On DO: Skating on the Edge of Taste

This is The American Restaurant in Kansas City, 1974, designed by Warren Platner and the subject of a long essay on that architect and interior designer’s career, posted yesterday on Design Observer. It is at the top of the Crown Center, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes in a rather more sedate manner. As I wrote:

In this glass box, Platner installed what I can only describe as the meeting of a Thonet café chair and a Gothic cathedral. He described it somewhat differently: …it occurred to me that since our client was in the greeting card business we should treat the space in a very decorative way — like a huge lace Valentine — and everything we did was to enhance that impression.

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By Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and author, and the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winner for Criticism, awarded for her work as a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab. She is currently the architecture critic for Curbed and has written extensively for Design Observer, Architect, New York Magazine, and The New York Times. Lange holds a PhD in 20th-century architecture history from New York University. Her writing often explores the intersection of architecture, urban planning, and design, with a focus on how the built environment shapes everyday life. She is also a recipient of the Steven Heller Prize for Cultural Commentary from AIGA, an honor she shares with Design Observer’s Editor-in-Chief, Ellen McGirt.