Last month when I was in New York City I caught a cab from the airport to my hotel. As we were sitting in traffic I noticed how quiet the engine was and momentarily wondered if the driver had turned the car off. It then occurred to be that I might be in a hybrid taxi. I looked around to see if there was anything telling me I was in a hybrid, but no luck. It wasn't until I was out of the cab and getting my bags from the trunk that I saw the "Hybrid" logo on the Ford Escape. These hybrid taxis actually arrived in New York City in 2005.
Mayor Bloomberg has recently proposed a 5-year plan for an all-hybrid taxi fleet. The new fleet of hybrid vehicles in NYC should cut about 215,000 metric tons a year of carbon dioxide. This will be an important step in the city's plan to cut greenhouse gas emission 30% by 2030. The hybrid fleet only consists of 375 vehicles out of the 13,000 on New York City street. This number is scheduled to grow to 1,000 in the next year.
While I must admit it is pretty convenient to hop in a cab, the folks at Transportation Alternatives found that it is not the quickest way to get around.
Late last year São Paulo voted to ban all outdoor advertising — an unbelievable feat for a city of 11 million! And likely a dream Naomi Klein couldn't have even imagined. Now there's a great Flickr gallery documenting the naked city. Check it out here.
Of course, advertising's not all bad. Visit our friend Brad Dicharry's Lettermade giclée gallery. He has a beautiful photo collection of aged signs and outdoor graphics for sale.
Tricycle's been honored with the 2007 Governor's Environmental Stewardship Award for leadership in pollution prevention from Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen.
It's latest in a string of recognitions given to us in the past couple of years, including,
- the first-ever Gold IDEA award in Eco-Design from Business Week magazine and the Industrial Designers Society of America;
- eco-leadership awards from the American Institute of Architects, American Society of Interior Designers, and International Interior Design Association;
- and a nomination for a 2006 National Design Award for Corporate Achievement, from the Smithsonian Institution. Okay, we didn't win it. But the nomination was enough for us to smile in bewilderment!
The "streak" began in 2002 when we were awarded an IIDEX/NeoCon Canada Gold Award for Sustainable Design. Since there are a handful of these awards, we exhibit photographs of select trophies in our conference room, taped directly to the wall. It's the only (very) cheap format we could invent to standardized the presentation.
Earlier this year, we were also honored with graphic design awards from the Type Director's Club, AIGA Ten Show, Step Inside Design and the upcoming Print A+C=D Business Graphics Review. Looks like we'll need to buy some more yellow masking tape…
Karastan LE12 is a new rapid prototyping program from Karastan Contract. The Web application features an industry first — believable woven carpet simulation. The month-long lead times for custom woven products are cut to seconds, letting you view custom colored woven designs immediately. LE12 currently features Karaloc and Wilton products, with Axminster to follow this Autumn.
One of the biggest challenges of this particular project was that carpet weaving is still an old technology. It's mechanized, but not computerized, making it difficult to introduce into our digital world. A huge thanks goes out to Jackie Dettmar and the design team at Karastan for collaborating so diligently with us to introduce this innovation.
This week we released two new sites for Clayton Miller.
Nest, their luxury residential broadloom brand relaunched on Friday. The site is integrated with a comprehensive sample book designed by our in-house team. The book features over 50 patterns in textured wool, shown in twelve fashionable colors — all SIM of course. You can order one directly from Clayton Miller.
We also launched a simple web application for Cadence (registration required). Both sites make it easy to get samples quickly with a minimal environmental footprint.
Our favorite tradeshow is quickly approaching and we're looking forward to a pleasurably exhausting week in Chicago. We've exhibited since 2002 and our booths have won a creative excellence award from the International Interior Design Association (IIDA) for the last three years. Can we do it again? Probably not! But you never know… depends on what our friend Bill does.
This year we're collaborating with our fellow Chattanoogans Widgets & Stone to create a design out of used cardboard boxes and carpet simulations, promoting design firms and manufacturers that have created successful projects through our services. If you see someone sleeping in the corner, it's not a homeless person, it's just Caleb trying to get some rest.
We can't show you any of this year's design, but we can tease you with the past. Our 2004 booth is viewable here in the AIGA Design Archives. Be sure to visit us on the 8th floor, booth 4110 on June 11.
This week we celebrate the launch of Folio 54, an Ian Schrager inspired sampling program from Durkan Commercial. Like all of our online tools, you can recolor your favorite patterns, view them in built environments and order time and waste-saving SIM samples. The site was designed in collaboration with Armastus Studios.
I first heard about Superuse.org through a local bicycle manufacturer, Litespeed, whose product idea is posted on the site. Superuse is a collection of ideas, projects and materials that display creative reuse. The best part is anyone can vote for a favorite idea! Litespeed is known for making high end, titanium bikes for serious racers. Here they have used leftover titanium tubing to make salt and pepper shakers.
As I clicked through the pages of projects and ideas I ran into quite a few designs that we have mentioned in the past on Tricycle Ink, such as the Tide Chandelier and the Big Dig House. Carpet tiles turned building material is mentioned as well, yet has only received 4 votes. If you have a great idea for reusing carpet tiles don't forget to check out the Ample Sample Contest and show us what you got!
In celebration of this year's Earth Day, Tricycle was invited to design and model a dress made out of our SIM from Tricycle® paper carpet samples at an eco-savvy fashion show in New York. Project Earth Day, put together by the Emerging Green Builders (EGB) of New York City, featured the latest in sustainable apparel and textile designs by up and coming designers.
"EGBNY members are young, creative professionals in the building, architecture and interior design fields," Molly Garretson, EGBNY member and the fashion show liaison, told Inhabitat.com. "We wanted to throw an event that would not only be fun, but would bring together similar creative, eco-conscious people in another yet related area of design."
The event kicked off with a student competition; first place went to Parsons student Xay Xiong, who was presented with an award by Tandus. Then, just before the professionals' show—which featured eco-friendly products from designers including Bahar Shahpar, Nature Vs. Future and Covet—our SIM dress took to the runway.
Is Tricycle's Anj McClain the first LEED Accredited Professional to model a paper dress in a New York Fashion Show? We feel fairly confident in saying "Yes!"
Click here to watch the official podcast from the show, which features Tricycle in the final seconds. The SIM dress, made of paper samples of carpets from Tandus brands Monterey, C&A and Crossley, was conceived and created by Kristen Bragdon... who was most recently lauded as the designer of Mannington Commercial's Arpeggio Collection.
Special thanks to Molly Garretson of Gensler for inviting us to participate!
Our blog is mostly about sustainable design in the interiors industry,
especially carpet. Sometimes it's just about us. Updated when we've got something good to say.
