Van Alen Books

The Van Alen bookstore on West 22nd Street in NYC "isn’t really, or only, a store," reports Ralph Gardner, Jr. in the Wall Street Journal (5/17/11). “It’s also an ‘installation,’” he writes. “There are books on the shelves, to be sure. But the bulk of the modest space, no more than 20 feet by 30, is dominated by a bright yellow staircase leading nowhere. It’s anchored to the floor with bolts and suspended from the ceiling with steel cables. And the individual stairs are made from stacks of doors stuck together.” (image)

If this sounds a little crazy, maybe it is. But it really isn’t, because Van Alen is a new bookstore specializing in books for architects and architecture — the only such bookstore in all of New York City. The staircase was created, pro bono, by Lot-Ek. “They’re famous for reclaiming material and using it in an unorthodox way,” says Olympia Kazi, executive director of the Van Alen Institute, “a nonprofit devoted to design excellence in the public realm, and the bookstore’s parent organization.” Olympia says that architects have a thing for books.

"They still love their print, the hard copy," she says. "And there is a beauty with the accidental encounter with a book. It was sad New York didn’t have that opportunity anymore." To make it work for Van Alen, all the books it sells are on consignment. "All the publishers are supporting us," says Olympia. And to celebrate, Van Alen had a party, sponsored by Absolut vodka. More than 800 people RSVP’d, and there was a line out the door to get in — in a city where it seems like "only a matter of time until … the last bookstore has been turned into a Subway sandwich shop or a Citibank branch."