At the beginning of this month's New York design mania, I joked that while I've complained in the past that New York Design Week was too drawn out (it ballooned to nearly a month last year), this year felt too compressed, a kind of karmic retribution for my grumbling. How could we possibly see everything, and so close to Milan when we'd just gone through the same routine? But perhaps that sense of urgency was exactly what New York needed. (And, in truth, the "week" stretched to almost two). Because somewhere along the way, I realized I was having a significant amount of fun. Last year, we all agreed that "New York Design Week was back," etc. etc., and we saw wonderful work in beautiful locations. But this year something else returned to the city. New York got a little weird again — in a good way. After the jump, take a spin through some of our favorites, then come back tomorrow for another round of highlights, including our picks from this year's ICFF!