DESIGN DISPATCH

Thom Browne Joins Notre Dame as an Artist in Residence, and Other News

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Thom Browne. Photography by Ogata for Surface

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Thom Browne joins his alma mater University of Notre Dame as an artist in residence.

“The fashion designer and Notre Dame alumnus will join the Notre Dame Institute for Advanced Study. The research group brings together experts and students from various disciplines, including public health, technology, history and art each year to investigate a particular theme. Browne will do visits to campus and contribute to research on the idea of public life.” [H/T Business of Fashion]

Utah sues President Biden for expanding two archaeologically important monuments.

“Last year, President Joe Biden restored environmental protections for the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah’s red-rock desert, reversing the Trump administration’s controversial reduction of the sites in 2017. Now, Utah is suing Biden for the move. In a lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court, the Utah Attorney General’s office argues that Biden overstepped the authority granted him by the Antiquities Act, a 1906 statute signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 that gives the president power to establish national monuments on federal lands.” [H/T Artnet News]

Forest Lagoon by Basalt Architects in Vaðlaskógur, Iceland. Image courtesy of Forest Lagoon

Basalt Architects designs a spa with geothermal baths in Iceland’s Vaðlaskógur forest.

“Forest Lagoon in Iceland’s Akureyri offers geothermal baths embedded into the mountainside and woodland. Basalt Architects—the same practice that masterminded iconic Reykjavik’s Blue Lagoon—designed the spa complex, which sits at the heart of the Vaðlaskógur forest. Forest Lagoon’s buildings are designed to blend into the immediate landscape, constructed from timber and topped by grass roofing that appears to grow straight out of the rocky cliff it sits up against.” [H/T The Spaces]

New York City is building more apartments this year than any other major U.S. city.

“More apartments are expected to be built in New York City than in any other city in the U.S. this year, according to a report from RentCafe and Yardi Matrix. The report found that New York will construct 28,152 of the 420,000 new units to come online nationwide by the end of the year, the first time New York will lead the country in building apartments since 2018. The housing can’t come soon enough as New York faces skyrocketing rents and low supply. In New York, average Manhattan rents surpassed $5,000 for the first time in July and neared $4,000 in Brooklyn, per a report from Douglas Elliman.” [H/T Commercial Observer]

Nearly 60,000 sneakers from shoe retailer Zadeh Kicks’ Ponzi Scheme will be resold.

“A month after federal prosecutors accused Zadeh Kicks owner Michael Malekzadeh of running a multi-million-dollar Ponzi Scheme, it was reported that 59,780 pairs of shoes including 48,339 pairs of Nikes, 4,746 Yeezys, and 4,626 adidas have been seized and will soon be resold as quickly as possible to reimburse the thousands of customers who never got their shoes.” [H/T Hypebeast]

A James Turrell “Skyspace” in Colorado. Photography by David Lauer

Friends Seminary, a Quaker school in Manhattan, will open a James Turrell Skyspace. 

“A Quaker school adjacent to Manhattan’s Stuyvesant Park called Friends Seminary has announced that its ongoing campus renovation will include a James Turrell Skyspace slated to open in early 2023. Although Friends Seminary is a private school, there will be a public visitation schedule so that viewers can experience the Skyspace, which will be free of charge. Aside from Turrell’s installation Meeting at MoMA PS1—which is closed indefinitely—this will be the only public Skyspace on view in greater New York City.” [H/T The Art Newspaper]

To tackle climate change, California will ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

“California is to ban the sale of new petrol-only vehicles by 2035, marking a historic step in the state’s attempts to tackle climate change. The new rules are aimed to force car makers to accelerate the introduction to the market of cleaner vehicles. It comes after Governor Gavin Newsom set a target in 2020 to speed up the shift away from fossil fuels. The move is important as California is the most populous state in the US and one of the world’s biggest economies. Under the rules, issued by the California Air Resources Board, 35 percent of new vehicles sold in the state must be electric, hybrid or hydrogen-powered by 2026. The regulations would apply to 68% of vehicle sales by 2030, and 100% by 2035.” [H/T BBC]

Today’s attractive distractions:

The wildly popular studio A24 may be teetering on the verge of self-parody.

McDonald’s is making real gold-plated jewelry from customers’ garbage.

Archaeologists excavate a Roman-era relief of a giant phallus in Córdoba.

Gucci’s new campaign places its collection within Stanley Kubrick films.

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