Chalhoub Group partners with Nomad Abu Dhabi for the fair’s second edition.
Nomad Abu Dhabi, the invite-only collectible art and design fair, will return for its second edition from November 18-22 at Terminal 1 of the Old Abu Dhabi Airport. The headline addition is a collaboration with Chalhoub Group, the Middle East’s largest luxury retailer, which will present an Elite Lounge under its Art of Living concept. More than 50 exhibitors spanning collectible design, contemporary art, jewelry, and craft will occupy gates, departure halls, and corridors of the Paul Andreu-designed terminal, opened in 1982. Returning galleries include Milan’s Nilufar, London’s Gallery FUMI, and Paris-based A2Z and Galerie Gastou. Organizers are also spotlighting emerging talent from Africa, India, South Korea, and the wider Middle East. The inaugural edition, anchored by a Bottega Veneta exhibition, drew about 8,000 visitors, roughly double Nomad’s typical European debuts. Cofounder Nicolas Bellavance-Lecompte said the aim is a more layered fair, not simply a bigger one.
Raffles to build 35 waterfront homes in Coconut Grove.
Raffles Hotels & Resorts is moving into standalone residential development for the first time in its nearly 140-year history, with a 35-unit waterfront project in Miami’s Coconut Grove. Raffles Residences Coconut Grove, developed with South Florida firms Mast Capital and BH Group, will be built at 2545 South Bayshore Drive. The project marks a departure from the Accor-owned brand’s North American debut, Raffles Boston, a mixed-use hotel and residential property. Coconut Grove will be built entirely around private ownership.
teamLab sets a 2030 opening for a 110,000-square-foot museum at OCVIBE.
Japanese art collective teamLab will open its first permanent U.S. museum at OCVIBE, the $5 billion mixed-use district under construction in Anaheim, California. Slated for 2030, the roughly 110,000-square-foot museum will debut a new exhibition and give U.S. audiences ongoing access to teamLab’s immersive work, previously seen stateside only through limited exhibitions. The building, designed by OCVIBE master planners smith-clementi with LPA as architect of record, will anchor one end of the 100-acre district and be visible from the freeway. Because the galleries require a largely windowless interior, the architects wrapped the structure in a textured, iridescent exterior that shifts in color with the daylight, positioned as a counterpoint to the neighboring ARTIC transit center.
AD-WO wins the competition to redesign Pittsburgh’s Heinz Architectural Center.
New York design studio AD-WO, led by Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood, has been commissioned to reimagine the Heinz Architectural Center at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Museum of Art. The studio was selected through a two-part competition in which architecture firms were invited to Pittsburgh for site visits, conversations, and working sessions across the museum. Opened in 1993 inside the museum’s 1907 flagship building, the Heinz Architectural Center has staged 76 exhibitions and serves as the institution’s hub for architectural research, publications, programming, and collecting. AD-WO’s plan calls for increased natural light and materials such as firebrick and aluminum, drawing on the city’s industrial history. The project will also rework the existing collection study center and add flexible gallery space for exhibitions, education, research, and public programs. Admassu and Wood said the redesigned center is meant to offer “multiple points of entry” for students, designers, scholars, and curators.
V&A unions suspend strike after improved pay offer.
A planned strike across all four Victoria and Albert Museum sites in London has been suspended after management presented an improved pay offer. Members of the Prospect and Public and Commercial Services (PCS) unions had voted to walk out Thursday and Friday over pay and working conditions. The action, which would have affected the South Kensington flagship as well as V&A East, V&A East Storehouse, and Young V&A, was paused Monday pending talks facilitated by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas). The unions are seeking a 4 percent raise for staff earning above the living wage, accreditation as a London living-wage employer within 12 months, and time-and-a-half pay for bank holiday work. Workers have also alleged that employees at V&A East Storehouse, the museum’s newest site, fainted due to insufficient water breaks. A V&A spokesperson said the latest offer delivers an average 4.18 percent raise and a 6.9 percent increase for the lowest-paid staff, along with time-and-a-half bank holiday pay, a bonus scheme, and subsidized food at all sites.
Attractive Distractions:
Norman Foster designs his first watch with Lebond.
Creative Time brings its Sandcastle Competition to Miami Beach for Art Basel week.
Ralph Lauren celebrates 50 years in Japan with PoloFest, a collector-focused event.
Archaeologists uncover a 2,500-year-old solar observatory in Mexico.
