Designs for Shellball Apartments, 8300 Talbot St. at Lefferts Blvd., Kew Gardens, New York, NY.] [Perspective drawing of lobby 1928

Winold Reiss dreamt up this suave lobby for the Shellball Apartments in Kew Gardens, New York, sometime in the early 1950s, using pencil and pastel on paper. Imagine Reiss hunched over his drawing board, sleeves rolled up, carefully hatching in those art deco details, the perspective lines receding into the peachy glow of the entryway. I wonder if he knew these lines would never become real? That tessellating floor, those cubist chairs, and the stylized elevator doors feel very familiar and strange at the same time, like a memory from a film you once saw. There is something about this place that is totally of its time, yet feels beamed in from some alternate future. It makes me think about how architects and designers are also artists, imagining spaces, thinking about how folks will use it, and adding their own painterly touch. Art, design, architecture, it's all just one big conversation, you know?