Manhattan’s Latest Farm-to-Table Standout, and Other News

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Enter One White Street, Manhattan’s New Farm-to-Table Standout 

Located inside a historic TriBeCa townhouse, once home to the headquarters of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s conceptual country Nutopia, One White Street brings together two culinary talents with sterling resumes. Chef Austin Johnson led the kitchen at Paris’ Michelin-starred Frenchie while master sommelier Dustin Wilson is an alum of crosstown Eleven Madison Park. Inside a rustic space by California designer Richard Felix-Ashman—where reclaimed wood is offset by Apparatus lighting, Knoll dining chairs are upholstered by Holly Hunt in a turquoise mohair, and elegant King & Partners branding adorns everything from matchboxes to tote bags—the duo’s casual approach to fine dining unfolds. 

Ingredients are sourced from a single purveyor, the small-scale organic farm Rigor Hill in Upstate New York. A la carte dishes such as farmed vegetables with baba ganoush and Berkshire pork chop with braised cipollini onions are offered in the ground-floor dining room; the second and third levels are reserved for Johnson’s multi-course tasting menu. No matter which route you choose, wine director Audrey Frick’s 200-plus list is worth a look for its variety of unexpected bottles from family-run wineries.

MVRDV’s Mirrored Art Depot Officially Opens This Weekend

Did you know that most museums only showcase around seven percent of their collections at any given time? The vast majority of a museum’s holdings are often hidden from view in vast storage depots that otherwise aren’t accessible to the public. Seeking to buck this trend, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam is making close to 99 percent of its collection of 151,000 artifacts available for public viewing even as they’re stored. 

They’ll appear inside the nearby Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, a 130-foot-tall bowl-shaped structure clad in mirrored panels designed by Dutch firm MVRDV that’s opening this weekend in Rotterdam’s Museumpark, a sweeping public space designed by Yves Brunier with OMA in the ‘90s. The Depot offers guests a bona fide museum experience and a behind-the-scenes look into the conservation techniques used to safeguard art holdings. Museumgoers can witness the preservation process firsthand from outside four glass-clad restoration studios and 13 suspended display cases that peek inside the meticulously organized archives. “We developed a system where you can see the exhibits at all angles,” says MVRDV co-founder Winy Maas. “You can even walk on top of them, or see them below from the glass bridges.”

Tegnestuen Lokal rehabs one of Copenhagen’s ugliest buildings with angular planters.

Located in the Frederiksberg borough, an austere six-storey concrete structure was once called the neighborhood’s “ugliest building,” but Tegnestuen Lokal’s facelift has breathed new life into the overlooked building and sets a precedent for similar ‘60s-era housing blocks. With the addition of a ground-level supermarket and angled blocks equipped with mini-gardens on the facade, the revamp aims to “create a new social space to bolster the building’s social coherence,” says Tegnestuen Lokal co-founder Christopher Ketil Dehn Carlsen. 

Though popular, outdoor dining areas are drawing ire among some New Yorkers.

The pandemic saw many New York restaurants spilling onto sidewalks with a focus on safely distanced alfresco dining, but Mayor Bill de Blasio’s Open Restaurants policy is starting to draw ire. A group of residents have launched a petition calling for an end to the program for hygienic reasons, noting displeasing scenes of scurrying rats and curbside trash. 

Nike joins the blockchain with trademarks over its most recognizable brand hallmarks.

The sportswear giant has filed for trademarks over its sneaker and apparel drops as it becomes further accessible by way of gaming skins and digital art features. Nike’s filings consist of headwear, bags, and sports equipment, along with its iconic Swoosh, Jordan’s Jumpman, and “Just Do It” tagline. The move is an effort to guard its brand hallmarks in a competitive market increasingly run by “downloadable virtual goods.”

Simone Leigh exits Hauser & Wirth less than two years after joining the gallery’s roster.

Selected to represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale in May, Leigh has gained renown for ceramic-and-raffia sculptures that explore Black female subjectivity. She joined Hauser & Wirth after a major Hugo Boss Prize win and being represented by Luhring Augustine and David Kordansky. Just shy of a two-year relationship with the mega-gallery, Leigh has already announced her departure. “I love and respect the people I worked with,” she says, “but I do not feel [Hauser & Wirth] is the right fit for me in the wider sense. I’m still figuring out what I want from a primary gallery relationship.”

Bentley releases a luxury plug-in hybrid SUV that trades fossil fuels for a battery pack.

Expanding its automobile arsenal with a first-of-its-kind debut, Bentley has reconfigured its Bentayga model to operate on a dual scheme that makes use of gas and electricity to cruise more than 500 miles with a hushed acceleration. The Bentayga Hybrid stations itself as a front-runner in the luxury market with new EV modifications, and forecasts the automotive brand’s all-electric pivot starting in 2025.

The wrecking ball sets its eye on the Mattin Center at Johns Hopkins University.

Universities often update existing buildings to make campus life more endearing, but Johns Hopkins University’s decision to raze the 20-year old Mattin Center—a Modernist gem designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects that houses the visual arts, dance, and theater departments—has struck a nerve within the architecture community. The structure is veiled by its adjacent flora and looks inward, a program Hopkins hopes to alter with a new student hub by Bjarke Ingels Group that increases its footprint threefold and trades its original glass-and-steel construction for a mass timber scheme. 

Today’s attractive distractions:

According to futurists, creatives should microdose to nail those big pitches.

Nintendo’s most endearing plumber gets dedicated Luigi’s Mansion Lego sets.

An eerily apocalyptic amount of dead crabs are littering beaches in England.

This pink Brutalist dream house stands out within Argentina’s rugged landscape.