Hello! Keeping this newsletter going has been challenging lately, but here I am with this week's edition. A few links may be behind paywalls, so you may need to use 12ft.io to bypass them. On a related note, Time magazine has decided to eliminate its digital paywall entirely to make its content accessible to a diverse and younger global audience. Hopefully, other publications will follow suit.
Before we get started I’d like to mention an event happening this Saturday at Head Hi, an architecture and design bookstore in Fort Greene. From 3-5 pm, they're hosting a conversation around a new book about the use of wood in architecture.
Now with no further delay, I present to you this week’s links.
The American Museum of Natural History in New York just unveiled its new $465M wing. There’s also a NYT article about it that’s behind a paywall.
A $700M climate research campus is headed to NYC’s Governors Island
New renderings show the future of Greenpoint waterfront
Japanese architects design Brooklyn space to showcase Japanese brands
The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, Queens, is hosting a series of free admission community days this spring
Naoshima Island’s Benesse art site
A forest-like office in Japan
Exploring Japan’s love of weird architecture
A dreamy ryokan-style hotel encourages comfort and serenity on Japan’s Ikuchi island
A Japanese hotel comprised of minimalist black boxes that appear to float in the forest
The resurrection of the Hotel Chelsea
Photo project reveals details and craftsmanship tops of American landmark skyscrapers
The forgotten story of America’s first female architect
Japan has millions of empty houses. Want to buy one for $25K?
The historic rowhomes of Philadelphia
Utopia is a vacant lot in Rockaway
How a band of speculators seized deeds of Black-owned Brooklyn brownstones
An Afrofuturist architect builds for a better future
Thirteen summer architecture internship opportunities
180 lots of architecture and design books are up for auction
Why is everything so ugly?
Everything you need to know about passive houses and what makes them so sustainable
New concrete recipe makes it absorb more CO2 than it emits
Self-contained living pods activate vacant lots under bridges to tackle homelessness
Abandoned space under Tokyo railway line revived as nursery school
With its serene Japanese garden in the middle of Paris, the famed home of fashion designer Kenzō Takada has come to market
How Paris kicked out the cars
AI-generated skateparks emerge from iconic Parisian cityscape
Midjourney reinvents ancient pyramid as modern cultural landmarks
Zaha Hadid Architects is developing most of their projects with AI-generated images
How AI helps architects design, and refine, their buildings
When architect asked AI to design futuristic skyscrapers, it proposed a vertical forest
New York City’s largest office-to-residential conversion is move-in ready
NYC Chinatown apartment of designer couple juxtaposes snippets of family memories
A young food stylist’s 800-sq-ft Brooklyn home filled with family treasures
A townhouse renovation in Greenpoint
An East Village apartment is reimagined to honor its character
A 19th-century Harlem home that’s playfully modern
A 650-sq-ft apartment in Naples celebrates both traditional and contemporary Italian design
A bright 460-sq-ft brutalist loft in Sweden
A reimagined blonde brick house in Melbourne with mid-century vibes
A minimalist countryside guesthouse in Poland
A minimalist turn-of-the-century apartment in Sweden
A Turkish mini home that feels large, surrounded by nature
A non-pretentious tiny house in Ecuador
A 1,100-sq-ft country house in Spain
This 325-sq-ft space in the south of France is moody and chic
A creative family home in a 1960s Melbourne apartment building
A brutalist holiday home in a Mexican pine forest and another one in Oaxaca City
A brick and concrete house in Spain that disappears from the street
Inside one of Frank Lloyd Wright's largest residences
A restored 1920s Frank Lloyd Wright Tulsa home just hit the market for $8M
Kith releases New Balance trainer informed by Frank Lloyd Wright sketches
Hardware engineer makes beautiful, functional, technological desktop sculptures
Trashcan vase brings New York's iconic street bin into the home
Counterfeit art dealer extradited to US after dodging jail time for a decade
Spanish police have seized five fake Goya and Velázquez paintings supposedly worth a collective $84M
An ancient Roman bust purchased for $35 at a Texas thrift store is now being repatriated to Germany
Racist monument in Virginia’s Arlington National Cemetary is being removed
Looted artifacts returned to Yemen amid investigation into Met trustee’s collection
The Met Museum’s curator of Native American Art reflects on the lesser-discussed everyday challenges of repatriation work
The stories of art history’s detectives
AI imagery may destroy history as we know it
Five statues discovered in Spain just upended everything we know about ancient life
A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton has sold for $6.1M in a rare auction in Switzerland
NYC’s Whitney is the latest museum set to sell off artworks
Valentino’s Basquiat painting expected to sell for over $45M
Basquiat’s monumental ode to jazz will be auctioned for the first time in 40 years
Andy Warhol and Basquiat’s once-disparaged joint works are gaining a newfound appreciation
French artist JR brightens Montauk Highway
There are two newish documentaries on Banksy that are worth a watch - The Banksy Interviews: Creating A Street Art Revolution & Who Is Banksy?
New documentary tells the story of one of LA’s most influential graffiti crews
Ten art shows to see in LA this May
New photo book depicts coming of age in NYC’s underground
Bill Rice’s paintings are glimpses of Manhattan’s gritty old East Village
Ellsworth Kelly’s widow is donating works to museums across the country and giving money to various causes
The artists behind the monumental works at Coachella
Inside Lauren Halsey’s Afrofuturist temple on the Met roof
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith brings Indigenous history to Whitney Museum in landmark retrospective
The untold history of Japan’s women artists
How will art funding cuts in schools affect creativity?
Drawing is great for children’s development
How have artists been inspired by childhood?
Thirty-one secrets to unlocking your creativity
Nagomi: The Japanese philosophy of finding balance in a turbulent life
Make yourself happy by being kind
The layoffs are here for those who chose to learn to code
Ten prompts to conquer ChatGPT like a pro
A comprehensive guide to crafting powerful prompts for Midjourney
How the Andy Warhol copyright case could transform generative AI
AI is a waste of time…or is it?
Okay. Things may have got a little rogue toward the end, but I found those links too good not to include, so they’ll be closing out this week’s newsletter. Thank you, dear reader, for opening this email, reading it this far, and forwarding it to a friend (hint hint). Until next time.
Thomas