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Hôtel Dame Des Arts Mirrors Parisian Beauty
Few places are more beautiful than the St. Germain area of Paris’s 6th arrondissement. The new Hôtel Dame Des Arts wisely doesn’t try to compete with the neighborhood’s wonders, but instead compliments them. Nestled into a 1950s building and sheathed in a nouvelle vague sensibility, the EQ Group property offers a hidden courtyard with a contemporary Mexican boite by Experimental Group’s creative director Matthieu Alfandari and chef Othoniel Alvarez Castañeda. (Try the champignons with peanut mole and salted granola.)
The city’s own Raphael Navot did the interiors and 109 bedrooms and suites, all undulating wood and sumptuous textiles in warm neutrals occasionally touched up with jewel tones. But the real draw is Paris at its best: many of the guest rooms and suites spill out onto terraces overlooking the Eiffel Tower or the city’s rooftops. The hotel’s own 360 rooftop is a new landmark itself, with champagne and cocktail programs to accompany tres magnifique views of Sacré-Coeur Montmartre, Les Invalides’ golden dome, and the reborn Notre Dame. —Jesse Dorris
Metabirkins. Images via Mason Rothschild…
Hermès files an order asking for control of MetaBirkins smart contracts and royalties.
Hermès is seeking a permanent injunction against NFT artist Mason Rothschild from selling or promoting his MetaBirkins. The move comes after a jury ruled in favor of Hermès in a 2022 lawsuit alleging that Rothschild stole the French brand’s intellectual property to create his 100-edition NFT collection based on the Birkin bag. Hermès also requested that Rothschild transfer control of any Metabirkin NFTs, smart contracts, domain names, and social media handles to them, and transfer royalties received from the MetaBirkins project to Hermès. Rhett Millsaps, Rothschild’s attorney, called the filing “a gross overreach by Hermès and an attempt to punish Mr. Rothschild because they don’t like his art.”
The World Monuments Fund pledges $10 million to help safeguard endangered places.
The World Monuments Fund has pledged more than $10 million to preservation projects aimed at safeguarding significant cultural sites in urgent need of protection from global threats like conflict and climate change. The initiatives include a range of projects such as winterization efforts in Ukrainian heritage sites and the preservation of remote archeological sites in Peru’s Chachapoyas Civilization. The program encompasses both long-term conservation efforts through Signature Projects as well as Targeted Interventions that provide financial and professional support to meet specific needs of heritage places worldwide.
Shigeru Ban brings paper partition shelters to displaced earthquake victims in Turkey.
Shigeru Ban Architects is providing aid to Turkey after the recent earthquake that devastated the region, killing more than 52,000 people and leaving millions homeless. The firm’s nonprofit, Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN), is using their Paper Partition System (PPS) to provide temporary shelter to the displaced, a technique pioneered by Ban after the 1999 İzmit earthquake and previously used in Japan, Nepal, and Ukraine. The effort is being supplemented by the donation of 5,000 emergency shelters from the IKEA Foundation.
David Lance Goines. Photography by Melati Citrawireja…
David Lance Goines, the influential graphic artist of Berkeley’s counterculture, dies at 77.
David Lance Goines, the artist known for his sensuous posters that defined the visual identity and earthy, bohemian ethos of Berkeley’s counterculture, has died at the age of 77. Goines’s artwork for the restaurant Chez Panisse became emblematic of its visual identity, coming to symbolize Berkeley itself. Inspired by German Art Nouveau and Japanese woodblock prints, his unique images and lettering appeared on posters, menus, and cookbooks. His anti-war poster, No War, is in LACMA’s permanent collection.
A24 buys New York’s Cherry Lane Theater, a vote of confidence in live performance.
A24 plans to expand into live performance by purchasing the Cherry Lane Theater in New York’s West Village for $10 million. The acquisition comes as a vote of confidence in live performance during a time when theaters are still struggling to recover from the pandemic. The studio, whose films include the leading Oscar contender Everything Everywhere All At Once, will present plays and other forms of live entertainment at Cherry Lane, hoping it will strengthen relationships with writers and both stage and screen performers.
Fires sparked by lithium-ion batteries are increasing, confounding firefighters.
Electric transit buses, electric scooters, residential solar energy systems, and new forms of transportation all have one thing in common: lithium-ion batteries. These batteries, which are found in more and more household products and appliances, can fail or overheat, releasing flammable, toxic gases that spark fast-spreading fires that are difficult to put out. With the number of fires caused by lithium batteries soaring across the United States, experts and firefighters are urging manufacturers to redesign the batteries to make them easier to extinguish when they fail. In the meantime, it’s critical for firefighters to receive training on how to safely operate in environments where lithium batteries are present.
