It’s safe to say that Van Alen Institute  Executive Director Olympia Kazi has delivered on the generous hype that surrounded her appointment last January. Today is the official opening of Van Alen Books, an architecture and design book store and public reading room that flies in the face of the popular notion of print being, well, dead. Kazi’s inference? Print may well be dead, but the public form isn’t. Click through.

The very existence of Van Alen Books makes a powerful argument about the role of the book in our professional culture. The consensus opinion regarding architectural publishing seems to be that the era of the architectural “tome” is over. But  the argument that we don’t “need” bookstores anymore, since we buy books less, ignores the implicit social currency that these spaces deal in. Opening Van Alen Books could be seen as as huge risk, but on the other hand, the store addresses the dearth of public meeting and forum spaces in the city.

A look at the LOT-EK designed space proves that subtextual point: where are the books? Does it matter?

A Daily Dose of Architecture has a great set of shots from the opening party. Check out the full post here, and more about the design here. Van Alen Books is located at 30 West 22nd Street.

All photos (c) archidose.

All photos (c) archidose.

by Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

posted in Events

tagged a daily dose of architecture, books, bookstore, olympia kazi, print, publishing, val alen books, van alen institute

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