from Boca Raton. January 2005

Frank Gehry doesnt own a monopoly on design. Now children can get their share of it, thanks to the Kid O shop in the Village (123 W. 10th St.). The consumer base for its inventory of modernist furniture, books, and toys? Pre-schoolers. As a mom and as an architect, I was frustrated that I couldnt find well-made toys with both style and substance, Kid O proprietor Lisa Mahar told the stylish and substantive New York Times, explaining htat the idea for such a store took hold when her son Emmett received a sleek wooden car by designer Ulf Hanses. What Ulf hath wroght: Within two weeks, Mahar was off to Europe to find cool things to sell, though she also carries, starting at $125, Alexander Calder-like mobiles by the Michigan-based David Vande Vusse, which still sounds pretty cool and European to us. Favorite item: the Nepalese wool felt puppets, only $28 each, though it's hard to decide who's cuter, the zebra or the lion.