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8 Spencer Associates: Coldwater Ridge Visitor Services Center Leave it to Americans to take a disaster that killed 57 people just 13 years ago and turn it into an official federal tourist trap. Fortunately, this center in the blast-zone heart of the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument nicely avoids both government-issue banality and hokey log-cabin regionalism. Spencer Associates, based in Palo Alto, California, has created a spectacular glass-covered grand hall, from which one can gawk at acres of ash, lava beds, charred cedar stumps and, eight miles away, the still active volcano.
9 Massimo Morozzi: Alessi Bottle Opener The Italian company Alessi has produced a witty kitchen bibelot from nearly every item of houseware. Now it has got around to the lowly bottle opener. Perhaps inspired by a mental picture of millions of infantilized men sucking on beer bottles as they watch football (or soccer) on TV, Morozzi used the baby rattle as a model, producing a jumbo-size plastic opener that is both playful and elegant. It comes in black and white and -- yes -- blue and pink.
10 Roz Chast: ''Mad About'' CD Covers Making a pointedly unself-serious attempt to attract new buyers, the classical-record label Deutsche Grammophon commissioned fey, funny cartoonist Chast to paint the covers for their Mad About series of reissues. The result: a charming new brand -- and a possible explanation of why CDs are exactly the size of cartoons.