An Aussie Café Expands its Footprint in L.A., and Other News

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An Aussie Café Expands its Footprint in L.A.

“Great White was born out of what we perceived to be a gap in the market for an all-day, fast-casual cafe that we knew at home in Australia,” says co-founder Sam Trude. For its third location in Los Angeles, the lifestyle concept known for its killer breakfast burritos, natural wines, and smart art and design curation heads to Melrose (joining Venice Beach and Larchmont Village). Chilean chef Juan Ferreiro, an alum of Per Se, follows a similar blueprint with a menu of fast-casual juices, bowls, and wood-fired pizzas complemented by new additions like mushroom fries and wild arugula pesto pasta.   

Housed in a former laundromat, local architect Natalie Kazanjian fashioned a textural pink facade to match co-founder Sam Cooper’s childhood home in Australia. A Portuguese limestone bar and woven Pakistani pendants set a boho vibe inside, where Berlin-based artist Danny Gretscher’s abstract painting, Forgotten Planet Awakens, adorns the dining room wall. The twin fireplaces on the back patio are the place to enjoy L.A.’s temperate nights with a glass of Glou-Glou-style chilled red from Lorraine, France, or perhaps Great White’s own skin-contact blend produced in collaboration with NorCal’s minimalist winemakers, Deux Punx. —Nate Storey

In London, two firms transform a 19th-century warehouse into a contemporary office.

“British architecture practice Squire and Partners and office design firm Modus Workspace have retained the ornate cast-iron columns and glazed tiles of a 19th-century warehouse in London while turning it into a contemporary workspace. Located in London’s Victoria, the Greencoat Place building was originally used as a warehouse, storeroom, and food hall for the Army & Navy Stores—a military cooperative turned department store that was acquired by House of Fraser in 1973. Now, the building belongs to serviced office provider Fora and houses a mix of workspaces and amenities including a fitness studio, a colorful terrazzo bar, and a vertical farm on the lower-ground level, where fresh produce is grown for workers to take home or eat for lunch.” [H/T Dezeen]

Miami Beach’s historic yet derelict Deauville Beach Resort was imploded on Sunday.

“The 17-story tower of the historic Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach was successfully imploded on Sunday. The oceanfront building crumbled to the ground in a matter of seconds after a series of thundering booms, marking the end of the road for a hotel that famously hosted the Beatles in 1964 and fell into disrepair in recent years. A crowd of people who gathered on the beach to watch the implosion near 64th Street cheered as the building fell, then was sent scrambling as a large cloud of dust moved south. Crowds also gathered across the street on Indian Creek Drive to see the building’s demise.” [H/T Miami Herald]

Banksy unveils a new work on a partially destroyed building in Borodyanka, Ukraine.

“The elusive street artist Banksy debuted a new work Friday in Borodyanka, Ukraine, where an image of a woman flipping herself over using her hands now appears on a partially destroyed building. As usual, Banksy debuted the work on his Instagram, where the post has garnered well over 1.6 million likes. The woman’s image is displayed so that it appears as though she is balancing on the building’s foundation, which now exists largely as rubble. Banksy posted several views of the new work that accentuate just how small it is in comparison to this structure. If seen from afar, one would likely not even notice this work.” [H/T ARTnews]

In San Francisco, an exhibition shows how artists are using text-to-image generators.

“From now through Dec. 29, Bitforms Gallery presents “Artificial Imagination,” an A.I. art group show it’s calling ‘the first DALL-E-inspired art exhibition.’ The intergenerational, eight-artist show opened at Bitforms’s new permanent home in tech-friendly San Francisco in October, in partnership with Day One Ventures. The venture firm got OpenAI, the creator of DALL-E, on board to promote the showcase, though Bitforms itself boasts a two-decade-long record in staging new media art exhibitions. While DALL-E serves as the show’s jumping-off point, “Artificial Imagination” hardly stops at the now-ubiquitous text-to-image tools. “It was really about DALL-E being the lead-in to the show and then showing how other artists are utilizing A.I. in their practice,” said Steve Sacks, the founder of Bitforms.” [H/T Artnet News]

An Alberto Giacometti museum will be inaugurated in a former train station in Paris.

“The Swiss Surrealist sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti is to have a new museum in a former train station in Paris after fears the world’s largest collection of his work could be moved abroad. The Giacometti Foundation will take up residence in the former Gare des Invalides, better known in postwar years as the former headquarters of Air France. Its opening is scheduled for 2026. Giacometti’s works are housed in the Giacometti Institute, an art deco mansion in Paris’s 14th arrondissement, near the Montparnasse studio where the artist, who died in 1966, lived and worked for 40 years. The institute has 95 paintings, 260 bronzes, 550 plaster casts, and thousands of drawings and engravings, as well as an extensive archive of the artist’s documents and part of his library. But it does not have enough space at its current site to display them all.” [H/T The Guardian]

Controversial plans to demolish dorms designed by Louis Kahn will move ahead.

“A cluster of buildings designed by Louis Kahn in Ahmedabad, western India, is set to be demolished. The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad will reconstruct and remodel the faculty blocks, classroom complex, and dorms, which were completed in 1974—the same year the American architect died. The original plan to demolish this section of the Kahn-designed red brick complex was announced in 2020, with the institution citing damage caused by earthquakes and storms being beyond repair. But shortly after, an international outcry from the architecture industry prevented it from going ahead.” [H/T Hypebeast]

Climate activists deface a replica mummy with Coke at Barcelona’s Egyptian Museum. 

“Climate activists vandalized a replica mummy at Barcelona’s Egyptian Museum in the latest attack targeting cultural exhibits in protest at inaction over global warming. Two people doused a display case with red and brown gunge from Coca-Cola bottles, also splattering framed images on surrounding walls, footage published on the Publico news website indicated. The liquid was thought to be syrup and beetroot juice. They then glued their hands beside a nearby exhibit and held up a modified Coca-Cola banner scrawled with the words ‘climate justice.’ The US drinks giant was one of the official sponsors of the UN’s Cop27 climate summit in Egypt, a position widely denounced by environmentalists who say the company is behind much of the world’s plastic pollution.” [H/T The National]

Today’s attractive distractions:

Airbnb rolls out a much-needed feature to address hidden fee complaints.

In Milan, an artwork reinterprets Stonehenge with 16,000 recycled bottles. 

The Warhol Museum digitizes rare tracks from The Velvet Underground…

…while the Chelsea Hotel will host a party celebrating Edie Sedgwick’s art.