Competition winners visit NYC

Just before Christmas, Tasha and I had the pleasure of meeting the winners of the Design It: Shelter Competition: David Mares of Setúbal, Portugal and David Eltang of Aarhus, Denmark. (We swear being called “David” wasn’t a requirement for winning.) We talked about their designs, among other things; check out the Guggenheim website for a great account of how the day went (including more about the winners and their stories).

We met both Davids and their significant others at Google’s New York office, ate a spectactular amount of food, then went on a tour. Between the giant freight elevators (the building used to house buses and trains for the city), the well-stocked microkitchens (another handful of mixed nuts, anyone?) and the Lego playroom (everyone knows that geeks love Lego), I think everyone came away with a good idea of what it’s like to work there. Danish David mentioned that it aligned well with his expectations. We’re glad : )

From left: David Eltang, Ulla Sylvestersen, Sara Caria and David Mares in front of the Guggenheim

After Google, everyone jumped into a few cabs and we traveled uptown to the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. David van der Leer (the Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design) took us around the building. As one of the people most responsible for last summer’s Frank Lloyd Wright show, we couldn’t have asked for a better tourguide. Better yet, the museum was closed on the day we were there – we had the place mostly to ourselves.

An interesting fact we learned on the Guggenheim tour: Near the top of the ramp that spirals up through the building, the pattern of the travertine floor abruptly changes from circles to rectangles. This marks the precise point in the construction when FLW passed away. It seems that without him around to supervise, the builders switched to an easier method. Keep an eye out for it if you get the chance to visit.

Congratulations again to both Davids, and thanks to everyone who participated. The results far exceeded our expectations.

Posted by Aidan Chopra, SketchUp Product Evangelist