Idea Land

Growing up, my brilliant but oh-so-eccentric dad, Algray, always prefaced what would inevitably turn out to be a questionable family endeavor with the dreaded utterance: “I have a big idea!” My father’s favorite five-word saying would set off in his precociously wise and naturally skeptical daughter a deafening mental alarm screech, inducing a fight-or-flight response. In my case, it was dive, dive, dive, Cindy!

One of those deep dives, however, took me straight through to the other side. And here I am, just a few (ha!) years later, smack in the middle of Idea Land. Mercifully, none of the high-concept innovations herein are remotely related to dad’s old schemes, which, by the way, included starting a semipro Brooklyn basketball league. . .25 years ago. But, proving the apple doesn’t fall far from the proverbial tree, I now make a living out of innovation.

And, irony to the max, I have right here an entire issue jam-packed with Big Ideas. From therapeutic architecture in India and a museum about surveillance (only in New York, kids!) to a modular residence designed to house a car anywhere in the world, our lineup of white-hot inventive solutions will widen your horizon a few degrees and, hopefully, provoke your own design explosion. I can imagine that if dad were still around, our Big Idea issue would definitely be Algray-approved!