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Mexican Craft Shines at a 10-Key Stay in Colonial Mérida
At Cigno, a new boutique hotel in the heart of Mérida’s cobblestoned La Ermita neighborhood, the White City’s past and present collide. Emphasizing the original features of a stately 19th-century mansion—neoclassical-eclectic façade, mosaic-tiled floors, Corinthian-style columns—local architect Roger González handled the restoration with meticulous care. In order to maintain the historic structure’s integrity, he turned to chukum, an ancient Mayan technique for working with stucco that was used in the construction of Mexico’s ancient pyramids. One wall in the outdoor communal space is adorned with a ceramic mural depicting La Ermita de Santa Isabel, an 18th-century church nearby. The 10 rooms and suites reflect the aesthetics of the region’s haciendas with four-poster beds handcrafted by local artisans, terracotta hues, and blue-tiled floors adorned in a geometric motif.
Whether exploring the colonial city’s cultural treasures or lounging at the intimate courtyard pool fringed by palms, the place to end the day is the Cocina restaurant. Helmed by Puebla-born chef Ángel Peláez, the menu spotlights a diversity of Yucatecan flavors and is served on a patio appointed with custom tropical-wood furniture by Mex&Co Studio. If a nightcap is in order, the rooftop bar’s mezcal cocktails and open-sky views await. —Nate Storey
Rendering of “Point of Infinity” by Hiroshi Sugimoto. Image courtesy of Hiroshi Sugimoto…
Hiroshi Sugimoto will soon unveil a pointed, sundial-like sculpture in San Francisco.
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s nearly 70-foot-high stainless steel needle sculpture, Point of Infinity, is scheduled to be erected in San Francisco this May. The artwork, which will sit atop Yerba Buena Hilltop Park on Yerba Buena Island, will act as a sundial and is part of a $50 million park development announced in June 2017. It’s based on the mathematical formula for infinity and is meant to suggest infinity by making an approximate point that can exist in the material world, as a mathematically modeled structure with a 1 1/8-inch-wide tip. “It’s physically impossible to make a point that reaches all the way to infinity,” Sugimoto writes. “What I can do is suggest infinity by making an approximate point that can exist in the material world.”
The NFL selects artist Lucinda Hinojos to create murals and Super Bowl LVII ticket art.
The NFL has chosen Arizona-based artist Lucinda Hinojos, also known as “La Morena,” to create art tied to Super Bowl LVII, which will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, next month. Hinojos is the first Chicana and Indigenous artist to be selected by the NFL for such a collaboration. She’ll create artwork for the game’s tickets that honors her family’s ties to Mexico and the Pascua Yaqui, Chiricahua Apache, White Mountain Apache, and Pima (Akimel O’Odham) Tribes. She’ll also create a 9,500-square-foot mural with fellow Indigenous artists and collaborate with the NFL and Wilson to design a custom football.
Meow Wolf Denver. Photography by Kate Russell, courtesy of Meow Wolf…
Immersive art hub Meow Wolf will open two locations in Texas with “caring” vibes.
Meow Wolf, the immersive art production company, is opening a new location in Grapevine, Texas, this summer that will feature contributions from local artists. The 29,000-square-foot space will include 30 rooms, a performance venue, and retail space. This will be the company’s fourth branch, joining outposts in Denver, Las Vegas, and Santa Fe. A second Texas location, in Houston, is set to open in 2024. Though Meow Wolf has garnered criticism for moving into a state that has restricted abortion rights and gender-affirming care for minors, the company says they’re coming to Texas to support marginalized communities.
Ruth Adler Schnee, who elevated the art of designing midcentury fabrics, dies at 99.
Ruth Adler Schnee, a textile designer and store owner whose vibrant fabric designs and forward-thinking home furnishings introduced Midwesterners to midcentury modernism, died at the age of 99. In the early 1950s, she and her husband and business partner, Edward Schnee, opened the Adler Schnee store in the heart of Detroit, showcasing her bold textiles and furniture by friends such as Florence Knoll, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, and George Nelson. The couple also held workshops and published brochures to teach people how to live with the new designs, which the public often met with confusion and skepticism. Though her own work as a textile designer would become a touchstone of the era, she hadn’t planned on designing in that medium, originally hoping to be an interior architect.
Rendering of the Beirut Museum of Art. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art…
Despite a crisis gripping Lebanon, work is underway on the Beirut Museum of Art.
A group of citizens and members of the Lebanese diaspora are working to give Beirut—a city once known as the Paris of the Middle East—its very own Centre Pompidou. Preparatory work at the Beirut Museum of Art (BeMA) site began this past February and excavation for its multiple below-ground levels will start next month. Assuming no archaeological vestiges are unearthed, the building is slated for completion by 2026. BeMA began as a series of pop-ups around Lebanon, but its main goal is to display the modern and contemporary Lebanese art collection the government started assembling a century ago, and which has been stored precariously, deteriorating for more than two decades. This collection of around 2,500 artworks was launched by the Lebanese National Library after its founding in 1921.
Hospitality firm Sortis Holdings strikes a deal to acquire Ace Hotels for $85 million.
Sortis Holdings, a Portland-based hospitality firm, has reached an agreement to acquire Ace Group International, the operator of an influential hotel chain known for its cafes, in-house DJs and reclaimed furniture, for $85 million in an all-cash transaction. Sortis plans to more than double the number of hotels in its portfolio to 30, the majority of which will be Ace Hotels. The new owner plans to expand in the U.S. and internationally and push the brand beyond its traditional urban milieu and open resorts and luxury camping properties in the coming years.
Today’s attractive distractions:
Hubble finds a hungry black hole twisting a star into a donut shape.
Here’s what today’s tech companies would look like with ‘80s logos.
