The Ladder Theory

Maxwell lives in one of the residence halls on the sprawling 25-acre campus known as Pratt Institute of Brooklyn, NY. He's a senior at one of the most highly acclaimed industrial design schools in the country. In fact, Pratt receives almost twice as many applications as any other art school with over 5000 applications for 645 freshman spots.

In exchange for a messy dorm room to bunk Sunday night I took Maxwell to a fabulous Italian haunt on Myrtle, a stretch of road that, up until just recently, was littered with drugs and violence. Now, the neighborhood on historic and ethnically diverse Clinton Hill is one of the safest places in Brooklyn. Dozens of hip, funky bars, clubs and restaurants complement the tree-lined streets topped with Victorian homes. Maxwell knows this area well and took me on a tour of many 19th-century brownstone mansions and rare architecture. There's definitely an electricity and creativity here and it shows in Pratt's outdoor art installations, like this one called... hmmm.

Well, I guess you can call it whatever you like - maybe "Climbing the Ladder to Success at Pratt" or maybe "Jacob's Ladder," though this school isn't exactly known to quote a biblical patriarch. What they are known to do is teach graduates to go on to lead hyper successful lives in engineering, architecture, illustration and communications design. The library is another unique gem and Maxwell wasted no time escorting me up 5 flights of Tiffany-influenced glass floors and ceilings before closing.