At Cooper Hewitt, Design Across Time avoids the usual march through periods. More than 125 works from the museum's 215,000-plus-object collection are arranged under five design verbs—Play and Tweak, Repeat, Transform, Show Off and Simplify—so iterations, ornament, material changes and information reduction can meet across centuries. Two long vitrines cut through the Carnegie Mansion's first floor; the range runs from an ancient Egyptian lotus-shaped cup to Toots Zynsky's 2023 glass vessel Aurifero II. The multi-year installation includes objects newly out of storage and acquisitions appearing publicly for the first time. Exhibition · Installation and collection detail