Travels in style: guides for design fans

REVIEWS BY MICHELLE JONES

It's a shame the Concordes have been grounded because those ultra stylish planes were perfect for the age of design tourism. Design tourists go beyond checking to see which galleries are in a particular city; we plan vacations around museum shows and make pilgrimages to revered architectural sites. The following domestic travel guides keep the design-conscious traveler on track—in the know.

Encountered culture

A visit to San Francisco, always appealing to design travelers, is even more exciting right now with the Victoria & Albert Museum's art deco show in town. For a heads-up on the city's other design lures, consult the sleek StyleCity San Francisco from Hip Hotels publisher Thames & Hudson. The book is arranged for use either as a neighborhood-by-neighborhood look at the city, or as a sourcebook for lodgings, shops, etc. Author Deborah Bishop includes lots of background about the city and is very descriptive, mentioning a café's "buttery yellow walls" or referring to one arts center as the "hipper, more alternative cousin (the one with a pierced brow)" of another. With its tantalizing photos and well-written copy, this is one travel guide I couldn't wait to put down—so I could head for the airport.


Be a part of it

New York City is understandably a top destination for design aficionados. The picture-laden CD-sized New York: architecture & design from German publisher teNeues tells what to look for—or helps identify what one has stumbled upon. Edited by Hubertus Adam, this book highlights recent stylish, trendy or architecturally significant buildings throughout the city. Though the book includes addresses and a map, it's probably a good idea to pair it with another travel book unless you are familiar with the city.

A discreet option is the New York City Pocket Guide. Writer Douglas Stallings and editor Kathy Novak have packed a lot into this little book. Illustrated with helpful maps and color photos by Anna Mockford, this tiny guide can be easily consulted without giving away one's status as tourist.


Design in the Loop

Infused with an unflinching blue-collar spirit, Chicago is also a hip design destination. The city's architectural offerings range from Louis Sullivan skyscrapers to the Prairie School works of his apprentice, Frank Lloyd Wright to the ultra linear Modernist towers of Bauhaus refugee Mies van der Rohe. Iconic and lesser-known buildings alike are covered in the AIA Guide to Chicago. With black-and-white photographs (some of which are rather small), this is not a flashy book, but it is exhaustive. Alice Sinkevitch wrote the witty and informative text, and other writers contributed mini features.

The Fun Seeker's Guide to Chicago by Alan S. Davis presents the city through five frameworks: "hot," "cool," "classic, "luxe" and "neighborhood." Though the segmented approach can be confusing if you're looking for a familiar place, flipping through the various sections of this third book in the Fun Seeker series does provide all sorts of ideas for planning your next trip to Chicago.


The big picture

Is it possible to cover the entire country in one guidebook? Dorling Kindersley is up to the challenge in the first edition of USA Eyewitness Travel Guide, edited by Mary Sutherland. As any design- savvy traveler knows, DK's guides are masterful pieces of work, full of color photos, charts, diagrams and sidebars printed on lovely glossy paper. Though the descriptions of smaller cities may be limited, larger cities are given fairly detailed entries. The book is divided into regions, with an overview of the area's history and culture at the start of each chapter. Of particular interest—and use—to design fans are the in-depth discussions of major museums.


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