DESIGN DISPATCH

A Renovated Wing Opens at I.M. Pei’s Everson Museum of Art, and Other News

Our daily look at the world through the lens of design.

The new, Milliøns-designed wing at the Everson Museum of Art. Image credit: Iwan Baan.

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Architecture studio Milliøns renovates a wing at I.M. Pei’s Everson Museum of Art.

The Los Angeles firm helmed by Zeina Koreitem and John May has unveiled a newly redesigned wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York. Originally designed by the late I.M. Pei, the refreshed wing arrives 56 years after the museum first opened in 1968. At the wing’s new cafe, visitors can experience ceramics from the world-class collection of Louise Rosenfield, who underwrote the redesign and donated 4,000 pieces on the condition that they be used and not simply displayed. 

Swiss luminary Bernard Tschumi has been awarded the 2024 Grand Prix d’Architecture.

The French Académie des Beaux-Arts has awarded this year’s Grand Prix d’Architecture to Swiss-born architect Bernard Tschumi, honoring his five-decade career. His notable works include the Parc de la Villette in Paris, Le Fresnoy in Tourcoing, and the Acropolis Museum in Athens, as well as more recent projects like the Tianjin Binhai Science Museum in China. The award will be presented on December 4 at the Palais de l’Institut de France.

Oceanview Plaza, three abandoned skyscrapers in Los Angeles. Image courtesy of Mario Tama/Getty Images.

Security protocols for the Olympics are forcing galleries, bars, and restaurants to close.

Galleries and other businesses in Paris’s St.-Germain-des-Près neighborhood have been forced to close suddenly to accommodate security measures for the Olympics. The move leaves business owners frustrated during what was expected to have been a remarkably profitable summer period. The problem has been compounded by metal fences erected without warning around the Seine on June 28, which have significantly reduced foot traffic, and the QR code system of entry for authorized persons, which has proven ineffective.

A second chance may be in store for L.A.’s abandoned pandemic-era skyscrapers.

Los Angeles’s Oceanwide Plaza, a $1 billion trio of graffiti-covered, abandoned skyscrapers may get a new “lease” on life, thanks to an unnamed buyer. The development was originally meant to host luxury condos alongside retail and hospitality space before construction halted in 2019, when Beijing-based Oceanwide Holdings ran out of funds. The tentative buyer plans to complete the project, which requires an estimated $800 million to finish, if no higher bids emerge before its bankruptcy-bid deadline next month.

Return-to-office has prevailed—office busy-ness is reportedly higher than ever.

Offices nationwide are experiencing increased activity, with Avison Young’s Office Busyness Index showing a rise in usage in 28 out of 41 tracked markets compared to 2023. The data counters previous concerns about empty office spaces post-pandemic, with major cities like New York, Washington D.C., and San Francisco reporting double-digit increases in office activity. Despite this, office leasing remains lower than pre-pandemic levels, and hybrid patterns of work seem to persist. 

A stegosaurus skeleton that sold at Sotheby's for $46 million. Image courtesy of Matthew Sherman/Sotheby's.

Today’s attractive distractions: 

Memes are the life force of Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign.

A billionaire hedge funder spent $46 million on a stegosaurus last week. 

Abercrombie’s vanilla era is also ludicrously profitable—to the tune of $2.2 billion in sales.

“In theory…possible”: meteorologists fact-checked the premise of Twisters

 

 

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