DESIGN DISPATCH

Frieze's Owner Eyes a Sale, and Other News

Plus, Shepard Fairey's murals of Kamala Harris hit "battleground states," and SOM is tapped to revamp an iconic Chicago skyscraper.

Frieze London. Credit: Leon Chew

Frieze owner Endeavor Group Holdings is looking into a potential sale of the fair.

Endeavor is exploring a sale of Frieze, alongside the Miami and Madrid Open tennis tournaments, as part of a pivot away from events and towards talent management. The announcement follows an acquisition by Silver Lake, valued at $13 billion, to take Endeavor private. 

A slew of Shepard Fairey murals of Kamala Harris are going up in “battleground states.”

Shepard Fairey’s mural of Kamala Harris was installed in Durham, North Carolina, as part of a series aimed at energizing voters in key battleground states. Located on Durham’s historic Black Wall Street, the work was unveiled with an event encouraging local voter participation as part of a project organized by Fairey and community organizer Wyatt Closs.

Cloud, at the Columbia University GSAPP. Credit: Nicholas Knight. Courtesy of Columbia GSAPP

Columbia’s architecture school activates its courtyard with a massive Cloud installation.

Columbia GSAPP’s Open House courtyard activation features Cloud, a temporary inflatable installation that brings interactive seating and metallic structures to the space. The installation is guided by faculty and supported by students and engineers, and creates a new way to interact with the familiar campus architecture. 

SOM will revamp the 95th and 96th floors of Chicago’s John Hancock Center skyscraper.

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) plans to transform the 95th and 96th floors of Chicago’s John Hancock Center skyscraper into an observation deck, with a 2026 targeted opening date. Originally designed by SOM in 1967, the building set architectural standards as the first mixed-use skyscraper and a key landmark of the Chicago skyline. 

California has begun offering homeowners incentives toward earthquake resilience.

California has launched an initiative offering $13,000 grants for eligible single-family homeowners in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area to support seismic retrofits through its Earthquake Soft-Story (ESS) program. These grants apply to homes with living areas above garages, offering new business potential for architects skilled in seismic upgrades. The program follows a surge in seismic activity in Los Angeles County, reaching levels not seen in recent decades.

Murals in a house in Pompeii. Image courtesy of Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

Today’s attractive distractions:

At his exhibition preview, Tim Burton relays his “visceral” fear of AI.

Revisiting a once-beloved artwork, a writer finds it both bitter and sweet.

Among ancient Pompeii’s secrets: a positively extravagant tiny house.

Ceramicist Sophie Wilson mines England’s rich history of folk art.

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