In the design world, New York has always played second fiddle to European cities like Milan and Eindhoven in the Netherlands. Not because New York doesn’t have designers–it has many ( many , many , many ). But for years, designers in Milan and Eindhoven have had at least one major advantage: sprawling design fairs hosted by each city.

A reintroduced Finn Juhl chair.

A couple years ago, the city of New York rallied around the design industry and launched NYCxDesign, a city-wide, 12-day festival of events timed around the International Contemporary Furniture Fair. ICFF is established–now in its 26th year–but confined to a soul-sucking convention center on the west side of Manhattan. NYCxDesign means upstarts can exhibit all around the city, and in other boroughs. Yours truly saw some (not all, mind you) of the wares on display this week. Scroll through the work in the slide show above.