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The Italian jewelry design icon and fashion model Elsa Peretti passes away at 80.
Best known for her sculptural style and indelible Tiffany & Co. pieces like the Bone Cuff and Open Heart, Elsa Peretti’s partnership with the jewelry house lasted more than four decades. Her biomorphic work, which found inspiration in bone fragments and pebbles, resides in the collections of the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Universal Studios Japan celebrates the long-awaited opening of Super Nintendo World.
Japan’s first-ever Nintendo theme park is officially welcoming guests to the fabled Mushroom Kingdom. Located at Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, the long-delayed theme park will feature rooms where guests can virtually interact with characters like Mario, Bowser, and Toad, as well as explore a life-size reproduction of Princess Peach’s castle. And more is supposedly on the docket: Assets uncovered inside the Super Nintendo World app suggest that Universal Studios is building Donkey Kong Country in a separate section of the park. For now, the park is rolling out mask mandates for guests and numbered tickets that will stagger entry times to avoid congestion.
Plans for the 3D printed neighborhood in Rancho Mirage, California…
California plans to build the country’s first 3D-printed neighborhood in Coachella Valley.
The planned community in Coachella Valley will include 15 3D-printed, midcentury modern homes and comes as the state grapples with a housing crisis—an estimated 1.8 million to 3.5 million new units need to be constructed by 2025. Each home is able to be completed in less than 24 hours and will be outfitted with eco-friendly features.
The Cranbrook Academy of Art pauses admission for incoming architecture students.
Cranbrook Academy of Art has announced it will pause admission to its architecture program for fall 2021 as the institution reimagines the program. In a letter to alumni, Cranbrook Educational Community President, Dominic DiMarco, who oversees the academy, said that the class of 2022 will still be able to complete their degrees on schedule despite not currently admitting new students.
Open Architecture’s proposal for the Shenzhen Maritime Museum…
Open Architecture envisions the new Shenzhen Maritime Museum as a cluster of icebergs.
Open Architecture has unveiled visuals of its entry to the design competition for the upcoming Shenzhen Maritime Museum. The firm’s entry consists of six glass “iceberg” volumes that rise from the Chinese city’s subtropical waters, seeking to raise awareness of global warming, marine environmental protection, and the perils of melting icebergs. Even though the coastal site hasn’t been developed yet, its ecology has already registered major human disturbances with fish farming, nuclear power stations, and petroleum plants, so the firm views the project as an opportunity to raise awareness about environmental urgency while also giving the city its next design icon.
Amazon surpasses Walmart and Target as the top clothing retailer in the United States.
According to new data from Wells Fargo, the e-commerce giant has made even further gains amid the coronavirus pandemic. Amazon’s clothing sales, including through third-party sellers, increased 15 percent this past year, topping out at $41 billion. While that number shows modest growth, the overall demand for apparel decreased during the pandemic as customers prioritized both essential goods and home office items. That total is still 20 to 25 percent more than Walmart, which clocked in at second place. Overall, it accounts for 11 to 12 percent of all apparel sold in the U.S. and 34 to 35 percent of all apparel sold online.
La Ferita (the wound) by JR at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence…
Today’s attractive distractions:
This speckled planter is made out of recycled food scraps and yard trimmings.
JR’s latest trompe l’oeil mural takes over the front of Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi.
Even Charmin is getting into the crypto game with a new “NFT(P)” art collection.
NASA is naming landmarks found by the Mars Rover in the Navajo language.
