It’s been nearly a year since the last newsletter went out. I decided to take a break because it didn’t seem right to continue with how things were going in the world. I always saw this newsletter as a distraction from the bad news I was constantly surrounded by. I thought that if I didn’t read about mass shootings or police brutality that these things would go away. But the truth is, things have gotten worse, and an end seems unlikely. However, ignoring the news and pretending everything is fine is not the answer. So I’m going to try something different…again. I am back…if you’ll have me. But please bear with me while I dip my toes back into the water. Thanks for being here, and I hope you find a few things worth reading.
Some of this week’s links are behind paywalls, so you might need to view them through 12ft.io. Or sometimes, you can stop your browser before it completely loads the page.
Hood Century spotlights Mid-century modern design with Black influence
Why does every store suddenly look the same?
Williamsburg’s luxury hotels thrive — for the moment — as neighborhood shifts
Developers have rediscovered Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, but can it sustain the boom?
Bed-Stuy’s Restoration Plaza project gets a little clearer
The branding dangers of a New York City public plaza
New park opening under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge will feature a restored Brooklyn Banks skate park
Decades-vacant former East Village public school is set to hit the auction block this spring
UK Supreme Court rules Tate Modern viewing gallery is a nuisance to neighboring luxury apartments
Glocalization: the most widespread architectural trend you’ve never heard of
The housing theory of everything
Lack of affordable housing in superstar cities like LA exacerbates homelessness
The top urban planning books of the year
The dangers of elite projection
New strategies for preventing green gentrification
City planners are questioning the point of parking garages
One million square feet of LA roads are being covered with solar-reflective paint
Art painted on crosswalks makes streets safer
Free PDF architecture and race books courtesy of the Memory of the World Library
Printed Matter offers digital artists’ publications, available for free download (some zines I found helpful)
An extensive list of anti-racism design resources
This architect is on a mission to foster anti-racist workplaces — with a pack of cards
Oklahoma’s First Americans Museum embraces nature, exposes culture, and honors history
Taking on California's first mass timber building
Multi-residential building in Australia uses cross-laminated timber for its internal structure, making it much more sustainable and energy efficient
Seven alternative bricks made of reclaimed waste and biomaterials
Architects predict retrofitting, biomaterials, and grassroots design among the trends that will define the architecture of 2023
The world's skinniest skyscraper is now complete
The race to build wooden skyscrapers
A historic NYC Upper West Side apartment remains untouched
Tour Wyatt Cenac’s historic Brooklyn brownstone
Crisp and classic design elements combine in new Brooklyn bar
An Art Deco home in Mumbai is designed for hosting
How two vintage furniture dealers restyle their Victorian home on the regular
Seth Rogan is hosting a Mid-century Airbnb decked out with weed-focused decor and handmade pottery
Joan Didion’s NYC apartment is for sale
A tiny playful backyard studio for a writer
A 645-square-foot abandoned Lisbon attic becomes airy apartment with hidden kitchen
A renovation of a historical apartment in Kyiv
A 70-year-old guava tree sits at the heart of Mexican home
Architect turns 1930s bungalow into sustainable family haven
The Japandi-style family house of a Norm Architects designer
A flood-resilient U-House near Japanese lake
A 50,000-person, self-sustaining floating city prototype
How interior design has the power to change lives
Using airbrush, acrylic, and collage, Cato produces cinematic snapshots of daily life
Jammie Holmes and José Parlá have been selected for the 2023 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship
New edition of Gordon Parks’ Segregation Story includes several never-before-published photographs that were discovered after his death
See In Black is a collective of Black photographers
A half-century of hip-hop’s visual impact is now on view at Fotografiska NY
The woman who documented New York’s street style of the 1980s
Five newly published illustrated art books celebrate an intergenerational slate of black artists
New monograph follows the evolution of Wangechi Mutu’s mythologizing practice
A massive exhibition of Wangechi Mutu's work is heading to the New Museum
Long-awaited Bean by sculptor Anish Kapoor revealed in NYC
The most anticipated art installations, shows, and openings of the year
Six art shows to look forward to in 2023
233 of Ruth Asawa’s masks made from her friends, neighbors, students, and family are publicly displayed in their entirety for the first time
120 artworks by Georgia O’Keeffe heading to MoMA this spring
The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts currently has a Basquiat exhibition up
Vermont museum to exhibit seventeen of Keith Haring’s subway drawings
First-ever Keith Haring museum exhibition in LA will feature over 120 artworks and archival materials
Fire Island Artist Residency is now accepting applications for their 2023 summer season from emerging visual artists who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, intersex, two-spirit, or queer
RISD Continuing Education offers over 170 online courses for adults and teens
Participate in Copenhagen Architecture Festival’s global short film competition focusing on the UN's 'Leave No One Behind' agenda
The best 2023 children’s books about artists
Alma Thomas painting sells for $1.2M
A chandelier purchased at an antique store for $300 turns out to be an Alberto Giacometti worth up to $3M
Frank Lloyd Wright’s office furniture is tweaked for the modern age
Why Atomic Age design still looks futuristic 75 years later
‘Nam June Paik: Moon Is the Oldest TV’ debuts at Sundance
The history of misspelling Georgia O’Keeffe’s name continues with new tribute in Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal
Vast $40M art project in the Nevada desert, 50 years in the making, will finally open to the public
How do we embody natural spaces?
Orlando Museum of Art placed on probation after Basquiat scandal
Inside the unlikely artistic collaborations of Basquiat and Andy Warhol
The Chinese village that paints thousands of replicas of world-famous Western paintings a year
The art and science of spending money
From bowling alone to posting alone
Making sense of race and privilege
What white children need to know about race
Three things to know about Black History Month
Thank you for making it all the way to the end. It feels good to be putting this newsletter together. I hope you like it.
Thomas