Bruce Snider’s Favorite Design Objects
The Bicycle
No other technology I can think of matches the bicycle in beauty, efficiency, and power to do good. Its design, fundamentally resolved a century ago, wastes nothing. Twenty pounds of bike can replace 3,500 pounds of car, get you to work nearly as fast (with a smile on your face), and harm no living thing in the process. Many bicycle designs have risen to the level of art—Cinelli racing bikes from the 1960s, ageless Raleigh 3-speeds, the tricycle that all three of my children rode (with the ingenious removable push handle that saved my back)—but if you’re feeling generous, I’ll take an Elium SL from Seven Cycles.
Bruce D. Snider’s career in residential architecture and construction stretches back more than 25 years, and includes a Bachelor’s degree in environmental design and 14 years as a writer and editor for Hanley Wood magazines. A senior editor for residential architect and CUSTOM HOME, he lives with his wife and three children on the coast of Maine. He keeps his wits sharp by taking on the occasional design project, battling the ravages of age on his family’s 19th century Greek Revival house, and meditating on the relationships among architecture, planning, health, happiness, and the environment from the saddle of his road bike.