 2017
Press: The DNA of a Boutique Hotel Fills a Manhattan Coworking Space
Do briefcase warriors need a perfume-making seminar at work to be successful? How about a bean-bag couch? As coworking spaces become more ubiquitous in cities around the world, lifestyle amenities are now being deployed to entice members of the gig economy, blurring the line between social club and office.
March 31st, 2017
Press: Work edict- clock in at Blender, Manhattan’s new co-working space by Parts and Labor Design
Office drones may have missed the memo, but the co-working office model is all the rage now, as communal desks meet mobile workers meet Starbucks.
March 10th, 2017
Press: Life Wear Feature – The New 9 to 5: Coworking
The way we work is changing – roles are becoming more dynamic, offices more open, and wardrobes more versatile. The new 9 to 5 means breaking out of the cubicle, and having the flexibility to fit the diverse needs and personalities of the modern workforce.
January 19th, 2017
Press: These swanky, perk-filled offices are NYC’s best places to work
Long gone are the days when the New York workforce happily settled into bare-bones Midtown office towers, got lunch at the corner deli and promptly went home at 5 p.m. Seemingly everything has changed about a city work day — perhaps nothing more so than the rising expectations employees, and as a result employers, have for their workplaces.
October 21st, 2015
Press: Blender is like WeWork but for the culture crowd
For the nine months that Jeffrey Fidelman headed investor relations for a startup based at a Manhattan WeWork location, he found the shared space a fine place to work. He just didn’t like bringing investors there.
