Not to harp on Frank, or, as we like to think of him here, Our Frank, but we heard—again, again—that there is a place in Spain (or is it Basquachusetts?) where he not-so-recently built a museum and changed reality. That building, all shiny and particular, has apparently had an influence on other cities' plans to lure money and tourists—an effect, if you will—and that phenomenon has once-again been celebrated in print. About which we would care little (and you less), but for the timely, tangential, yet tasty remarks therein from UK design maven John Thackara:

So here we are, perched on Pierre Paulin chairs at cunningly made tables that can be raised to dining height for meals and lowered to cocktail height for happy hour, complaining that design has become too damned popular. Everything, we gripe, is now so tasteful that there's hardly any point to having taste. "It's the Ian Schrager invention of young people in black suits, and large amounts of well-detailed space, and immaculate people sort of hanging around not doing very much," Thackara grumbles. "And you think, I don't want to be in these places anymore."

Which reminds us: Ian Schrager is scheduled to entertain the press this afternoon as part of the roll-out for his glassy Herzog & de Meuron-designed condorama, 40 Bond, which will no doubt give rise to the term "NoHo Effect." We hear Jacques himself will attend. Reports most welcome.

· The Next Design City: Bilbao Effect [Travel + Leisure, via ANN]

Posted in Gotham, The Continent