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A Stunning Light-Filled Hotel Opens in a Parisian Heritage Building
Housed inside the Louvre’s former post office in the fashionable 1st arrondissement, the Hôtel Madame Rêve is the vision of hotelier Laurent Taïeb who used late French designer Andrée Putman’s maxim “life must be golden” as her guiding light when conceptualizing the interiors in collaboration with interior designer Bruno Borrione. To that end, the 82 rooms and suites are bedecked in custom golden-brown furniture, velvet curtains, and warm walnut panelling; the communal spaces were turned over to a cadre of local artists, including frescoes by French typographer Jacques Villeglé (entrance hall) and María José Benvenuto (La Plume restaurant).
In addition to the bistro-style Mediterranean cafe on the street level and third-floor restaurant serving chef Benjamin Six’s Japanese-French mashups, the green rooftop terrace will debut this spring with hanging gardens and an intimate outdoor bar that offers up dramatic panoramic views of the iconic Parisian cityscape.
Dozens of buildings on a giant Chinese man-made island are ordered for demolition.
Evergrande Group, the developer behind the massive man-made Ocean Flower Island in China’s southern Hainan province, has been ordered to demolish 39 buildings on the island within ten days. A report alleges that Evergrande Group illegally obtained building permits for nearly 4.7 million square feet worth of development. It follows another Evergrande scandal in which the heavily indebted developer was forced to forfeit ownership of its $1.7 billion football stadium in Guangzhou after trying to stave off creditors seeking $310 billion in liabilities.
The sculptor Edmonia Lewis will appear on the USPS’s new Black Heritage stamp.
Recognized as one of the foremost female sculptors in 19th-century America, Edmonia Lewis overcame many prejudices as a Native American, Black, and Roman Catholic woman. Her legacy will now be honored by the United States Postal Service, which will soon issue a stamp picturing her portrait as part of the Black Heritage series. “In addition to portrait busts of prominent people, Lewis’s work incorporated African American themes, including the celebration of newly won freedoms, and sensitively depicted her Native American heritage as peaceful and dignified,” the Postal Service said in a statement. “The work she produced during her prolific career evokes the complexity of her social identity and reflects the passion and independence of her artistic vision.” The stamp will be officially issued on January 26.
BlackBerry devices, which propelled work into the mobile era, have now been retired.
It’s the end of the line for BlackBerry, the once-popular mobile device that rose to prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the go-to mobile phone for working professionals. The company announced that devices running its in-house software are officially no longer supported as of January 4. BlackBerry’s popularity waned severely in the 2010s as Android devices and Apple’s iPhone offered larger displays, wider app offerings, and crisper graphics, and the Canadian company stopped manufacturing its own smartphones as early as 2016.
A judge dismisses the lawsuit filed by the baby on Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover.
Spencer Elden, the baby who appeared on the Nevermind cover and who just turned 30, claimed that he suffered “lifelong damages” as a result of the album cover, which he further described as a “sex trafficking venture.” A judge recently dismissed the lawsuit. Lawyers representing the surviving members of Nirvana, the estate of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, photographer Kirk Weddle, and the label that released Nevermind—who were all named defendants in the lawsuit—claimed that Elden knew about the photograph throughout his life and even got the world “Nevermind” tattooed on his chest. They further claimed that everyone who owns the album cover would be “guilty of felony possession of child pornography.”
Adam Neumann’s next act after WeWork includes apartment rentals.
Entities tied to Neumann have gobbled up more than 4,000 apartments valued in excess of $1 billion in locations such as Nashville, Atlanta, and Miami. “Since the spring of 2020, we have been excited about multifamily apartment living in vibrant cities where a new generation of young people increasingly are choosing to live,” DJ Mauch, a partner at Neumann’s family office, told the Wall Street Journal. “We’re excited to play a role in that future.” Neumann was famously ousted from WeWork in 2019 after a number of failed investments and mismanagement, but still retains a sizable stake and has a net worth of $2.2 billion.
A new lawsuit is taking aim at New Balance’s signature “Made in USA” label.
Five consumers have filed a class action lawsuit against the apparel brand, arguing its shoes contain as much as 30 percent of materials made overseas. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulations state that companies are only allowed to use the Made in USA label if they contain “no—or negligible—foreign content.”
