IDCNY: Queens'Ransom

DESIGN

Problem: how to persuade Edwin Schlossberg, Philip Johnson, and Michael Graves to set foot in Queens. Solution: throw a party at New York's huge International Design Center. With his bright white interior, Charles Gwathmey has created "a visual environment that is 100 percent about design." IDCNY houses more than fifty showrooms: Memphis/Milano has taken one, and Swiss Wunderkind Mario Botta (featured at MoMA this month) has just completed the interior for another, his first American project. IDCNY is

also host to the design world's glitziest gatherings: Comme des Gargons unveiled its 1986 spring collection there; Karl Lagerfeld feted his cologne. Last month, Johnson and Robert A. M. Stem hosted architecture's talent show, "40 Under 40," and this month the "Form One" conference (with keynote speaker Schlossberg) and "The Chair Fair" ponder why architects insist on designing furniture, kettles, flatware—anything, it seems, but buildings. Graves's answer: "Instant gratification!"

H. ALDERSEY-WILLIAMS