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Design-to-Go: Port Authority Gets a Pop-Up Shop

AUGUST 21, 2009

This city's so hip there's a pop-up design shop in our bus terminal.

Port Authority Bus Terminal is perhaps the last place you'd think you'd find anything particularly eye-catching on the retail front, and last-minute gifts are pretty much limited to Empire State Building snow globes and whatever you can find at Duane Reade. But among the pretzel kiosks, tacky gift shops and magazine stands, a pop-up design boutique is turning heads in the sprawling, no-longer-seedy hub.

Design-to-Go is a temporary outpost of the Soho-based AREAWARE, offering trendy trinkets and ironic baubles—like a genuine New York City pigeon feather—from companies like Jack Spade and Kiosk. Independent designers are represented here as well–thanks to support from the Times Square Alliance and The Fashion Center BID. Even the shop's sleek, loft-like space—created with the help of designer Kiel Mead—is a fine introduction to the city's cool aesthetic. Design-to-Go can be found in the Port Authority Bus Terminal at West 41st Street at 8th Avenue, and will be open through October 1.