I have just read some saddening news. Not sad on the grand scale of what’s happening in the world at the moment but sad in that it brings to an end a long tradition in which I have an interesst. The following is cross-post from the CNBC website on 23rd May 2022:
It’s the end of an era: New York City removed its last public payphone on Monday.
The boxy enclosures were once an iconic symbol across the city. But the rise of cellphones made the booths obsolete.
The effort to replace public pay telephones across the city kicked off in 2014 when the de Blasio administration solicited proposals to reimagine the offering, the city’s Office of Technology and Innovation said in a news release.
Officials selected CityBridge to develop and operate LinkNYC kiosks, which offer services such as free phone calls, Wi-Fi and device charging. The city began removing street payphones in 2015 to replace them with the LinkNYC kiosks.
There are nearly 2,000 kiosks across the city, according to a map from LinkNYC.
“Just like we transitioned from the horse and buggy to the automobile and from the automobile to the airplane, the digital evolution has progressed from payphones to high-speed Wi-Fi kiosks to meet the demands of our rapidly changing daily communications needs,” Commissioner Matthew Fraser said in the release.
The last public pay telephone will be displayed at the Museum of the City of New York as part of an exhibit looking back at life in the city before computers.
Posted in Geography, News
Tagged urban, USA
Office phone boxes may be the new trend
The boxes themselves are a little too simplistic in style for me but I love the idea of bringing the traditional functionality inside. Especially good for open plan offices when you need some privacy. In these pandemic days they’d need to be cleaned regularly though.
Cross post from de zeen
Soho office phone booth by Meavo
Dezeen Showroom: booth and pod brand Meavo aimed to combine high-quality construction with an affordable price tag in its Soho office phone booth, which provides privacy in the workplace.
Soho is a sound-dampening booth that offers acoustic and visual privacy for one person at a time.
It is designed to fit with the interior style or colour scheme of any office and can be customised in any colour at no additional cost.
The Soho office phone booth includes a small worktop, LED lighting, and ventilation to freshen the air. It can also be configured with power sockets, USB charging ports, wireless charging and HDMI ports.
To reduce environmental impact, Meavo uses recycled plastic bottles for Soho’s acoustic felt lining, with each phone booth containing over 800 bottles.
For every booth sold, the company also promises to plant 50 trees and provide two solar lamps to families in Zambia.
Comments Off on Office phone boxes may be the new trend
Posted in Comment, News
Tagged design, urban