Whodunit Wednesday: Rietveld

While in New York we visited the Brooklyn Museum. Besides wonderful paintings and amazing Egyptian and Syrian artifacts, there was a floor dedicated to the aesthetics of everyday items. The entrance to this floor had a display with an iron, a teapot and more. It was later in the exhibition that was even more interesting. 

One section was dedicated to chairs. There we found a few designed by Gerrit Rietveld. Mind you, not the well-known “Red and Blue Chair” which can be found in the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). We didn’t make it to the MoMA. But we did see this design. 

Gerrit Rietveld designed the chair in 1918 as an experiment, along with smaller versions of other things for his children. It is one of these that we also saw in the Brooklyn Museum. But it was that Rietveld made something simple and from simple materials that started changing the way designers were thinking. 

In 1930 he designed some worker’s houses in Vienna and then a bit later in Utrecht. Some of his architectural designs are also quite remarkable, but it is his chairs that people remember. It was another chair, made illegally (because he would not register during WWII) that many would recognize. This chair was made from one single piece of pressed plastic. 

Rietveld is a Dutchman anyone can remember if they think about remarkable chairs. He was born in 1888 and died in his birthplace, Utrecht, in 1964, just a few years after I was born. 

Home Assignment 2026 Stage 6 - New York City

As I wrote during our visit in 2023, there are all sorts of sights, sounds and smells in this vibrant city. Every time you visit, it presents a different face and you can be struck with new experiences. This is now the third time that we have come to visit Sean and Jill in their adopted city (we came in 2019 and 2023 as well). And, as expected, we have seen and experienced so many new things, not in the least because the city this year is also home to the World Cup. 

Everywhere we go we are greeted by laughing faces and various languages. People in shirts of all colors, flags from many nations and the sounds of languages from all over the world greet us every day we step on the metro to head to our destination. There are many people visiting with their families, including small children. It gives the already exciting city a vibe that speaks of life and happiness - even when a team has lost. 

We were blessed to be able to stay in the home/studio of a friend while in the city. An apartment in a neighborhood, surrounded by the normal everyday sounds of the city. These include plenty of sirens, buses, trash trucks in the morning and people talking (loudly) on the street. We are surrounded by beautiful brown-stone buildings, fire-escapes climbing down the side of each building. Our walk to the metro leads us past local groceries, deli’s and hairdressers plying their trade. 

Our time here has mostly been spent with Sean and Jill, being able to see them and what they are doing. We were able to spend Sunday morning with the Harlem church (Harlem is the area we are staying) and were greatly encouraged. This group of saints were very welcoming and encouraging. It was in many ways reminiscent of our own congregation in Maastricht. We finally walked into the warm sun baking the streets just before 1pm. 

We have enjoyed seeing more of Central Park on walks with Sean, visiting Jill’s new store which we have only seen on her socials, going to the Statue of Liberty (with people from all around the world on the ferry) and getting to know our subway line every day. After a day or two, the city becomes a part of you: the screaming of the subway trains as they come to a stop, the whoosh of air before they arrive, the constant sirens in the distance or passing you on the street, the amazing smells wafting out of restaurants from all different cultures as you walk the streets. 

We are thankful to have seen where Sean and Jill live. Their apartment is just across from a neighborhood park and gardens where they have a small plot and help out with maintaining the park. The older people sitting in the shade were all glad to meet Sean’s parents and pass on how thankful they were for him. The garden itself is a small oasis in this part of the city, a daily walk for Sean and Jill’s dog, Twiggy, and a place where people gather or just sit and rest. 

On this last full day in the city we will enjoy getting to see more of the city, but from the water. We plan on taking some of the various ferries which are meant for transport, but serve very well as a way to see the sights. Soon we will fly home to Belgium and pick up the various tasks awaiting us. We will be able to hug and greet those we have missed for two months. But for now we will enjoy these last drops of delicious family time in this place-of-many-people. 

If you are interested in seeing our (far too many) pictures, they can be found here. 

Where oh Where Wednesday: Manhattan

As we were traveling from Muscatine, Iowa up to Minneapolis, Minnesota where we would take our last continental flight, we saw all sorts of familiar names. Iowa was full of place names which had clearly originated in Europe: Klein Quarry, Waterloo, Waverly (with Wartburg College), and Geneva. But we also passed places who had clearly taken their names from the native people living there: Owatonna, Nashua, or Hiawatha. 

We fly out today to New York City and will be staying on the island of Manhattan. This is one of the 5 boroughs of New York and has a population of 1.7 million. The name is said to have come from the Manna-Hatta tribe who had lived on the island. It is also said that this could come from the dialect of the Lenape Indians, meaning “island with the hills”. Others say that it comes from the Delaware or Mohican tribes. In any case the name comes from the native tribes. 

It was however Henry Hudson who in 1609 came to map out this area for the VOC (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie) - the Dutch company which was traveling all over the world. Hudson has a river named after him. In 1624 the first permanent dwellings came on the land and the area, after a purchase of 60 guilders, was called New Amsterdam. You may have heard of the various places that have a Dutch background: Wall Street, Broadway, Brooklyn, Harlem. 

Of course this all changed when later in the century the city and area came into the hands of the English. They promptly renamed it New York. The English were only finally pushed out of New York by George Washington during the Revolutionary War (the war of independence) in 1783. Since then the names have taken on all forms and backgrounds. We will look forward to discovering some of them while we are visiting there.