Los Angeles-based artist Mike Stilkey turns discarded library books into whimsical works of art. The one-time street artist creates wonderful mixed media portraits of people and animals that have a decidedly early 20th century vibe. You can see lots more of his colorful work here.
In a city packed with attention grabbing tourist attractions, monuments and museums, Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum is often overlooked by visitors. But this summer there’s a new incentive to check out this marvelous museum.
Referencing classic European hedge mazes, a tall labyrinth constructed from Baltic birch plywood has been built in the spectacular Great Hall West Court of the museum. The mindboggling maze was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group as an introduction for an upcoming exhibition on building practices.
Housed in the magnificent 19th century former home of the U.S. Pension Bureau Headquarters, the National Building Museum is the U.S.’s leading cultural institution devoted to the history of the built environment. It tells the story of design, architecture and engineering in civilization.
Ranganath Krishnamani is a very talented artist/design/illustrator based in Bangalore, India. His new series of travel posters and postcards of iconic Indian landmarks has a marvelous early 20th century aesthetic that wouldn’t be out of place in a Wes Anderson film. You can see more on his blog.
We’ve all seen lots of websites featuring “then & now” photo mashups—I’ve even posted a few here on TBTP. Now a handy app called Timera 2 allows users to create their own composite photographs right on their smartphones. The secret to Timera is an enormous database of crowd sourced archival and historical geotagged photographs.
Creating then & now images is dead simple with this free app (iOS and Android). Users just choose a Timera image of a nearby location, overlay the photo on the device display, then just line-up the archived image with the real world scene and snap the photo.
Citi x 60 is a clever new travel guide series featuring curated entries on local attractions, architecture, food, apps, accommodations and more by 60 local creative types. The initial books in the series, from Hong Kong-based publisher Viction:ary , cover New York, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, London and Tokyo. The books retail for $9.95.
Last year more than 28 million travelers (including me) passed through Paris-Orly Airport . To celebrate the flyers, Aéroports de Paris invited passengers to share their selfies and then created this giant selfie mosaic that when completed today will cover 3200 square meters of the Orly-Sud terminal façade and be the world’s largest selfie.
On July 2nd, artfully decorated benches shaped like books began popping up all around London. Books About Town is a public arts event celebrating London’s literary heritage and is sponsored by the National Literary Trust, an organization dedicated to supporting literacy projects in the UK.
The 50 unique book bench sculptures are created by local artists and are linked to iconic British books, such as Peter Pan, 1984, Great Expectations, Through the Looking Glass and the Sherlock Holmes books. Each bench is situated in an area with a connection to the book. Maps to follow the Book Bench Trail can be downloaded here.
Way back in March we featured a post on photographer Henry Hargreaves’ wonderful food-based maps. During the past year he has been working on another project that involves collecting and photographing coffee shop take-out cups from around the world. The project demonstrates just how, witty, artful and creative coffee slingers can be with a simple disposable paper cup.
You can see the entire collection at the Coffee Cups of the World blog.
all images © Henry Hargreaves
Since the end of June, flyers traveling from Germany’s Dusseldorf Airport have been able to leave the parking to robot valets. Travelers drop-off cars at the garage Vehicle Transfer Station and use a smartphone app to schedule a “pick-up” by Robot Ray. Cars are then deposited in specially reserved spaces—all for the cost of €29 per day.
No more circling the airport garage or lot for a space. Best of all, the robotic system increases garage capacity for everyone. The system even uses your flight information to automatically return your car when you return.
Since last October, more than 50,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico have arrived at U.S. immigration facilities on the border with Mexico. New York City’s La Casa Azul Bookstore is partnering with the Justice/Safe Passage Project to collect books to be distributed to the children while they await processing at shelters. The bookstore is looking for donations of books that are “in Spanish, age appropriate and culturally relevant for mostly Central American and Mexican children and teenagers.” New or gently used books can be shipped to La Casa Azul for delivery to the children in shelters. There’s more information on the bookstore website.
Travel Between The Pages 