DESIGN DISPATCH

Watches of Switzerland Acquires Hodinkee, and Other News

Plus, Dia's 2025 retrospective of Tehching Hsieh, and Cai Guo-Qiang speaks on the Getty PST mishap.

Image courtesy of Watches of Switzerland.

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Watches of Switzerland acquires LVMH-baked timepiece media company Hodinkee.

Watches of Switzerland has acquired the media company Hodinkee as part of its strategy to bolster its online presence in the United States. While Hodinkee has been unsuccessful in selling used watches, the LVMH-backed editorial platform represents a compelling resource to the Swiss company. 

Estudio Felipe Escudero blazes a glowing orange pathway through Quito, Ecuador.

CROMA, a one-mile lacquered orange pathway through Quito, Ecuador, represents Estudio Felipe Escudero’s effort to foster civic engagement during a time of unrest. The Quito-based studio selected a non-toxic paint in a joyful color to blaze a path to the historic city center. 

A rendering of the new Faneuil Gardens Public Housing. Courtesy of MVRDV.

MVRDV unveils a masterplan to refit Boston’s 1940s Faneuil Gardens Public Housing.

MVRDV, in partnership with JGE Architects, has unveiled a masterplan to redevelop Faneuil Gardens, a public housing complex in Boston’s Brighton neighborhood. The project will replace outdated structures with five new mixed-income buildings, incorporating green spaces, artist studios, and a central community center in a development originally built to house World War II veterans.  

In 2025, Dia will stage the first retrospective of performance artist Tehching Hsieh.

Tehching Hsieh has donated 11 of his performance works to the Dia Art Foundation, which will host his first retrospective in 2025. Known for his intense yearlong performances, including living in a cage and punching a time clock every hour, Hsieh will bring his exploration of themes of time and human existence to Dia, which is expanding its focus on the medium.

For the first time, Cai Guo-Qiang speaks about the Getty PST explosion event mishap.

A fireworks performance by Cai Guo-Qiang inaugurated the Getty’s PST Art festival at L.A. Memorial Coliseum, in the process causing unexpected injuries along with smoke and noise complaints. The event, which featured 50,000 pyrotechnics and a drone display, is under investigation by the state fire marshal. Guo-Qiang expressed surprise at the intensity of the sound and debris, attributing some issues to wind.

Courtesy of Mauritshuis Museum.

Today’s attractive distractions:

Are we all seriously too busy these days to be good friends

The purple bags that say ‘GU’ are from Uniqlo’s Gen-Z offshoot.

Stop the walkman —and your vinyl player: cassettes are coming back.

The human brain can differentiate between original art and reprints.

 

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