We have reached a day and age where payphones are rendered technically obsolete—as such, New York City has a total design revamp in mind for its 11,000 phone booths as an upgrade.
In order to garner the best and the brightest ideas, NYC called for a Reinvent Payphone competition (hosted by Quirky, and industrial design firm) last December, to give the re-imagination of the bustling city's next-gen payphones the chance to be of the highest standards.
On the 5 March 2013, the 11 finalists (out of 120 submissions) whose designs would be adapted for official proposal, were announced. The deadline for new NYC phone booths is slated for October 2014 and will be publicly and privately funded.
If you want to have a say in NYC's next generation of pay-phones, you have until March 15 2013 to vote on NYC.gov’s Facebook page.
Here are some of the the best designs so far:
Winner of ‘Best Visual Design’: Beacon
Winner for ‘Best Functionality’: Smart Sidewalks
Winner for ‘Best Community’: Windchimes
[via Digitaltrends.com and NYC Gov: Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge, images via NYCdigital]