About the book, Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors & Design (Rizzoli):

Brooklyn is not only one of the most culturally diverse parts of the world; it is also a Mecca for unique architectural heritage. In Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors, & Design, author Diana Lind takes an intimate look at the innovative architecture and interiors in Brooklyn, one of the country's hippest residential enclaves and a crucible for the new urban lifestyle.

From Bedford-Stuyvesant to Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill to Ditmas Park, the borough is vast and dense. As the new cultural heart of New York, Brooklyn has recently attracted many young people who are interested in creating their own sense of space, as well as the challenge and satisfaction of renovating a classic style-brownstone or townhouse. The results are homes that express the optimism, resourcefulness, and experimentation of many Brooklyn's bohemian residents.

With essays by Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge and Jonathan Butler of Brownstowner.com, Brooklyn Modern offers a new perspective on ways of living in today's urban landscape.

Friday, September 26, 2008, 7-9PM
The powerHouse Arena
37 Main Street, Brooklyn
RSVP: rsvp@powerHouseArena.com

Please join us in a conversation between Diana Land, author of Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors & Design and Jonathan Butler, founder of Brownstoner.com blog, on Brooklyn's renaissance and its emerging architecture community; additionally, Tina Manis, founder of DUMBO architectural design firm, Tina Manis Associates, will discuss how to transform Brooklyn's brownstones.

About the panelists:

Diana Lind was born and raised in New York City. Her writing has appeared in Architectural Record, Art + Auction, Plenty, and many other publications. She edited Designing the Hamptons: Portraits of Interiors (Edizioni, 2006).

Jonathan Butler is the founder of Brownstoner.com, the leading blog about Brooklyn real estate, architecture, and preservation. Launched in October 2004, the blog currently attracts about 150,000 readers and 1.3 million page views per month. In April, Jonathan launched Brooklyn Flea, the largest flea market in the city, on a 40,000-square-foot lot in Fort Greene. Prior to starting Brownstoner, Jonathan spent a decade as a journalist, venture capitalist, and real estate investor. He has a BA in history from Princeton University and an MBA from NYU's Stern School of Business. He currently resides in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, with his wife and two children.

Tina Manis returned to New York to establish her private practice in 2000 after practicing in Europe for five years with the Office for Metropolitan Architecture/Rem Koolhaas in Rotterdam and the Richard Rogers Partnership in London. As founding and principal partner in Tina Manis Associates, she has completed numerous commercial and residential commissions, including a New York headquarters for Kaikai Kiki, the studio, gallery, and office of artist Takashi Murakami. Manis is also an adjunct professor in the department of architecture at Columbia University and has previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate Design School, Barnard, and The New School/Parsons School of Design. She has received degrees from Columbia University and California College of the Arts.

PRESS QUOTES

Paper: "A book that we can't stop leafing through is Diana Lind's recently published Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors and Design (Rizzoli). For those of you who compulsively look at Brooklyn craigslist listings just so you can peek into other people's apartments (OK, well maybe that's just us), this book is real estate porn at its most highbrow-in that we didn't feel dirty inside after reading it. Lind set out to document Brooklyn's renaissance as seen through its blossoming modern architecture scene, so in addition to gorgeous photos by Yoko Inoue, this tome features insightful essays by Lind, Design*Sponge's Grace Bonney, Brownstoner's Jonathan Butler and Architectural Record's Robert Ivy."

Cool Hunting: "In Brooklyn Modern, Diana Lind examines this architecture and interior design boom through 18 particularly innovative living spaces and the homeowners who designed them. In addition to Lind, the book includes essays by the blogerati, Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge and Jonathan Butler of Brownstoner, who all rhapsodize on some of the exciting new aesthetics within "the new cultural heart of New York."

New York Living: "Author and native New Yorker Diana Lind has selected a range of homes by a new generation, and in authentic Brooklyn character, had them photographed intentionally 'unstaged.'"

Readymade: "Lind's scouting unearthed dozens of resourceful solutions-many of them made for tight budgets and tight spaces. These are not glossy magazine interiors; the photos underscore the spaces' unfussy vibe, while revealing the underdog pride that all Brooklynites feel: 'For all the money in the world, we wouldn't move back to Manhattan.'"