Curated recently visited Robert A.M. Stern’s latest edition to the Manhattan skyline, “Located on the Northeast corner of Central Park, 1280 Fifth Avenue boasts design by Robert A.M. Stern and interiors by acclaimed architect Andre Kikoski. As a multi-use building, the structure houses both luxury accommodations and the Museum of African Art – the tenth institution on the famed Museum Mile of Fifth Avenue.”

The location affords some stunning views of Central Park and the model homes are a showcase for Ligne Roset’s latest furnishings. More about the building can be found here.

Never content to let the Harvard crowd have all the fun, Yale’s contribution to digital exhibitions related to student rooms launched this week.

Recently, I discussed the FDR Project and much the same I love There’s No Place Like Home for capturing the spirit of a time through interiors and objects. This particular exhibition was curated by a fellow Winterthur Program graduate, Dana Byrd, whose work I admire greatly.

From the site -

In the late nineteenth century, Yale College students took great care furnishing their dormitory rooms, filling them with personal mementos, artistic objects, and the accouterments of academic life. Between 1869 and 1894, new dormitories, monumental in scale and lavish in design, were built along the New Haven Green on College Street in the area known today as Old Campus, gradually creating a self-contained quadrangle that quickly became the psychological center of campus. The new student rooms provided a marked contract to the austerity and coldness of many of the university’s other facilities. To commemorate their living spaces, students commissioned professional photographers to document their fashionable interiors and to record intimate traces of their personal tastes and habits. The extensive decoration and photography of student rooms was not limited to Yale; it occurred at other elite academic institutions across the country. This online exhibition is dedicated to exploring the ways in which students used objects to create a distinctive home for themselves at Yale.

I have selected a few objects from the exhibition that really spoke to me. These are after the jump.

On the high seas, no ship captured the full Art Deco style as fully as the SS Normandie. A passenger liner, the Normandie was the most glamorous of the early 20th-century “floating palaces.” In Decodecne: Legendary Interiors and Illustrious Travelers Aboard the SS Normandie, South Street Seaport Museum celebrates the boat in full glory. The exhibition includes interiors, photographs, video and more, all with the intent of expressing why the Normandie captured the imagination of people the world over.

The museum has a dedicated site offering a preview of the exhibition. The Telegraph has also published a comprehensive review. Both options have glorious photographs from the show. (via Curated).

Deocdence runs through January, 2011.

While there are many solid and useful travel guides about, The Design Hotels Book sets itself apart through directed presentation architecture and interior design.

The 2010 edition features 170 hotels, with added features on 10 hoteliers. Aside from documenting trends in the hospitality industry, The Design Hotels Book strives to bring the experience of staying at a top boutique hotel to life. This may seem a pretentious desire, but the collected hotels are certainly worth a leaf through.

Don’t want to stay at any? Remember the bars usually know how to serve up a strong drink. (And attract really sexy women).

From Gestalten. Selected page views follow.

Available for preorder from Amazon.

T Magazine explores the interior design stylings of Martin Margiela with a profile of the Suite Ile aux Oiseaux at Les Sources de Caudalie near Bordeaux. “For 650 euros a night and up (a special package includes “a gift signed by Maison Martin Margiela” — perhaps one of the Maison’s new wine-bottle lamps?), guests can retreat to the avant-garde chambre between spa treatments and bottles of premier cru at the hotel’s La Grand’Vigne restaurant. (In keeping with the spa theme, the restaurant offers a calorie-conscious menu amid the foie gras.)”

Read the full writeup at T Magazine.

A new annual publication from the Rhode Island School of Design’s Department of Interior Architecture, Int|Ar certainly isn’t the only journal dedicated to interior design. However, it separates itself in focus with its inaugural issue. The theme, “Interventions/Adaptive Reuse” grants scholarly attention to rehabs and functional modification.

Released for autumn 2009, the issue was funded by a RISD Professional Development Grant. Available from the risd:store, Int|Ar might make the perfect holiday gift for the picky design buff in your family.

Sample page spread after the jump.

Creative spaces being particularly fascinating, the November Issue of Creative Review might just be the most intriguing since I became aware of the publication. Focusing on workplace, the issue gives the theme a nice twist – focusing on the places CR readers work in and what they do in those places. Included are ad and creative agencies, as well as a exclusive extract of the book Studio Culture.

Page views follow.

K-Swiss is a brand not often covered on these pages, but suspend disbelief for a moment. This post is less about brand than it is about interior shop design. The new London concept store was designed by 6a Architects. Through years of working in museums, and finding the storage spaces most exciting, the incorporation of moving library/painting storage units in the space strikes the most. Another point in the brief delivered to 6a is the requirement that the space transform to an open, unbranded, art and music venue at moments notice. In short, the K-Space Concept Store manages to take a corporate initiative and not thrust it down the throat of the consumer.

More information at CoolBoom. More images after the jump.

The third store designed by Dimitris Padopoulous and Yiannis Konilus for Comme des Garcons in Athens is a more permanent vision than the previous pop-up (Gorilla) shops. Conceived as white cube meets boutique, the effect (as seen) is minimal. Shelving of white wood against white walls. The space is shared by Bearbrick, who inhabit the raw space of the old pop-up. This allows for a striking change of pace from brand to brand, as well as a contrast between the design duos new and early spaces. (via Frame).

The headquarters of Grey Goose (located in Brussels) has a new bar. Designed by Puresang, the space features an extended bar which dips and rises as a conference table on one side. A faceted wall of blue triangular glass tiles keeps the brand identity well located in the interior. (via Dezeen).