NYFi Wins People Choice Award for Reinvent the Payphone Design Challenge
Sage and Coombe Architect’s NYFi conceptual design.
The people have spoken (well, “clicked”) and the votes are in—NYFi wins the Popular Choice Award for Mayor Bloomberg’s “Reinvent the Payphone Design Challenge!” The winners of the Connectivity, Visual Design, Creativity, Functionality, and Community Impact categories were announced in early March but the Popular Choice winner was decided last week by public vote via the City of New York’s Facebook page.
Recalling 1993: The New Museum Dials A History Lesson Into Manhattan’s Payphones
Map showing participating payphones around the New Museum. (Courtesy Recalling 1993)
Craving an adventure? The New Museum dares you to travel back in time to 1993 by picking up many of thousands of Manhattan payphones and dialing the toll-free number 1-855-FOR-1993. You’ll find yourself checking your surroundings as you’re immersed into an oral history of what it was like to live on that block in 1993. The project, “Recalling 1993” is part of a larger exhibition at museum entitled NYC 1993: Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, named after the rock band, Sonic Youth’s eighth album recorded in 1993.
Winners of New York’s Telephone Booth Redesign Competition Announced
The Loop telephone booth proposal by FXFOWLE. (Courtesy FXFOWLE)
The “payphone”—like subway tokens—is a word that has increasingly become synonymous with an older New York. It’s been years since many of us have even stepped into, let alone used, one of those bulky, eerily abandoned and, let’s face it, uninviting, telephone booths peppering New York City’s sidewalks. But unlike subway tokens, the payphone is making a comeback.
New York City Asks Designers to Reinvent the Payphone
A mock-up of City 24/7 new NYC phone booth. (Courtesy NYC Department of Telecommunications)
With the current rise of smartphones and tablet technology, it is easy for coin-operated payphones to be cast aside as archaic tools of urban communication, but with over 11,000 functioning payphones dotted across New York City alone, these sidewalk staples have become ubiquitous in the urban landscape. And as was a lesson during Hurricane Sandy and other disasters, the payphone can serve as a reliable back-up when cell phone batteries die.
But can the payphone be updated to thrive in the 21st century? New York City is enlisting designers to rethink the role of payphones in today’s New York City, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg officially announcing the “Reinvent Payphones” competition last week.
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