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Bowers & Wilkins Drops a McLaren-Themed Zeppelin
Following the success of the Px8 McLaren Edition headphones, Bowers & Wilkins is debuting the limited-edition Zeppelin McLaren Edition wireless speaker—a fusion of top-tier audio and nods to Bruce McLaren’s legacy. The speaker features a sleek Galvanic Grey finish with subtle Papaya Orange accents inspired by McLaren’s design heritage; sixty limited-edition models will feature racing livery-inspired colors, including a vibrant orange finish. Engineered for the streaming age, the Zeppelin houses left and right speaker assemblies around a central subwoofer, delivering room-filling stereo sound. With added multi-room capability, this speaker is both a design statement and a high-performance audio system for the modern home. —Ryan Waddoups
A Water Education Center. Image courtesy of Jones Studio…
Jones Studio has secured a contract to design a Water Education Center for the Central Arizona Project (CAP), an organization that delivers water to Arizona’s population. The center will be located above a CAP canal in Phoenix and will feature an 8,000-square-foot, net-zero water facility focused on water conservation like stormwater and passive rain harvesting. Amid severe drought, the center will serve as a learning platform for a range of audiences, from children to legislators, offering insights into water sustainability and infrastructure. The facility will feature a series of multi-purpose and educational spaces that open to a gathering area, leveraging the natural cooling effects of a nearby canal’s microclimate. The center will incorporate 6,000 square feet of photovoltaics to optimize energy efficiency, particularly in cooling and lighting. The design elements include earth-toned materials and an angular roof that uses perforated metal to create a shimmering effect in sunlight.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) recently acquired digital artworks by Refik Anadol and Ian Cheng. Anadol’s piece, titled Unsupervised—Machine Hallucinations—MoMA, utilizes machine learning to reinterpret and reimagine MoMA’s art collection. The work has drawn large crowds and sparked debate among critics, with some comparing it to a lava lamp while others defend its modernist dialogue. The piece was donated by tech entrepreneur Ryan Zurrer, who praised MoMA for capturing the “cultural zeitgeist” of AI. Ian Cheng’s artwork, 3FACE, analyzes the blockchain wallet data of its owner to create a visual representation of their personality. The piece was donated by Outland Art, a platform focused on digital art, and joins three other works by Cheng in MoMA’s collection. Both artists have a history of innovative digital art; Anadol was Google’s first artist-in-residence, and Cheng is known for his “live simulations” created using video game engineering software Unity.
“Knife” by Salman Rushdie. Image courtesy of Random House, via Associated Press…
Salman Rushdie, who has lived under the threat of violence for much of his life, is writing a memoir about a recent attack he survived. The book, titled Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, will be published by Penguin Random House on April 16. Rushdie was attacked while speaking about the U.S. as a haven for exiled writers at the Chautauqua Institution in New York. The assailant, Hadi Matar, stabbed him multiple times, causing severe injuries and partial blindness. This memoir follows Rushdie’s earlier work, Joseph Anton, which detailed his life in hiding after a fatwa was issued for his death in 1989. The memoir will be published in the U.S. by Random House, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland has initiated a 50,000-square-foot expansion designed by Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU). The expansion pays homage to I.M. Pei’s original 1995 glass pyramid while nearly doubling the museum’s size and features a triangular-shaped building that interlocks with the original glass structure, and its facade is clad in black steel and specular granite, evoking Cleveland’s industrial past. The interior will include a large public atrium connecting the street to an exterior lake promenade, enhancing the visitor experience. The new structure will also house a 1,350-person multipurpose venue, exhibition and retail spaces, offices, classrooms, and back-of-house areas. Vishaan Chakrabarti, founder and creative director of PAU, stated that the expansion aims to meet the museum’s evolving mandate to represent the past, present, and future of rock and roll.
The Equal Justice Initiative, led by public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson, is preparing to open the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park on the Alabama River banks in Montgomery. The park’s centerpiece, the National Monument to Freedom, will be a massive structure measuring 43 feet in height and 150 feet in length, dedicated to the four million enslaved Black individuals emancipated after the Civil War. This monument will feature around 120,000 documented last names of the enslaved, along with writings from civil rights activists like Frederick Douglass, James Weldon Johnson, and Harriet Tubman. Slated for a public opening in early 2024, the park will also showcase existing and specially commissioned artworks by the likes of Kehinde Wiley, Rose B. Simpson, Theaster Gates, Alison Saar, and Kwame Akoto-Bamfo. The park will join EJI’s other Legacy Sites, which include the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, both also located in Montgomery.
Image courtesy of National Park Service/Planetpix/Alamy…
